Accessed on July 22, 2022
We can answer your questions if you’ve been considering going into cryptocurrency mining but aren’t sure if it’s worthwhile. Even if you are an experienced cryptocurrency miner, you will learn which cryptocurrency is the best coin to mine with a CPU.
CPU mining is still one of the most effective techniques to mine cryptocurrency in the modern world. Let’s first examine how CPUs operate when mining cryptocurrencies.
How does CPU mining work?
The central processing unit is referred to as CPU. Because it controls all of its other portions, it is frequently referred to as the computer’s brain. Because it manages all of the computer’s data processing and supplies the operating system with processing power, a CPU is crucial to a computer’s functionality.
CPU mining uses a computer’s CPU to carry out calculations so that transaction records can be added to a cryptocurrency’s blockchain-based public ledger.
Did you know that a computer processor was initially the only tool used to mine Bitcoin (BTC)? In 2010, hundreds of bitcoins might be produced by mining BTC on an Intel Pentium CPU. This is, however, no longer feasible.
Why? Because mining got more difficult and difficult to produce even a small portion of this number of BTC as cryptocurrencies became more widely used. This holds true for practically all altcoins, not just BTC.
Is CPU mining profitable?
Since you first discovered about it, you could have had some questions, such as Is CPU mining profitable? being the first thing on your list. Because of this, it’s important to note that the profitability of CPU mining isn’t particularly important for immediate gains.
This is particularly true given that the vast majority of regularly used coins no longer support CPU mining. This is primarily caused by two things:
- The rise in the overall difficulty and competition on the networks
- The explosion of complex ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) miners
These elements effectively made CPU mining for the great majority of the most widely used coins obsolete.
For instance, the Bitcoin network initially allowed CPU mining, but as the network’s hashrate increased, CPU mining became unprofitable. Bitcoin’s value fell below the amount of energy needed to run the CPU. As a result, CPU mining was eliminated from the core of Bitcoin because it was a pointless function, and for a while, GPU mining was the only method of mining Bitcoins. CPU mining is also unprofitable for the vast majority of smaller cryptocurrencies due to the high hashrate of large cryptocurrencies.
Though it is conceivable to discover a brand-new potential cryptocurrency that can be mined with a CPU and produce some long-term profit, CPU crypto mining serves a very vital purpose.
The majority of CPU-mining coins are still in their infancy at this juncture, and revenues are typically minimal or nonexistent. What purpose does it make to keep using CPU power to mine those coins?
The most important thing to understand is that since you are now mining these coins at a significantly lower return, this may be the best method to get some of them for long-term storage. The goal is to amass new cryptocurrencies early and keep them until they (hopefully) appreciate in value and become more valuable.
However, some cryptocurrencies are still created with the intention of being profitable when mined using a CPU. Most CPU mining coins, including those from CryptoNight, include:
- Bytecoin
- Quazarcoin
- Monero
- Electroneum
- and a slew of others.
The CryptoNight team wants to open up mining to all users, regardless of their processing capabilities. Coins based on CryptoNight use built-in CPU instructions, which are very expensive and difficult to implement in ASICs but are ideal for regular PCs.
However, several modern ASICs are fully compatible with a variety of CryptoNight currencies, making CPU mining of these coins less viable.
Don’t lose hope; the Monero team, for instance, actively opposed ASIC mining by forcing a hard fork to keep CPU mining the only way to produce new XMR tokens.
What is the most profitable coin to mine with CPU?
Today, you can use a computer’s processing power to mine blockchains other than Bitcoin’s, including Loki and Nimiq.
We advise Monero if you’re seeking for the most lucrative coin to mine with your CPU (XMR).
When talking about cryptocurrencies that can be mined using a CPU, Monero is the first that springs to mind.
Because it is the most straightforward to mine using a CPU and is a frequently utilised cryptocurrency, Monero is a well-liked coin. Both a GPU and a CPU are suitable solutions for Monero miners.
The cryptocurrency Monero has gained popularity since its launch in 2014. In 2017 it started to gain a lot of value, and it still does. Although XMR is 10 times more expensive than coins of a similar type, like ZCash, its fans favour it because of its anonymity.
ASIC miners are thwarted by the ongoing growth of Monero’s algorithm as a result of the recent switch from CryptoNight to RandomX, and their network is now more competitive with GPU miners. Due to this modification, CPU miners can now significantly contribute to the blockchain consensus.
The greatest coin to mine with a CPU currently on the market is XMR since it has the highest CPU hash rate when utilising the RandomX hashing method and is therefore the easiest to mine.
In addition, Monero has maintained its leadership position since it is the only CPU coin that is being developed and continually trying to enhance its PoW (Proof of Work) algorithm. With other CPU-based coins and smaller blockchain networks, this isn’t the case.
Will it be worthwhile, though, and will you get your money’s worth?