Litecoin (LTC-1.52%) is considered the first successful alternative cryptocurrency, paving the way for future developers and helping them expand the user base for cryptocurrencies. By 2011, other networks had already tried to alter Bitcoin’s code and modify its features, but it was only Litecoin that made an impact.
Let’s see how the project made historical significance, what it represents now, and what to do if you buy Litecoin (LTC).
Who Created Litecoin and Why?
Charlie Lee, the founder and creator of Litecoin, is a computer scientist and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The former Google engineer became highly interested in Bitcoin (BTC--1.923%) and the new blockchain technology in 2011. In October, he posted about “playing around with the Bitcoin codebase” on the Bitcointalk forum. He also expressed his intention to create “a coin that is silver to Bitcoin’s gold”.
Lee announced the exact time of the official launch along with Litecoin’s source code and binary one week leading up to it. This gave miners plenty of time to plan ahead prepare to start mining at the same time.
150 LTC coins were pre-mined before the launch – these were the genesis block and the block to confirm its validity. Since miners have already changed their files, they could quickly get a 50 LTC reward once the network went live. Subsequently, Bitcoin grew from a side-project to a full-on fork of the Bitcoin blockchain.
In 2017, Lee donated all of his LTC, dissociating himself from using Litecoin for personal benefit, and focused solely on managing the Litecoin Foundation.
Litecoin vs. Bitcoin
There are a few technical innovations in LTC that were meant to overcome the shortcomings of BTC.
Segregated Witness (Segwit)
Litecoin was the first network to successfully implement Segwit in 2017 and increase the number of transactions for one block. Segwit essentially divides a transaction into two sections and reduces the weight of transactions on the blockchain. Segwit has also become a solution to transaction malleability.
Lightning Network
The Lightning Network is an off-chain protocol, facilitating the first-ever off-chain atomic swap between Bitcoin and Litecoin. Off-chain swaps are meant for smaller transactions, which otherwise clog up the mainnet and slow down validators working on bigger transactions. It’s a win-win situation – now, users don’t have to sacrifice protection for speed and utility.
MimbleWimble
The activation of the highly anticipated MimbleWimble protocol is aimed at enhancing the network’s fungibility and scalability and is scheduled for the end of 2021. This will be an opt-in upgrade, parallel to LTC’s main chain.
What Can You Do With Litecoin?
Litecoin is often used as a speculative instrument. Traders and investors rely on the limited supply of LTC to generate a satisfactory return on their capital. So far, the results have been tremendous – in 2017, one LTC cost $2-$4, and now it’s worth around $150, ranking #16 by market capitalization on CoinMarketCap.
Aside from being a trading asset, LTC is used as a digital currency and enables instant payments to anyone in the world. Consumers describe LTC payments as secure and frictionless. You can also use Litecoin to pay for goods and services online. For example, AMC (AMC -2.18%), a large movie theater chain, will begin accepting LTC for online ticket sales and concession payments by the end of this year.
There are over daily 100,000 transactions processed by the Litecoin network between 200,000-300,000 active addresses. This is a fantastic sign that the network’s payment processing has a competitive advantage.
What Is Litecoin? was last modified: October 22nd, 2021 by Saqlain Javed
There is no doubt that the world is going digital, and cryptocurrencies have come to stay and even dominate. Many people use cryptocurrencies to invest and save their money but are unaware that cryptocurrencies could be used to pay bills and the perks attached to using them to pay bills. There are a lot of cryptocurrencies, and almost every one of them is accepted in stores and international markets.
Reasons To Pay With Cryptocurrencies
As earlier stated, there are a lot of cryptocurrencies, and by making payments with any of them, you avoid the stress of paying a service or conversion fee. In addition, by doing this, you stand a chance to pay bills faster by utilizing your wallet or account. Other reasons include:
Transactions Are Conducted On a Peer-To-Peer Basis
A lot of cryptocurrencies have payment systems that are peer to peer. This simply means that users can make and receive payments to or from anyone on the network around the world. This simply means that in a situation where you decide to shop with Bitcoin, doge, or any other cryptocurrency, your transaction will be seamless except if you are sending or receiving from a regulated exchange or institution. Still, there is no requirement for approval from another external source of authority. Although fiat currency exchanges charge unnecessary so-called “maker” and “taker” fees, as well as deposit and withdrawal fees occasionally, those who use cryptocurrency to shop are not subject to the litany of traditional banking fees. This simply implies no account maintenance or minimum balance fees, no overdraft charges, and no returned deposit fees, among many others.
