A Beginner's Guide to Cryptocoin Mining
Is it worth your time to mine for cryptocoins?
by Paul Gil
Updated on January 26, 2020
reviewed by
Christine Baker
Cryptocurrency mining takes patience and time.
Koron/Moment/Getty Images
Cryptocurrency
What Are Bitcoins?
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Mining cryptocoins is an arms race that rewards early adopters. Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency, released in early 2009. Similar digital currencies have crept into the worldwide market since then, including a spin-off from Bitcoin called Bitcoin Cash.
Which Alt-Coins Should Be Mined?
Pile of litecoin coins on fabric
BTC Keychain / Flickr / CC by 2.0
If you had started mining Bitcoins back in 2009, you could have earned thousands of dollars by now. At the same time, there are plenty of ways you could have lost money, too. Bitcoins are not a good choice for beginning miners who work on a small scale. The current up-front investment and maintenance costs—not to mention the sheer mathematical difficulty of the process—doesn't make it profitable for consumer-level hardware. Today, Bitcoin mining is reserved for large-scale operations only.
Litecoins, Dogecoins, and Feathercoins, on the other hand, are three Scrypt-based cryptocurrencies that are the best cost-benefit for beginners.
Dogecoins and Feathercoins would yield slightly less profit with the same mining hardware but are becoming more popular daily. Peercoins, too, can also be a reasonably decent return on your investment of time and energy.
As more people join the cryptocoin rush, your choice could get more difficult to mine because more expensive hardware will be required to discover coins. You will be forced to either invest heavily if you want to stay mining that coin, or you will want to take your earnings and switch to an easier cryptocoin. Understanding the top 3 bitcoin mining methods is probably where you need to begin; this article focuses on mining "scrypt" coins.
Also, be sure you are in a country where bitcoins and bitcoin mining is legal.
Is It Worth It to Mine Cryptocoins?
As a hobby venture, cryptocoin mining can generate a small income of perhaps a dollar or two per day. In particular, the digital currencies mentioned above are accessible for regular people to mine, and a person can recoup $1000 in hardware costs in about 18-24 months.
As a second income, cryptocoin mining is not a reliable way to make substantial money for most people. The profit from mining cryptocoins only becomes significant when someone is willing to invest $3000 to $5000 in up-front hardware costs, at which time you could potentially earn $50 per day or more.
Set Reasonable Expectations
If your objective is to earn substantial money as a second income, then you are better off purchasing cryptocoins with cash instead of mining them, and then tucking them away in the hopes that they will jump in value like gold or silver bullion. If your objective is to make a few digital bucks and spend them somehow, then you just might have a slow way to do that with mining.
Smart miners keep electricity costs to under $0.11 per kilowatt-hour; mining with 4 GPU video cards can net you around $8.00 to $10.00 per day (depending upon the cryptocurrency you choose), or around $250-$300 per month.
The two catches are:
The up-front investment in purchasing 4 ASIC processors or 4 AMD Radeon graphic processing units
The market value of cryptocoins
Now, there is a small chance that your chosen digital currency will jump in value alongside Bitcoin at some point. Then, possibly, you could find yourself sitting on thousands of dollars in cryptocoins. The emphasis here is on "small chance," with small meaning "slightly better than winning the lottery."
If you do decide to try cryptocoin mining, proceed as a hobby with a small income return. Think of it as "gathering gold dust" instead of collecting actual gold nuggets. And always, always, do your research to avoid a scam currency.
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