- Nov 21, 2024
While mining for bitcoins can be a complex process that requires a high volume of investments and often a long wait to break even,
How to Mine Monero: Everything You Want To Know About Monero
Before we delve into how to mine Monero, let us take a quick look at what is Monero - what it’s benefits are and why is it attracting such a large number of people towards mining.
Monero is a cryptocurrency which has its focus towards anonymity. Monero, which was launched in the first half of 2014, is known by it’s market symbol XMR. Unlike Bitcoins, which are based on a SHA-256 hashing algorithm, Monero is based on a CryptoNight hashing algorithm.
Monero has been among the top 10 cryptocurrencies for a while now. In three short years, it has made a mark for itself in the markets. What drives people towards Monero is the concept of ‘Financial Anonymity’. Once your Bitcoins are converted into Monero, it would be near impossible to trace who is spending it.
While regular Bitcoin transactions are a little complicated and can leak some amount of data tracing back to the user which could give an idea of the amount of funds coming in and flowing out of a user’s wallet - this is not possible in the Monero blockchain. Monero has been the currency of choice for darknet market trades, as well as for applications where privacy is considered to be of paramount importance.
Let us now take a look at how to mine Monero:
Mining for monero is almost the same as mining for any other cryptocurrency. In order to mine for this cryptocurrency you’d need the same four components you need to mine any other currency:
A Monero Wallet
Monero Mining Hardware
Monero Mining Software
Monero Mining Pool
Let us take a closer look at all four of these components:
The concept of wallets is a little different while making use of Monero when compared to other cryptocurrencies. Other coins and currencies allow you to make use of multiple types of wallets where the key could be stored either with you or with the website or with a third party, and there are many complications. With Monero however, the process is quite simple and cut short.
Unlike other coins, Monero has it’s own GUI wallet which has to be downloaded from the official Monero website. Because Monero functions on a privacy-driven system, it prefers having it’s own wallet for transactions which is untraceable.
In order to download the Monero wallet - head over to www.getmonero.org/downloads/
There, choose the OS and OS version you want to download the Monero wallet for.
Once you download and install it, there will be two major files - Monero.exe: which will be the main Monero wallet and MoneroD.exe, which is the daemon which syncs with the blockchain.
Upon running a Monero wallet for the first time, you will get a 25 character mnemonic seed - which is basically your key that you need to save and preserve in order to ensure that your monero currencies remain safe even if your computer is damaged or stolen.
Mining for Monero can be done via CPU as well as GPU. Unlike bitcoins, it does not need a dedicated hardware (such as an ASIC) to mine for it. The CryptoNight algorithm maintains the viability of the mining process. Monero has an algorithm which ensures that the gap between mining with CPUs and GPUs is smaller compared to other cryptocurrencies. However, even despite this, it is only profitable to mine via GPUs these days.
Some of the most popular GPUs that mine Monero are:
Sapphire NITRO+ RX 580 8GB
Sapphire NITRO+ RX 580 4GB
MSI RX 580 GAMING X 8G
Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1 Gaming
Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti GAMING OC
Now that you have your Monero Wallet and Monero Mining Hardware in place, the next thing you need to do is to get your Monero Mining Software in place.
In case you’re using an NVidia GPU, check out ccminer-cryptonight.
For those making use of an AMD GPU, check out Claymore’s CryptoNote GPU Miner v9.6.
Last but not the least, after you have everything ready, you’ll need to join a mining pool where you would be able to pool your resources with other Monero miners in order to mine faster and get bigger, more frequent rewards.
Here’s a list of top 5 Monero Mining Pools:
minexmr.com
monero.crypto-pool.fr
moneropool.com
supportxmr.com
monerohash.com
Mining can be a time consuming as well as expensive project - this is something meant for those who intend to set up a long-term system of Monero generation. However, it is often much easier to buy Monero rather than to mine it.
Let us take a quick look at the top three exchanges from where you can simply buy Monero:
Poloniex: One of the biggest, most popular cryptocurrency marketplaces when it comes to trading for Monero. It offers one of the lowest exchange rates. However, signing up for Poloniex beats the purpose of using Monero - because Poloniex has a number of security requirements such as your Passport, your picture and your e-mail address. If you aren’t so high on privacy this is your best bet.
ShapeShift.io: Another popular choice for those who wish to exchange their Bitcoins or other altcoins for Monero. ShapeShift however, has one problem - the exchange rates might seem a little high, especially when trading in smaller volumes. An e-mail signup is also needed.
BitSquare: While the two exchanges mentioned above are somewhat low on privacy, BitSquare is the most private of the lot. BitSquare has the users trade currencies between individuals. However, considering that this is a network where individuals trade with individuals it might take some time for a user to come across another user who is willing to offer monero at a preferred price and at using a preferred payment method.
You can use our Monero Mining Calculator to calculate profitability.
Many users prefer buying and trading currencies rather than mining it. However, the biggest benefit that mining gives you as compared to trading is again that of privacy, which is something Monero’s entire existence is based upon! The currency is going to be in an everlasting boom phase till Bitcoin becomes as secure as Monero is - which seems like a long way away.
