If you are an experienced miner looking to start mining cryptocurrencies alone or if you are a new miner just starting to invest in GPUs and ASICs to mine Ethereum, Bitcoin, Ergo, Zcash or other tokens, you need to know the difference between mining cryptocurrencies on your own, (solo), or through a mining group, better known as mining pools.

The first thing you should know is that cryptocurrency mining is like going to the casino, a game of chance, competition and of course, mathematics.

Cryptomining: luck and probability

Imagine you have a single coin with 2 sides, tails and heads. And your friend has 6 coins. The trick is to flip the coins and get tails, whoever gets tails first wins. It stands to reason that your friend probably has a better chance of getting tails as he has 6 coins, while you only have 1 coin.

In an ideal world where everything is perfect and mathematics rules mankind, your friend would be more likely to win every time. For the simple fact that he has 5 more coins than you, while for each flip of the coin, you could only get one chance of winning, your friend on each flip of his 6 coins could beat you about 6 times. The odds would be 6 to 1.

Fortunately, our world is not so strict and luck exists, even if many people are reluctant to believe in it…

Taking into account the luck factor, if you were to flip your coin against your friend’s 6 coins, it is true that you could beat him 6 times, do you agree? It is also true that you could beat him 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 times despite having only one coin in your pocket.

Since the algorithms of different cryptocurrencies are designed differently, it is inevitable that there will be some luck involved in cryptocurrency.

It is important to note, however, that we cannot base an economic investment in mining on luck, we must rely on real data, statistics, and probabilities decide to whether to mine alone or in a mining pool.

How mining algorithms work

Each blockchain has its own algorithm, for example Ethereum uses Ethash, Bitcoin uses SHA-256, Ergo is based on Autolykos and Zcash on Equihash. Each of these algorithms works differently.

Block creation times vary from one to another, and the rewards paid to miners are also different on each blockchain.

To decide which cryptocurrency to mine by solo mining or by participating in a mining pool, you need to know the rewards paid by each algorithm and the difficulty of the network.

The higher the difficulty of the network, the harder it becomes to find a block.

It happens because the higher the hashrate, (GPU or ASIC mining), the more complicated the algorithm becomes to solve the mathematical calculations to find the block and award it to the miner.

Mining with hash power or luck

Solo mining can be successful if your luck is in your favour, but you can also spend months or even years finding a block. In this case, you could use your work GPU or the graphics card you use to play games on your computer and try to solo mine any algorithm that allows you to do so, but like your friend with 6 coins, it is statistically unlikely that you will find the block alone.

More hashrate power does not ensure you more profit, but it gives you a better chance of finding a block and winning the rewards. In our real world, could you say the same thing…?

This is why there are big mining companies such as Bitfarms, Riot Blockchain, Ricemining, etc.

Solo Mining

To mine cryptocurrencies alone, you need to have a virtual wallet, knowledge of your probabilities, hashrate power, knowledge of the difficulty of the network and a lot of patience.

As we said before, the higher the difficulty of the network, the more complex it is to solve the mathematical problems of cryptographic algorithms. Some lone miners periodically check the complexity of the network they are mining on so that when the difficulty drops, they can plug in their GPUs and ASICs to get a better chance of winning the block.
In other words, if the difficulty of the network decreases, it means that there are fewer miners connected, so your hashrate power, (the higher it is), the more chances you have of earning cryptocurrencies.

How much hashrate do I need for Solo Mining?

It depends on how much profit you want to make per day or month and how much patience you have. The recommendation to start solo mining is that with your hashing power, you are likely to find 2 to 3 blocks per day.

To find out the probabilities before investing in GPU or ASIC equipment for mining, visit the solo mining profit calculator page.

With 200,000 mh/s or 200 gh/s you could find 2 Ethereum blocks per day.

To give you an idea, you would need about 1,700 GeForce RTX 3080Ti GPUs to earn 4.24 Ethereum per day.

Pool Mining

Unlike solo mining, to do pool mining you don’t need high hashing power, you just need a GPU compatible with the mining algorithm and you can participate and earn daily profits.

In a mining pool, all users who want to mine a cryptocurrency, join in the same group adding together all the hash rate. For example, if you have a GPU that performs 30 mh/s, this power is added to a pool which is in charge of solving the mathematical calculations of the algorithm.

