Cryptocurrency mining, and especially Bitcoin mining, is a very attractive activity for many crypto enthusiasts. The possibility of obtaining rewards in the form of some coin with a high value in the market is an incentive for which even large companies and governments are after.

The problem is that, in the case of Bitcoin and some other crypto, mining is no longer within the reach of the common user, since this requires quite expensive special hardware that not everyone can afford, or obtain due to supply shortages. However, there is still a whole universe of altcoins whose mining process is possible using ordinary equipment, like the ones you and I have at home.

In its basic form, all you need to mine altcoins is a PC or phone, an internet connection, and special software, so if you’re thinking of getting into cryptocurrency mining, this is a good guide to get started.

So let’s take a look at the 10 Best Crypto You Can Mine with CPU and GPU today.

1. Ethereum

The Ethereum (ETH) network is currently a Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain which, although it’ll soon become a Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain, still requires miners to work to obtain rewards.

What you need to mine Ethereum

Today, you can no longer mine ETH using only your CPU, so you’ll need to make use of GPUs. With a configuration with consumer graphics cards – preferably AMD or Nvidia – you can get good results when mining from home. You’ll also need to download a mining program like Geth, EthOS, or Claymore.

Ease of mining

ETH mining can be quite heavy if you don’t have enough computing power, as the network is very active and there are many transactions being processed.

Brief guide on Ethereum mining

The first thing you need to do is set up an Ethereum wallet to store the cryptographic keys that will allow you access to your crypto assets.

The next step would be to join a mining pool, which is necessary as mining has become complex and requires large amounts of hashing power. Some of the most popular pools today are Nanopool and Ethermine.

Another interesting option is cloud mining. In this case, a large mining farm rents computing power to interested people in exchange for a monthly fee, so they can mine cryptocurrencies without the need for special hardware.

The main disadvantage of this method is that most of these services tend to be scams, so you’ll have to do your research and be very careful in this case.

Please see my past blog post, 3 Reasons Why You Should Not Cloud Mine.

Is it profitable to mine Ethereum?

Ethereum mining is still profitable, but it also depends on several factors.

A rule that applies to basically all cryptocurrencies is that you must take into account the initial amount of the investment, in addition to the costs of the mining and electricity platform, especially the latter, since this is what will help you the most to determine if it’s profitable and after how long.

Fortunately, there are online calculators that can help you in calculating these costs.

What you can do with your coins

You have two options: sell ETH for an immediate profit or store it in a wallet as a long-term investment. In both cases, insha’Allah, you don’t have to worry, since ETH is the second most popular cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, so it’s widely accepted in many exchanges and online stores.

2. Ethereum Classic

As with Ethereum, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a platform for the operation of smart contracts and dApps, with the goal of adhering to the principles of decentralization as much as possible.

What you need to mine Ethereum Classic

To mine ETC you need almost the same software and hardware as for ETH. Although in the case of ETC, the requirements are somewhat lower, since Ethereum Classic allows a greater share of the ETC market using GPUs of up to 3 and 4 GB.

Ease of mining

Mining ETC is fairly easy nowadays as the Ethereum Classic network is not as overloaded as Ethereum due to the lower transaction volume.

Brief guide on Ethereum Classic mining

Since with Ethereum Classic the hardware requirements are lower, mining alone is more feasible. Of course, you can always resort to a mining pool. Once you have your wallet, mining software, and graphics card configured, you only have to start mining.

Is it profitable to mine Ethereum?

The difficulty of mining and the hashrate of ETC is still very accessible, and if you live in a region where the cost of electricity consumption is cheap (about $0.10 KWH), mining ETC can be very profitable.

What you can do with your coins

As with Ethereum, you can use your ETC for trading or purchases on a wide variety of exchanges and online stores.

3. Monero

Monero (XMR) has become a favorite of many investors and miners due to its excellent performance in recent years. Between 2017 and 2018 it went from $10 to $494, providing a profit of almost 5,000%, and it’s still very attractive today.

