Cryptocurrency mining is free money, but only if you’re smart enough. You can earn by contributing to the software technology that runs the crypto blockchain!
Even your personal computer can earn some dollars while you binge-watch your favorite shows on Netflix. In this article, I’ll share various cryptocurrency mining platforms for you to make some passive income.
Mining is the lifeline of the crypto world. It validates ongoing transactions and mints new coins into circulation. In straightforward terms, a miner solves some complex Math problems to verify the transactions.
Also Read: Know These Lingo Before Doing Anything Crypto
It is the process by which a miner trades his computing power and electricity for the block reward. Block reward is the incentive for the miner to help sustain the blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies.
Simply put, blockchain is the foundation of everything crypto and the NFT universe. It’s a digital distributed ledger with a tamper-proof record of every entry.
The following sections will discuss some of the major mining platforms and utilities that make the mining procedure easy–cutting much of the technical setup.
Before initiating, ensure you have a cryptocurrency wallet and mining software that supports your choice of cryptocurrency. I’ll also be discussing the benefits of mining cryptocurrency, who can mine it, and the differences between mined and non-mined cryptocurrencies at the end of the list. So, be sure to stick around for that.
Below we have listed some of the best crypto mining platforms based on range of features, user accessibility and convenience and integration capabilities with other technologies.
ECOS
ECOS is an international investment company, and vendor of Bitcoin Mining with its own infrastructure, founded in 2017 and serving more than 500k+ customers worldwide.
ECOS provides easy access to the best-in-class digital assets to a wide audience.
It offers a diversified line of products for different investment strategies, including Bitcoin Mining, BTC Cloud Mining, Staking, High-Risk trading strategies, and B2B services. ECOS has a convenient mobile app available at the App Store, Google Play, and Mi App Mall.
At ECOS, you can mine Bitcoin in 2 ways: by cloud mining or by buying an ASIC.
To start using Cloud mining, you need to select a contract in the online calculator. You can pay for the contract with a bank card or by cryptos: BTC, ETH, USDC, USDT, BNB, XRP, Doge, ADA.
The second way to mine BTC is to buy a Bitmain Antminer, which can be hosted at the ECOS mining facility in the Free Economic Zone in Armenia, or it can be shipped to your address. In case you select it to be hosted at ECOS data center, then ECOS will take care of all the technical hassle, including:
- Logistics
- Customs clearance
- Installation
- Set-up
- Daily maintenance of your miners
You will just enjoy transparent and efficient management of bitcoin mining in your ECOS personal account.
It provides plenty of special offers, including trial mining, for its registered users.
You can register for free on their website.
StormGain
StormGain is one of the simplest mining platforms. It has a one-click mining process that doesn’t eat from your local resources, and it’s free. But there’s a catch!
As advertised, this is an all-in-one crypto platform. You can buy, sell, trade, exchange, and mine. Mining is limited to Bitcoin and is done on StormGain servers.
Now the catch is, first, mining is done in a 4-hour shift. So, you have to click to activate the miner every four hours. In addition, if you aren’t trading on StormGain, then mining speed is slow to the extent that you would be mining a minuscule 0.5 USDT (~USD) per mining session.
And second, you have to increase your trading level to boost your mining speed. Notably, there are six more levels in addition to the starter. The highest level is VIP 3 for traders having 75,000,000 USDT trading volume per calendar month. With this peak level, you can have a free mining income of close to 16,000 USDT per month.
Trading, exchange, and withdrawal fees are specific to coin type. But, the deposit is free of any commission.
StormGain has native applications for Android and iOS. You can also use it as a web application.
Conclusively, StormGain is suitable only if you do-it-all with crypto. Keep reading to learn about the crypto platforms if you’re interested in mining alone.
PEGA Pool
The UK-based PEGA Pool is one of the highest-paying Bitcoin mining pools in the world for a given hash rate.
You can see on their website that this pool is all about green energy, and this fact is reflected through everything, even with the mining fees. This fee is 1% of earnings for those using renewable energy and 2% for others.
