If you’re keeping up with the endless streams of posts and threads in the crypto community, you’ve likely sniffed the colossal fuss lately generated as Bitcoin’s halving has finally occurred. We don’t talk about the Bitcoin price USD, but by the way the token is birthed. Shortly after the quadrennial reward cut that Bitcoin’s protocol integrates to maintain the asset’s deflationary nature, numerous negative aftermaths have targeted the mining communities, who were the ones to bear the brunt of the heightened competition. To put it briefly, the reward they used to receive after mining Bitcoin until 18 April was slashed by half, marking the following day as the one that had many miners at a crossroads about what they would do next.
Fortunately, but not widely acknowledged, there are numerous other powerful cryptocurrencies that depend on mining to exist and trade. Mining is an essential part of the production of the following cryptocurrencies, necessary to validate transactions, prevent fraud, and safeguard the network, among other operations that can help old-stagers in mining generate some profits after the halving’s impact. So, shall we begin discovering these lucrative gems?
Photo source: https://unsplash.com/photos/gold-and-red-round-coins-ESGcPJsLrqs
Monero (XMR)
The Monero blockchain, whose native token is represented by the abbreviation XMR, is one of the most popular systems besides Bitcoin used in services and goods exchanges, boasting attractively low fees and a market cap of $2.83B.
You may come across many businesses willing to offer their services for your XMR, which is just a reason why beginning to mine this crypto could prove profitable in the long run. Another contributor to XMR’s fame among miners is its CPU-friendly and ASIC-resistant mining algorithm that keeps mining power from being centralized, representing a trump card among home miners.
XMR is a privacy coin whose primary purpose is to enable anonymous, affordable, and seamless payments. It is praised for its privacy, making tracing user activity difficult.
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Despite sharing a similar goal with Ethereum, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is not to be confounded with it as it has completely different ideological and technical attributes. ETC arose as the unmodified Ethereum version and thus gained nomenclature inspiration from the mammoth after forking the network. However, Ethereum is older and more decentralized compared to Ethereum Classic, whose debut year is 2016. If you want to mine ETC, the ideal part of it is that it’s more accessible to mine compared to the old stager.
ETC also refrains from planning a relocation to the proof-of-system (PoS) consensus mechanism like Ethereum did in September 2022. It sticks to a proof-of-work (PoW) system and boasts lower mining difficulty compared to that held by Ethereum in its PoW days when mining was the only way to launch coins.
You can mine ETC with a GPU, but doing it with an ASIC rig is easier and more rewarding.
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin has a current market cap of over $6.13B, ranking among the cryptocurrencies with the largest such indices. Litecoin is one of the old stages that emerged as a variant of the flagship crypto, Bitcoin, employing the same code and differentiating itself in a few areas. The adjustments along the way improve the efficiency of the blockchain and make mining LTC incomparably more rapid than mining Bitcoin.
Yet solo mining isn’t that profitable or even doable, so you may want to stay involved in this business only if you’re not planning on keeping it in the long term.
Litecoin is a better crypto mining option when a specific ASIC rig and mining pool are used. Crypto may be mined through PCs and GPUs, but keep in mind that this equipment’s production rate is much more sluggish compared to ASICs.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Amidst the exclusive and repetitive launch of serious cryptocurrencies aimed to perform operations like wealth trading and anonymous transactions, a peculiar asset emerged to make people smile. Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency invented as a satire, took the crypto industry by storm with impressively higher price points, transforming it into a severe threat to its rivals. Dogecoin Stats contributed to a market worth $23.03B at the moment of writing. Analysts and experts predict Dogecoin will stand the test of time and remain a big player for years to come, whereas much of its reputation as profitable mining crypto stems from.
Dogecoin is the original meme coin that started the craze that followed with Shiba Inu, Floki Inu, PEPE, and so on. You can join a mining pool via GPUs or get an ASIC mining machine to start mining DOGE.
Ravencoin (RVN)
Less heard of, Ravencoin, with its native token RVN, dates back to 2018, when it was funded by a blockchain-fueled platform specialized in household item retail. With a price of a little over $0.02 and a market capitalization of over $394K, you may not often hear discussions of this cryptocurrency unless they refer to its mining.
Mining RVN isn’t as efficient with ASICs or CPU cards, so you’ll want to buy GPU mining machines. A few software alternatives suit this cryptocurrency’s development, such as Gminer, T-Rex Miner, and Kawpowminer, and evidently, the choice must be made after conducting thorough research on each. These opportunities make Ravencoin a go-to among at-home miners.
Before You Choose What Crypto To Mine
The cryptocurrencies enumerated above rank among the ideal ones you can choose to mine regarding profitability, accessibility, and incentives.
However, these aren’t the only proof-of-work cryptocurrencies out there; we have Vertcoin, Dash, Grin, Zcash, and many others.
Before you jump on the one you deem the most lucrative, make sure it excels in the following areas:
- Security and privacy
- Market trends
- Profitability
- Accessibility
- Sustainability.
Endnote
Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies like Ethereum Classic, Ravencoin, Litecoin, and Monero are some of the most popular cryptocurrencies, so it makes sense if the one you’ll buy or use your mining equipment for is one of them. When done right, crypto mining may still be lucrative despite Bitcoin’s halving, which mainly impacted revenue in this sector.
Consider market conditions, mining difficulty, and bill costs, as these will all affect your profits. Moreover, you’ll need to learn how your venue will be taxed because, yes, cryptocurrency mining revenue is subject to taxation.
So, how do you feel about this business?
