What is Ninja mining?

Ninja mining generally refers to the surreptitious mining of cryptocurrencies by miners prior to the official release or announcement of the cryptocurrency. This is considered unfair by many, which often leads to unethical practices that enable the miners to amass a considerable amount of the new cryptocurrency with the least cost and no competition.

Most typical cryptocurrency launches involve developers pre-mining a certain amount of coins or setting up the mining network before the public is allowed to join in. A selected few, normally insiders or even the developers themselves, are the only ones who manage to begin mining Ninja mining ahead of anyone else. By that virtue, they are capable of gathering a lot of coins at an extremely fast and low-cost rate, which others will find unfair.

This practice is controversial because it defies the principles of decentralization and fairness that many cryptocurrencies are built upon. Ninja mining is likely to create huge inequality in coin distribution, which usually fosters market manipulation and lack of trust within the community. This kind of imbalance could further discourage new miners from joining in the process, considering the fact that early miners own a huge chunk of the currency, thereby reducing its profitability or appeal to others.

Thanks

src

~ Nesaty