Hey everyone, I'm considering to start mining but have a question. From what I gathered so far to be awarded monero for solo mining it takes approx. 22 days, is that correct? Also does your computer need to be running continuously to be awarded that amount? I know pools are faster but haven't researched that yet. Is there a difference in using cpu or gpu as far as speed and efficiency? This seems very technical but I see the need for this since it would defeat the purpose. I hate learning curves, lol. Not to concerned about fees right now until I know what I'm doing. Any advice would be appreciated.
"It takes approx 22 days" that depends on your hardware. If you have a lot of hashing power, you can possibly find a block in a quicker amount of time. The thing with block finding is that its really just luck. Each time you try to solve a block you are rolling the dice. If you have more hashpower, all that means is you can roll the dice faster, so you can have more rolls per second.
"Does your CPU need to be running" - as can be extrapolated from the above, it doesn't need to always be running, but the more it is running the more chances you have of winning.
"CPU vs GPU" CPUs are generally more power efficient, but GPUs are scale efficient. This means that if you wanted to build a mining farm, you could easily have lots of GPUs, whereas its more expensive to build a CPU farm.
The best thing to do, in terms of simplicity, is to download the monero core software and run mining on your node. This is called "solo mining" and "running a full node." It might take a long time to find a block, but its by far the easiest and cheapest. if you want to get serious about mining, and view it as a source of "profit", then there are many different ways to go about it.
Long story short, start now and start simple. EVentually, Monero may have the same path as Bitcoin - a lot of people will start mining it. When more people mine it, it becomes more difficult to find blocks and get awarded.