What you need to mine Monero

Fortunately, you don’t need to buy expensive ASIC equipment to mine Monero, as you can use your computer’s CPU/GPU.

Ease of mining

Anyone with a computer can mine Monero, as the mining process is quite simple. However, the more powerful your hardware, the better.

Brief guide on Monero mining

As we already mentioned, you can mine Monero using a GPU with enough power. You will also need to install the XMR Stak mining software, which is currently fairly easy to configure. Finally, you only have to join a mining pool, MineXMR, Nanopool, or Moneropool.

Is it profitable to mine Monero?

Currently, mining Monero is quite profitable, considering that you don’t need too powerful hardware. In addition, the algorithm that Monero uses today is quite efficient and consumes little electricity.

What you can do with your coins

You can trade Monero on a good variety of recognized exchanges, although it is best to use DEX-type exchanges. On top of that, around 200 businesses that operate online accept payments with Monero.

4. Dogecoin

Dogecoin (DOGE) is another cryptocurrency that you can mine using GPUs and CPUs. This coin was launched in 2013 as a joke, and it ended up becoming a very popular crypto – thanks Elon?

What you need to mine Dogecoin

You can mine Dogecoin with a CPU, though preferably not with your phone. Of course, the best option will always be to build a good rig with several GPUs, as long as your pocket allows it. Regarding software, EasyMiner is a good option.

Ease of mining

Although it’s still possible to mine Dogecoin alone, due to the increased difficulty that the network suffered in 2018, the most recommended at this time is to be part of a mining pool.

Brief guide on Dogecoin mining

Mining Dogecoin is as easy as setting up your Doge wallet, joining a mining pool like Prohashing, Antpool, or Poolin, and start mining.

Is it profitable to mine Dogecoin?

2021 saw great growth in the price of Doge, standing in March at 0.056 with a reward of 10,000 for each new block in the network, with which you would be earning $560, not bad.

What you can do with your coins

Currently, and thanks to the popularity that Doge has gained in the crypto world, more and more online businesses and exchanges are accepting this cryptocurrency. You can even use the BitPay card for purchases at Mastercard points.

5. ZCash

ZCash (ZEC) uses the Equihash algorithm to process transactions, secure the network, and of course, generate new coins during the mining process. For miners, this reward consists of 3.125 ZEC per block, which is quite attractive considering the ZEC price in the market.

What you need to mine ZCash

To be able to mine ZCash, you need to use Nvidia or AMD GPUs, as CPU mining is not profitable. Mining alone is not recommended either, so it’s a better idea to join a pool, such as F2Pool or Poolin. Regarding software, EWBF Cuda and Optiminer are good options.

Ease of mining

Due to the increasing difficulty of the network, ZEC mining has become somewhat complicated on its own, although not as much as other cryptos. Mining a ZEC would take you more than 20 days with powerful equipment.

Brief guide on ZCash mining

To start with ZCash mining, you’ll only have to install and configure your GPUs, download a ZCash wallet software, install a ZCash mining program – like EWBF – and join a ZCash mining pool.

Is it profitable to mine ZCash?

Yes, Zcash mining can be profitable if you consider a mining hashrate of 140,000.00 H/s, + electricity costs, and pool fees.

What you can do with your coins

With ZCash you can pay directly at dozens of online businesses, either with your mobile phone or anywhere Visa is accepted.

6. Ravencoin

Ravencoin (RVN) is a cryptocurrency that resulted from an open-source project born from a Bitcoin hardfork, and that has become an excellent option for mining.

What you need to mine Ravencoin

This cryptocurrency has an algorithm resistant to ASIC equipment, so you can mine it with no problems using a rig with several GPUs, either alone or in a mining pool.

Ease of mining

Ravencoin is much easier to mine than other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin since its algorithm – KaWPoW – requires less computational power.

