[sigmaprimus]

Your explanation sounds reasonable. I suppose there would also be an added power cost in the increased network overhead.

I'm currently running a 2 core node on the Monero network using the official GUI. It doesn't noticeably affect my PC performance but then I'm not a gamer. Supposedly I have a 1 in ~5000 chance/day of writing a block for which the reward is currently worth about 250 USD.

I could join a pool or use Nicehash and actually earn a few dollars a day but I found XmrRig and Nicehash spin up my cooling fans and my reasons are more altruistic than for profit, though it would be awesome to win the lotto.