Mining Crypto

Have you ever mined cryptocurrency? You know, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin etcetera. Well, mining it means aligning your computer to the mining algorithm and letting it compete with all the other computers to be the first to work out the cryptographic mathematics and add the block to the blockchain.

For those of you that don't know: (for sake of keeping it simple i'll discuss Bitcoin, but they all have a similar process) Miners pick up any transaction, and hash them into a block. Every 10 minutes or so the block full of transactions is sent to the nodes, who have to verify that all transactions in the block are legitimate.

At least 51% of nodes (tens of thousands), but it's usually 99.9%, have to be in consensus that the block is ok, and once they are all in agreement, they send it back to the miners who then compete with each other to work out the maths and then the winning miner, who works it out first, adds the block to the blockchain and is paid the block reward.

The block reward is 12.5 BTC at the moment, but this is halved every 210,000 blocks. The next halving event is due next month: May 2020. From then the block reward will be 6.25 BTC every block.

Join a Mining Pool

Winning the block reward is practically impossible if you're a solo miner. Remember, you're up against hundreds of thousands of powerful computers, and even if you have a powerful ASICs miner, your chances of winning the block reward are still next to nothing.

Joining a mining pool is the best way to ensure you win the block reward. Basically, what you're doing is pooling together with thousands of other miners and be part of a bigger organization with much more hashpower. The earnings are divided among the pool, and it's a sure way of getting some.

If you have a powerful miner and your other poolers don't then you would receive more percentage. It's a far system and one that ensures a solo miner can compete will all the big mining farms.

Which Mining Pool To Join?

Choosing your mining pool depends on many factors, and what's good for you might not be good for anyone else. This website offers a great review of which pools to join, but as it says, make sure you are vigilant and do look out for hidden costs. Personally, I like  P2Pool as it's a peer-to-peer, decentralized system, and it's truly global, which makes it more resistant to hackers.

The payments are all done off chain, and P2Pool cannot take your cryptocurrency off you, unlike some centralized mining pools have been known to do.

Whichever mining pool you decide to join, the main thing is that you start mining. Doesn't matter if you mine Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin or Monero, they're all great coins to help mine and secure.

For anyone still unsure about, check this video out. It's a great objective look at mining pools, and will help you make up your mind.

Please, share your mining pool experiences. I'd love to hear them.