Last Updated on
If you’ve been thinking about getting into cryptocurrency mining but aren’t sure if it’s worth it, we’re here to answer your questions. You’ll learn which cryptocurrency is the best coin to mine with a CPU, even if you’re a seasoned crypto miner.
In today’s world, CPU mining is still one of the most efficient ways to mine cryptocurrencies. Let’s first look at how CPUs work when involved in cryptocurrency mining.
How does CPU mining work?
The abbreviation for the central processing unit is CPU. It is often referred to as the computer’s “brain” because it oversees its various sections. A CPU is essential to a computer’s operation because it handles all of the computer’s data processing, and it provides the computer’s operating system with processing power.
Through CPU mining, a computer’s CPU performs calculations so that transaction records can be added to the cryptocurrency’s public ledger on its blockchain.
Did you know that Bitcoin (BTC) was originally only mined using a computer processor? Back in 2010, an Intel Pentium CPU could mine BTC and generate hundreds of bitcoins. However, this is no longer possible.
Why? Because as cryptocurrency became more popular, mining became more competitive, and it became increasingly challenging to generate anywhere near this amount of BTC. This is true not only for BTC but for almost all altcoins.
Is CPU mining profitable?
CPU mining may have raised some thoughts in your mind since you first learned about it, with “Is CPU mining profitable?” being at the top of your list. That’s why we need to point out that CPU mining profitability isn’t all that significant for short-term profits.
This is especially true as CPU mining is no longer possible for the vast majority of widely used coins. For the most part, this is due to two factors:
- The rise in the overall difficulty and competition on the networks
- The explosion of complex ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) miners
These factors rendered CPU mining largely obsolete on a vast majority of the most popular coins.
For example, CPU mining was initially permitted in earlier versions of the Bitcoin network, but as the network’s hashrate increased, CPU mining became unprofitable. The value of Bitcoin dropped below the amount of power required to run the CPU. As a result, CPU mining was removed from Bitcoin’s core because it was a senseless feature, and GPU mining was the only way to mine Bitcoins for a time. Because of major cryptocurrencys’ high hashrate, CPU mining is unprofitable for the majority of other cryptocurrencies as well.
However, CPU crypto mining has a very important purpose, as it is possible to find a new promising cryptocurrency that can be mined with a CPU and generate some long-term profit.
At this point, most CPU mining coins are still in their infancy, and the profits at this stage are usually slim to none. So, what’s the point of continuing to use CPU power to mine those coins?
But – this is the most critical point to realize – because you are mining these coins at a much lower yield at this time, this may be the greatest way to acquire some of these coins for long-term safekeeping. The idea here is to accumulate new cryptocurrencies early and hold them until the coins (hopefully) go up in value and are worth more money.
That said, there are still some cryptocurrencies that are specifically built to be profitable when mined using a CPU. CryptoNight-based coins make up the vast majority of CPU mining coins, such as:
- Bytecoin
- Quazarcoin
- Monero
- Electroneum
- and a slew of others.
The CryptoNight team’s goal is to make mining accessible to all users, even if they have differing levels of computing power. CryptoNight-based coins use built-in CPU instructions, which are extremely difficult and expensive to implement in ASICs but perfectly suitable for ordinary PCs.
However, CPU mining of CryptoNight coins is no longer as profitable because some current ASICs work perfectly well with multiple CryptoNight currencies.
Don’t give up hope, as ASIC mining has been actively fought by the Monero team, for example, who made a hard fork to keep CPU mining the only method of creating new XMR tokens.
What is the most profitable coin to mine with CPU?
Today, it is possible to mine other blockchains besides Bitcoin’s, such as Loki and Nimiq, using a computer’s processing power.
If you’re looking for the most profitable coin to mine with your CPU, we recommend Monero (XMR).
Monero is the first cryptocurrency that comes to mind when discussing CPU-minable coins. Monero is a popular coin because it is the easiest to mine with a CPU, and is a widely used cryptocurrency. For those who want to mine Monero, a GPU and a CPU are viable options.
Since its inception in 2014, Monero has been a popular cryptocurrency. It began to rise significantly in value in 2017 and continues to do so. It’s ten-fold more expensive than similar crypto coins such as ZCash, but XMR’s anonymity makes it popular with its users.
As a result of the recent switch from CryptoNight to RandomX, ASIC miners are thwarted by the constant evolution of Monero’s algorithm, and their network faces increased competition from GPU miners. As a result of this change, CPU miners can now contribute significantly to the blockchain consensus.
XMR is easiest to mine as it possesses the highest CPU hash rate using the RandomX hashing algorithm, making it the best coin to mine with a CPU that is available on the market.
Additionally, Monero has stayed on top as it is the only CPU coin actively developed and constantly working to improve its PoW (Proof of Work) algorithm. This isn’t the case with other CPU-based coins and smaller blockchain networks.
But will it be worth it, and will you see a return on your investment?
The answer is yes. However, several factors determine whether or not mining for the cryptocurrency Monero is profitable. These include hash rate, power consumption, and the cost of mining hardware.