Brief guide on Ravencoin mining

To start mining RVN, you just have to build your rig with enough GPUs, download the corresponding mining software – KawPoWminer, TeamRedMiner, or Gminer – and configure your wallet to receive your rewards. You can perform this process alone or in a mining pool.

Is it profitable to mine Ravencoin?

Each miner earns up to 5K RVN for each block added to the chain. With a rig armed with at least three GPUs at 72MH/s, you can mine one RVN every 0.021 days, which is equivalent to one block every three months. If you want to do it faster, you’ll need to add more GPUs.

What you can do with your coins

Ravencoin is still a cryptocurrency with a low level of global acceptance, but this is changing gradually for the better.

7. Grin

Grin (GRIN) is a cryptocurrency born in 2019 focused on maintaining the privacy, efficiency, and scalability of transactions within its blockchain. The project has been gaining a good following since its inception.

What you need to mine Grin

Grin has the peculiarity that it has two PoW algorithms for its operation. One of them allows mining through the use of high-performance GPUs, and the other is specific for ASIC equipment.

Ease of mining

Due to the aforementioned Grin features, added to how recent the project is, the mining of this cryptocurrency still presents an accessible difficulty for a large number of users.

Brief guide on Grin mining

You can participate in Grin mining using a GPU rig with at least 8 cards with enough power. You can do it alone or be part of a mining pool. You just need to configure your rig and download the appropriate software, such as Gminer or Lolminer.

Is it profitable to mine Grin?

Many people using a GPU configuration similar to the one mentioned above, manage to get around $200 a month throughput.

What you can do with your coins

Grin is still a very recent project and therefore it doesn’t yet have a high level of acceptance compared to other currencies, but it’s possible to trade it on some exchanges such as Hotbit, Gate.io, and others.

8. Beam

Like Grin, Beam (BEAM) is a cryptocurrency that uses the Mimblewimble protocol, which allows increasing privacy, scalability, and efficiency on the network. This crypto was created in 2019, and being ASIC resistant, it has become an attractive option for many users.

What you need to mine Beam

As it’s an ASIC resistant coin, you can only mine Beam using graphics cards of at least 4GB. CPU mining is not profitable.

Ease of mining

The mining difficulty in Beam will be increased every 4 years, as well as its reward decreased. But even so, it’ll be accessible through the use of GPUs.

Brief guide on Beam mining

As we have already mentioned, it’s perfectly possible to mine Beam alone, but there are also a good number of mining pools available to participate in if you want to increase your mining potential. Set up your equipment, mining software, and connect your wallet to get started.

Is it profitable to mine Beam?

At the time of writing this blog post, the price of Beam is around $0.50 and if we take into account its attractive features, in addition to its ease of mining, this is a crypto with a lot of potential.

What you can do with your coins

With each passing year, Beam gains more acceptance and presence on a greater number of exchanges, including some like Hotbit, and even Binance.

The bottom line

As you have seen, there are still a good number of crypto alternatives that don’t require a huge investment on the part of users and that can also provide excellent long-term benefits.

Remember that Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Monero were not worth much in their early days, but constant support from their communities made them what they are today.

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Privacy is important to everyone and there are many things that we choose to keep private or that we choose to only share with those close to us. However, whether it’s about personal finances, our health condition, family, or relationship matters, the truth is that nowadays, we end up sharing way too much personal and “private” information on the internet.

That can sometimes have far-reaching consequences. We have a recent example of this in the case of Cambridge Analytica.

But many entities also use our data in an attempt to sell us products and services or steer our decisions based on our selection on race or health status. Also, when you trade cryptocurrencies, your identity, wealth, and freedom may also be in danger.

But cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are private and anonymous, right?

Not at all. Did you know that Bitcoin is traceable?

However, there are alternatives to give users the power to carry out operations in a truly secure, private, and anonymous way: privacy coins. Today, let’s talk about Monero ZCash and Dash. The 3 Best Privacy Altcoins.

