In the highly competitive market of cryptocurrencies, Monero (XMR) has created a place for itself. Created in April 2014, today it is the 10th largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $3.26 billion.
Monero has become a favorite among investors and miners because of its powerful performance last year. It went up from $10 in January 2017 to $494 in January 2018, giving a return of around 4800% to its investors. Isn’t that mind-blowing?
So, if you are thinking about Monero mining, then you’re not alone. The growth that Monero experienced last year has brought a lot of attention to XMR mining.
Monero mining might seem confusing, and you may have many questions such as: How does it work? What kind of software and hardware do I need? How do I start? How long does it take to mine one XMR?
But here’s the good news — today I will answer all these questions and many more related to Monero mining. So, by the end of this guide, you will have a clear understanding of what Monero mining is, and whether you should do it or not.
Before jumping to mining though, it’s important for you to know what Monero is and what makes it so special.
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Monero Mining: What is Monero (XMR)
Monero, like Bitcoin, is a digital currency which can be used to send and receive payments. Imagine Carl wants to pay $100 to Ava, and they agree to do the transaction in cryptocurrency. Carl can make the payment using Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero or any other similar cryptocurrency.
So, why would Carl use Monero?
How Monero is different from Bitcoin?
If Carl and Ava want that their transaction remains untraceable and private, then Monero may be their best option.
Let me explain this further:
If Carl sends Ava some money using Bitcoin, the transaction is visible to everyone on the network. Everyone can see who the sender is who the receiver is. This means that transactions sent in Bitcoin are public and out there for everyone to see.
Even though Bitcoin is decentralized, it is not private. Monero, however, is both decentralized and private. Monero’s technology allows all transactions to remain 100% private and untraceable.
If the transaction is done using Monero, then Carl and Ava are the only two people who will know about this transaction. There is no one else on the Monero network that could find out that this transaction ever took place.
The privacy that is offered by Monero is what has made it so popular. As some people feel uncomfortable letting others know what they are spending their money on.
In addition to complete privacy, here are some more other unique features of Monero:
Monero Is Fungible
Sounds complex? Well, it isn’t. In fact, it’s a very simple concept.
Fungibility simply means that units of a currency (or asset) are interchangeable. For example, a $100 bill can be replaced by another $100 bill, or even two $50 bills. This is what makes fiat currency (USD, EUR, JPY etc.) fungible.
Whereas Bitcoin is not fungible. That’s because someone might refuse to take a Bitcoin which has previously been used in an illegal transaction. This is possible because everyone can see the transactions which have took place on the Bitcoin network.
So, one unit of Bitcoin might not be interchangeable with another Bitcoin, but this is not the case with Monero. Since no one knows anything about the previous transactions of a Monero coin, all of them are considered equal and are interchangeable with one another.
Monero Mining Does Not Require an ASIC
An ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) is a special type of hardware used for Bitcoin mining. An ASIC can cost anywhere in between $600 to $1000, which has made Bitcoin mining unattractive for anyone except professionals.
Fortunately, Monero mining doesn’t require you to purchase an ASIC. Instead, Monero mining can be carried out using your computer’s CPU/GPU. This has made Monero a good option for beginners and other people who don’t want to investment lots of money to start mining.
So, now that you know a bit more about Monero and how it differs to Bitcoin, it’s time to find answer your next question – what is Monero mining?
Monero Mining: What Is Monero Mining
At the time of writing, there is a total of 15,829,795 XMR in circulation. This number will continue to increase until there are 18.4 million Monero coins in circulation.
So, how are new Monero coins created?
The answer is simple — Monero mining!
Monero miners perform two important tasks:
In the previous example, suppose Carl sends $100 to Ava via bank transfer. In this scenario, it is the bank’s job to make sure that Carl has enough balance to make the $100 payment to Ava. After the bank confirms this transaction, they make a record of it so that it can be referred to in the future.
Now, if Carl were to send the $100 to Ava using Monero, then who would validate and record this transaction? The answer is: Monero miners! This removes the need for banks to confirm transactions.
A question that often comes up is: What’s in it for the miners? Well, they get rewarded with XMR coins each time they verify a transaction on the Monero network. Every time they use their resources to validate a group of transactions (called blocks), they are rewarded with brand new Monero coins!
Monero Mining Reward
The current reward for verifying (mining) 1 transaction block is around 4.99 XMR, plus a transaction fee of 0.06573 XMR.
So, what happens to the miner’s reward after all 18.4 million Monero coins are mined?
Here’s the good news: After reaching 18.4 million XMR coins, new coins get added to the system at a flat rate of 0.3 XMR/minute. These new coins will be used to reward the miner’s and keep them incentivized for mining.
Do you know how long it takes to mine one Monero coin?
A Monero block is mined every 2 minutes, and we know that the current reward for mining transaction block is 4.99 XMR. So, by doing the simple math, we know that 1 XMR is mined every 24 seconds.
Now that you know what Monero mining is and why it is required, it will be easier for you to understand how to mine Monero.
Monero Mining: How to Mine Monero
As I mentioned earlier, you don’t need to purchase special hardware for XMR mining. Anyone with a computer can mine Monero. But with that said, the more powerful the hardware, the better.
There are several ways to mine Monero, but before we get into that, you need to know what a Monero mining pool is.
Monero Mining Pool
Before you start mining, you need to decide whether you’re going to mine Monero on your own, or will you join a Monero mining pool.
In a mining pool, a group of Monero miners come together and combine the power of their hardware. This gives them a better chance of verifying transactions (yes, the competition is tough!). The reward they receive from mining is also split between the mining pool. Most mining pools charge you a pool fee, which is generally in the range of 0-2%.
Imagine that you contribute 5% to the total hardware power of the mining pool you are in… this means that you will also receive 5% of the total rewards earned by the Monero mining pool.
Solo mining (mining by yourself) is not recommended for the beginners. Solo mining will not earn you any rewards unless you are prepared to invest a lot of money into mining hardware.