Lower Transaction Fees for International Payments
To run wire transfers and make foreign purchases, you certainly have to pay fees and exchange costs. On the other hand, cryptocurrency transactions have zero need for an intermediary institution or government involvement, which simply means that the cost of transacting is relatively lower as against bank transfers. This has a lot of advantages for international traders and travelers.
Payments are Mobile
People who own cryptocurrencies can pay for their coins anywhere and anytime, provided Internet access. Furthermore, personal information is not necessary to complete any transaction.
Transactions are Safe
It is a great thing that cryptocurrencies are not physical, which makes it impossible to be robbed. It will also be difficult for hackers to gain access and steal a person’s cryptocurrency. The applications are heavily equipped with proper security, which makes it technically impossible to steal. Rather than depending on credit card and debit cards, which could be easily stolen or even go missing, cryptocurrencies are indeed a better option to make payments and make purchases because transactions conducted between two (or among multiple) addresses are secure.
Summary
As the days go by, cryptocurrency becomes a more accessible, faster, more reliable, and highly secure way to pay your daily expenses and even make purchases because the world has chosen to embrace digitalization. But it doesn’t even stop there. For example, you could pay the gas, electric, cable, and cell phone bills with cryptocurrency to save your money, time, and unnecessary stress. So, if you don’t already pay your bills with crypto, what are you waiting for? Get started!
Proven the Main Benefits of Paying for Products With Cryptocurrencies was last modified: October 19th, 2021 by Allen Brown
As we enter the third year of the COVID era, we see tectonic shifts in the financial industry. From the debt limit crisis, the failure of Gold as a safe asset, Brexit and the looming default of the major financial markets, there comes a need to be flexible.
The way you invested in the past will not likely achieve the yields necessary to fulfill your retirement goals. Willie Sutton, a famous bank robber, was asked why he robbed banks. The oft-quoted reply is “Because that’s where the money is”.
It is time to move your investments to where the money is.
Remember how you got started with investing. In a time when simply holding stocks made a profit, or a safe company like IBM was considered a safe investment. Everyone trading now knows full well that robots dominate the market, and the major wall street firms are stealing your money by trading ahead of you.
Fifteen years ago, I hired a major bank’s investment advisor to invest $78,000k of IRA funds – representing 10 years of my savings. Over the subsequent 10-years, he took the bank took $22,000 in fees and achieved a $2000 return. The APY on that is tiny – one-quarter percent. At this time, even a simple CD returned 0.5%. With inflation running about 2% per year, my funds decreased in value by about 25% during this time.
My Banker retired and put another guy in place, so I pulled my funds and started doing it myself. In the following four years I have made about 50% using index ETFs. i still feel burned that during the middle part of my earning years, the majority of my retirement savings was locked away in an account that only made the bank money. I thought I was getting wisdom and instead all I got was fees and declining assets.
Every time a Financial Advisor tells you not to trade Bitcoin – keep in mind that the value they are protecting is their own fees, and that they may not have your best interest in mind.
Bitcoin was invented in 2009 as an electronic form of value and exchange. In the early days, it was easy to say that it was made of nothing, worth nothing and would go nowhere. In the following 12 years, the value and adoption have exceeded all expectations. If you are not currently invested in Bitcoin, here are some easy ways:
1. Purchase Bitcoin Using a Traditional Stockbroker
Popular brokers are Robinhood which operates as a high-tech operation. You deposit your funds to Robinhood and purchase Bitcoin. They claim to not have a commission. However, they are entirely funded by order flow – a market consolidator that trades ahead of you – scalping higher prices in the process.
2. Purchase Bitcoin Through PayPal or Other Payment Provider
At this point, everyone and their brother handles Bitcoin, including PayPal. You can simply run your purchase through them.
3. Use a Popular Crypto Exchange
The most popular exchanges in the US are Coinbase and Binance.US (Binance-dot-US). Note that Binance.com (Binance-dot-Com) the global company is banned from operating in the US.