The importance of privacy to protect your personal identity, transactions, sovereignty, and personal wealth

All our digital activities leave their mark, whether when making calls, surfing the web or when making payments with our credit cards. The worst part is that the companies that provide these services store this information and use it in many ways without our prior consent.

Privacy is the power we have to decide who knows what we do in our daily lives, and who does not. Having privacy protects our finances, our health and our peace of mind in ways you may not have imagined:

1.- Personal identity

Privacy is respect for individuality and the freedom to be ourselves, make our own decisions – and have them respected – and be responsible for our actions. The problem is that many times, others may not see our privacy as important when it somehow interferes with other “more relevant” matters. It’s in those moments when different organizations will put aside our privacy say:

“It is for the common good.”

Or:

“It is for our nation.”

Another important aspect of privacy for individual identity is the right to change. As humans, we can make mistakes. After all, Allah says we are from Bani Adam, and Bani Adam (human beings) makes mistakes, so no one is born with a manual tucked under their arm called, “How to be perfect.”

But you have the right to put the past behind you, learn from your mistakes, and give your life a new start, a new direction, all in the interest of maturity and personal growth. Having the means to control your own privacy online can most certainly help you with this.

2.- Transactions

Many times, people will see many of our actions as if they were something strange, simply due to a lack of context and understanding about our motivations.

Nobody wants to explain each act – often insignificant – that they perform day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute, so privacy allows us to perform many of our daily activities in peace.

On the other hand, many types of relationships are based on privacy or confidentiality, which in turn is backed by trust. In many professional, business, or government relationships, when confidentiality is broken, trust is broken and the relationship is damaged.

Unfortunately, many organizations do not respect this factor and end up abusing the trust you give them, spying on your transactions, and using this information for their own benefit.

3.- Sovereignty

Privacy helps you limit the power that others might have over you, including large companies and governments. The manipulation that many organizations perform on your personal data for different purposes can influence a good part of the decisions you make – when making a purchase, for example.

You also have the right to meet privately with people who share interests and opinions similar to yours, whether in business, politics, or religion. This is very important as many times, third parties who may not share such ideas may also try to interfere to change those points of view. This is a threat to your freedom and sovereignty.

4.- Personal wealth

The vast amount of data that companies generate and store nowadays is used to gain greater control over processes and to create analytics-based predictive models to aid in decision-making.

All this data must be collected with the guarantee that no access has been violated or that there has been no manipulation that can influence the results of the data which can lead to negative economic outcomes for the organization.

Cybersecurity is in charge of taking care of the storage and privacy of this data to prevent that nothing and nobody can alter it or consult it without permission. Of course, when it comes to personal finances, the protection and privacy of your passwords, as well as the use of your money, is vital to preventing malicious agents from trying to scam you and steal your hard-earned money.

How privacy altcoins are taking lead when it comes to protecting user privacy

Cryptocurrencies have several features that make them ideal to be used as money on the internet. Security and privacy are two of these characteristics, but the reality is that the technology behind some cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin (BTC), only protects users up to a point.

During the early years of Bitcoin, people believed that transactions were totally private and anonymous but in reality, it’s possible to trace all of Bitcoin’s transactions in its public ledger known as blockchain.

Realizing this, some groups of developers decided to create alternative cryptocurrencies to BTC that focused on protecting these aspects when carrying out operations on the blockchain; these are the so-called “privacy coins.”

The developers of these altcoins have tried to equip them with new advanced cryptography methods to maximize their ability to guarantee anonymity, to the point where some are still truly untraceable.

Although today, the number of privacy coins has increased significantly, the following three remain the most popular and important in the crypto ecosystem.

1.- Monero

Monero is currently positioned as the most notable private cryptocurrency in the ecosystem – it’s the one with the most market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap.

Monero (XMR) was launched in 2014 as one of the first altcoins not based on the Bitcoin code, as it’s actually based on the CryptoNote protocol.

