Monero Mining Experiment

In late 2019, Monero activated RandomX—a proof-of-work algorithm explicitly designed to resist specialized mining hardware. From Monero's official documentation:

The goal: discourage ASICs, favor CPUs, and keep the network accessible to individuals rather than industrial operations.

I decided to test the thesis. I built six mining rigs, pointed them at a pool, and ran them for 14 months. I tracked transactions, calculated costs obsessively, and ultimately watched my yields erode month after month even as XMR's price climbed. The spreadsheet told a story the market didn't care about.

This is the full analysis.

On November 30, 2019, Monero hard-forked to RandomX. From the official Monero documentation:

The technical approach:

Random Code Execution

Instead of fixed calculations, RandomX generates random programs that must be executed. This unpredictability makes ASIC design impractical—you can't optimize hardware for an algorithm that changes constantly.

Memory-Hard Design

The algorithm requires 2GB+ of fast RAM, creating cost barriers for specialized chips that typically minimize memory to maximize efficiency.

CPU-Friendly Features

RandomX leverages branch prediction, out-of-order execution, and large L3 caches—features native to general-purpose CPUs that would be expensive to replicate in custom silicon.

The result: for the first time in years, consumer desktop processors were competitive mining hardware for a major cryptocurrency.

I built six identical rigs around the AMD Ryzen 5 3600—one of the more efficient CPUs for RandomX at the time.

Per-Rig Specifications

Total hardware investment: $3,414 (6 rigs x $569)

Expected Performance

Based on RandomX benchmarks:

• •Per-rig hashrate: ~6,300 H/s
• •Total farm hashrate: ~37,800 H/s
• •System power draw: ~65W per rig (estimated)

Note: I'm writing this analysis retrospectively. The Ryzen 5 3600 has a 65W TDP and draws close to that under sustained CPU load. The full system (motherboard, RAM, SSD) adds some overhead, but for a minimal mining rig without a GPU, ~65W at the wall is a reasonable estimate. I didn't have perfect measurements running continuously, so I'll use this figure for the analysis.

Estimated power consumption for a minimal mining rig:

Monthly electricity cost: 390W x 24h x 30.5 days / 1000 x $0.10 = ~$28.55

I mined through SupportXMR, a pool that provided consistent payouts proportional to contributed hashrate.

Transaction Data: December 2019 - May 2020

From my Exodus wallet export, here are the actual recorded transactions:

Key observations from recorded data:

• •Payouts arrived roughly every 2 days
• •Average payout: 0.10 XMR
• •Monthly yield: ~1.5-1.9 XMR
• •Slight decline visible by May 2020 as network difficulty increased

Extrapolated Data: June 2020 - January 2021

I didn't keep perfect records throughout, but the final numbers are fairly accurate. Based on the pattern from the verified data and observable difficulty trends, I've reconstructed the remaining months:

Total Mining Output

Total Costs

Operating Economics

For a mining operation, the key question isn't "break-even price"—it's whether you're generating more value than you're spending on electricity each month.

Monthly Picture

On a pure operating basis, the rigs were profitable every single month—I was always generating more value than I was spending on electricity. The price appreciation more than compensated for declining yields.

Cumulative Picture

So why stop? Because of the trend in yields—and the hardware investment sitting idle.

The Yield Trajectory: The Real Story

Look at the monthly yield data again:

From December 2019 to January 2021, my monthly yield dropped from ~1.5 XMR to ~0.85 XMR—a 44% decline—even though my hardware and hashrate remained constant. The network difficulty was relentlessly increasing as more miners joined, attracted by the rising XMR price.

The price more than tripled, but my dollar-denominated yield only doubled. And the trend was clear: each month, I was capturing a smaller and smaller slice of the network. The bull market that was pumping XMR's price was simultaneously attracting industrial-scale competition that was crushing individual miners.

The Continuation Analysis

I modeled what would happen if I kept mining:

Each additional month of electricity bought diminishing XMR returns as difficulty kept climbing. The break-even price would improve marginally, but I was fighting a losing battle against network-wide hashrate growth. The spreadsheet said: stop mining, hold what you have, and repurpose the hardware.

In late January 2021, I shut down the rigs.

The decision wasn't primarily about break-even price—it was about recognizing that the yield trajectory was going in the wrong direction, and that continued operation was a losing proposition against an exponentially growing network.

Repurposing the Hardware

Rather than selling the rigs, I repurposed them—home servers, general-use PCs for family, one became a main workstation. The hardware retained utility value. Those Ryzen systems are still functional machines.

The "cost" of the mining experiment was really just the electricity. The hardware investment converted into ongoing computing utility rather than being a sunk cost.

Position After Shutdown

Since I kept the hardware, the effective "cost" of the mining experiment was just the electricity: ~$400 for ~18 XMR.

What the Market Did Next

For illustrative purposes, here's what the XMR position would have been worth at various points after shutdown:

The range of outcomes was dramatic. The same stack of XMR could have been worth anywhere from ~$2,000 to ~$9,000 depending on timing.

