There’s another way to get your hands in some coins, in the most cypherpunk way possible. Monero is what’s called a proof-of-work cryptocurrency. That means that the system works in such a way that it gives out new coins to those who do a certain type of work, and can prove it.
In this case, you use your computer to run a program that makes very hard calculations all the time and you receive a little bit of Monero for that.
Any computer can mine, but obviously, the faster the processor is, the more moneros you get in return. If your computer is too slow, it may not be profitable to mine instead of just buying the moneros, for example. That’s because your computer uses electricity to work, and since it’ll be working hard to earn moneros, the price of that electricity may be higher than the price of the moneros you get. This will change according to where you live, for example.
Some people choose to mine anyway for different reasons. For one, it helps the network as a whole to be stronger against attacks, but also, because some people simply cannot buy Monero. For example they may be too young to have money of their own but they have a computer and they don’t pay the electricity bill. Or they live in a country where there are not many buying methods, or available sellers of Monero. Another possibility is that they have access to very cheap electricity.
What you’ll need is a computer and a mining program. There are several available, but most people use XMRig. I suggest that you also check Gupax, which is an easy way to mine in a decentralized way. You download it, set it up, and start mining.
There is very good information about mining Monero at monerostuff.blogspot.com
You can also ask questions and read answers at the Monero Mining subreddit.
Once you get some coins, check out what you can do with them.
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