The Monero protocol uses confidential transactions and ring signatures to demonstrate ownership of unified cryptocurrencies in a group of transactions, without revealing which of these transactions was cryptographically signed.

In this way, it mixes the signed transaction with other operations, so it isn’t possible to know which transaction belongs to which person. It’s also noteworthy that in Monero, all transactions are private and anonymous by default.

Monero makes it possible to shield transactions against spies – such as analytics companies – but users can also use blockchain explorers to obtain information about the transactions.

Although the use of Monero has usually been linked mainly to black markets and unauthorized web mining, some web portals have implemented Monero mining as an alternative to generating income without resorting to invasive advertising.

You can learn more about Monero in this article, Why Monero is Better Than Bitcoin at Privacy.

2.- DASH

Dash or Digital Cash is a cryptocurrency launched in 2015 developed from the Litecoin code, and it’s an altcoin that has gained wide acceptance in several Latin American countries.

Unlike what happens with Monero, in the Dash protocol, private transactions – known as PrivateSend – are optional. These transactions are carried out between three users who wish to use this service, generating new addresses belonging such users. These transactions are mixed between the participants to erase the trace they leave on the network, something that can be repeated up to eight times automatically.

This task is carried out by the master node system of the Dash network, which mixes the transactions that have requested the PrivateSend service.

Masternodes are the governing figures of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that runs the Dash network and a masternode is a network member that proves to have at least 1,000 DASH.

Dash is a fairly complete ecosystem that offers its users tools to make private transactions, as well as a desktop wallet, a lightweight desktop wallet, an app and even a paper wallet. Dash is positioned as the second privacy coin in the ecosystem by market capitalization. You can get more information here, Dash Crypto: A Privacy Coin with a Promising Future.

3.- ZCash

Based on the principle of Zero-knowledge Proof, ZCash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency launched in 2016. The ZCash protocol uses parameters called, zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge), which allow users to prove the possession and validity of certain information without the need to reveal identity or interact with other users.

As with DASH, ZCash supports two types of transactions, shielded (with z addresses) or transparent (with t addresses), and users can choose the type of transaction they want at any time.

It’s odd, but it seems that nowadays t-addresses are more used, which means that most ZCash users ignore the possibilities of anonymous transactions.

Even so, the developers of ZCash are constantly implementing improvements to the network and currently, the cryptocurrency is positioned the 57th most popular cryptocurrency by way of market capitalization compared to all other cryptocurrencies in the market in general. It is also the the third favorite altcoin of users focused on privacy. Learn more here, What are the Benefits of ZCash?

Some reasons to underline the importance of privacy while transacting with cryptocurrencies

At first, these cryptocurrencies went unnoticed by a good portion of cryptocurrency users and investors. This was due in many cases to the bad reputation that has been created around them by calling them “criminal coins” – as some of their features are suitable for illegal activities.

However, in recent months, their popularity has been growing gradually, as more and more investors are interested in speculating with them. Even so, the main intention is still to take advantage of the anonymity and privacy they provide online because it turns out that more and more users are interested in hiding their payment history and keeping their transactions untraceable.

Another important reason is tax evasion by investors; as government authorities in different countries seek to tax the use of cryptocurrencies as investment assets, investors migrate to privacy coins that allow them to hide their operations and profits.

Fungibility goes hand in hand with privacy

Today, there are a large number of cryptocurrency exchanges available on the web. This, on the one hand, expands the number of options available to all types of users.

On the other hand, a large number of cryptocurrencies move in many exchanges whose previous use is unknown most of the time by users.

These traceable cryptocurrencies could have been used in illegal activities and be part of a judicial investigation that could end up causing problems for the final holder of such coins.

With a privacy coin this doesn’t happen because its activity cannot be traced, so the cryptocurrency is visible to everyone, totally free of any guilt; it’s equal to all other currencies. This is called fungibility.

