Every 2 minutes, a new block is mined. The reward is 0.6 XMR — forever. No halvings. No fee-market death spiral. Just permanent, democratized mining.
0.6 XMR
Block reward
Tail emission · forever
432/day
XMR mined daily
720 blocks × 0.6
0.85%
Annual inflation
Declining yearly
—
Network hashrate
—
Section 01 / Overview
Block reward · supply model · key stats
Block reward
0.6 XMR
TAIL EMISSION
Fixed forever. No halvings. Monero entered tail emission in May 2022 after ~18.4M XMR were mined. Unlike Bitcoin's diminishing rewards, every Monero block pays 0.6 XMR in perpetuity.
Supply model
18.45M+
INFINITE
Technically infinite, practically deflationary. Tail emission adds ~157,680 XMR/year (~0.85% inflation, declining annually). Lost coins likely exceed new issuance.
Section 02 / Hardware
CPU is king — RandomX was designed for your processor
■
CPU mining
RandomX is memory-hard and optimized for general-purpose CPUs. Requires 2GB+ RAM per thread, AES-NI support. AMD Ryzen/EPYC and Intel i7/i9 perform best.
Optimal for Monero
▲
GPU mining
GPUs are structurally disadvantaged with RandomX. Random code execution maps poorly to shader cores. Fewer hashes per watt than CPU. Not recommended since 2019.
Not recommended
◆
RAM matters
Each thread needs 2GB+ of fast memory. RandomX constantly reads/writes a 2GB scratchpad. DDR4-3200+ with tight timings can boost hashrate 10-15%.
Key performance factor
~4,800 H/s
i9-9900K typical
~14,000 H/s
Ryzen 9 7950X
~1,200 H/s
RTX 3080 (GPU)
~800 H/s
M1 MacBook Pro
Section 03 / Electricity
Cost to mine by US state · national avg: 18.05¢/kWh
ND
11.02¢
+$2.41/mo
ID
11.74¢
+$2.18/mo
LA
12.44¢
+$1.96/mo
WY
12.70¢
+$1.88/mo
UT
12.89¢
+$1.82/mo
WA
13.10¢
+$1.75/mo
OK
13.45¢
+$1.64/mo
TX
16.18¢
+$0.77/mo
FL
16.52¢
+$0.66/mo
CO
16.33¢
+$0.72/mo
NY
22.65¢
-$1.31/mo
CT
28.71¢
-$3.26/mo
MA
31.51¢
-$4.16/mo
CA
33.75¢
-$4.88/mo
HI
39.89¢
-$6.85/mo
Profit estimates: single i9-9900K (~4,800 H/s, 95W TDP). Green = profitable, Gold = marginal, Red = electricity exceeds revenue. Data: EIA.
Section 04 / Solo vs Pool
Pool mining wins for 99% of miners
Solo mining
You mine alone against the network. At 4,800 H/s vs ~5.97 GH/s network, expected time to find a block is ~804 days. High variance — you might wait years or get lucky in hours.
+ Full 0.6 XMR reward · No fees · Maximum privacy
- Extreme variance · May never find a block at low hashrate
Pool mining
Contribute shares to a pool. Steady, predictable payouts proportional to your hashrate. Payments every few hours to days depending on pool and your hashrate.
+ Predictable income · Low variance · Easy setup
- Pool fee (0-1%) · Trust pool operator
Recommended for: Home miners, beginners, anyone under 50 KH/s. This is you.
Section 05 / Pools
Mining pool comparison · data from miningpoolstats.stream
P2Pool
Fee0%
Hashrate403 MH/s
Min payout0.0003 XMR
PaymentLocal PPLNS
RequiresFull node
7.2% network share
MoneroOcean
Fee0%
Hashrate~250 MH/s
Min payout0.003 XMR
PaymentPPLNS
FeatureAlgo-switch
4.5% network share
SupportXMR
Fee0.6%
Hashrate~180 MH/s
Min payout0.1 XMR
PaymentPPLNS
ReputationStrong
3.2% network share
HashVault
Fee0.9%
Hashrate~85 MH/s
Min payout0.5 XMR
PaymentPPLNS
1.5% network share
C3Pool
Fee0%
Hashrate~120 MH/s
Min payout0.003 XMR
PaymentPPLNS
2.1% network share
Nanopool
Fee1%
Hashrate323 MH/s
Min payout1 XMR
PaymentPPLNS
5.8% network share
Section 06 / Setup
Start mining in 5 minutes · XMRig
1. Download XMRig
Visit xmrig.com and download the latest release for Windows. Extract the ZIP. Your antivirus will flag it — add an exception.
2. Edit config.json
Open config.json in Notepad. Set your pool and wallet:
Local Security Policy → Local Policies → User Rights Assignment
→ "Lock pages in memory" → Add your user → Reboot4. Launchxmrig.exeTip: Use --threads=N to limit CPU cores. Reduce voltage for lower temps.
1. Install via Homebrewbrew install xmrig
Or download from xmrig.com. Right-click → Open to bypass Gatekeeper.