But even if you are using a non-renewable power source, PEGA Pool will plant trees to offset that carbon footprint. As of this writing, PEGA Pool has planted 220,000 trees, taking care of 5,860 tonnes of emissions resulting from carbon-intensive Bitcoin mining.
On the performance front, this Bitcoin mining pool is among the top ten most profitable globally.
While you can always mine Bitcoin alone (provided you have powerful hardware), joining PEGA Pool is just more convenient and efficient.
In addition, you can also join their affiliate program paying 50% of the lifetime fees of your referrals.
Braiins Pool
Braiins Pool, earlier known as Slush Pool, is an excellent place to step in for anyone aiming for pool mining.
It’s one of the veterans in bitcoin mining, presently mining about 3.5% of all bitcoins.
Braiins Pool charges a 2% pool fee for using its platform. It also has a 0% pool fee option for some supported ASIC miners.
It also has an official mobile app for iOS and Android. The app can be used as an account monitoring tool. Braiins Pool clearly states that you can’t mine with its mobile app.
Its platform has two-factor authentication (2FA) for added security. In addition to the regular one-time passwords, you can use FIDO2-compatible physical authentication devices like the TREZOR or Yubikey.
While the minimum payout is 0.001 BTC, you pay a payout fee of 0.0001 BTC for transactions lower than 0.01 BTC. The same goes for payouts of Zcash.
Braiins Pool has Bitcoin mining servers across the continents: USA, Europe, Canada, Japan, and Singapore. Zcash mining servers are located in the USA and Europe.
Zionodes
Zionodes is hands down the most accessible BTC mining platform we have come across. This platform comes with the smoothest UI and helps you onboard and start mining in merely seconds. The best thing is their dashboard is dynamic; you see your earnings updated every minute.
The rise of this platform can mainly be attributed to its strategic partnerships with ViaBTC, and many more prominent players in the mining industry. Such strategic partnerships ensure their foothold in the remote bitcoin mining domain.
We recommend this platform because, once you purchase from them, you are the sole owner of the hardware, and you do not have to worry about the availability of the computing power. Hosting the hardware in the data centers helps you gain an astonishing uptime of 99.99%, so effectively, there are no maintenance breaks.
They accept multiple crypto payment methods such as USDP, TUSD, DAI, BUSD, USDT, and USDC. The additional benefit of being able to add those coins across multiple networks such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and TRON. Zionodes has its data center across North America, South Africa, Europe, and Russia.
Furthermore, if you are planning to bulk order from the trading desk you can make the payment with just a few clicks using the MetaMask USDT ERC token.
Conclusively, Zionodes is a better alternative to various cloud mining platforms as it works on remote mining modules where you are the owner of the miner and can operate it according to your convenience.
Hint! Sign up to the marketplace and drop them a line, and they might provide you with free trial access to the miner of your choice.
Kryptex
Kryptex aims to bring mining to the masses with its effortless setup. Just download the application, and check the expected earnings.
Next, create an account and let it run in the background while you work on your PC, as usual. Kryptex also has a mining calculator to check the revenue based on the graphics card’s potency.
Krptex has two mining modes, Lite and Pro. Lite does not affect your computer much, while Pro takes up maximum computing resources for greater revenue. In addition, you can choose to use the CPU or specific GPUs to deploy for mining, giving you a greater degree of control.
As of this writing, the application is available for Windows and permits mining ETHW, ETC, RVN, ERG, UBQ, and XMR.
You can also choose to pool mine with Kryptex’s own pool, promising stable returns. Withdrawals can be in the form of Bitcoins or cash with a minimum payout of just $0.5. Additionally, the fee section clearly indicates the payout limits and the withdrawal fees.
Lastly, payouts are protected by two-factor authentication, and one can ask for support in their Telegram channel for any issues.
BitFuFu
BitFuFu offers both cloud mining and hosting products. This is the cloud mining platform that BITMAIN strategically invests in.
Currently, the listed products on their website all use S19 Pro miners, the Flagship model from BITMAIN. They also cooperate with mining sites like Core Scientific and mining pools like Antpool.
On BitFuFu’s website, you can choose the number of hashrate from 30 T to 500T or even larger bulks and the plan duration from 30 days to 360 days. Their mining model is that you may select to pay for only 10 days’ electricity fee upfront and have the following charges deducted on schedule or pay in a lump sum.