Avoid surveillance by powerful organizations

Large companies and financial organizations keep a record of your activities on their networks. This allows them to have the power to block your operations if for some reason they consider that there is something suspicious about them, even if there is nothing strange – how many complaints are there out on the web about PayPal regarding this matter?

Performing financial operations in privacy coin networks, allows users to enjoy great freedom without fear of being blocked or ending up with their accounts banned for unfair reasons.

Protect you from data loss

Every month we see in the news, how large companies report data breaches that result in the theft of valuable information from millions of users, such as passwords, social security numbers and credit cards. This happens because cyber criminals are able to keep track of information in traditional centralized computer systems.

In modern decentralized systems based on blockchain – including those of privacy coins – it’s much more difficult for this to happen, since privacy and anonymity protect user information.

Conclusion

Privacy coins represent a natural evolution of first-generation cryptocurrencies; altcoins that solve the privacy problems of users and that offer a new range of possibilities thanks to this. Developers know this and for that reason, they are implementing privacy and anonymity features in the new generations of cryptocurrencies.

It’s very likely that in the future, as the adoption of blockchain increases and with it also restrictions, taxes and threats to security and privacy, more and more people will see privacy coins as the best alternative to have privacy and freedom when operating in the crypto world.

Bitcoin created a new electronic version of cash to make it easier to send and receive payments in a quick, safe, and “private” way, without the need for intermediaries.

But note that I wrote “private” in quotes because, in reality, Bitcoin is not 100% private; in fact, anyone can see the public records of their transactions on the blockchain and therefore track them.

This has led many people to look for alternatives to preserve their privacy, and that is where Monero (XMR) enters the scene.

Monero is a private cryptocurrency that surpasses Bitcoin in many aspects: privacy, security, and scalability. This cryptocurrency has special cryptography that guarantees that all transactions are untraceable.

Monero certainly doesn’t have the degree of popularity that Bitcoin has, but even so, it hasn’t stopped growing since its creation in 2014, and today, you’ll learn why Monero is better than Bitcoin at privacy.

What is Monero?

On the official Monero website, you can find an interesting definition of this cryptocurrency:

“Monero is the leading cryptocurrency focused on private and censorship-resistant transactions.”

This also means that Monero is a secure, private, and untraceable cryptocurrency.

And indeed, it is; this cryptocurrency has special cryptography that guarantees that all transactions remain unrelated to their authors, making it impossible to trace them.

The word Monero means “currency” in the Esperanto language, and it has its origins as the first practical implementation of the Cryptonote protocol. Cryptonote is the technology behind many decentralized cryptocurrencies and although it has many similarities with the Bitcoin protocol, it also has important differences.

One aspect to highlight is that since its creation, Monero has been a digital currency focused on constantly improving security and privacy aspects, leaving efficiency and ease of use in the background.

The origins of Monero

Monero was born from a Bytecoin hard fork, one of the first cryptocurrencies focused on privacy that made use of the Cryptonote protocol, but which had several important flaws.

This hard fork occurred in April 2014, after an announcement on the well-known Bitcointalk forum by the user “thankful_for_today,” which proposed a series of changes to Bytecoin that was initially called “BitMonero.”

After passing the first stage of the project, it changed its name to what is now popularly known as, Monero, and since then, it hasn’t stopped growing.

Monero is a cryptocurrency that practically lives in anonymity, as even most of its main development team are unknown people.

At present time, we know the identities of Francisco Cabañas – doctor in physics – and Riccardo Spagni – developer – while the rest still retain their anonymity under the pseudonyms of Smooth, Othe, binaryFate, luigi1111, and NoodleDoodle, among others.

The project has had the participation of a large number of developers, although, at present, its main team consists of approximately 30 people.

How is Monero different from Bitcoin?

As with Bitcoin, Monero is a cryptocurrency that serves to transfer value in a secure, private, and decentralized way.

