A to Z

CRYPTO
MINING
Guide
How to Avoid the Biggest Mistakes

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INTRODUCTION
Has the hype already caught up to you and you’re ready to
start mining some crypto with your fresh, new mining rig? Or
maybe you’re a veteran miner and all you need to do now is
to cash out your spoils?

Whatever the case might be, this ebook will tell you about the
most common cryptocurrencies being mined right now, and
how to cash out the most popular one - Bitcoin - afterward.

Let’s dive right in!

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Crypto mining 4

1.1 Bitcoin 4

1.2 Ethereum 5

1.3 Monero 6

1.4 Electroneum 7

1.5 Zcash 8

2. How to cash out Bitcoin 9

2.1 Third party broker exchange 9

2.2 Peer to peer 10

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 1 CRYPTO MINING

Bitcoin
Bitcoin is currently the number one ranked cryptocurrency in terms of its market capitalization.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean it’s the best coin to mine in terms of profits. This is because
there are so many ASIC mining rigs mining on the network already. For a miner who isn’t willing
to invest literally millions of dollars on hardware, it’s not going to be worth mining Bitcoin.

All that said, there is still a very good reason to mine Bitcoin – to increase decentralization on
the network. Many Bitcoin purists believe that only Bitcoin offers the level of immutability and
censorship resistance needed for a truly decentralized currency. For them, the cost of running
a small Bitcoin mining rig is a small price to pay to play a part in securing the most important of
all cryptocurrencies.

However, if it’s strictly profits you’re seeking, you don’t live in a cold climate with cheap power,
and you haven’t got millions to invest, then you should probably look for opportunities with
mining altcoins.

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 Ethereum
Ethereum is a project with huge long-term potential. In fact, one of Reddit’s co-founders, Alexis
Ohanian, predicts that each Ether token will be $15,000 by end of 2018. He believes that it will
overtake Bitcoin and become the most valuable asset in the entire cryptocurrency space. If this
came true, it would make mining Ethereum a very good long-term play. Let’s look into the topic
more to find out whether Ethereum could be the best coin to mine.

Ohanian and other bullish commentators are basing their predictions on the fact that applications
can be built on top of the Ethereum network. There is the talk of decentralized home sharing apps
like Air Bnb or the equivalent of Uber’s ride-sharing platforms being created on the Ethereum
network. If one of these applications proves as successful as their centralized equivalents, the
value of Ether tokens would shoot up.

Of note as well is the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. This group of some of the largest companies
on the planet is currently testing out blockchain applications backed by the Ethereum network.

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 Monero
Monero is a cryptocurrency with a very real use case already that already exists in the real world.
Since it’s one of the most successful privacy coins, there are all kinds of reasons why people
would want to use it. Let’s see if Monero is the best coin to mine.

There are plenty of Monero users who currently buy and sell things for Monero on dark web
marketplaces. But there are also many examples where privacy-focused coins are useful that
aren’t illegal.

There are even entire nations who are interested in Monero. Take North Korea, for example.
The rogue state has been reportedly using Monero to evade economic sanctions put on them
by the West.

Even though the illegal applications of Monero might put some people off of mining it, the privacy
features of the coin would make it very difficult to crack down on Monero’s use. After all, how can
you police something you cannot see?

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 Electroneum
Electroneum was based on Monero. This means that it’s just as simple to mine as Monero is.
Again, the wallet itself has a very easy to use “mine” function that will start generating Electroneum
with a click of a button.

The decision by the Electroneum team to make their coin one of the easiest currencies to start
mining was deliberate. Electroneum also has some big goals. The team behind it truly wants it to
become the cryptocurrency of the unbanked.

By making it easy for mobile phone users to use the inbuilt mining software connected with
the default Electroneum wallet, they are hoping it will evolve into the most decentralized
cryptocurrency. This easy way to mine the currency should give all those mobile phone owners
in emerging economies a chance to partake in the digital economy without needing traditional
banking services.

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 Zcash
Zcash is another privacy-focused cryptocurrency. One of the things that makes it a popular choice
amongst cryptocurrency miners is that it’s ASIC resistant. This means that it is still very profitable
to mine Zcash using the much cheaper GPU chips, so that is a huge plus when choosing your
best coin to mine if you don’t want to spend a lot on GPU.

Thanks to its privacy features, Zcash is supported by the likes of Edward Snowden. He claims
that its “privacy properties are truly unique”. The former NSA agent is (of course) something of
an expert in protecting online data. It’s partly thanks to his exposés on the shady practices of
various governments around the world that online privacy even received the mass attention it
has done in recent years.

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 2 HOW TO CASH OUT BITCOIN
There are many things to consider when cashing out Bitcoin. Here are a few:

• Do you want the easiest method or the cheapest method?

• Do you want the money deposited into your bank account or PayPal?
• How long do you want to wait to receive your cash?
• Which currency do you need to change your Bitcoin in to?

These are some of the questions that you will need to ask yourself. So, read through the following
methods and then decide which is best for you.

Third party broker exchange

A third-party broker is just another name for an exchange. Most cryptocurrency exchanges do
not allow you to deposit funds using fiat money, however, some do.

How it works is like this: You deposit your Bitcoin into the exchange, then once the exchange has
received your Bitcoin, you can request a fiat currency withdrawal. The most common way to do
this via a bank (wire) transfer.

To make sure brokers do not break money laundering laws, you will need to withdraw to the
same bank account that you deposited with. If you have never deposited fiat on to a broker
exchange, then you will more than likely need to make (at least) one deposit first.

If you decide to cash out your Bitcoin using a broker exchange (such as Coinbase), then it will
normally take about 1-5 days for the money to reach your account. For EU customers, payments
are made via SEPA (withdrawals paid in Euros). However, if you want to sell Bitcoin for USD,
brokers normally use the SWIFT payment method.

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 Peer to peer
If you don’t like the thought of having to wait three days to turn Bitcoin into cash, you should
consider using a peer-to-peer selling platform like LocalBitcoins.

When selling Bitcoins to other people on LocalBitcoins, you can decide which payment method
you want the buyers to use. These include:

• Cash deposit: You can ask the buyer to deposit cash in to your bank account. However,
you should always ask them for proof of ID and proof of Payment before releasing your Bitcoins
to them.
• Bank transfer: You can ask the buyer to send you a bank transfer payment. Again, you
should always request proof of ID from the buyer before going ahead. Once you have received
the money, you can release the Bitcoins to them.
• Meet in person for cash: You can arrange to meet up with a buyer who is local to you,
and they will pay you in cash for your Bitcoins.

P2P selling is safe if you know what you’re doing. However, it’s important to be aware of fraudsters.
LocalBitcoins offer a good level of safety because they offer an escrow service. This keeps your
Bitcoins locked until you confirm the payment has been received from the buyer. That’s it! Now
you know how to sell Bitcoin for cash using a P2P exchange!

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FINAL WORD
So, now you have an idea both about certain cryptocurrency
mining and about cashing out the results later on. I hope you put
this knowledge to good use and become the next big name in the
crypto world.

Best of luck!

“Mining is like a search-and-destroy mission.”

- Stewart Udall

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