You can also monitor the mining process by clicking on the link from your personal page on BitFuFu to jump to third-party mining pools’ backstage management system to examine the performance of the miner.
They do have an iOS and Android app to let you keep an eye on the market and place your orders according to the latest price.
Hint: They offer exclusive deals on their mobile apps and referral fees of up to 3%.
Awesome Miner
Next on the crypto mining platforms list comes Awesome Miner, which is similar to Cudo Miner. It is a mining management utility for Windows and Linux users.
It can be used free of cost for 2 miners. Afterward, its paid plan kicks in, starting with USD 4 per month, billing annually.
It also has a cloud subscription that offers mining management from anywhere with just an internet connection. This service starts at USD 4 per month, billing annually for 10 miners. This service has a 30-day trial period if you’ve less than 400 mining rigs.
There are also monthly plans which are a tad more expensive than their yearly counterparts.
Awesome miner seems to be an excellent solution for huge mining farms. It has rich documentation and helps sections to assist users in every possible way.
Salad
Salad is another user-friendly way into the crypto-mining universe. This comes as an application you can install to earn rewards in the background.
It features an ‘Auto Start‘ mode which detects keyboard inactivity to maximize mining performance and profits. In addition, the application gives the option to activate/deactivate the CPU and GPU(s) while indicating the % utilization.
The payouts can be redeemed as games, gift cards, Paypal rewards, or donated to charities.
Overall, it’s an effortless method to mine, with the primary thing to keep tabs on being your local electricity rates.
Bitfly (Ethermine.org)
Bitfly is where you can mine six crypto coins: ETH, ETC, ZEC, BEAM, RVN, and ERG. Each one has a different domain name and set-up instructions matching the specific coin.
It charges a standard 1% pool fee irrespective of the coin you mine. It has 3rd-party apps for monitoring supported on Android and iOS.
Bitfly has specific configuration guides depending on the operating system, graphic card, and coin.
Once you click Start Mining, it takes you to the server details and mining software options. After that, you just download the preferred mining utility and set up the mining software to start mining.
It has mining servers in Europe, Asia, and the USA.
Bitfly boasts of instant payouts. It also has a Discord channel, a place to share knowledge with fellow miners. This can be useful if you’re new to the mining space.
CryptoTab Browser
This is a unique concept for mining cryptocurrency while browsing. It has mining features built in.
CrytoTab Browser promises automatic algorithm switching to boost profits. Similarly, it also assures of no overheating or battery drain while browsing with its in-house browser.
It converts all the rewards into Bitcoin. The minimum payout listed is 0.00001 BTC. You can earn by your mining hardware as well as receive a commission for referrals.
This browser is available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
This is recommended for non-tech users who wish to have a minimum taste of cryptocurrency mining.
Cruxpool
A very modern-looking website that says: “Stable and Predictive revenue from crypto mining.”
You can mine ETH, ETC, BEAM, and Ravencoin on Cruxpool. And they are adding new coins as we speak of this.
But when you go to their mining page, they show only two mining pools, ETH and ETC.
These two are the biggest of their pools. However, their help section shows the other mining pools, Beam and Ravencoin.
Cruxpool charges a 1% pool fee.
Their quick start guide is detailed and helpful in setting up mining Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. It aids in starting with various operating systems (Windows and Linux).
Minimum payouts are:
Ethereum – 0.01 ETH
Ethereum Classic – 0.1 ETC
Ravencoin – 50 RVN
Beam – 1 BEAM
NiceHash
NiceHash is the most complete of the pools/services we have reviewed so far. But its website can easily overwhelm a new miner.
It’s a hash rate marketplace, crypto mining utility, and crypto exchange portal — blended into one.
With Nicehash, you have two options, either use their in-house mining application: NiceHash Quickminer, or you can use any 3rd-party miner application with NiceHash Miner.
Depending on the hardware — CPU/GPU or ASIC — you can find detailed tutorials to start mining with them.
NiceHash OS (NHOS) is similar to what we have COS with CoinFly. You can connect unlimited mining rigs for free with NHOS. It’s an added benefit compared to COS, which will start charging beyond 4 rigs.
