Bitcoin is the most famous and the oldest cryptocurrency built on the basis of a proof-of-work algorithm. Satoshi Nakamoto wanted to drive the value of the coin by limiting the ability to get Bitcoins at your will. Conversely, there is only a strict timeframe of roughly ten minutes in which a certain portion of new Bitcoins can be mined and there’s no other way around it. And the more difficult it is to mine Bitcoins the more the people tend to want them. Competition builds up and every consecutive year it becomes harder and harder financially to squeeze in because the equipment for such tasks should be extremely powerful and hence, expensive.
So, is there any other way to become a miner if you are not filthy rich and don’t possess a hefty investment? Turns out that yes, there is a way! A fairly good idea is to mine other coins!
Despite the fact that most media outlets are talking about the proof of stake technology to be the next big thing, there are still lots of coins on the crypto market that you can mine. Let’s discover some of the most popular of them.
Ravencoin
For those who feel like embarking on a mining journey all by themselves, Ravencoin is a matching option. This is one of the coins that can be mined with lower capacities and with less professional equipment, that’s why, essentially, anyone can do it because it’s much cheaper than Bitcoin mining.
Ravencoin can be mined with GPU and CPU mining software. By the way, the coin functions on its own blockchain which is a peer-to-peer network for exchanging money-like cryptocurrency. It is a Bitcoin fork that’s why many researchers have admitted that Ravencoin is not a scam coin and that it can potentially have value for many investors in case if there will be enough participants who will be interested in using this network. Ravencoin doesn’t have any master nodes and didn’t go through ICO that’s why it’s more decentralized than some other cryptocurrencies. In fact, this network has found some big-player participants, such as Medici Ventures, the subsidiary of Overstock.
Ravencoin cannot be mined with ASIC hardware. Some types of software, such as MinerGate allows participants to mine the coins using only their phone. Also, you can use one of the multiple mining pools to help you mine this coin. Unlike the strict timeframe of Bitcoin, on this fork, you can mine one block in one minute and get a block reward of 5,000 RVN. Ravencoin is worth less than $1 at the time of writing.
Litecoin
Unlike Ravencoin launched in 2018, Litecoin is one of the cryptocurrency veterans launched in 2011, almost right after the oldest crypto. Before Litecoin, it’s fair to suggest that everyone could imagine Bitcoin to be the only cryptocurrency out there and in the long-term perspective as well. However, now there are thousands of crypto coins on the market and it’s more vibrant than anyone would ever suggest in 2009. So, back to Litecoin, it was forked from Bitcoin as it was the only option at the time to create crypto like Bitcoin which surpasses its main concern – the speed of transactions.
So Litecoin is built in the way that it ensures high-speed transactions because its blocks can be mined much faster than that of Bitcoin, and that’s why transactions settle on a blockchain much faster. Litecoin is an open-source blockchain so anyone can participate. At the time of launch, it was designed to be mined by CPU and GPU only but right now, developers made it possible to work on the underlying protocol with ASIC hardware. It takes 2.5 minutes to mine one block on this blockchain. At the time of writing, the reward for one block is 12.5 LTC. You can also join one of the pools that supports Litecoin mining, like LTC.top or Litecoinpool.
Ethereum Classic
Ethereum Classic work of s an Ethereum protocol that is focused on smart contracts. It facilitates the usage of smart contracts by individuals and businesses, abiding by the principle “code is law”. That’s why more people can use smart contracts to reduce the chance of human error and run coded business instructions on a blockchain.
This type of mining can turn out to be quite profitable because the new block can be mined within 10.3 seconds and the reward for each block is 3.2 ETC. The price per one ETC coin is not as high as the price of ETH but nevertheless, it’s much higher than the other coins that are currently available for mining.
Ethereum Classic is possible to mine with the help of GPU miners like NBMiner and Claymore Miner. Also, you can mine it on the VPS server. A variety of pools do participate in Ethereum Classic mining. Some of those are f2pool and 2 Miners.
Monacoin
Monacoin is a popular Japanese cryptocurrency with quite an active blockchain used by many participants. In fact, it is the first cryptocurrency in Japan. Monacoin is a meme coin like DOGE/USD but instead of a dog, this one is a cat meme. It’s also a quite old coin – Monacoin was launched in 2013 but it’s still alive and has wide community support in Japan.
Options of mining the Monacoin boil down to GPU hardware. Unfortunately, it’s unable to mine these coins with ASIC hardware yet. The time it takes to mine one block is approximately 1.5 minutes. At the time of writing, this cryptocurrency is worth more than $1. The reward for mining one block is currently 12.5 MONA. You can use mining software like Lyra2REv2 miner and CGMiner. Pools that would help you to mine MONA include la.pool.me and bitpoolmining.