Is it worth mining cryptocurrencies from home in 2024?

Home mining sounds tempting: you leave your PC running and earn crypto. But the reality is more complicated. Let's see what you need to know.

The issue of hardware

It all depends on which coins you target. Bitcoin and Ethereum are out of reach for home users—the network difficulty is brutal and professional ASICs dominate the game. The viable options are others: Ravencoin, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Zcash, and Ethereum Classic allow mining with normal GPUs.

The key lies in your graphics card. A powerful GPU will give you more hash rate, which directly translates to more coins. But here comes the problem: electricity consumption is your real enemy.

The basic setup

You need three things:

1. A PC with a decent GPU (the GPU is what really matters)
2. Mining Software (CGMiner, GMiner, Ravencoin Miner, etc. depending on the coin)
3. A crypto wallet where your rewards will be deposited

The flow is simple: your machine receives blocks of transactions, solves complex mathematical problems, validates transactions, and if it does well, it receives crypto as a reward.

The profitability problem

This is where many get burned. Home mining faces three simultaneous risks:

• Price volatility: If the coin drops 50%, your profitability evaporates.
• Increasing difficulty: As more miners join, the problems become tougher. You mine less crypto for the same effort.
• Electricity bill: A GPU mining 24/7 can add $100-300 USD monthly in electricity depending on your country.

In many cases, what you earn in crypto doesn't even cover the energy costs. It only makes sense if you live where electricity is very cheap.

The brutal conclusion

Home mining is not a scheme to get rich quick. It is only viable if:

• You have access to cheap electricity
• You invest in a quality GPU
• You choose coins with moderate difficulty
• You endure bearish cycles without losing faith

For most, hodling is less of a headache.