NiceHash is compatible with a number of pools: F2Pool, SlushPool, 2Miners, etc.
Nicehash also has a Mobile app for Android and iOS.
Easy BTC Mining
Easy BTC Mining offers a hassle-free mining experience with a cloud mining contract. Cloud mining allows you to buy a certain amount of hash power for the contract period.
The process is to register with an email and then sign a contract to start Bitcoin mining.
The minimum payout is 0.0001 BTC, and their platform ensures immediate and automatic payments.
This platform supports the mining of BTC, ETH, and LTH.
ZHash.pro
ZHash.pro offers pool mining at a 0% pool fee.
You can mine 4 coins with them: ZEC, ZEN, BTG, and TENT.
The process to mine is easy and doesn’t need any registration. One only needs a supported wallet and can choose the server of choice. Afterward, configure your miner software, and you’re set.
They have mining servers in Europe, the USA, and Asia.
Detailed instructions are available with all four pools according to the mining hardware.
They also have a Discord channel for getting assistance from fellow pool members.
But the pool size, at least on Discord, seems small with just 89 online members compared to Ethermine, which has 7,371 online members on the same platform.
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Small pools are not necessarily a bad thing, and the payouts are bigger compared to large pools. However, the probability of finding a block can be less with smaller pools because of the lesser pool hashrate.
To sideline any apprehensions with ZHash.pro, you can check out their recent payout list for every pool.
Minimum payouts are 0.01 ZEC, 0.1 ZEN, 0.05 BTG, and 0.5 TENT.
K1Pool
K1Pool has the option to go for a solo mining experience. You can individually find the blocks and keep the entire reward to yourself.
But solo mining is recommended only if you have powerful hardware or are mining cryptocurrencies with the least network difficulty.
You can mine 16 cryptocurrencies with K1Pool. It has servers in China, Europe, and the USA.
You have to create an account to get started. Afterward, you can configure as per your hardware and server location.
One can also mine with the hashrate purchased at NiceHash. They have a separate NiceHash control panel for that.
They have a download section for almost all major mining software. Their download portal helps in choosing the best mining software according to the mining algorithm.
Every pool page consists of vital information about that particular pool, such as minimum payouts, pool hashrate, and payout frequency.
They also have a Discord and Telegram channel for getting any help from the pool members. Based on the Discord channel headcount, K1Pool also seems new to the mining sphere.
Yet, the user interface is clean and has a lot of information to help newbies—worth a try.
SimpleMining
SimpleMining is similar to Coinfly in that it has a mining OS.
You can use their services for free with one mining rig for 30 days.
The user interface is simple enough with helpful information to get started.
One can register with them and deposit the amount to continue using their services after the trial period.
CudoMiner
CudoMiner provides cryptocurrency mining software solutions.
Its Cudo mining platform helps in automated mining with minimum manual configuration. It boasts of managing 100,000s of mining rigs and ASIC miners with a single platform.
It has an auto coin switching feature that sticks to the most profitable algorithm to mine for the best possible profit.
They also have a CudoOS for dedicated mining rigs. The setup is similar to the mining OSes we’ve seen in this article.
You can mine 9 coins with their automated mining as of this writing and over 100 cryptocurrencies with manual configuration.
It has a Telegram channel with over 6.5k members. The user interface is excellent, and there are tons of articles to help you get around crypto mining.
They have a commission-based pricing model, so there are no upfront charges. Their mining software is available for major desktop OSes, including Windows, Linux, and Mac.
BetterHash
BetterHash is an automated mining tool exclusively available for Windows OS as of now. It detects your hardware and chooses the best algorithm for maximum gains.
You can mine 9 cryptocurrencies with BetterHash, including the famous BTC, ETH, XMR, ZEC.
There are two mining modes: manual and profit-switching (automatic).
While there is no mining fee for any crypto coin, there is a withdrawal fee for Bitcoin (for non-coinbase accounts) and FIRO.
Now that you’re aware of the various cryptocurrency mining platforms, let’s also understand the benefits of crypto mining and why you should be using these platforms.