Specialty websites like Immediate Alora offer an option with sophisticated trading tools and platforms to trade Bitcoin and other currencies.
My quick suggestion is to make accounts on both of them. Coinbase is handy because they will give you $5 for just opening an account and you get about $40 of free crypto for watching a few movies. My experience is that the UI for Binance.US is easier for me to understand – which is important when moving my hard-earned money.
4. Invest in an ETF that trades in Bitcoin
The SEC and Bitcoin have a fraught relationship. If Cryptocurrency becomes successful, a considerable number of financial corporations and brokers will be unemployed. The SEC runs front man ensuring that Bitcoin is a second class asset in its tax treatment, rules to limit firms from trading it, and ensuring that regular people cannot invest.
While there currently is no ETF that trades Bitcoin directly, the Grayscale Investment Trust (GBTC -0.10%) allows you to own an investment based solely on Bitcoin assets. In general terms, one GBTC share is about 1/100th of a Bitcoin. Recently, due to changes in their management, the “premium” value has moved from positive to negative. GBTC trades with the Pink Sheets, so you can only trade it during market hours. You can trade GBTC from your IRA account.
Information is key when using ETF’s and finding that data on your own can be hard. Using an ETF’s data API can provide that extra bit of critical information for making the best trading decisions.
5. Invest in Etherium
Bitcoin’s younger sibling is Etherium, and Grayscale now offers Grayscale Etherium Trust (ETHE -5.67%). Again, this is a trust and not a real ETF, but it gives a vehicle that can be easily traded from a common stock account.
6. Invest in Blockchain Related ETFs
In addition to GBTC and ETHE, 2021 has brought us some new blockchain-based ETFs – And finally, some new ETFs for blockchain – Vaneck Digital Transformation ETF- (DAPP -1.49%), Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK -8.34%), Siren Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (BCLN).
7. Invest in Companies that are Bitcoin Merchants or Miners
Bitcoin Stocks – Some companies are so involved with Bitcoin that they trade relative to Bitcoin’s price. None as directly as GBTC but enough to be worth mentioning. Coinbase – (COIN 301.30 +10.30 +3.54%), Marathon Digital – (MARA -0.14%), Riot Blockchain – (RIOT -4.37%), Sphere 3d – (ANY -5.91%).
8. Do NOT Invest in Bitcoin Technology – Soon to be Obsolete
Some call NVIDIA (NVDA +0.77%) a “Bitcoin stock” because their GPUs are used for mining. But this is not trading on the broad cryptocurrency market or even in a sustainable market. You are merely trading the merchant of the current mining technology. The method of bitcoin mining is wasteful both in electricity and electronic waste products. It is already obsolete. You are trading Coke in the era of Rockstar or IBM in the era of Microsoft. Trade Robinhood, not Lehman brothers. Everyone knows that you need to trade emerging technologies and not get distracted by the dinosaurs you see on the road.
9. Move your Money to Where the Action Is
Bitcoin (BTC -1.923%) and Etherium (ETH 1.537%) average about 200% gains per year. However, they tend to run a pattern of going up 400% one year, then going down as much as 80% the following year. So half of Bitcoin investors are thrilled because they’ve been through a couple of cycles and made 400%, and the other half are somber because they lost 80% in their three months of trying it.In 2022, both Bitcoin and Etherium have enough history to become dependable. They have even spawned an investment style to put a fixed amount in per month so as to slowly grow an account without having a considerable risk at the start. For instance, if you want to invest $10,000, you have a massive risk if you invest today – since Bitcoin may drop by 50% next month – burning $5000 of your investment. But if you instead move $500 per month over a 20 month period – you are likely to bridge a number of up and down cycles and good chance to end up with a higher balance at the end of the period. Using platforms like Bitpro Pulse can keep you on track with the current markets.
I can tell you from experience that I own the equivalent of 2 bitcoin at a purchase price of $8,000 each. A couple of years ago, I was on the seat of my chair for every drop. But in 2021, I really don’t care if Bitcoin is worth $40,000 one day and $20,000 the next. I just do not care. It is improbable it will ever again hit my break-even spot and is very likely to hit $100,000. I can state from experience that once you have hit a 400% gain, it becomes far easier to ride out the swings.