However, early on and like most cryptocurrencies, Monero sought to improve some aspects of Bitcoin, especially the ability to conduct private and censorship-resistant transactions.

Another aspect in which Monero differs from Bitcoin is in the maximum number of coins to be issued; Bitcoin has a limit of 21 million units, while Monero has an infinite supply of coins, in addition to a shorter time for block generation, being just 2 minutes, compared to 10 for Bitcoin.

It’s also worth highlighting the block size, which in the case of Bitcoin is 1 MB – one of its main problems – while in Monero the block size is dynamic, changing according to the volume of transactions on the network.

But with no doubt, the aspect in which Monero stands out the most is in privacy, something that allows us to avoid the violations of this right that many governments and corporations are perpetrating today.

While with some cryptocurrencies like Dash and Zcash users have the option to choose anonymity when making transactions; Monero includes this feature by default, making each transaction private, hiding the sending and receiving addresses, as well as the amount of the transaction.

In the next section, we’ll see how this particular Monero feature works.

Monero privacy features

Before taking a full look at the privacy aspects of Monero, it’s important to also understand the core values on which this cryptocurrency is based. According to what we can find on their website, they are the following:

Safety

Since users should be able to trust Monero without fear of errors or attacks from third parties. To guarantee this, Monero delivers the entire block reward to miners, since they are responsible for providing this security. Transactions are cryptographically secured using the most modern and efficient encryption tools.

Privacy

Monero wants to offer a layer of protection to its users against possible legal issues that could land them in jail or even cost them their lives. This level of privacy must be available to any user quickly and easily.

Decentralization

Thanks to decentralization, Monero doesn’t need a trusted third party or anyone to control it in order to be used. This decentralization is guaranteed by an accessible consensus algorithm that makes mining easy on common computers, preventing a single person or organization from centralizing mining power.

Now let’s explore what are the most important privacy features of Monero.

RandomX – The new Monero mining algorithm

In the past, the mining algorithm used by Monero was known as CryptoNight. This algorithm offered a certain degree of resistance to mining with expensive ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) equipment, something necessary to prevent that only companies with sufficient economic power have access to Monero mining. However, CryptoNight had its flaws.

Recently, these flaws have been corrected thanks to the implementation of a new mining algorithm known as RandomX, which not only offers the highest possible level of resistance against ASIC equipment but also improves some security and privacy features as well.

The operation of RandomX is based on the use of a mining core that works within a virtual machine. This is a great defense against ASIC, as ASIC hardware is not designed to run virtual machines, especially due to its low RAM.

RandomX also offers high-level cryptography by making heavy use of the Blake2b hash functions, the Argon2d password generator, and AES symmetric cryptography, resulting in truly exceptional cryptographic quality.

Ring Signatures

The Ring Signatures protocol is responsible for ensuring that the results of the transactions on the Monero network cannot be traced.

The algorithm achieves this by creating a signature for the sender’s address and sending it together with another group of user addresses with their own keys, that is, a packet or ring of signatures.

The main feature of this system is that it’s extremely difficult to determine which of the group member addresses was used to produce the signature for a particular transaction.

Stealth addresses

This protocol takes care of the privacy of the recipient of a specified transaction by hiding the public addresses in the blockchain registry at all times. It achieves this by making use of multiple keys and false public addresses that link to authentic public addresses to mask them so that the original addresses are never exposed.

For example, a public key is used to generate a unique public address where the funds will be sent, while a private key is given to the recipient so that he/she can unlock those funds. This allows real addresses to be hidden at all times so that only the users involved in the transaction have authentic, true, and accurate information about the transaction.

Fungibility

Fungibility is another cool feature of Monero. Basically, it means that each Monero unit can be freely exchanged for any other Monero unit. Since Monero allows you to hide the use you make of each unit, there is no way that a person can determine if a certain Monero unit was used in some type of illicit activity, for example.

