Trying My Hand at Mining Monero (XMR)

TL;DR: Tried mining XMR with my PC. It wasn't really worth it.

Cryptocurrency Mining was something I've been interested in for a while, but with most mining rigs being too expensive, too loud, and too power-hungry, I avoided it for the most part these past years. Coins with GPU-based mining weren't an option for me, but I wanted to try CPU-based Mining for a while.

A while ago, I remembered that Monero (XMR) is a CPU-based Coin. I tried mining it before, but it didn't work. I couldn't login to the pool I have chosen. I tried to mine it again using a different pool last week and I managed to get it working.

I used XMR-Stak, an open-source application for the RandomX mining algorithm. It could mine multiple cryptocurrencies, XMR included. It's a command-line-based application, so it took me a bit to get used to it but I followed the instructions.

After choosing a pool from the list of active Monero pools, I put my XMR Wallet's address as a username. I used the SSL port of the mining pool's address as the normal port didn't work. After it started mining, I let the application mine for a while.

When I checked the pool's website an hour or so later, I didn't find any data on my wallet address. I considered stopping the application but decided to wait another hour. Doing so, the pool finally started to track my share of mining. My PC started to show results!

After letting my PC mine for a few hours, my daily rewards started to show a consistent number. $0.10 for a full day of mining. That's only $3 a month of 24/7 runtime!!! Considering the process eats from my CPU's lifespan, I don't see earning that much as worth it. The electricity cost seals the deal. It's not worth it at all!!

That said, while I'm going to stop mining XMR for now, I might go back to it or try to mine another coin in the future. I also wonder if it'll be more worth it if I tried mining with a Raspberry Pi. It uses less electricity, and I'll be less worried about eating its lifespan.

What do you think?

What other Coins that have CPU-based Mining do you recommend me to mine?

^{- *This post's image is taken from Unsplash. - The Supporters @eturnerx, @master-lamps and @ackza share 8% of this post's rewards.}