![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcUYNearro1WPyDAhJjczRN7s1kP15NYDAAomtefE4v3g/image.png)

I wanted to share my experience setting up ARK wallet and "mining it" since I've joined the ARK Hypetrain (choo choo).    If we've jumping on (and holding onto it) we might as well "mine" some in the process.   I believe I've set it up correctly and hopefully will get my first payment sooner than later once my mined balanced reaches the threshhold.
 
The ARK ecosystem can be downloaded here:  https://github.com/arkecosystem

The prompts after running are relatively intuitive, its important have ensured to save your passphrase somewhere, but, I assume most of you know this already. 

*"Mining" ARK through their Delegated Proof of Stake System.*

Apparently, 51 forging delagates are selected via a voting system (weighted by the amount of ARK a given wallet holds) to forge the blocks and subsequently be rewarded ARK.   At surface level, it appears the majority of the ones I've seen operate similarly to mining pools, giving a percentage of their earnings back to their voters (I believe weighted on how much ARK your account holds).  However, after looking  through the list more - it appears some others have lower % sharings but offer other incentives in terms of them supporting the ARK ecosystem.

You can monitor the 51 active delegates here: https://explorer.ark.io/delegateMonitor , and, see delegate proposals (vying for favor) here  https://forum.ark.io/category/5/delegates

Once you've selected your delegate of choice, you can cast your vote them for 1 ARK (to "tether" your wallet to them) and then you're all set!   Do keep in mind that it may take some time earn back that 1 ARK depending on your wallet balance so keep that in mind.  To do this, from the client go to VOTE and type in the name of your selected delegate when prompted.   Make sure the box is ticked for the delegate of your choice and vote.  The extremely unnerving part for me was that the program requests your passphrase when you confirm your vote  - I was a bit reluctant, but it appears to be just fine.  There is a detailed guide here:  https://blog.ark.io/how-to-vote-or-un-vote-an-ark-delegate-and-how-does-it-all-work-819c5439da68

(Please see updates below as this paragraph is dated).  In my case, I chose Arkpool (https://arkpool.lisk-ua.net/, almost entirely based on the name lol.) - they have a relatively intuitive website that lets your track your "worker" (your wallet who's vote is attached to).   A *very* rough calculation based on some rough estimates shows that I "mine" about 0.02% of my wallet balance a day 

UPDATE: Arkpool fell below the 51st position :(, thus I've switched my vote to seatrips.   It appears they also have a way to track your progress here https://arkpool.seatrips.eu!
UPDATE: It appears the active delegates mine at a consistent rate (more or less) so your earnings will scale by what % (weighted ARK) you represent for your delegate (provided their system is a sharing model, if you will), rather than their delegate scaling their mining power based on weighted ARK votes relative to others - which adds a cool dimension to the system.  I am not absolutely certain about this, nevertheless.

ARK seems promising to me, check out their whitepaper here https://ark.io/whitepaper/

Good luck and happy mining!  

*References (Not mentioned in text)*
Image taken from the Ark.io front page.