Introduction
I decided to try out some crypto (proof of work) mining on regular hardware, as a learning experience. I didn't have a spare powerful machine with a graphics card, or an expensive, specialised ASIC miner to spare. I wanted to see what I could do with an old computer that wasn't being used. I also employed some cloud credits for Azure and Vultr for virtual servers, so that I didn't have to spend any money. I won't go thru all the details of my research and testing, and just summarise the results, so that you can try it if you like. Keep in mind that the objective here is learning about crypto-currencies and such, and not earning a lot of money. For that you would have to invest in a more expensive ASIC miner, or at least a powerful machine with a good GPU (graphics processor). You could do it on a virtual server in the cloud, but the at the current prices market prices, you probably won't earn much more than the hosting fees. (That might change if the bitcoin market value goes way up).
Evaluation:
A good way to start off is with a program called Honeyminer. It does all the heavy lifting for you by deciding which coins to mine, which mining pools and algorithms to use etc. The downside is that it only runs on windows (for now), and you won't learn a lot since it makes a lot of the decisions for you, and doesn't give you a lot of information about what coins it is mining, what pools it is using etc. Also, they take a fee of 2 - 8% depending on how powerful your machine is, which is considered pretty high, and you don't have any control over it. I was earning only about $.01 USD per day. I used a $250 credit on MS Azure, so that it didn't cost me anything. But its easy to use, and fun, and not a bad way to get started if you have an interest in "proof of work" mining.
Here is my referral code if you want to try it out: https://honeyminer.com/referred/593sl
You can earn an additional 10-15% of other people's mining if you refer them. But don't expect to get rich, as I mentioned above. The main purpose is to get your feet wet.
Mining Electroneum on your mobile device - You can mine electroneum on any android mobile device, so I decided to use a spare tablet that wasn't being used anymore. You just have to download the app, and start mining. You also have to create a wallet, which I did on my computer. I am earning about 1 ETN per day. Current market price is about $.01. After about 10 ETN, it will automatically transfer to your wallet. It is tradeable to any other currency on exchanges where it is being traded, and seems to be sufficiently liquid. No idea how much electricity it is using, but I think it is pretty minimal. I just need to keep the mobile device charged and check it once in a while. Hash rate is about 30 H/S. Maybe the price of ETN will go up one day, and then it might be worth something. I like the idea of being able to mine on mobile devices which are plentiful and don't have to be powerful.
For the third method, you need a little more expertise, but you have more control. I used a $100 credit on vultr to create a virtual ubuntu server. I found from my testing that Linux is much more efficient for mining than windows, but you could do the same thing on a windows machine. But I suspect that your hash rate will be much lower (for the same hardware). The hosting fees are also much less expensive with linux (when the credit runs out). I used an opensource mining program called "xmrig", and started mining Monero which is one of the few major coins left that still supports CPU mining (since its consensus algorithm is intentionally ASIC resistant). You can also adjust the fees that the mining pool takes. There is no cost for the software. The biggest cost is time, but a useful exercise.
I am earning about the same (approx. $.01 per day) at the current prices. I am using a mining pool called Coinfoundry, which also allows you to mine other coins. You can also use xmrig software to mine other coins. I tried a few different coins, pools etc, and wasn't able to earn any more. (It starts to get more complicated when you start dealing with the different algorithms/software/pools for different coins). Some coins are not worth mining anymore, unless you have specialised hardware. Here is my referral code for vultr if you want to try it: https://www.vultr.com/?ref=7496356
Conclusion
I didn't earn much money, in relation to the time that I put in, but that wasn't my objective. I personally believe that the market will be moving away from "proof of work" to other types of consensus algorithms, such as proof of stake, delegated proof of stake, and many other alternatives because they don't use up as much energy and physical resources. In my opinion, the need for specialised hardware is bad because it increases the centralisation of the network, and reduces the security (ex. 51% attack, if power is too concentrated among too few people - Ex. Bitmain for Bitcoin)
In future articles, I will share some of my experience with other ways of earning crypto currency like sharing resources (ex. CPU, storage etc.) There are lots of other things/tasks to do as well, but they will only be more worthwhile and profitable if the price of bitcoin rises over time. I personally feel that this is inevitable given all the improvements and innovations that are being applied to the underlying network infrastructures. I expect to see more adoption, use cases, and ways to earn real money by doing useful tasks and contributing to the various promising blockchain communities.
Fred Blauer