Hello guys. I'm pretty much new in the bitcoin scene so I'd to know how altcoin are mined.
Do I need a Mining hardware machine like how bitcoin is mined? A friend of mine told me something about
staking from the altcoin wallet. So I'd like to know how it works .
Also a little info about how to join the mining pools for altcoin and how to solo mine.
PS: I have no idea about some of the terms like
Solo Mine for example.
I'd appreciate If someone can help me out
There are thousands of altcoins. Each one of them has a name and an algorithm. Most can be mined.
There are basically 2 ways to mine: PoW (put a device to work) and PoS (hold some amounts of the coin and just keep them in the wallet and the wallet running).
How you mine PoW coins, depends on the certain coin's algorithm: some have the same algorithm like Bitcoin!, some (like Litecoin or Dogecoin) need special ASIC devices but different from the ones for Bitcoin.
Then there are coins you can mine with good GPUs (Ethereum, ZCash), coins that are CPU only (Magi coin), or coins you can mine with CPU and/or GPU (Monero).
There are too many coins and algorithms to discuss about all of them now. In most cases it's better to mine in pools, unless you have a ton of hardware.
For PoS you need to invest. You need an amount of coins to keep in the wallet. You will get some percents for that, like in the bank, so the amounts you get depend on the amounts you have. I am not into PoS mining because if I am unlucky the coins' value can fall much more than I'd earn and I don't like to do too risky investments. There only PoS coin I know of is Magicoin (because it also offers PoW mining).