Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies
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A ton of helpful resources are online for aspiring cryptocurrency miners or those interested in learning more on the topic. These cryptocurrency mining resources are split into ten different categories, from resources that can help you track the price of cryptocurrencies to cryptocurrency whitepapers. Reviewing these resources can keep any aspiring crypto miner busy for many happy hours!

Cryptocurrency market trackers

Following are sites that provide aggregated exchange rates and market capitalization for cryptocurrencies, a few of the more reliable sources in the industry. Note that in some cases exchanges have fed bad data to the tracking sites, but in general, the data is good:

Cryptocurrency mining profitability estimation tools

Use these tools often when considering which cryptocurrency to mine and when thinking about expanding. Here is a quick list of some popular profitability tools:

Cryptocurrency Reddit pages

Reddit is among one of the top social media sites for cryptocurrency communities to discuss and debate the trending topics of the day. Check out this list of some of the top cryptocurrency Reddit pages.

If you need a different one, just add your cryptocurrency’s name or symbol to the end of the URL; some cryptocurrency reddits use the name, some the symbol — for example, www.reddit.com/r/XRP/ and www.reddit.com/r/zcoin/. Due to conflicts, some can use neither and have to come up with something else (TRON uses www.reddit.com/r/TRXTrading/, for example), so you may have to search.

Blockchain explorers

Blockchain explorers provide an easy way to audit blockchains directly from your web browser. They can search for blocks, transactions, hashes, and addresses. Here’s a list of useful Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain explorers.

Blockchair also works with the Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Bitcoin SV, Dash, Dogecoin, and Groestlcoin blockchains. For other cryptocurrencies, try a search engine query. Many smaller cryptocurrencies are not popular enough to have explorers, but some do. Check out these blockchain explorers:

Data visualizations

While blockchain explorers are good resources for finding textual and numerical data for your favorite blockchains, some creative individuals have taken this concept a step further. There are many visually appealing data visualizations for the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency space. Here are some of our favorites:

Cryptocurrency data and statistics

Cryptocurrency data, comparisons, and statistics websites can be very useful, helping you to compare cryptocurrencies. Here are several good cryptocurrency data aggregators:

Cryptocurrency Wiki’s

While Wikipedia.org has pages for most of the top cryptocurrencies, these pages are often fairly short descriptions and not a deep dive resource that can cover every aspect of a typical cryptocurrency. Not to worry, as some cryptocurrencies have their own (or multiple!) Wiki-style directories that define many of the terms and aspects associated with that cryptocurrency.

Some of the following Wikis also cover other cryptocurrencies. For example, BitcoinWiki.org has information on not only Bitcoin but many other cryptocurrencies, too.

Lopp.net resources

Jameson Lopp is an active user and developer in the bitcoin space, and he has compiled a very extensive list of resources curated from the Bitcoin community in a single location. You can find handy tools, user guides, and many other helpful resources on his site.

Cypherpunk Manifesto

The Cypherpunk Manifesto, written by Eric Hughes, is a foundational document that many cryptographers and cryptocurrency users have read over the years. It’s an interesting introduction to the politics behind the origins of cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency white papers

The Bitcoin and cryptocurrency explosion that has occurred over the past decade all started out with Satoshi Nakamoto’s release of his idea to the Cypherpunk Mailing List (archives located here), some code, and an accompanying whitepaper.

Since then, many (countless?) whitepapers have been released, describing a wide variety of cryptocurrency and blockchain systems. Check out this shortlist of links to read some of the most popular cryptocurrency whitepapers over the past decade. You can search for others, of course, but many cryptocurrencies were launched without whitepapers (Litecoin and Dogecoin, for example).

The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute

The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute site contains the entire known writings of Satoshi Nakamoto (whoever he/she/they is/are!), along with numerous other documents that “serve to contextualize Bitcoin into the broader story of cryptography and freedom.” It’s required reading and a great way for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency enthusiasts to go down the rabbit hole.

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