Bitcoin is the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency which initially reared its shiny head into digital markets now way back in 2009. While regular currencies have a centralized authority which controls and prints them, Bitcoin was imagined as a community controlled currency that won’t have a single entity looming over it. This lack of centralization meant that Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, needed to come up with a way of issuing said currency. The solution he came up with, that is still being used by this day, is mining.
Things to know before mining any cryptocurrency
You will require a set of things to embark on your mining journey:
- A free private database aka your coin wallet. Your wallet is a password-protected storage for your earnings and keeps a network-wide ledger of transactions.
- A free mining software package, like this one from AMD
- A membership in an online mining pool, which is a community of miners who combine their computers to increase profitability and income stability. Mining outside of a pool will almost certainly mean you won’t be the one who solves the mathematical task.
- Membership at an online currency exchange, where you can exchange your mined coins for cash or Bitcoin
- A hardware setup located preferably in a cool and air-conditioned space.
- A desktop or custom-built computer designed for mining.
- An ATI/Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU) or a specialized processing device called a mining ASIC chip. The cost will be anywhere from $90 used to $3000 new for each GPU or ASIC chip.
- Personal curiosity. You need to constantly read, research and learn, as mining technologies improve very rapidly which results in new ways of optimizing your coin mining results. The most successful coin miners spend hours every week studying the best ways to adjust and improve their coin mining performance.
Best available Altcoins for mining
Ravencoin
One of the reasons Ravencoin has gained popularity so quickly is the X16R algorithm it uses for proof-of-work mining.
The X16R algorithm is actually 16 different algorithms, which are used randomly during mining and the order depends on the hash of the previous block. Because of this randomness it’s extremely difficult to program an ASIC machine to mine the X16R algorithm. And even if someone tried to make an ASIC for the algorithm the developers could simply change the algorithms being used in X16R.
Based on what we’ve read the general consensus is that for Nvidia cards the best miner is zealot/enemy-1.08. The downside of this miner is that it’s closed-source with a 1% developer fee.
There are several ways to estimate your mining profitability with Ravencoin. The first is through WhattoMine.com. The second is RavenCalc, which gives you the same information as WhattoMine.
Finally, you can use the bot in the Ravencoin Discord channel by entering “!hash xx“, where the “xx” is replaced with you hash power. The bot is pretty accurate.
Grin
Grin is the latest darling of cryptocurrency world, a new privacy focused coin with unlimited supply has surprisingly seen support among traditionally altcoin-hostile bitcoin maximalists as well.
Hardware needed for Grin mining
Nvidia Cards: 1070, 1070ti, 1080, 1080ti, 2070, 2080, 2080ti
AMD Cards: 570, 580, Vega56, Vega64
AMD Cards: 570, 580, Vega56, Vega64
Note that it is not an exhaustive list, but if you have the cards above it should work.
Download their official miner from GrinGoldMiner (GGM) and join one of the following pools that comprise 97% of Grin’s current hashrate power: F2Pool (40%), Grinmint (16%), Sparkpool (25%) and Pool.BTC (16%).
ZENCash
ZEN on the other hand already has more features than both ZCL / BTCP with very active development. If you’re holding mined coins then you can also setup secure nodes (42 zen stake) which generate about 25% ROI yearly right now, which is more money in your pocket than mining something without nodes. Secure nodes also do not require locking your tokens so if you decide you want to sell one day you are free to move your coins and do so. It is also always in the top 5 or so on WTM in my experience.
AEON
Aeon is the most CPU friendly because of Cryptonite-light PoW. This narrows the CPU vs GPU performance gap considerably: you get a 3x hash rate improvement on CPUs compared to only 2x for GPUs compared to regular (Monero style) Cryptonite PoW. It doesn’t seem to be infested by ASICs yet, at least not as badly as those others.
Electroneum (ETN)
ETN is basically built on its own chain of blocks that comes from bitcoin. It aims at capturing the mobile games and online gambling market. Currently, it is easy to use mobile devices for fast transactions and easy payments. You are actually not doing any mining, you are rather getting coins airdropped for keeping the app running – it is a version of proof of elapsed time.
