At the moment, I have two systems I'm attempting.
System one is a cloud miner called BTCProMiner.
https://btcprominer.life/294644
This is my referal link to it if anyone fancies a go. I upgraded from the free version of version 1.0, which mines about 0.0008 BTC per day, to Version 1.1 which cost about 20 euro as a one off payment and now mines at 0.0012 BTC per day.
After running it for a couple of days I went to withdraw around 15 dollars. This can take up to 20 days before it goes through but will allegedly pay directly to my Wirex account.
I will update when this actually gets paid out.
Is it a rip off?
Well, the free one is free. It doesn't use any part of your computer power because it is done via the cloud on someone else's system, so free is free. I may have lost a few dollars upgrading but we shall see and I will report back on that. Now, knowing it takes so long to pay out I am just going to ignore it until November and hopefully draw something worth having out around Christmas time.
System two I have set up actually uses the pc to run.
It is called Minergate and the write ups I have read seem reasonably positive.
https://minergate.com/
This one is slightly more complex and requires you to set up a wallet and runs on your computer.
It is easy enough to install even on my linux system. It operates on most operating systems.
This one is free too in the first instance.
My antique laptop is probably the worst thing you could run this on or any other mining software and benchmarked at one star.
I'm really just doing it as a test to amuse myself. The big drawback for mining is the power needed and a high power rig can require more electricity than it actually earns. My laptop has no battery in it so this will be interesting to see how that affects power consumption.
Though it offers a lot of different currencies to mine, when set to "Smart mine" it only mines XMR. That might be just because of my low spec laptop, so your results may vary.
Does it work?
It is slowly clocking up XMR but so far hasn't verified any into my account so we shall wait out on that one.
I run it a couple of hours a day, as I say just to amuse myself but I will report back if any actually makes it to the wallet.
The point of this, is that for those of us who cannot afford expensive mining rigs, there are a couple of options for making a small amount of income from mining.
Even if it is only a small amount today, think back what a bitcoin was worth ten years ago. By Christmas I could be a millionaire right?