While energy concerns have steered many investors towards proof of stake tokens, a large section of investors, the old guard of crypto, still considers proof of work cryptocurrencies to be unparalleled. The best proof of work coins have a great reputation owing to their roots. And since many green mining initiatives have emerged, PoW tokens are still viable investors for serious cryptocurrency investors.
This guide details the best proof of work coins to buy this year. It also covers why PoW crypto assets still are great investments and how to buy proof of work cryptos easily.
Best Proof of Work Coins to Buy in 2024
Proof-of-work coins are not so easily created, and the hardware and financial requirements laying the foundation for them are high. With that in mind, here is a glance at the best proof-of-work coins to invest in.
- Bitcoin: The Original PoW Cryptocurrency that still leads the crypto charts
- Dogecoin: The Original PoW memecoin and the biggest memecoin by market cap
- Litecoin: A Mineable Coin and a P2P System
- Ethereum Classic: Hard Fork of Ethereum
- Bitcoin Cash: Proof of Work Crypto Hard Forked from Bitcoin’s Blockchain
Best Proof of Work Cryptos of 2024 – Complete Review
Not all proof of work cryptos are the same. Some are only good for trading, and others have evolved beyond it to provide great utilities. This section covers both types of assets – highlighting their strengths and deciphering the crypto community’s interest in them.
Bitcoin: The Original PoW Cryptocurrency that still leads the crypto Charts
For true crypto investors, no cryptocurrency comes to a crypto asset that started it all – Bitcoin. This cryptocurrency is the progenitor of the entire crypto market and gave us the concept of decentralized finance as we know it today.
Bitcoin was envisioned as a decentralized currency unencumbered by the legal complications of traditional banking institutions and could be sent around the world without a middleman. It achieved it by conceptualizing blockchain, an immutable ledger composed of blocks that hold the details of every transaction.
Bitcoin is the original and the biggest proof of work cryptocurrency holding the majority of the market capitalization of the crypto market at more than $400 billion. While the crypto winter has bought the Bitcoin price down by more than 60% of its all-time high, the majority of investors continue to stay bullish about this asset since its price dictates the direction of all altcoins in the market.
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Dogecoin; The Original PoW memecoin and the biggest memecoin by market cap
Dogecoin is the memecoin – the one that started the trend of joke cryptocurrencies and then turned them mainstream. Reaching voluminous highs and tumultuous lows, due to the words of the “dogecoin-patron” – Elon Musk – Dogecoin is one of the most volatile cryptocurrencies active.
Like Bitcoin, Dogecoin also uses the proof of work consensus mechanism to validate transactions, the difference being that Dogecoin doesn’t take 1 minute to validate one block, whereas Bitcoin takes 10 minutes.
After staying below $0.1 for a long time due to the bear market, Dogecoin has pumped above the $0.1 mark, wicking above $0.15 at some points. It is partially because of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. With such speculative growth drivers, Dogecoin is a suitable proof of work coin for investors who are okay with the fact that DOGE has no discernible utility.
That said, Dogecoin might be taking a utility route as the Dogecoin board of advisors is working to hire a specialized team to work on this meme coin. It might introduce some interesting use cases to the project – making it a worthy investment for those looking to put their money into utility-based crypto.
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Litecoin: A Mineable Coin and a P2P System
Litecoin is the world’s first altcoin, created as a fork of the original Bitcoin. Designed as a lightweight version of Bitcoin, Litecoin has been a favorite of crypto investors who want to trade in crypto assets frugally.
In addition to marketing upon the fact that it has descended from Bitcoin, Litecoin also has many features working in its features, ranging from faster transaction speeds, lower transaction fees, and higher throughput. These factors have made Litecoin readily acceptable to merchants who were wary of Bitcoin.
However, the original idea behind the conception of Litecoin was the fear that Bitcoin was too centrally controlled, with BTC’s enormous minting cost allowing enterprise miners to take over the profits.
While the developers were still unsuccessful at stopping enterprise miners from establishing hegemony over the mining process, Litecoin has evolved into a peer-to-peer payment system to become more inclusive.
At the time of writing, Litecoin ranks as the third biggest proof of work token by market capitalization and has jumped by nearly 23% since the beginning of November 2022 – indicating that the broader crypto market continues to remain bullish about this crypto asset.
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Ethereum Classic: The Forked Ethereum
When Ethereum launched its official mainnet in 2015, it suffered a major theft from its DAO. The Ethereum foundation quickly stepped in to create a new version that erased the record of that theft. As a result, the original Ethereum blockchain was split into two variants: One is the Ethereum that has recently gone through the merge upgrade, and the other is the Ethereum Classic, which maintains the old history of Ethereum.
Bearing the ticker symbol ETC, Ethereum Classic follows the principle of “Code is Law” and, according to the official website, has the ability to resist censorship to create unstoppable applications.
Ethereum Classic remained largely under the radar in the earlier months of 2022. However, as the merge upgrade got closer and the Ethereum miners became nervous, the ETC ecosystem saw an influx of new miners. The reason? Many companies said they wouldn’t support Ethereum POW, the new proof of work fork of the Ethereum blockchain.
