How to mine Vertcoin in 2023

Vertcoin stands out as one of the cryptocurrencies that can still be effectively mined from home. Discover the process in our comprehensive guide, designed to empower you with the knowledge to mine Vertcoin on Windows successfully.

What is Vertcoin?

Vertcoin (VTC) is an older cryptocurrency project that has been around since airdrops and ICOs were almost unheard of. Launched in 2014 — like nearly every other coin of the time — Vertcoin was initially touted by many as a significant challenger to the dominance of Bitcoin.

Vertcoin discourages centralized mining and thus makes it easier for individual miners and hobbyists to exert their influence on the network without needing to buy expensive mining rigs. The lack of support for centralized mining makes Vertcoin one of the few popular cryptocurrencies that are still possible to mine using a regular computer.

Vertcoin uses the ASIC-proof algorithm Lyra2REv2, making it suitable to mine with CPU and GPU, keeping $3,000 to $4,000 ASIC miners out of the equation and empowering users, hence earning the title as the “People’s Coin.” The Vertcoin team proudly claims to be the pioneer of ASIC-resistant decentralized mining, with their initiative starting in 2014.

The SegWit feature was activated on Vertcoin on May 7, 2017, enabling Lightning Network technology. On December 12, 2017, the reward per block was halved from 50 to 25 VTC. The second halving happened on December 8, 2021, and the reward per block decreased from 25 VTC to 12.5 VTC.

Vertcoin hash rate:

On June 21, 2023, the hashrate for Vertcoin was 3,483 Ghash/s and block time stood at 2.20 minutes.

How does Vertcoin work?

Employing a decentralized mining system, Vertcoin relies on graphics cards to protect its network and validate transactions. This approach aims to create an ASIC-resistant coin that isn’t tied to a specific mining entity or device.

Vertcoin, unlike many other digital currencies, strongly supports real decentralization, encouraging mining from home like Bitcoin in its early years. Its algorithm is designed to stop the creation of dedicated mining hardware and multipool mining, ensuring a fairer share of the network’s approval process.

Vertcoin protocol upgrade

The algorithm, called Verthash, was introduced in January 2021, replacing Lyra2REv3. Verthash echoes the philosophy of Ethereum’s old proof-of-work algorithm ETHhash by aligning the hashrate with the speed of the GPU memory. This attempts to level the field for all mining hardware classes, negating potential advantages for ASICs or FPGAs.

Software setup and mining on Windows

To mine Vertcoin on a Windows laptop, you have to download the one-click miner. This mining software includes a wallet, meaning that you could potentially mine without wallet software and only move the coins when you want to sell them or move onto a cold wallet — potentially a hardware wallet — for long-term safekeeping.

Download the latest version of the software compatible with your system from GitHub from here. If you are wondering which system you are running, then you are almost definitely looking for the window-x64.zip version.

Once downloaded, extract the .zip archive. Run the application among the extracted files. If you get a security pop-up about unidentified software just click on “Read more” and then the newly appeared “Run anyway” button.

Choose a suitably secure password and click on “Start mining.” After that, the software will take a couple of minutes to verify and create a Verthash data file and start mining.

Vertcoin One Click Miner also automatically chooses Zpool.ca, one of the two pools with the lowest fees of 0.5%, as the default mining pool. To change this and many other default settings, head to the “Settings” tab.

The software also allows you to transfer to external wallets in the send coins tab and shows an estimate of how much you will earn in 24 hours. All you need to perform a transfer is a receiver address and the password you saved earlier.

You are now ready to mine and cash in your earnings!

Vertcoin price prediction

Vertcoin began its journey in the market with a coin price of approximately $0.07. Over the following month, its value surged more than 14,200 percent to $9.97 as of December 21, 2017. In June 2023, Vertcoin was valued at roughly $0.099 per coin, with a total market cap of over $6 million.

Predicting the future price of cryptocurrencies like Vertcoin is no easy task. The world of cryptocurrencies is very unpredictable, and prices can change rapidly. Looking ahead to 2030, the predicted prices for vertcoin vary greatly depending on who you ask.

AMBCrypto believes that by 2030, VTC price will be between $5.03 and $7.55, averaging around $6.29. Bitnation predicts lower prices, with an average estimate of $0.829538.

Meanwhile, PricePrediction and WalletInvestor are more optimistic. They expect VTC value to rise, predicting prices of $0.113694 and $2.32848 by the end of the decade, respectively. But TradingBeast has a less positive outlook, forecasting a drop to $0.003499.

Remember that the predictions could change with time, and it’s always a good idea to do your own research before investing.