I can understand monero since you can actually use it as a currency on some certain websites, but that’s basically it. I do not care about crypto anymore because of the almost toxic culture it can brew.
Back when reddit was a thing, I asked how to even start with crypto (what type of wallet, general set up general use etc) and just didn’t even talk about the actual mining (I remember saying something around the lines of “I’m looking to mine because it’s supposed to get extra cold this winter, I do not care about actually getting any crypto” and those dense mfers kept linking a website that calculates how much I would make with the cost of electricity and the efficiently of it all… like… I didn’t even care about making anything, I just didn’t want it going into the ether)
Anyways that’s my rant
I ran a very small mining operation at home back in the day and it definitely was all about trying to optimize everything.
Today, I don’t think mining is economically viable without running a data center, but I still mine in the winter and turn my computer into a space heater for my home office. It definitely doesn’t cover the power cost but it does offset a small portion of it.
Not affiliated in any way but Nicehash is what I use now since it (mostly) runs out of the box with minimal configuration.
As a side note, don’t mine on laptops - you won’t get enough heat to keep a room warm and you might end up with something failing from overheating.
Yeah, I knew it wouldn’t be cost effective since my old rig had an AMD RX580 8gb, but if I could play games and already have a space heater, I may as well mine crypto to heat up the whole house. Nowadays I’m just using Folding@Home during the winter
If you are doing folding@home you can earn !gridcoin@lemmy.ml and Curecoin at the same time for your folding. Helps w the electric bill :). Gridcoin also rewards !boinc@sopuli.xyz so you can do other medical & space research as well if you get bored of folding.