This makes all Monero units equal and contributes to giving enormous flexibility and freedom to the use of Monero and is also one of the features of why Monero is often called – “the cryptocurrency of criminals” – but they say nothing about the US dollar?

Mining Monero

In the competitive cryptocurrency market, Monero has managed to create its own space and is currently one of the largest cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalization that exceeds US $4 billion.

In addition, due to the good performance that it began to have since 2017, delivering returns close to 4K%, it’s not surprising that more and more people are interested in mining Monero.

Fortunately, and unlike Bitcoin, to mine Monero you don’t need to buy expensive ASIC equipment, which can cost more than $1,000 per unit. Instead, you can mine Monero using your own computer’s CPU or GPU, the more powerful it is, the better.

Also take into account that for mining to be profitable, you should keep your equipment – if you have several, much better – running 24 hours a day, so one key question must be answered:

Is the cost of electricity consumption for mining a unit of Monero, less than the current price of this coin in the market?

The profitability of Monero mining will depend on this factor. Take into account that in some countries, electricity is almost free, while in others it is very expensive, so you’ll have to calculate this cost in order to see if mining Monero is worthwhile for you.

Before you start mining, you’ll also need to decide if you want to mine Monero on your own or with the help of a mining pool. This last option would give you some advantage over solo mining – not recommended for beginners.

Once you have everything ready, starting to mine is just a matter of clicking a button and waiting for the profits insha’Allah.

Benefits of Monero

Although Monero has received many negative commentaries from the media, it is undeniable that this cryptocurrency has many possibilities and brings interesting benefits to its users. Those benefits are the following:

• Monero is one of the most private cryptocurrencies in the industry, and few can compare to it.

• Monero transactions cannot be tracked

• The dynamic block size gives Monero greater scalability compare to many other cryptocurrencies

• Monero will have a fixed infinite continuous emission of 0.3 XMR per minute so that miners will always have incentives to work

• It has had constant growth since its inception in 2014, which gives investors great confidence

• It can be totally transparent since if you wish, you can share your viewing keys and make your account auditable

• The fact that Monero can be auditable, gives it some legal guarantees, so it turns out that it should not be labeled as “illegal” currency after all

Disadvantages of Monero

Since nothing is 100% perfect, now it’s time to see the disadvantages of this cryptocurrency.

• Today, more than 40% of mining is carried out by 3 mining groups, so the decentralization factor is in doubt

• The size of Monero transactions is very large due to the amount of encryption in them to ensure privacy

• The compatibility of wallets for Monero is very limited and there are very few supported hardware wallets

• It’s not the most user-friendly cryptocurrency, as its main focus is on security and privacy – although the developers are improving this step by step

Is Monero halal?

Is Monero halal? Yes. Monero is halal. There is a growing number of scholars who rule cryptocurrency as halal and classify cryptocurrency tokens as either a currency or an asset. Scholars would most likely classify Monero as a currency since its primary function is to serve as an anonymous and fungible medium of exchange similar to anonymous and fungible cash and if Monero is classified as a currency, then the rules of riba al buyu would apply.

However, even though Monero is halal, it may still be ruled illegal to use by some governments as there are a number of governments that are against the proliferation of truly anonymous cryptocurrencies, so please be mindful of the laws of where you live if you chose to own, spend, or mine Monero.

Conclusion

Initially, Bitcoin promised privacy and anonymity, but sadly, this feature was relegated to the background when the cryptocurrency gained widespread popularity worldwide. This put it in the eye of the hurricane, for better and for worse.

Monero is an alternative cryptocurrency to Bitcoin with unique features in the aspect of privacy. It’s especially attractive to those who want to keep their cryptocurrency operations anonymous, and in this and other respects, it certainly outperforms Bitcoin.

It’s also true that these characteristics have earned it a bad reputation among some groups in the industry, especially in certain news media, but even so, the cryptocurrency has not stopped growing and gaining followers, remaining as an excellent and very profitable option to keep our eyes on in the competitive crypto ecosystem.