Most people would jet to say that staking is better, and we should end the post.

But I feel that most people who want to mine should be told why they should or shouldn't mine.

So that's why I decided to create this post. I felt that most people who are new to crypto would have heard of mining and gotten excited. 

So without further ado, let's get started!

(PS: Check out one of my posts that made it to the popular pages! See it here.)

Ok, so first off, what is mining? I have written a detailed post about that topic here, but basically mining is an exercise where a person(often referred to as a miner) contributes his computing power to the cryptocurrency network by solving cryptographic (complex mathematical) problems to enable verification of transactions on the blockchain.

"In English?" You say.

Simply put, mining us the use of your computing power to aid the transactions on the blockchain, and this aid gets you a reward in form of free Crypto of the blockchain you are mining on. This means that if you mine on the bitcoin blockchain, you get bitcoin as a reward. If you mine on the ether blockchain, you get ether as a reward, and so on.

So what is staking?

I have also explained that in detail here, but staking is the process of "donating" your cryptocurrency to be used on the blockchain, and you receive rewards based on a fixed percentage in that crypto that you staked.

I personally stake Tezos in the Trust wallet, and I earn 6.2% per annum on my staked coins. Some other coins have higher APRs, while some have as low as 2%(like USDT)

So let's look at the pros and cons of each method of earning crypto.

PROS OF MINING

• The rewards are huge. Very huge. Currently, the reward for mining one block on the Bitcoin blockchain is 12.5BTC, or $118750 at the current exchange rate.
• You contribute to the blockchain, and you are the facilitator of transactions. Without you, there really is no blockchain.

CONS OF MINING

• It's expensive to set up the equipment required for mining today
• You really can't make any money if you decide to go off on your own
• You won't make much money either if you join a pool.
• You will probably get scammed if you decide to cloud mine.
• The power that is required for mining today is enormous. It costs some small miners $5000 a month in electricity fees.

Now, on to Staking.

PROS OF STAKING

• Much cheaper than mining to setup: You literally need no equipment or powerful computer. You just need some stakeable cryptocurrency, a staking app (like trust wallet or coinbase exchange) and you're good to go.
• Your interest compounds: This is by far the best part of staking for me. The interest you get is paid to you everyday, and then that interest is also staked, so it also earns you interest everyday as well. And the chain continues till infinity.(or till you withdraw your money and blow it on a PS4)
• You also contribute heavily to the blockchain, as staking is mining to some cryptocurrencies
• You can do it and forget about it: You don't need to check up on your equipment everyday, because there is no equipment. You also don't have to worry about power bills racking up, because they don't matter at all.

CONS OF STAKING

• Not all interest rates are high: If you're not interested in staking high interest rate coins, you can expect about 2% per annum, which isn't much different from keeping your money in a bank.
• Really no other obvious flaws.

So which one do you think is best for you? Tell me down below!