I’ve noticed that many people think crypto mining is over. But honestly, mining with your PC is still possible if you choose the right cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin? Yes, it’s dead for us—ASICs killed that. But there are other interesting options.

If you want to mine with your PC without investing thousands in hardware, look at Dogecoin. The market cap is around 14 billion currently, and unlike Bitcoin, Doge issues new coins every year. To get started, you download a wallet, then a CPU or GPU miner depending on your setup. A mining pool will let you increase your earnings. It’s a classic for a good reason.

Ethereum Classic has become interesting since the Ethereum blockchain switched to Proof of Stake in 2022. All the miners who used to mine ETH turned to ETC. The market cap is now 1.28 billion. You can mine it with desktop hardware; you don’t need specialized ASICs.

Monero is another solid choice if you want to mine with your PC. The network was designed specifically to resist ASICs, so individual miners remain competitive. The market cap is around 6 billion. The official GUI client is easy to use, and there are several mining software options available.

Zcash uses the Equihash algorithm, which is GPU-friendly but ASIC-resistant. With a market cap of 4.45 billion, it’s a viable option. Same goes for Ravencoin with its KAWPOW algorithm. With both of these, you can mine using standard consumer GPUs.

Bitcoin Gold is a fork of Bitcoin launched in 2017. Honestly, the project has stayed quiet in recent years, but it still has decent liquidity with a market cap of 5.46 billion. Horizen also uses Equihash and can be mined with GPUs, with a market cap of around 84 million.

For more exotic options, there’s Bytecoin, which is designed for easy solo mining; Beam with its Hashii algorithm; Vertcoin with its Lyra2RE; and Grin with its MimbleWimble. All of them can be mined with standard hardware.

The real calculation is: your GPU hashrate × electricity price × the crypto’s market price. An RTX 3090 can cost anywhere from 600 to 2000 dollars depending on the model. The hashrate is the computing power expressed in millions of hashes per second. The higher it is, the more electricity you consume.

WhatToMine has a useful calculator to evaluate actual profitability. But keep in mind that crypto prices are volatile. If the crypto you mine goes up, your earnings explode. If it drops, even with cheap electricity, you can end up in the red.

The cost of electricity varies enormously. In the United States, it averages 16 cents per kWh, but it can range from 7.99 cents in Idaho to 43.18 cents in Hawaii. Overall, countries like Myanmar offer very competitive rates.

I’ve seen cases where professional GPU miners with 13 desktop computers and 8 GPUs each generated 500 dollars per month in a bear market, and up to 17,000 dollars in a bull market. Electricity was their main cost, around 4 dollars per day per rig.

The real question is: is it worth it for you? If you have cheap electricity and you want to mine with your PC without taking risks on volatile prices, yes. Otherwise, it’s a personal calculation. But contrary to what everyone says, mining with your PC isn’t dead. It just requires being strategic about choosing the crypto and optimizing energy usage.