Not only Bitcoin – what other coins can you mine?

The world famous cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin is not only the first cryptocurrency but also the first minable cryptocurrency. Since the introduction of bitcoins to the world, the profitability of mining bitcoins has varied from time to time.  Due to the increasing mining difficulty there has been a constant need to renew the hardware for mining to make sure it is powerful enough. Please note, that even though mining bitcoins sounds very profitable sometimes it is not necessarily so as you need to take care of a number of costs such as electricity, hardware, and other supplies. As a matter of fact, if you are interested in mining cryptocurrencies then you have a much wider variety of cryptocurrencies to choose from other than bitcoin.

There are some cryptocurrencies that are way cheaper to mine and bring in more profit to the miners compared to bitcoins. Within the frames of this article we will take a look at some of the new coins that can be mined using either your PC, GPU graphic cards or other sophisticated mining hardware.

1. Dogecoin

Dogecoin is one of the altcoins that you can mine. Even though the mining can be done using your CPU, to get the better results, you will need to use graphics cards or ASIC mining hardware. Mining hardware such as AMD and the NVIDIA cards can be used to mine Dogecoin. You can also use some software such as CGminer, CudaMiner, GUIminer, and others.

2. Vertcoin

This is a new altcoin that has been witnessing an increase in popularity over the past few months. The developers of this cryptocurrency have designed it to be resistant to ASIC hardware. Thus it is virtually impossible to mine Vertcoin using ASIC hardware.

The cryptocurrency can, however, be mined using the graphical user interface (GUI) miner that was released by the development team. The GUI miner makes it easier to mine this currency for both CPU and GPU users.

3. Safecoin

Safecoin is another rising cryptocurrency that can be mined using GPU cards. The Safecoin is the currency for the SAFE network, which was developed to ensure that users on the network are compensated for the value they add to the network. Even though you could mine Safecoin using your normal CPU, you can be able to do it better when you use either AMD graphic card or NVIDIA cards.

4. Bytecoin

Bytecoin is a cryptocurrency that has been gaining popularity, with an astonishing rise of 5,600% recorded last year. It is a cryptocurrency that makes use of the CryptoNote. The protocol has been designed to be resistant to ASIC hardware. Thus mining can be done using GPU cards or your normal CPU.

The mining software Xmrig which is recommended by the developers is mostly used to mine Bytecoin. The Xmrig has three popular versions, one designed for CPU mining; the second one is for mining using AMD cards while the last version is also for GPU mining, though it makes use of NVIDIA cards.

5. Electroneum

Electroneum burst into the crypto space and gained popularity in a matter of months. Launched back in September last year, it remains amongst the most exciting and promising cryptocurrencies currently available.

Electroneum makes use of an advanced CryptoNote algorithm, thus automatically making it ASIC resistant.  In addition to being mined with CPU and GPU cards, Electroneum also allows users to mine the coin using smartphones. The cryptocurrency was developed with the purpose of targeting the over 2 billion smartphone holders in the world, a move that has the potential to lead to the massive use of cryptos.

The Mining software, XMR-STAK 2.2 is very useful for mining Electroneum using either AMD, NVIDIA, or CPUs.

6. ZenCash

This is a cryptocurrency that was developed using the zero-knowledge encryption protocol and allows transactions to be made anonymously. You can mine the ZEN coins with either your normal CPU or GPU cards. On your windows computer, it is recommended that you use Nicehash to mine Zencash.

The Claymore‘s ZCash GPU Miner can also be used to mine this cryptocurrency using AMD graphic cards, while the EBWF‘s Cuda ZCash Miner works much better with NVIDIA cards.

7. Monero

Monero is perhaps the most popular name on this list as it is considered the most advanced anonymous cryptocurrency in the world. Monero is designed on the proof-of-work algorithm dubbed the CryptoNight. This protocol makes it hard for ASIC mining tools to mine Monero. ASIC developers have been working hard to release tools that will mine Monero, but the development team of the cryptocurrency is equally working hard to develop protocols that will stop that from happening.

With ASIC out of the way, you can mine Monero using just your CPU. You can also use MAD graphics cards, which are considered the best for mining Monero over counterpart NVIDIA. There is some mining software such as MultiMiner and the GUIminer which help with mining on your computer.

8. Steem

This is a social media platform which is blockchain-based, with users earning rewards for their contributions to the platforms. Its project is a very exciting and promising one, which has led to the currency receiving good attention from investors. Steem can be mined using the normal CPU or GPU graphic cards. Mining with CPU is feasible, but if you happen to be more serious about mining Steem, it is best to use GPU graphics cards. The GPU cards can either be NVIDIA, or AMD, with both of them very efficient in mining Steem cryptocurrency.

Other Altcoins That Can Be Mined

Here is a list of some cryptocurrencies, that you can miner simply by using your CPU.

  • DASH
  • Peercoin
  • Namecoin
  • Primecoin
  • Novacoin
  • FantomCoin
  • QuazarCoin
  • Feathercoin
  • Ethereum classic
  • Universal
  • Sia
  • LBRY
  • Verge
  • Pascalcoin
  • Gulden
  • Pascallite
  • Linx
  • Einsteinium
  • Zetacoin
  • Startcoin
  • Creamcoin
  • Crown
  • Viacoin
  • Musicoin
  • OrBitcoin
  • Halcyon
  • Bitsend
  • Komodo
  • GroestlCoin
  • Monacoin
  • Galactrum
  • Expanse
  • Ubiq
  • GoByte
  • Innova
  • Vivo
  • Trezarcoin
  • Metaverse
  • Karbo
  • Phoenixcoin

And the list of the coins that you can mine can go on and on.

Summary

There are hundreds of cryptos that you could mine besides the ones listed above. Even though most of these cryptocurrencies support CPU mining using the right hardware and software, it is still very important that you follow the guidelines set for mining them so that you can succeed.

To ensure that you make a profit mining these cryptocurrencies, you are recommended to stay current with the latest mining software and hardware released.

Pursuing MCA from the University of Delhi, Saurabh Saha is an experienced blogger and internet marketer. Through his popular technology blogs: TechGYD.COM & Sguru.org, he is helping several brands to gain exposure in front of high-quality web visitors.