10. Investing in Altcoins and 2nd Tier Cryptocurrencies
Once you have a Coinbase and Binance.US wallet, you will see that they allow you to invest in about 100 other cryptocurrencies. It is easiest to look at these in terms of market share. Bitcoin (BTC -1.923%) and Ethereum (ETH 1.537%) still account for 80% of the market. But the next 15% of the market is held by a small number of Altcoins. Cardano (ADA -1.135%), Binance Chain (BNB 0.148%), XRP (XRP -2.531%), Solana (SOL -2.792%), Dogecoin (DOGE -0.571%) and others. These are easy to trade and have regular chart patterns.
Anyone experienced in chart trading of stocks will quickly find comfort in trading the Alt-Coin market. Even if you are not experienced, use this simple formula –
Find any coin trading in a zigzag that represents an upward moving channel
Watch when it hits the bottom of the channel
Buy when it moves up off the bottom (confirming the move),
Sell when it hits the top of the channel and turns over (confirming the end of the move).
The past channel will show you your holding term, and ideally, a channel that runs 14-60 days gives a good ROI. Day traders like to trade intraday channels, but I have always been a fan of 60 day channels. Finding channels that run 14-60 days give you a nice in and out cycle. Just sell when the coin breaks the channel or goes “weird” on you. Not every investment keeps to channels, but finding the ones that are regular is better than trying for a wildcard win.
My own experience is that the Alt-Coin market generally trends in-line with Bitcoin. So the best time to trade is when Bitcoin is rising. This is easy to spot because all the coins follow the same general trend. In an uptrending market, even your wrong decisions become right. Then when Bitcoin falters, move your money to the stable coins.
11. Stable Coins and their Use
There are a number of stable coins – Tether (USDT), Center (USDC) and Binance USD (BUSD) which attempt to remain parity with the US Dollar. When you encounter a down-drafting market, it is often faster and cheaper to park your funds in a stable coin rather than withdraw them to a US Dollar account.
12. Easy Way to Minimize your Risk
A reasonable way to invest in Alt-Coins is to wait for a time when market analysts predict Bitcoin will rise. Currently, with the debt ceiling looming and the COVID cloud on the economy is a good time.
Then invest a small amount of money broadly in many vehicles. I like to put $50 or $100 in a coin for a month or two, so that I can track the action to be sure it looks sane.
Then if it starts trending, I double and quadruple my investment. Right now, I have an alphabet soup of Altcoin investments with $40-60 in them (depending on whether they went down or up) and only about 5 of them with more than $400 in them. If these coins follow the general trend for Bitcoin, which goes up nearly 400% every-other-year, then I am anticipating returns of about 1,200% per year from Altcoins. Keep the tax treatment in mind – as these investments are taxed as income and not as long or short-term gains.
13. Another Warning
Crypto markets trade 24 hours a day. If you have spent any time trading penny stocks or trending stocks, you are accustomed to the rhythm of pre-market, market and post-market hours. With Cryptos, the market runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The market commonly trends as soon as the US stock market closes. On many weekends you can see Bitcoin takes off just after 4 pm Eastern Time on Friday and carries that momentum through the weekend, only to lose it on Monday morning. Beware of the effect on your sleep and worry that your new investment will lose value if you fail to execute a 2am trade on your phone.
14. Investing on the Wild Side using DeFi (DEX) Markets
Starting in 2019, the DeFi markets have come into their own. This is a place you can make significant gains. The DeFi markets allow you to invest in the virtual birth of a Coin, and there are thousands of them. You can easily have a coin with such a low value that 1 trillion of them is not even $100. It raises the imaginary circumstance that if they rise to a penny, you can retire for life.
The DeFi coins all have convoluted reasons for existing and features that their designers hope will bring them into prominence. From the silly coins like WIFEDOGE (0.786%) because DOGE needs a wife to the super-serious Greentrust (GNT -0.702%) which promises to offset the investing with green technology. GNT is now my most significant loss so far at about 85% lost (nearly $60 or 1.5 Chinese Dinners). Trading in these coins is speculation in its purest form – you buy a currency foolishly, hoping only to sell it for a higher price to the next fool.