Now, if this mining group you joined finds a block, the profits are shared among the users according to the hashing power contributed. The more hash power you contribute to the group, the more profit you get.

Group mining is recommended for users who are new to cryptomining and do not have large amounts of hashrate.

You should also keep in mind that when the mining group mines a block, they keep a % of the paid cryptocurrencies. This percentage varies from 0.5% to 1% depending on the pool you join.

Earning faster in mining: is it possible?

Yes, it is feasible to beat the network like those users who win at the casino. Although you wouldn’t be beating the algorithm, you would be beating the other miners who are competing with you to find a block and receive the rewards.

If you have a high hashrate power, you can wait for the difficulty of the network to decrease and connect your teams to increase your chances of mining blocks faster.

Mining Polls to join

Here are the most popular and widely used mining pools to join. Remember to research each pool on your own to decide which one suits better to your expectations.

1.  Ethermine is a pool with more than 200.000 active miners where you can mine: RVN, ERGO, Zcash and ETC. Ethermine pays every 24 hours to your virtual wallet and the pool commission is 1%. Ethermine’s minimum payout is 0.005 ETH 0.001 ZEC 0.1 ETC 1 BEAM 10 RVN and 0.1 ERG.
2. Nanopool has 30,000 active miners and you can mine ETH, ETC, RVN, ERGO, Monero and Zcash. The Nanopool group fee is also 1% on every payout and pays out your earnings several times a day. Nanopool’s minimum payout is 0.05 ETH; 0.1 ETC; 0.01 ZEC; ; 0.1 XMR; ; 50 RVN; 1 ERG and 1 CFX.
3. 2Miners Pool is one of the largest mining pools, like Ethermine you can mine ETC, ERGO, MONERO, RVN, and Zcash among other algorithms. 2Miners has more than 100,000 active miners and the group’s fee is also 1%. The 2Miners mining group pays every 2 hours and the minimum payout is PPLNS: 0.02 ETH 0.1 ETC 0.1 EXP 0.1 MUSIC 0.1 ETP 0.01 BTG 0.01 ZEC 0.01 ZCL 0.01 ZEN 0.1 ELLA 0.1 CLO 0.1 YOC 0. 1 AKA 0.01 HUSH 0.01 BTCP 0.01 BTCZ ONLY: 1 ETH 1 ETC 1 EXP 1 MUSIC 1 ETP 1 PIRL 1 WHL 1 DBIX 0.01 BTG 0.01 ZEC 0.01 ZCL 1 ELLA 1 CLO 1 YOC 1 AKA 0.01 HUSH 0.01 BTCP 0.01 BTCZ 0.01 ZEN.

Pool or Solo Mining

To answer this question, you need to know yourself as an investor and your risk aversion. More aggressive miners prefer to mine only because they don’t need to pay fees to mining groups, they don’t have interruptions and they are attracted by the likelihood of earning more cryptocurrencies in the long run.

On the other hand, if you are a conservative miner who prefers to protect your capital and not expose yourself to more volatility than the crypto ecosystem itself has, a mining group is best. Although you will pay a fee for each payment you receive, you will also have the security of stable earnings in the short, medium and long term.

Cryptocurrency mining is, like any investment, a risk. You must know yourself and be clear about your future goals. This way you will know whether to choose to mine in a pool or to go it alone.

Mining without GPUs: Is it possible?

For those users who are new to mining and have not yet purchased equipment, you may want to test how it works and how profitable it is before investing large amounts of money in it.

Through Ricemining, you can invest in hashing power without having to buy GPUs or ASICs, without having to put up with annoying noises in your home due to the coolers and ventilation of the equipment and without hardware that is taking up space.

Ricemining is like pool mining but better. You don’t have to worry about downloading mining files to your PC, setting up mining equipment, or maintaining hardware. You just choose the contract you are interested in based on the capital you want to invest and in return you get a constant hash rate.

Every month, you receive in your favourite virtual wallet the returns obtained from your contract. You can hold, stake or exchange your tokens obtained for any cryptocurrency of your choice.

You also have a support team in English and Spanish ready to answer your questions and help you in the process. You can find out more on the official website.

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