Feathercoin (FTC)
Feathercoin is a cryptocurrency which was launched as an alternative option for Bitcoin, the most popular currency. This currency came into existence in 2013 amid having a small trading volume. Feathercoin uses NeoScrypt and GPU’s can help to extract it.
Monero
Monero is regularly recognized as the most advanced privacy coin out there. It is based on a proof-of-work hashing algorithm known as CryptoNight, which is designed with certain specifications that make it difficult for Monero mining using ASICs to work well. In turn, it is actually relatively easy to mine Monero on your PC.
To mine with just your CPU, all you need to do is download Monero mining software and install it. Using only your computer’s processing power, you can generate new Monero coins. However, you can increase your earnings by purchasing a graphics card that will increase your computing power so that you can mine even more Monero. AMD graphic cards are best suited for this task although Nvidia cards work also. Most often used Monero mining software is MultiMiner and the GUIminer. You can store your Monero coins on the official Monero desktop wallet.
Dogecoin
Unironically Dogecoin is another very popular cryptocurrency that can be mined using a PC. Programmer Billy Markus based a fully functional internet cryptocurrency capable of storing value and being used for transactions… on a meme image of a rather perplexed looking shiba inu. Obviously the internet loved the idea and Dogecoin is currently holding an impressive 34th place on coinmarketcap.com list of coins with biggest market caps. It uses a Scrypt hashing algorithm and plans on issuing 100 billion coins.
To mine Dogecoin, first download the official desktop wallet from the Dogecoin website.
You can mine Dogecoin either only using your CPU or by increasing your mining power with an AMD/NVIDIA graphic card. The best mining software to use when mining Dogecoin using GPU’s is CGminer, CudaMiner, and GUIminer. To CPU mine Dogecoin you can use CPU miner.
It is also possible to join a mining pool for greater returns and CoinEx and MultiPool are good choices.
Vertcoin
Vertcoin is a relatively new altcoin that uses a Lyra2RE proof-of-work algorithm to verify transactions. Vertcoin was also designed to be ASIC resistant. This means that it’s designed to resist the development of specific hardware to use for mining purposes by large cryptocurrency mining operations. Instead it uses a Vertcoin team issued one-click miner. The miner is a graphical user interface (GUI) miner that facilitates mining for both CPU and GPU users. It has two mining pools based on your computing power. If you have less than two graphics cards then you should pick Network 2; if you have more you should pick Network 1. Vertcoin supports AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards.
back to menu ↑Parting thoughts
Ultimately, there are many, many more coins that can be mined. Usually you can find these coins listed on websites like Coinwarz, Minergate or Whattomine. These websites compare various cryptocurrencies mining profitability to Bitcoin to determine if a cryptocurrency is more profitable to mine than Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency profitability information displayed is based on a statistical calculation using the hash rate values entered. So before making your decision on what to mine, you should visit one of the mentioned websites. Your individual profitability may still vary as the calculator does not account for difficulty and exchange rate fluctuations, stale/reject/orphan rates, pool efficiency and pool fees.
All things considered, mining on commercial hardware won’t net you much profit. Laptops are especially not suitable for mining as they are likely to overheat. Even people utilizing 4-GPU mining rigs struggle to reach over 10 dollars of profit per day. Buying 4 AMD RX 580 is a pretty hefty investment and not many people are willing or able to make it. However, more and more people are investing this kind of money, with some regularly sinking thousands of dollars in mining hardware. Still, even the most advanced mining hardware could net you about 50 dollars per day. While there are places where that can be considered serious money, it’s basically the daily minimum wage in most developed western countries. Mining should be considered as a side activity which can slowly drip funds into your wallet and give you some extra money. Think of it as ‘gathering gold dust’ rather than collecting full sized gold nuggets. Just make sure to research the cryptocurrency you wish to mine; for every Dogecoin or Litecoin there is an exit scam waiting to dump their developer bags onto its network. Mining shitcoins whose value will drop before you sell them means that you are likely to end up holding bags filled with the bad kind of dust. So as with every crypto-related activity, you need to set up some reasonable goals and perform a cost – benefit analysis which will give you a clearer idea of how much (or if anything) you wish to invest into becoming a miner yourself.
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