15. Getting a DeFi Wallet
The vehicle for trading Defi Markets is a Defi Wallet. Popular wallets are MetaMask for your browser or Trust Wallet for your phone. These wallets give access to a trading Blockchain, like Binance Smart Chain or Polygon. Finally, within that chain, you can purchase DeFi tokens.
It is challenging to move money from your Bank to the top tier exchanges, to the DeFi chains. This is convoluted because you are moving through levels of deregulation of your money. So be careful to only move money you can afford to lose – and never borrowed money or your emergency funds.
The Crypto markets use the term “Fiat” to mean US Dollars, which are worthless without the trust of the US Government. So in their words, Crypto is Real because it tangibly exists on the blockchain, and Fiat is Fake because it has no value except that people agree to honor the face value of a piece of paper. So you are moving your money from the Fake world to the Real-world, which takes time and effort.
Both Coinbase and Binance have holding requirements of about ten days before you can withdraw funds to the blockchain world. Then you need a third-party utility like Uniswap or Binance Wallet to effect the withdrawal into the blockchain. The most popular one will be used by Ethereum.
16. Procedure for Moving from Fiat to DeFi – from Dollars to Pancakeswap
Withdraw US Dollars from your bank account into a Binance.US. You can purchase BNB OR BUSD here, but you need to let it sit for ten days.
Then withdraw into a compatible chain – like Binance Chain.
Once in the chain, convert it to a DeFi chain for the token family you want to buy. So convert Binance Chain BEP2 to Binance Smart Chain BEP-20.
Finally, move the money into the more obscure coins supported by that chain. Sift through the features, and make some test investments.
Again, my experience is to start with a $50 investment to start, and then $100 and only if it feels right to work with more significant amounts of money. For me, $50 is the cost of a takeout Chinese Dinner, something we do once or twice a month (with leftovers, it makes two dinners for my family).
17. Staking Rewards add Up To 90% APY to DeFi Profits
One of the things you can do with DeFi coins is to stake them. Staking a coin assists the market and gives you access to staking rewards. When other people trade the coin, or “stake” is rewarded. For this activity, I am most impressed with Pancakeswap and their CAKE ( 1.064%) coin. Currently, if you stake CAKE, you can earn about 80% APY – that is – about 5% per month. Your earnings are dwarfed by the movement in the underlying coin, which has gone up 25% in the last three months. Like Bitcoin – from its recent High in April 2021 to its low in June 2021 was an 80% drop. On the other hand, if you had purchased CAKE in January 2021, you would now have a 2,900% profit.
The 2,900% profit in 9 months is completely dwarfed by SAFEMOON ( -2.595%), which launched in March 2021. If you had invested $1,000 at launch, you would have made $3.5 million two months later.
As Willie Sutton observed – “Because that is where the money is.” For 2022, where you want to be is in Altcoins, Staking and watching the breakout opportunities.
18. Build a Blockchain App
With Rapid Innovation you can build a blockchain app of your own. They will help you get from concept to launch, and offer software and blockchain consulting. Rapid Innovation can help you build, test, and launch with a team of experienced blockchain developers.
Summary
If you ever dream of being one of the early Bitcoin investors, spending 10,000 bitcoin for a Pizza, only to have that amount grow to be worth $400 million in 10 years, do not think those days are over. A simple strategy of investing $100 evenly over 100 coins, total $10,000 investment, will likely yield 50 complete losses, 40 break evens, and 10 winners. But if even one of those winners makes $100,000, you would call this the best investment of your life.
Stay safe and only play with money you can afford to lose. But it may be worthwhile to skip a Chinese dinner tonight and to push the $40 over to walk on the wild side of DeFi and DEX Cryptocurrency.
How and Why to Safely Invest in Cryptocurrency in 2022 was last modified: October 30th, 2024 by Wayland Bruns
A cryptocurrency wallet is a place where you may save your cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin, or any other token. Private keys are used to safeguard these currencies, and you may store these keys in a variety of methods, all of which are referred to as wallets. As a blockchain investor, you don’t need to ‘mine’ the token you own; you may just buy and sell them on either an interchange or directly to others, and then convey the ‘keys’ to the exchange rates to get access to them. The following is what you need to comprehend about how all this works. Also check bitcoin401(k) to know more about 401(k) plans.
