A guide to mining Monero – the only cryptocurrency you can realistically mine at home

When we talk about crypto mining, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is Bitcoin. It employs one of the most challenging mining processes known to the industry. It is incredibly energy-intensive and requires advanced computing equipment. So much so that mining Bitcoin is usually something only large firms can afford to do.

However, not all cryptocurrencies have such a difficult mining process. It would be hard to believe – but you can mine one particular cryptocurrency at home, using the CPU you currently have. You don’t have to go bankrupt acquiring all the fancy mining equipment. And if you can get an AMD GPU, that would be an added plus. Otherwise, you don’t even need that to mine one of the top 30 digital coins – Monero.

Monero (XMR) is an open-source digital token. It was launched in 2014 and shot to popularity thanks to the anonymous transacting feature it offers. While it is similar to Bitcoin in many spheres, it distinguishes itself by boasting robust privacy features — making your transactions untraceable. Its underlying blockchain hides the trader’s identity and transaction amount.

It is one of the top 30 coins with a market cap of over $2 billion and uses a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism. Its developers are trying hard to maintain its decentralization by letting even hobbyist miners participate in the mining process. They have kept specialized machines like application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) away from the mining scene. For this reason, CPU mining is the best way to mine Monero (XMR).

XMR mining is the process of verifying transactions on Monero’s blockchain. The miners earn rewards in the form of XMR coins. The mining process works just like Bitcoin’s, except that it focuses more on privacy.

As of January 2021, miners receive 1.26 XMR for every block they add to the blockchain and a new block is mined every 2 minutes. Depending on your CPU/GPU, this can amount to around $0.45 to $1 in profitability, per day per mining system.

Usually, coins have a circulation hard cap. For example, Bitcoin has a limited supply of 21 million coins. Once BTC reaches this hard cap, miners will no longer receive new coins for producing new blocks. They will only receive the fees attached to each transaction.

Monero, on the other hand, does not have a hard cap, per se. It is programmed so that, once circulation reaches the 18-million-mark, miners will earn a fixed reward of 0.6 XMR infinitely. This is called tail emission and is designed to keep the miners motivated.

As previously mentioned, you can mine Monero on any operating system using the hardware you have at your disposal. However, there are different ways to mine this privacy coin. They include:

Solo Mining: While solo mining, you get to keep the entire reward for yourself. However, you will get less frequent rewards as compared to mining pools.

Monero mining pools: Monero mining pools charge a service fee of 0–2 percent and rewards are divided between all the participants. Plus, the software you use for mining might ask for a small fee as well. However, you are rewarded more frequently in this case. Some of the most popular mining pools are:

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nanopool.org

P2Pool: Peer-to-peer pools or P2Pool is Monero’s sidechain. It offers the best of both worlds – solo and pool mining. It gives you frequent payouts, similar to pool mining, without having to trust a centralized pool.How to get startedHere are some basic steps to follow to begin mining Monero:

Get a Monero wallet: The first step is to download and set up a wallet that can support Monero. Some options include MyMonero, Edge, Cake Wallet, Monero GUI0, Trezor, etc.

Install the mining software: Most people prefer using XMRig or CSminer for mining Monero. You can download the software from its website and extract the zip files.

Choosing a pool: Chances are, you might not have a strong enough CPU to mine by yourself, so this is the stage at which you choose a mining pool.

Generate the config.json file: On XMRig, you need to generate a file needed to begin mining. It’s a simple process and there are several tutorials and online guide on how to do this.Things to consider before mining MoneroWhile Monero is one of the easiest cryptocurrencies you can mine, you may still need to consider if it is worth it. One way to go about it is checking your profitability. To do this, you should consider your mining hashrate, power costs, and pool maintenance fees and compare these with your rewards. You can also use an XMR mining profitability calculator to determine if it is worth it.Also Read | Nearly $100 million in crypto stolen in Harmony’s Horizon bridge heist; what we know so far

To make it work in your favour, you might want to increase your device’s processing speed. Mining is a game of speed; the faster you solve puzzles, the more rewards you can earn. Mining solo with just a CPU may be possible, but might not be financially viable, in which case, joining a pool is your best option.