This article is originally published at CoinCentral.com and it has been reposted here with their permission. Link to original post: https://coincentral.com/zcash-cryptocurrency-mining-is-four-times-more-profitable-than-bitcoin/
Bitcoin mining in its early days could be likened to a gold rush. The relative anonymity and peer to peer electronic payment transfer capabilities made it attractive.
Couple this with the ability to mine using a regular computer, and the sometimes outrageous profits, and BTC mining became a promising new frontier.
Tech enthusiasts and hackers were among the first groups to dabble into the new Satoshi Nakomoto creation. But as the market grew, bitcoin mining difficulty increased, essentially raising hardware requirements and power consumption, and lowering profitability.
Investor enthusiasm in bitcoin has faltered in the past year in the face of increased international regulations targeting cryptocurrencies. The huge price drop also shook investor confidence. And, the present price swings don’t offer much hope.
Now, according to data compiled by Anything Crypto, Zcash (ZEC) beats other Proof of Work coins such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) in mining profitability. This is based on current difficulty levels.
According to the site, Zcash miners using the Antminer Z9 mini can expect to make returns of about $8,000 within two years. Ether mining comes in second at $2,800 using the Antminer E3, within the same period.
Bitcoin miners using the GMO B2 rig, which is considered to be the most worthwhile ASIC, would be able to rake in about $1,500 in about two years. Based on these calculations, ZEC beats BTC mining profitability by more than four times. Mining difficulty predictions were factored into the calculations.
The Future of Zcash Mining
The Zcash cryptocurrency was developed in 2016 with the aim of providing greater anonymity to users than Bitcoin. It works by publishing payments on a public blockchain and users have a privacy option to conceal the amount transacted, the sender, or recipient.
Utilizing the Equihash hashing algorithm, its first ASIC, the Bitmain Antminer Z9 mini, was unveiled in May. It boasts a maximum hash rate of 10ksol/s and has a power consumption of 300W.
There’s already a growing number of individual mining projects cashing in on ZEC’s mining profitability, which boasts an overall value of about $666m.
That said, Bitcoin and Ether have a greater market value than Zcash, but also have a huge number of corporations with immense resources dedicated to mining, not to mention the mining pools.
This makes profitable BTC mining much more difficult and pits ZEC as a great alternative for individual miners before huge corporations start to muscle in.
I hope you enjoyed this great article from CoinCentral.
Until the next blog post, Take care!
BigskyCrypto
Website: https://www.bigskycrypto.com
Questions or comments? Email me at info@bigskycrypto.com
Also if you get time check out the new BigskyCrypto store: https://bigskycrypto.store
It is still a work in process so check back as I will be adding a lot more merchandise.
You can also pay for the merchandise with crypto, BTC, BCH, ETH, and LTC!
I will be using any proceeds from the store to offset the costs of materials and advertising related to my blogging, my website, my Patreon page, and my steemit page.