ZCash Mining Safety

[AlmostNewbie]

I was thinking about buying some hardware to start mining ZCash. After looking up tutorials though, I saw that you needed to download some software. So I have multiple questions.

1-Is NanoPool safe?
2-Is NiceHash safe?
3-What wallets are free, safe, and simple?
4-Is it guaranteed?
5-Do NiceHash or NanoPool pay out in Bitcoin? Which ones do?
6-How to convert Bitcoin/ZCash in the wallet to USD and transfer it to a bank account?
7-Any YouTube guides that show how to mine with CPU and GPU? Please link it if you find any.
8-Is it safe to just click x on the mining program?

Sorry if this is too long but the hardware prices are a bit too high for me to take a risk. Thank you for your time...

 

[boosted1g]

At this point late in the game you are going to be competing with so many people you will be lucky to cover the cost of electricity, let alone the cost of hardware.
When it comes to pretty much anything financial, at the point where the masses are told about making money doing X, this is little or no money to be made. That is why once gold prices plateaued is when you saw all the commercials about "I buy my gold from companyX"; the people who bought the gold 4 years ago at cheap prices now need a sucker to buy their gold at current market prices.

 

[TJ Hooker]

I wouldn't invest in a mining rig at this point, the profits just aren't high enough. It'd probably take quite a while for you to even recoup your upfront cost (potentially never, depending on what you pay for electricity).

 

[AlmostNewbie]

How about the safety?

 

[TJ Hooker]

I've used Nicehash, never had any problems, seemed safe to me. Nanopool seems pretty popular and is safe as far as I can tell.

Nicehash pays in bitcoin, I think nanopool just pays you in whatever currency you're mining.

You would need to create an account on a cryptocurrency exchange and transfer your coins to the exchange and then sell them in order to convert to USD.

 

[AlmostNewbie]

Any suggestions for exchanges or wallets?

 

[TJ Hooker]

I used bitcoin core wallet, worked well enough: https/bitcoin.org/en/download
For exchanges, coinbase is popular, as long as you live in the US anyway.

I'll reiterate though, sinking money into a dedicated mining rig does not make sense at this point in the game.