CryptUnit: CryptoNote Currencies Mining Profitability Calculator?

CryptUnit offers a calculator that allows users to calculate the profitability of mining a variety of cryptocurrencies, specifically those based on the CryptoNote protocol. The site is enthusiastically devoted to promoting the CryptoNote technology to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and it is available as a free service “to give back to the CryptoNote ecosystem.”

CryptUnit's limited focus means that it will likely appeal only to a small subset of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, but those interested in mining CryptoNote currencies will surely find it to be an invaluable resource.

Team Behind CryptUnit

CryptUnit does not identify any of its founders or developers, though since it is a free service and its calculations can be easily verified, it is not necessarily important to know who is behind it. The site's contact page lists only a Gmail address, suggesting it is probably the work of an individual rather than a group.

The site is very young: its Alexa page notes that it was created in January 2018, and its header notes that it is technically still in beta testing, though its calculator feature seems fully functional. The site has received coverage from a few online forums devoted to cryptocurrencies, including BitcoinTalk and Reddit, but it has not developed any presence on social media.

CryptUnit's Technology

CryptUnit lists sixteen different CryptoNote-based currencies, and displays information on their current price, hashrate, and reward per block. The home page lists all sixteen currencies in order of their price by default, but users can also select to arrange them by their hashrate.

Each currency's listing on the home page includes a chart of its change in value over the preceding seven days, and users can click on them to learn more about longer-term price history and find links to mining pools or public exchanges. The site takes it data from several sites, including CoinMarketCap, ChainRadar, and CryptoCompare, and automatically updates its prices and blockchain data every few minutes.

CryptUnit is solely devoted to currencies that use the CryptoNote application layer. CryptoNote hopes to improve upon the ideas that power Bitcoin, with significantly faster transaction verifications and greater anonymity since even the sender and recipient in a transaction are impossible to identify through the blockchain. The first currency to use the CryptoNote protocol was Bytecoin, released in July 2012, and the most popular is Monero.

CryptUnit covers both of these, as well as fourteen other more obscure “altcoins,” including TurtleCoin, Dero, Electroneum, and Aeon. Most CryptoNote currencies can all be mined using the same software, hence the need to determine which is the most lucrative one to mine.

Service Details

CryptUnit's site has three main pages: its “Calculator” home page, the “All Coins” page with more detailed information about each currency, and a “Downloads” page with links to mining software.

The Calculator feature asks users to enter their hash rate, and then automatically reports how profitable each currency would be to mine given its current price and block creation rate. The Calculator shows that there are indeed significant differences in price and block creation times between the currencies, and that some with lower prices but more blocks to mine can be more lucrative overall.

Thus, miners would be wise to use CryptUnit's calculator regularly to make sure they're best directing their efforts. CryptUnit is available as a free service. Its developers include wallet addresses if users want to support the service through donations, but they are not prominently displayed. The developers seem motivated by a genuine passion for the CryptoNote protocol, and they do not seem particularly interested in monetizing CryptUnit.

The CryptUnit Verdict

CryptUnit has a rather limited appeal, since even among cryptocurrency users few are interested in mining these relatively obscure currencies. However, its devotion to CryptoNote currencies means that it is positioned to become a leading authority on them.

The site's transparent information about the sixteen currencies' prices and hash rates can help miners decide where to direct their attention for maximum profitability; thus, anyone interested in cryptocurrency mining should explore CryptUnit.