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Mining is a vital process for many cryptocurrencies, ensuring decentralization by rewarding miners for contributing computational power to the network.
While mining is a way to earn cryptocurrencies, the landscape has evolved significantly over the years.
Today, specialized ASIC hardware dominates Bitcoin mining, making it increasingly difficult and expensive for small-scale miners to compete. Rising hardware costs, electricity expenses, and the periodic Bitcoin halving, which reduces mining rewards by half every four years, have pushed many miners to explore alternative options.
This shift has spotlighted GPU mining as a viable alternative. GPUs are more accessible and cost-effective, enabling miners to target lesser-known cryptocurrencies with lower competition and rewarding returns.
In this post, I’ll introduce you to 10 of the best altcoins for profitable GPU mining.
1. Monero (XMR)
Monero is one of the most reliable cryptocurrency for both CPU and GPU miner because it focuses on privacy using its obfuscated public ledger.
Like Ethereum, Monero’s PoW algorithm, RandomX, is also ASIC-resistant.
In Monero, the average block creation time is 2 minutes, giving a 0.6+0.0144 XMR block reward.
The price of Monero fluctuated, especially after the 2018 crypto boom, but in the crypto market, Monero is considered a low-spec miners’ coin.
2. Ethereum Classic (ETC)
As the name shows it is a classic version of Ethereum, meaning Ethereum forked from the Ethereum Classic in 2016 due to a flaw in a DAO project.
Like Ethereum, Ethereum Classic uses the Ethash PoW algorithm but gives a slightly better reward of 2.56 ETC and an average block creation time of 13 seconds.
3. Bitcoin Gold (BTG)
If your affection for Bitcoin continues after you decide not to mine it, here is a different version of Bitcoin you’d like to mine using GPU.
Bitcoin Gold forked coins from Bitcoin in 2017, aiming to make mining ASIC resistant and democratic way by creating a version of Bitcoin that is mineable with GPUs.
BTG works the same as Bitcoin, giving you 3.13 BTG as a mining reward, and blocks are created every 10 minutes. However, it uses the Zhash PoW algorithm, which is ASIC-resistant, giving preference to GPU miners.
The price of BTG also has not fluctuated too much, so this is another green signal for you to go ahead with BTG with GPU.
4. Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin is not an ASIC-resistant coin like the ones above on the list, but it uses a different consensus algorithm called Scrypt, which allows systems with the largest amount of random access memory (RAM) for mining.
So, it doesn’t matter if you have ASIC or GPUs to mine Litecoin; you just need more RAM.
Also, Litecoin has consistently ranked in the top 20 cryptocurrencies for the past couple of years with a mining reward of 6.25 LTC and having average block creation time of 2.5 minutes.
5. Zcash (ZEC)
Zcash is another coin on this list that forked from Bitcoin on October 28, 2016.
Since its creation, it massively introduced to popular exchange platforms, and prices are stable.
Zcash, created from Bitcoin, inherits some characteristics of Bitcoin, such as only 21 million Zcash available and a block reward of 3.125 ZEC. However, it stands out from Bitcoin by introducing shielded transactions focusing on user privacy and using the Equihash PoW algorithm for ASIC resistance, also boosting the block creation time to 75 seconds.
6. Dogecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin, a crypto asset created for fun by Billy Markus, suddenly became popular and now has over a $5 billion market cap.
Like Litecoin, Dogecoin also uses the Scrypt PoW mining algorithm, but Dogecoin is quite famous, so there is a middle-level competition to mine it. However, you can easily use your GPUs to mine DOGE.
For mining Dogecoin, you receive 10,000 DOGE as a reward per block, which has a 1-minute block creation time.
7. Ravencoin (RVN)
Ravencoin is another Bitcoin child on this list created on January 3rd, 2018.
Since its creation, Ravencoin has shown good growth because of its strong set of features such as a mobile wallet, messaging, and enhanced compatibility, among others.
Now, Ravencoin stands at #190th rank having more than $400 million market capitalization.
Like other Bitcoin forks, Ravencoin does not inherit anything from Bitcoin; it stands out from Bitcoin by having 21 billion in supply instead of 21 million and using the X16R PoW algorithm, also having a 1-minute block creation time.
For GPU miners like you, Ravencoin is one of the best fits because its X16R algorithm is ASIC-resistant and gives a 2,500 RVN mining reward.
8. Aeon(AEON)
Aeon is another hard-forked coin from Monero and is now considered the lightweight version of Monero.
AEON (Anonymous Electronic Online Coin) has shown steady growth for the past year because of its focus on privacy and anonymity for the end-user.
Due to its mobile-friendly status, Aeon is considered one of the best coins for home mining on CPUs, giving 1.22AEONs as a block reward for miners where every block is created every 4 minutes.
For mining, Aeon uses its own version of the CryptoNote protocol called Crypto-Lite, allowing faster verifications and ASIC resistance.
9. Vertcoin (VTC)
Thanks to its own 1-click miner, a program meant to make mining more accessible to the general public, Vertcoin is a GPU-friendly coin.
Vertcoin was born in 2014 as a Litecoin fork and billed as the ‘The People’s Coin’, by allowing anyone with a personal computer to join the Vertcoin network.
Now, Vertcoin uses the Lyra2RE ASIC resistance PoW algorithm and offers miners 12.5 VTC mining reward with a 2 1/2 minute block creation time.
From a pricing perspective, its price status showed too much volatility in the beginning days, but for the past two years, prices have been stable and have shown steady growth.
10. Grin(GRIN)
Grin, launched in early 2019, uses the MimbleWimble protocol, which focuses on privacy, and fungibility, and has unlimited coins, which is certainly attractive for miners.
Like the majority of coins on the list, Grin is not a completely ASIC-resistant coin. Instead of being ASIC-resistant, Grin chose to be both, using two PoW algorithms: Cuckatoo31+, which is ASIC-friendly, and Cuckaroo29, which is ASIC-resistant. The proof-of-work balances mining rewards between the two every 24 hours.
Since its launch, Grin has shown some big fluctuations in price, but as a miner, you get 60 GRIN as a block reward and blocks created each minute.
Final Thought…
The cryptocurrencies listed above offer some of the best opportunities for GPU mining.
Most of these altcoins are ASIC-resistant, ensuring a fairer playing field for GPU miners.
While this list highlights some top options, the choice of altcoin ultimately depends on your goals, budget, and hardware. Take the time to research and find the coin that works best for you.
Which altcoin are you planning to mine? Share your choice in the comments below!
Top 10 Best and Profitable Altcoins to Mine With GPU was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.