This is NOT a how to install a miner or mine tutorial.
I set aside part of Sunday to see if I could set up a Steem Miner on Digital Ocean since I already have an account there.
I created 4 GB Memory / 30 GB Disk / TOR1 - Ubuntu 16.04.1 x64 "droplet" and followed all the instructions provided by @joseph.
The only time there was an issue is when I went to "make" the miner. I was running out of memory because initially I had started out with a 512MB Memory / 30 GB Disk / TOR1 - Ubuntu 16.04.1 x64 "droplet". The nice part was being able to allocate more memory and CPU power using the resize option of the droplet without having to restart from the beginning.
I am happy to report that my miner is mining and I am waiting to see if it mines it's first block. So far nothing after about 24 hours.
There are 2 CPU's and 4 GB of memory dedicated to this mining endeavor at the moment. A droplet can be configured to run on a maximum 20 CPU's and 64GB Memory for $640 / month.
I am not prepared to invest that amount of money in testing out if this would lead to a better chance at reaping steem power rewards. However, someone could solicit steem or steem dollars to fund a "pool" to run such an experiment.
Mining is another way to participate in the steem experience and learn something new.
It also allows me to start using other tools dependent on having a miner for exploration.
I like being the owner of my own little steem engine and I will be using my blogging efforts to keep it running and contributing to the steem network.
If you like to tinker then set aside a day to get yourself a steem engine. It's satisfying.
