Cardano Mining: Complete Guide on How to Mine Cardano Cryptocurrency (2024)

Cardanowas released in 2017. Even though it’s a comparatively young crypto, Cardano has already gained quite some attention both from investors and from the general population. As it gains popularity, more and more people are trying to figure out Cardano mining.

In this tutorial, we’re going to cover all things Cardano - what it is, where it came from, why it’s worth our attention and - most importantly - how to mine Cardano (rather, CAN you mine Cardano?).

Keep in mind that if you decide to invest in Cardano, choose reliable cryptocurrency exchange platforms, such as Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance. Also, make sure to get a secure hardware wallet for your assets!

Table: Binance and Kraken comparison

What is Cardano?

First of all, it is worth mentioning that people often mix up the terms Cardano and ADA.

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If you’re talking about the actual cryptocurrency itself, then you should refer to ADA. Cardano is the platform that hosts the crypto-coin - in other words, Cardano is ADA’s blockchain.

For simplicity's sake, and because people are used to saying “Cardano” when they are talking about the coin, in this “Cardano mining” tutorial I will also refer to the cryptocurrency as “Cardano”.

Cardano was created by a company called Input Output Hong Kong. The development of the platform started back in 2015, but it was released to the general public back in 2017.

One of the leaders of the Cardano cryptocurrency project was a co-founder of IOHK named Charles Hoskinson. His name is notable in the cryptocurrency world because he is also the co-founder of Ethereum (one of the most well-known cryptocurrencies out there) and a company called BitShare.

Charles has become quite popular and respected in the cryptocurrency world because of his involvement with the before mentioned projects - all of which seemed to come out as vastly successful.

Cardano is similar to a lot of other established cryptocurrencies because it is decentralized (it doesn’t have a one, single owner - instead, almost anyone can contribute to the coin’s well-being). Structure wise, the coin is closest to that of Ethereum.

Even with all of its similarities to other cryptos in the market, Cardano aims to revolutionize the cryptocurrency world. One of the ways it does this is by using a “Proof of Stake” system.

PoS

In most cases, cryptocurrencies use one of the two systems - “Proof of Stake” and “Proof of Work”. When it comes to crypto coin mining, the latter one is more common.

The way that the PoW system works is that your mining system solves difficult math problems, thus participating in the mining process. When a block is mined, the PoW system sees your contribution and you are awarded for your work - you receive a certain amount of that cryptocurrency.

When it comes to PoS, however, the process is quite different. In the PoS system, the coin holder generates new blocks and verifies the payouts (transactions). Anyone holding a coin of that cryptocurrency (in this case, Cardano (ADA) ) can become the leader of this process.

The PoS system is considered beneficial because it eliminates forced and brute coin hashing (what is most often referred to as mining) and ensures a much smoother and more stabilized process of blockchain development.

Most (if not all) of the cryptos that are currently in the market struggle with balancing security, decentralization, and speed. With the current technology, it seems almost impossible to have all three of the above-mentioned factors working equally well.

Cardano aims to be that one exception. With the help of the PoS system, the platform is continuously developed to be faster without sacrificing any security or freedom (decentralization) features. The PoS method of Cardano mining aims to utilize that.

ICO

The Cardano ICO (Initial Coin Offering) happened a few years ago. During the initial offering, the ADA token raised around $60 million. The price per token was valued at $0,02.

In retrospect, the Cardano ICO had generated quite a bit of hype around it. There were a few key reasons why that was the case.

One of the biggest of these reasons would have to be the co-founder’s influence on potential customers. C. Hoskinson’s name was already very well-known in the cryptocurrency world because of Ethereum and his other projects.

A lot of people viewed him as a very goal-oriented mathematician that aims to revolutionize the way that the blockchain technology operates. In addition to that, Mr. Hoskinson emphasized the word "research"throughout the whole development and advertising process of Cardano. Everybody knew that this platform (and the coin that it holds) will be completely research-based - it would be the first of its kind in the market.

Another huge reason was the promises that came along with the platform. And I’m not even talking about Cardano mining - rather, the features that the coin would bring into the crypto world.

From the very get-go, Cardano was advertised to be revolutionary in the way that it handles transactions. The fact that it would manage to balance out security, speed and still be fully decentralized was the main point of all of the discussions around it.

Normally, people would be very skeptical about such claims. There are notable examples of developers advertising and promising groundbreaking technological advancement before and during the ICO, and their product flipping and completely failing right after.

In such cases, the talks of grandeur are used to build hype around the product, but little to no attention is given to its actual state.

With Cardano, however, the situation is quite a bit different. Again, this is mostly because of Mr. Hoskinson - his name gave the promises surrounding Cardano a lot of merits.

Cardano Price

Above you can see the Cardano price chart since its release to date.

The current price of the ADA coin is $0.14. Cardano hit the price peak of $1,15 and then started declining at the beginning of 2018. This wasn’t related to anything around Cardano mining or IOHK, however.