How are the distinctions between cryptographic keys?
While we’re on the subject of bitcoin wallets, it’s vital to grasp the difference between public and private keys. In essence, a crypto wallet that lacks these features is equivalent to having no wallet at all. Cryptocurrency, as the name implies, is built on encryption technologies, which employ a pair of keys: a public one for identifying a block of tokens and a private one for accessing them. That’s already a big simplification, but if you’re only interested in learning how to trade crypto, it can be simplified much further, be it a bitcoin wallet or dogecoin wallet.
Your public key in a crypto wallet functions similarly to your username in a payment app, allowing you to receive tokens. The passwords that let you check your balance, make transactions, and use other services are known as private keys. Keep in mind that both are equally essential.
What is a bitcoin wallet, exactly?
A virtual currency wallet, often known as a crypto wallet, is software or an app that you use on your mobile device to store digital assets like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum. Not only that, but you also digitally sign your bitcoin transactions using the same wallet. A crypto wallet also protects your digital money by requiring a password to access it. Furthermore, if you want to carry your wallet in your hand, you may use a physical device to operate your wallet apps.
Differences between hot and cold wallets?
Hot wallets are accessible over the Internet, allowing you to purchase and sell bitcoin more readily. However, because such a system is more accessible to attackers, there is considerable concern regarding its security. Active traders, on the other hand, will generally keep some funds in a hot wallet for trades.
Instead of keeping your data on the computer, you may download it to a USB device or a hard drive and save your tokens there until you’re ready to sell. In principle, this sounds like a wonderful idea, but if the wallet is destroyed and you can’t access the keys, the coins would be lost forever, so you’ll have to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of both options. Over the years, there have been several reports of hard disks malfunctioning, USB devices being misplaced, and coins being lost forever.
Then there are paper wallets, which are a more extreme kind of cold wallet in which the private key is written down on paper, making it difficult to hack. This is also vulnerable to being destroyed by the environment, being misplaced, or even having minor errors in duplicating the codes, all of which would render it worthless, so before you spend your money, consider the dangers.
Keep your items at the exchange.
Many people wonder if they may store money on cryptocurrency exchanges in addition to hot and cold (hardware) wallets. Yes, however, it isn’t regarded as the safest place to keep your valuable collection of digital tokens. According to research, exchanges lose an average of $2.7 million every day, and this amount is only expected to rise in the future.
While you won’t have the same problems on a respected exchange, it’s a good idea to distribute your assets around in a variety of methods, depending on your security needs and the quantities you anticipate you’ll be trading on a frequent basis.
What is the procedure for creating a digital wallet?
You may discover a variety of digital wallets on the internet. Many exchanges offer their own wallets that are independent of the exchange and may be utilized, however, Exodus and Mycelium are two of the most popular.
Setting up and utilizing these applications is as easy as using any other internet service. You establish an account, log in with your information, and then move your bitcoin from other wallets to these wallets by following the extremely easy on-screen instructions.
Cryptocurrency Wallet: How Does It Work and How To Set It Up was last modified: November 15th, 2021 by Livia Neisat
In the past few years, the cryptocurrency world has seen dramatic growth. Out of all the cryptocurrencies available today, Bitcoin stands as the most valuable decentralized cryptocurrency. Although Bitcoin Pro may be the best place to trade bitcoin, it is important to remember that there are always risks associated with any type of investment. Make sure you understand the risks before making any decisions about investing in bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.
Other than just trading Bitcoin, many find Bitcoin mining a more profitable option. But it has a major barrier that it cannot be mined using personal computers.
Many Bitcoin mining enthusiasts consider mining Bitcoin using office computers. The power is free, the network dependable, and for 16 hours a day – no one is using the machines.
The point of concern is – are mining activities noticeable to others?
Some can get lucky, but there are high chances that your boss will eventually detect your Bitcoin mining activities. In this blog, we will have a closer look at this matter and see the possible reasons that can get you caught.
