Mining crypto has become more difficult, but there are still opportunities to use an old desktop or laptop to mine crypto such as Shiba Inu. Created in 2020, it is an Ethereum-based alternative to Dogecoin (DOGE), the meme coin made popular by Elon Musk.
After its launch, the SHIB coin ranked as one of the biggest cryptos in the world in October 2021. Shib appreciated close to a whopping 49,000,000% in 2021. If you had bought just $2.05 worth of SHIB on January 1, 2022, by the end of the year you would have been a millionaire!
Shiba Inu has, like most cryptocurrencies, taken a beating this year, but it is still up over 16,000,000% since the beginning of 2021. While mining Bitcoin now requires large warehouses of powerful mining machines, you can still use the processing power of your personal computer’s CPU or GPU to generate smaller cryptos like Shiba Inu.
Step 1: Get a cryptocurrency wallet address
The first step is to set up a crypto wallet. Crypto wallets don’t actually store crypto. They keep your private key — password that gives you access to your crypto — safe and accessible. The crypto you own is on the blockchain and your key is proof that you own your crypto and allow you to make transactions.
It is important you don’t lose your wallet or else you lose complete access to your crypto. Your wallet can be a USB stick or software programs such as Coinbase or Crypto.com. To start mining SHIB, you will need a crypto wallet to collect your rewards once you have reached the payout threshold.
Step 2: Crypto mining on your computer
unMineable is a well-known crypto mining software program. It has an easy-to-understand user interface for beginner miners. The program lets you mine certain coins not typically mineable with GPUs such as Shiba Inu, Aave, Cardano, Digibyte, Dogecoin, etc.
You can download the program to your PC and it is free to use. Currently, there is no iOS version. It has a standard mining fee between 0.75% to 1% and your computer will need to be on in order for the program to run. Once you download the program, it will detect your computer’s hardware.
You then choose the coin you want to mine and input your wallet address. A window pops up showing your balance, the crypto you are mining and your current hashrate. How much your computer will mine, your current hashrate, depends on your GPU.
Should I Invest in Crypto Now?
A typical laptop can mine at 45 megahashes per second (MH/s). Hash rates essentially measure the computing power to mine crypto and measure the number of calculations per second, which can be as high as the quintillions. In comparison, the best Bitcoin miner has a hashrate of 10 terahashes per second (TH/s) which is about 200,000 times more powerful than my laptop. I tested the program on my older laptop and could only mine about 400-kilo hashes per second (kH/s).
For now, unMineable seems to be safe to mine crypto, but it is important to be aware of the market. Utility prices have been rising due to global events and cryptocurrencies across the board have dropped in value. Crypto is still quite volatile, and the value of your returns is far less unpredictable, especially with smaller coins such as SHIB.
