How You Can Use Your Old Computers to Mine Cryptocurrency From Home

Don't let your old computers go to waste.

Mining crypto has become more difficult, but there are still opportunities to use an old desktop or laptop to mine a crypto such as Shiba Inu. Created in 2020, it is an Etherum-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 crypto 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.

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. 

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. 

Is it worth it?

After learning about this I downloaded the program onto my current laptop to test it out. I had to disable my antivirus program on my computer to download and run unMineable. I found that the website was a little difficult to understand so I watched some youtube videos to help me complete the setup.

My 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 kilohashes per second (kH/s).

Based on current rates, I can mine about 39,800 Shiba Inu a day or 1.2 million a month. My laptop would need to be running 24/7. This comes out to $0.48 a day or $14 a month. When Shiba Inu was at its height in October 2021, this would have been about 7 times more, or $100 a month. If you take into account my power consumption of 105 watts, the cost per KWh at $0.25 and the 1% pool fee, the profit drops to $0.43 per month, or $5.27 per year. 

It doesn't seem like much given the wear and tear of my laptop and the amount of electricity I am using. However, if you live in an area where electricity is cheaper and believe that SHIB will continue to grow in popularity, then it may be worth it. 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 are far less unpredictable, especially with smaller coins such as SHIB.