For seasoned investors, Ethereum classic has become the next best proof of coin to mine after Bitcoin. While its value is far lower than post-merge Ethereum, most investors on CoinMarketCap have marked their sentiments about this crypto as bullish.
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Bitcoin Cash: A Crypto hard Forked from Bitcoin’s Blockchain
Bitcoin Cash is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that aims to bring sound – transactional, valuable, and secure – money into the world. It boasts fast transaction speeds and a reliable network that, according to the official website, runs without congestion, low transaction fees, stability, simplicity, and security.
Calling itself the best money in the world, Bitcoin Cash has the same supply as the original Bitcoin (21 million). Along with offering more privacy and anonymity than traditional payment systems like credit card payments and bank transfers, Bitcoin Cash also sports SmartBCH, a high-performance EVM and Web 3 compatible sidechain to support DeFi applications. The most prominent among those applications are CashFusion and Cashshuffle.
Bitcoin Cash ranks sixth in the world’s top proof of work coins by market capitalization, with a market cap of $2.275 billion. While the token’s performance has been in the bearish zone due to the 2022 crypto winter, Bitcoin Cash has continued to stay above $100 for now – making it one of the most stable cryptocurrencies right now.
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What is Proof of Work Crypto?
A proof of work crypto is a cryptocurrency that operates on the proof of work consensus mechanism.
Within cryptocurrency, a consensus mechanism is a fault-tolerant system that validates the transaction added to the immutable ledger known as the blockchain.
With proof of work, such validations are done using heavy computational resources. Since proof of work cryptos are rewarded for performing the validations, the process is also called mining. To become a miner, a person or an institution has to have enough resources to perform these heavy computational tasks. If the person or the organization has access to such resources, they download the required software to become validators.
Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake
Proof of work and proof of stake is the most prominent consensus mechanisms in the blockchain ecosystem, with both having strengths and weaknesses.
Proof of stake was born in response to the proof of work mechanism’s high energy expenditure, lower throughput, and higher fees.
So, picking up the best proof of stake cryptocurrencies is a no-brainer for an environmentally conscious crypto investor. However, becoming a validator for a proof of stake blockchain can be immensely expensive. For instance, becoming a validator for the post-merge Ethereum requires the validator to have at least 32 ETH.
However, becoming a miner requires nothing more than having a decent system – and even that doesn’t have to be outlandish.
For instance, the minimum recommended system requirement to become a Bitcoin miner is 250 GB of disk page, 500 mb//day download speed, 5GB/day upload speed, 1 GB RAM, and an operating system. That said, to become a miner that can earn Bitcoin quickly, a validator needs to create a far more proficient system.
Also, energy concerns are steering the world towards proof of stake cryptocurrencies, which has led many miners to take a greener approach to mining crypto. The impact of such initiatives is yet to be seen.
Why Choose Proof of Work Coins?
In the current environmentally-conscious scenario, one needs to dig deeper to understand why there is a need for proof of work cryptocurrencies. Here are some reasons people remain bullish about proof of work crypto.
High Level of Security
Proof of work sports superior security where users are deterred from cheating the systems since every single transaction is verified.
The proof of work system is completely trustless, relying on all the transactions to be verified by the network participants. As a proof of network grows with time, the computations become more complex, and the network more difficult – which results in the blockchain becoming more difficult to hack. It is because there are cost ramifications to hacking a proof of work blockchain system – a hacker needs high-level computational equipment to solve the transactions – which can outweigh the gains to be made by hacking a system.
Decentralization in the Proof of Work Consensus Mechanism is Greater
Blockchains working on the proof of work consensus mechanisms have been proven to be more decentralized than the rest. And since there are no cost requirements for mining other than buying and maintaining the equipment and energy charges, the profits tend to outweigh the spending.
Proof of Work is the primary reason countries like Argentina – which has always exercised strict control over foreign currencies – became one of the first to adopt Bitcoin.
Proof of Work Cryptos have a Strong Foundation
Even if the crypto market is changing rapidly and evolving every day, most crypto enthusiasts trust cryptos that came before. Since cryptocurrencies are speculative assets, investors find solace in investing in cryptos that have already proven their mettle in the crypto space and the best proof of work coins, have. They still maintain the highest positions in crypto rankings, with Bitcoin at first.
Conclusion
Proof of work coins may have drawn criticism from many, but the fact remains that the general crypto crowd continues to remain bullish about them. Bitcoin has started to show early signs of stability – but newer assets could be a better investment for those looking for cryptos to invest in.
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FAQs on PoW Cryptos
Which coins use Proof of Work?
The biggest crypto assets in the blockchain space use proof of work, including Bitcoin. However, investors looking for affordable PoW cryptos can choose between Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Dogecoin.
Is Bitcoin the only proof of work coin?
No, other assets that we have listed, such as Litecoin and Dogecoin. Ethereum Classic, Ethereum POW, uses the proof of work consensus mechanism.
Is Ethereum a Proof of Work Coin?
Ethereum has taken a proof of stake route post-merge. It has left proof of work as its consensus mechanism.
What is the best proof of work crypto?
Most would consider Bitcoin the King of cryptocurrency as a whole, as well as proof of work cryptocurrency.