Bitcoin Mining at Office
A Bitcoin miner can only qualify for the reward if the miner verifies the transactions before other competitors and enter the blocks into the blockchain. Mining requires an uninterrupted strong network connection and GPU (graphics processing unit) or ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Many office computers have at least some of these components. So Mining Bitcoin would be a great way to earn free money. So is it possible to mine Bitcoin utilizing office resources?
Although doing Bitcoin mining is not illegal, doing it using office computers is unethical. Firstly, you will stress hardware to their limits, which can decrease their lifespan and cause frequent damages. Secondly, you are going to consume a lot of electricity against fractional profit. Lastly, multiple signs can make your boss suspicious about your activities and eventually let you get caught.
Suspicious Signs associated with Mining Bitcoin in Office
There are multiple signs while mining Bitcoin using office resources that can trigger the attention of your boss. Following are some of the prominent signs in this perspective:
1. High Electricity Costs
One thing we know about Bitcoin mining is that it is very power-hungry. On average, crypto mining consumes 3-4 times more power than when a PC is in the rest state. When your PC is continuously working, it is demanding more power and generating more heat. The increase in heat means office air conditioners are in more work, while your PC requires more energy. Therefore, the overall electricity cost of an office can increase noticeably, which can alter your boss that something is wrong.
2. Noisy Fans
The PC mechanical fan is the most common part that gets damaged from crypto mining. Since it’s a mechanical part, so it has a definite lifespan. However, when you use an office PC for mining, your fan will generate continuous noise and get more vulnerable to damage soon. So, either the nonstop noise or frequent replacement requests can make your boss suspicious about your activities.
3. Slower Computers
Mining Bitcoin from an office PC means you are making it work continuously without any breaks. As a result, your CPU usage will be massive, which will impact its overall performance. If, by any chance, your boss or other managerial staff sits with you and starts using your PC, then the slower performance or excessive CPU usage statistics can make them suspicious. In addition, the amount of heat your PC generates and its frequent alarms about high temperatures are other factors that can trigger doubts.
4. Antivirus Detection
Mining Bitcoin means you will install crypto mining software in your office PC and use office network resources for mining. Unfortunately, most corporate antivirus tools can discover software in your PC or identify mining-related activities and present them as threats.
Cybercriminals are also taking advantage of such mining software for ransomware and other similar attacks. So, possibly your organization has set up an antivirus scanning framework that detects crypto mining software and its related activities to protect its networks and systems. Therefore, even if your slower computer performance and the noisy fan didn’t make things suspicious, antivirus scanning can expose you out.
Bitcoin Mining from Office – Yes or No
From all the above signs, we can say that if you love your job, then don’t even think of mining Bitcoin in the office. You will be making a tiny profit compared to the resources you will consume. Even if you remain undetected for some time, eventually, your activities will trigger your boss’s attention.
The Safe Approach – Lower Power Mining
Since Bitcoin mining at the office is very risky due to its hefty power consumption, you can mine other cryptocurrencies that demand fewer power resources. As per the research conducted by TRG Datacenters, many valuable cryptocurrencies consume significantly less power, such as Dogecoin consumes 0.12 kWh, Litecoin consumes 18.522 kWh, and Ethereum consumes 62.56 kWh per transaction compared to 707 kWh of Bitcoin.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, is becoming 99.95% energy efficient by adopting the proof-of-stake protocol. They are targeting this transition in the upcoming months, which will be game-changing. So, if you are an enthusiast of mining while in office, opt for lower power-consuming cryptocurrencies. This way, you can mine those cryptocurrencies first and then convert them into Bitcoin. So, it’s an indirect and much safer way to mine Bitcoin.
Quantum AI App allows you to use AI for your Bitcoin trading. This is exponentially fasting than traditional trading.
Wrapping Up
It is phrased that “if you want to mine Bitcoin, don’t do that at company time”. But the better version in present times is “if you want to mine Bitcoin, don’t do that at company time using company resources”. Although mining Bitcoin using office resources seems a free way to make a handsome profit, the consequences are still worse. You can end up with costly plenty or even get fired. So, in a nutshell, if you want to do crypto mining in office, then consider lower power-consuming currencies or opt for trading instead of mining.
If I Mine Bitcoin in My Office Will My Boss Know? was last modified: April 19th, 2023 by Hamza Razzaq