Benefits of Crypto Mining
If you’re a crypto-miner, then it can be a pretty good side gig. With little analysis, you can generate passive income based on your computing power without anything to do about it. Get — Set — Forget.
Next, you can be a vital part of the crypto movement, as miners are the primary contributors to making decentralized finance a reality.
Finally, you have veto power for any change in the network protocols.
If you plan on mining cryptocurrency, you should also be aware of the two kinds of cryptocurrency available – mined and non-mined. Let’s take a look at them in detail.
Mined vs. Non-Mined Cryptocurrency
A consensus mechanism is a method to approve the transactions in a decentralized system such as a blockchain. It also assists in keeping the system secure from possible vulnerabilities such as a 51% attack.
A 51% attack is when a bad actor controls more than 51% of the blockchain. This majority powers the fraudster to mold the protocols as per will. A consensus mechanism keeps the power decentralized. Such a degree of decentralization demands enormous computing capabilities and work to perform a 51% attack. In the end, the scammer is prone to lose more than they’d possibly gain.
There are plenty of consensus methods like proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, proof-of-capacity, and proof-of-activity.
Depending on the type of consensus mechanism, crypto coins may require mining or otherwise.
Mined Cryptocurrency
Blockchains using a proof-of-work consensus mechanism need mining.
They use miners to approve the entries (transactions). Whenever transactions go up for verification, miners start competing to solve for a 64-digit hexadecimal number.
The first one to find the solution broadcasts it to the entire network as proof of work. This victory bestows the reward on the winner while others wait for the next challenge.
This process repeats every time for a block worth of transactions. A block is nothing but a group of transactions totaling 1 MB in data.
Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two biggest cryptocurrencies, use proof-of-work and many others. Therefore, they need mining to check double-spending.
The only drawback with the proof-of-work is the energy consumed and time taken per transaction, as all the miners except the winner end up wasting their computing power for nothing.
Non-Mined Cryptocurrency
All cryptos that don’t use proof-of-work are non-mineable such as Ripple, Cardano, etc.
They use more energy-conservative methods to validate the transactions. Proof-of-stake is one such consensus protocol that is an alternative to proof-of-work.
Proof-of-stake removes the competition. Blocks are not mined. Instead, they are validated by the stakeholders. Validators are chosen at random. They stake their share of crypto for approving any block. And they lose their stake (partial or full) based on the degree of misconduct.
Also Read: Best Crypto Staking Platforms
While proof-of-stake is eco-friendly, it has its own set of drawbacks, such that it promotes amassing crypto rather than its expenditure.
So at present, for the foreseeable future, proof-of-work (mining) has no strong alternatives.
Now, we come to the most important bit — can you mine cryptocurrency? Let’s find out, shall we?
Who Can Mine Cryptocurrency?
In general, anyone with a supported wallet, internet connection, and powerful hardware can start mining cryptocurrency. It also depends on the type of cryptocurrency you choose to mine.
You can either go with solo mining or pool mining.
In solo, you alone solve for the hash, while it’s more of a group effort in the pool. Similarly, it’s also based on the type of hardware you’ve deployed, CPU, GPU, or the professional ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) miners.
So, the short answer is — yes. You can mine cryptocurrency with the right equipment.
Summing Up 👨🏫
With cryptocurrency becoming a household term, crypto mining is at an all-time high. There are countless crypto mining platforms to help a technical novices and professional miners alike.
While it seems logical to put idle computing power at mining, some degree of technical proficiency is essential to churn profits and avoid losses. When choosing any crypto mining platform, the critical factors remain supported coins, mining algorithms, reward systems, minimum payout, withdrawal fee, and user reviews.
Alternatively, you should consider getting dedicated hardware like Antminer.
Despite its popularity, crypto mining isn’t for everyone–especially the one with ineffective hardware should avoid mining.
While cloud crypto mining seems the easiest method to mine, the payouts are not guaranteed. It’s much like investing in the stock market. And once you sign a contract, you are bound to pay the amount regardless of any mining income.
So the advice that goes with cloud mining is: proceed with caution and dig deep with our guide on cryptocurrency mining for beginners before stepping into this intriguing world of passive income.
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