Cryptocurrency mining — Is it still worth it?

Most cryptocurrencies rely on miners to work — without them, there’d be no way to verify transactions (click here to read more about how cryptos work). In the early days of crypto, and Bitcoin especially, mining was all the craze, and people bought incredible rigs and setups to get the most out of it. But is it still worth doing in 2021?

The unfortunate truth is that, for the vast majority of people, crypto mining is simply not worth doing anymore. The cost of electricity outweights the gains made by mining even the most efficient coins (right now, it’s probably Monero).

Dedicated mining hardware is not even worth mentioning — it’s too expensive, just invest that money into Bitcoin or an altcoin. But even if you buy the absolute best GPUs or CPUs on the market, which are also quite pricey, you will only manage to make 3 or 4 dollars a day, and that’s without including costs. In reality, you’ll probably profit about a dollar a day. So if you dump a couple thousand dollars into a decent rig, it’ll take you 5 years to recoup your investment, only to start making 30 bucks a month. Imagine if you put that money directly into Bitcoin or Ether!

Here’s an example of what the best CPUs can do:

So if you’re interested in making money on crypto, what are your best options? For one, you could simply invest into a few coins ( here are the best ones for 2021) and hold them for a long time. Take your risk profile into account if you do this.

You can also do something called staking, which has nothing to do with betting in spite of the name. Basically, staking your crypto is almost like doing a fixed term investment, but they usually have fantastic interest rates. You can earn up to 20% of your stake yearly in some sites. The biggest risk is that you cannot access your coins while they are staked. But if you were planning to just hold for a long time anyways, that’s not a problem!

Originally published at http://cryptorodactyl.wordpress.com on January 28, 2021.