At the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, the cryptocurrency market experienced a major crash. This was due to a couple of reasons, with the main one being that some governments around the world put up sanctions on cryptos.

Some cryptocurrencies never really got back up from the initial crash (with some still crashing to this day!), others have started to rise in price again. As we can see from the graph above, Cardano is somewhat in the middle - after the coin’s initial crash, the ADA cryptocurrency has since stabilized. Neither governments nor Cardano mining had anything to do with this stabilization.

It is commonly accepted that Cardano has stabilized and will probably begin to grow again because of its overall strength. The platform is constantly developing with the support of a huge and influential company behind it, people seem to have an actual use for the coin and believe in the co-founder’s promises.

These and some other details are considered to be the main factors that influence Cardano’s rehabilitation.

Cardano Mining

So, now that we’ve covered what is Cardano, we can start analyzing how to Mine Cardano. Although, as you may have probably understood already, the question should be CAN you mine Cardano?

The short answer to that question would be no. Cardano mining is impossible because it is not part of the “Proof of Work” consensus. However, Cardano can be staked.

What does this mean? Well, you simply keep your Cardano wallet (the main one to use is called Daedalus) online, and in turn receive a certain percentage of your already owned ADA coins as payment. This method is used by the “Proof of Stake” system, which confirms transactions via already existing ADA coins, rather than by using hardware (that would be the case with mining Cardano).

When it comes to “Cardano mining”, this is super handy for a couple of reasons.

First of all, you don’t need to worry about mining methods. There’s no cloud mining, GPU or CPU mining - none of that. You save a ton of money on mining equipment, cooling, and electricity, which you can then invest in the ADA coin itself.

Additionally, the process is *that* much easier - all you need to do is keep your wallet online and that’s it - the income distribution will deal with itself. The more Cardano coins you own and stake, the more you will receive.

The developers also promise that during the “Reward Era” they shall release constant updates and features regarding Cardano.

During this time, staking pools (same thing as a mining pool, only with the “Proof of Stake” system in place) will emerge and people that hold little amounts of Cardano but participate in the transaction processes will be able to receive greater rewards.

All in all, the “Proof of Stake” system seems to be stake pools. The coin’s development team is professional and experienced in their respective fields, so this cryptocurrency has a great backing and can continue to grow and advance, both in price AND in technological terms, without having an actual Cardano mining option.

Summary

Now that we’ve covered most of what we set out to cover, let’s have a quick overview of what is Cardano.

The platform (together with the cryptocurrency) was developed and released a year ago, in 2017. It was created by a company called “Input-Output Honk Kong”, with the company's CEO Charles Hoskinson leading the project.

The Cardano cryptocurrency is special in that it’s completely research-based and aims to balance out security, speed and still be completely decentralized. The project’s ICO was quite successful and garnered a large amount of hype - it’s not a surprise when you take a look at the team’s and Mr. Hoskinson’s achievements beforehand.

How to mine Cardano? Can you mine Cardano? No, no you can’t. Mining Cardano isn’t possible, but you can stake Cardano - the cryptocurrency uses a “Proof of Stake” system, which is considered to be beneficial to that of “Proof of Work”. You simply keep your Cardano wallet online and watch your profits grow - it’s as simple as that!

Conclusion

If you’re looking for cryptocurrencies that would be both somewhat popular and beneficial to mine, you’ll probably encounter tens if not hundreds of contenders. It can get significantly hard to choose, especially if you have little to no prior knowledge on the topic of cryptocurrency.

Cardano is one such cryptocurrency. Moreover - the coin’s creators do strive to make it the BEST of its kind. And even though mining Cardano the old-fashioned way is impossible, IOHK offers a great alternative to that problem.

Because of the mainstream popularity of cryptocurrency mining, a lot of people have probably never even heard about staking. This can often discourage - not everyone wants to participate in something that they have no prior knowledge of, especially when there’s a familiar alternative. But this method of Cardano “mining” is beneficial in most ways imaginable - it’s (in a way) free, requires no continuous effort and is quite flexible.

In addition to everything, the developers behind Cardano promise constant updates and renewals. The team seems to be very adamant about producing the best product possible - they have been sticking to their plans ever since the inception of the coin.

So, even though Cardano mining isn’t a thing, it is possible to obtain it via other means, such as cryptocurrency exchanges. Some of the most popular ones includeBinance, Coinbase, Kraken, and KuCoin. Cloud mining services - such as those offered by Genesis Mining and CCG Mining - will allow you to mine other cryptos, which can then be exchanged for ADA.

If acquiring cryptocurrency is your main goal, and you don’t necessarily care about the process of how it’s done, you should check Cardano out. Also, if you obtain huge amounts of Cardano, you should take care of a secure wallet as well. Some of the recommended options include Ledger Nano X and Trezor Model T.

I hope you found this guide useful. Many people around the world believe in Cardano’s success and are willing to contribute to it. There are dedicated forums online which you can visit and read through to get a better understanding of the ADA’s goals and motivational factors if it’s still not clear to you.

I wish you the best of luck with your Cardano mining endeavors!

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