As things stand at the beginning of 2018, there is no easier recommendation to make than to mine for Ethereum. Not only is it more directly profitable in terms of the cash value of altcoins mined compared to the likes of Bitcoin (no farm-level mining requirements here – even a solo player can reap a regular, if modest profit from Ethereum), there are also some long-term considerations that are about to come into play. Namely, Casper. For those of you who are unaware of this new development in Ethereum, Casper is a planned upgrade to Ethereum due to see the light of day soon… ish. You see, it’s hard to be sure, since Ethereum have been promising Casper for a few months now, and there's still no sign of it. Regardless, once it arrives, it will completely change the way that Ethereum is earned, as it adds a new PoS (or, Proof-of-Stake) algorithm to the regular PoW (or, Proof-of-Work) that already exists on the network. What this means, in real terms, is that for every 100 blocks added to the chain, there will be one solo block that is validated via the PoS algorithm.That’s right – automated validation. This is a massive change in the “rules” of cryptocurrency , essentially taking mining out of the equation, so why bank all your processing power on Ethereum, if it’s only going become a redundant exercise in the coming months? Simply because, with Ethereum’s Virtual Machine (the distributed computer network that runs alongside the blockchain) you are able to stake your existing cache of Ethereum in order to improve the running of the network, and get more back off your investment by doing so. Once Casper is in place, Ethereum will suddenly become a more stable and reliable currency for corporate partners, all of whom will need access to the Virtual Machine in order to run their particular apps. So get in now – mine Ethereum – and when the upgrade kicks in at some point this year, stake your coins on the Virtual Machine to prop up the companies that will likely flock to a solid and stable altcoin after the volatility of the last few months. You’ll make more in dividends from that than you ever did mining, and you can always switch your rig over to another digital currency, to allow you joint streams of crypto income.