The Opportunity Cost

Here's the uncomfortable truth: what if I had just bought Bitcoin instead?

In December 2019, BTC was trading around $7,200. My total hardware investment of ~$3,400 would have bought approximately 0.47 BTC.

The "boring" strategy of simply buying and holding Bitcoin would have returned 3-5x more than this elaborate mining operation—with zero electricity bills, no hardware hassles, and no spreadsheets.

I spent 14 months monitoring rigs, tracking payouts, and optimizing configurations. The opportunity cost of that time and attention isn't even factored in above. Someone who just bought BTC on Coinbase and forgot about it would have crushed my returns.

Let me break down the key factors:

The yield trajectory was the real signal

I didn't stop mining because of a single calculation. I stopped because the monthly yield was in freefall—down 44% over 14 months—and the trend was accelerating. Each month, the bull market attracted more miners, which increased network difficulty, which crushed individual yields. The price was going up, but my slice of the pie was shrinking faster.

Difficulty is relentless

Network difficulty doesn't care about your costs. It only cares about total hashrate. As XMR's price rose, industrial operations and new miners flooded in, making my constant hashrate worth less and less. By January 2021, I was mining ~0.85 XMR/month versus ~1.5 XMR/month when I started. Same hardware, same electricity, 44% less output.

Hardware retained value

Unlike pure operating expenses, the rigs I built were still useful machines. By repurposing them instead of selling, I converted the "mining investment" into "computing infrastructure." The effective cost of the experiment was really just the electricity.

1. Watch the Yield Trend, Not Just the Price

The most important insight was recognizing that my yields were declining even as the price rose. A rising price that attracts competition can actually make individual mining less profitable. The spreadsheet that mattered tracked monthly XMR mined, not just XMR price.

2. Hardware Is an Asset, Not a Sunk Cost

My mining rigs weren't worthless when I stopped mining—they were computers. By repurposing them, I converted the "mining experiment" into "computing infrastructure." The effective cost was just the electricity.

3. Difficulty Is Relentless

My December 2019 yields were nearly double my January 2021 yields. Same hardware, same electricity, half the output. Proof-of-work difficulty adjustments are brutal and predictable.

4. Electricity Rate Is Make-or-Break

At $0.10/kWh, I had a path to marginal viability. At $0.15/kWh, the math would have been much worse. At $0.20/kWh, the operation would have been DOA. Know your rate before buying hardware.

The landscape has changed dramatically since this experiment.

Industrial Scale Has Won

Cryptocurrency mining is now dominated by publicly traded operators running facilities measured in gigawatts, not watts. Companies like MARA Holdings and Riot Platforms operate at scales that would have been unimaginable in 2019—holding tens of thousands of BTC on their balance sheets and increasingly pivoting their infrastructure toward AI and high-performance computing workloads.

The convergence of Bitcoin mining infrastructure and AI compute is a fascinating development. These companies have power capacity, cooling systems, and data center expertise that translates directly to GPU clusters. That's probably worth its own article.

Stranded Energy: Where Individual Mining Still Makes Sense

One area where small-scale mining can still be viable: stranded energy.

In places where energy is abundant but can't be transported—flared natural gas at oil wells, remote hydroelectric facilities, industrial waste heat—Bitcoin mining becomes a way to monetize otherwise useless electricity. Companies like Crusoe Energy and Upstream Data have built businesses around deploying containerized mining operations directly at oil well sites, burning gas that would otherwise be flared.

The economics are completely different when your electricity cost is effectively zero. If you have access to stranded energy—whether that's a gas well, excess solar capacity, or industrial waste heat—the calculus changes entirely. That's another topic worth exploring.

The Monero-Specific Situation

As for Monero itself: the network experienced a significant security event in 2025. A project called Qubic achieved temporary majority control of the network's hashrate and executed several blockchain reorganizations, raising serious questions about the long-term security of CPU-mined proof-of-work chains when economic incentives can be redirected.

Whether RandomX's design has held up, what the attack means for privacy coins, and how the community is responding—that's definitely material for another article. The events of 2025 would have been impossible to predict from my 2019 vantage point.

This case study is a snapshot of a specific moment—a brief window when CPU mining was theoretically accessible to individuals and the network was young enough that small operators could capture meaningful yield. That window has largely closed.

This experiment started as a test of whether the average person could profitably mine cryptocurrency with consumer hardware. The answer: technically yes, but you probably shouldn't.

What I learned:

• •The yield trajectory matters more than the spot price. A rising market that attracts competition can crush individual returns.
• •Hardware has residual value. The rigs I built are still useful machines.
• •Opportunity cost is real. I would have been dramatically better off just buying Bitcoin.

RandomX delivered on its promise of accessible mining. From Monero's perspective, the algorithm achieved its goal: keeping the network CPU-mineable and ASIC-resistant. But "accessible to participate" and "profitable to operate" aren't synonyms—and "profitable" and "optimal" definitely aren't.

The real value here was the education: learning to track costs, watch yield trends, and make decisions based on data rather than hope. Whether that education was worth the foregone BTC returns is... debatable.