Tapping into the crypto world can be done through many ventures. In today's crypto economy, you don't need to only buy Bitcoin to dip your toes in cryptocurrency investing. Your options would range from buying crypto and metaverse stocks, to participating in mining. The latter option is started to rise in popularity thanks to the current crypto bear market. The famous software security company Norton released a new service as part of its Norton 360 bundle called "Norton Crypto". Many skeptics started to debate whether this service is a good deal or a complete rip-off. Is Norton Crypto worth it? Let's break down the details and assess.

Norton is a US-based company that specializes in selling digital security services. Since 1991, they sold anti-virus and anti-malware software, along with e-mail spam filtering and phishing protection. With the rise of the digital world, Norton started to rapidly expand across borders and today is one of the well-known figures in the cyberspace realm.

With the evolution of the digital world, Norton started to expand its product offerings. Those services range from individual PC privacy, all the way to enterprise protection.

Norton Crypto is a new service part of the Norton 360 plan and is basically a cryptocurrency mining software. It helps newbies use their available PC resources and turn their computers into a mining rig. The cool thing about this is that the mining activity happens automatically every time the GPU of the PC is in idle mode. This way, you don't have to worry about constantly turning your software on or off.

The process is very similar (or the same) as mining pools. When Norton Crypto turns on, it will add the user's graphic card power to an Ethereum mining pool and starts to work. When a payout occurs, the user will split equally the reward among those in the pool, depending on how much hash rate they contributed. This is a great tool for newcomers, as it simplifies the mining process, and gives the "little guys" an edge over large mining companies.

Unlike other mining pools, Norton Crypto is not free to use. Any Norton 360 package must be owned in order to qualify for Norton Crypto. Additionally, the user must meet the system and software requirements in order to be eligible to participate in those mining pools.

Hardware requirements:

• Graphics card - Nvidia cards with minimum 6 GB memory
• Processor - 1 GHz
• RAM - 2 GB (minimum of 512 MB RAM required for Recovery Tool)
• Hard disk space - 300 MB of available hard disk space

Software requirements:

• Norton Crypto supports Windows 7 SP1 and later, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11.
• Norton Crypto does not support Windows 10 in S mode and Windows running on ARM processors

Currently, the company only supports Ether mining. But they mentioned that they will consider adding other altcoins in the future.

Ethereum is one of the very promising crypto projects. It currently has a proof-of-work consensus, but the community is aiming to switch to a proof-of-stake consensus.

This switch is vital and much needed, as cryptocurrencies suffered from harsh attacks that bash their inefficiencies and eco-friendliness due to excessive mining. The PoS consensus was planned and postponed several times, but there is high hope that the final switch will happen sometime this year in 2022.

Once you start making a few dollars, you'll start thinking about how to cash out. Well, Norton supports Ether transfers to your Coinbase account. So if you were thinking about signing up, consider opening a Coinbase wallet. Bear in mind that you'll handle all costs that come with transferring your money, from gas fees or transaction fees.

Well, it depends. If you are looking for an easy way to start mining, and you have a super-computer that you don't use much, and you happen to live in a country where electricity is cheap, and you don't want to get into the hassle of setting up your open-source mining software, then Norton Crypto might be a good option for you.

On the other hand, you need to consider that Norton Crypto requires you to acquire a Norton 360 membership. The cheapest package costs around USD 100 per year. On top of that, the company will take 15% of the profits made from all the mining. That's too much, considering that the user is the one paying for electricity, bearing gas fees and transaction fees. Additionally, the life expectancy of the PC will wear out over time. With all this information in hand, you'll start thinking whether all this process is worthwhile because actually, it might not be.

Mining from a simple Laptop or PC will barely make a few cents every day. taking into consideration all of the above, simply buying Ether might be a better investment.