Bitcoin
Bitcoin is currently the number one ranked cryptocurrency in terms of its market capitalisation. 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 decentralisation on the network. Many Bitcoin purists believe that only Bitcoin offers the level of immutability and censorship resistance needed for a truly decentralised currency. For them, the costs 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.
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 talk of decentralised 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 centralised 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 are currently testing out blockchain applications backed by the Ethereum network. If you look at the below screen shot from the group’s website, you’ll see that there are some rather impressive and exciting names that are interested in Ethereum.
