How to mine Bitcoin?

[jekz]

Mining 1 bitcoin a year might cost you thousands of dollars. If you’re lucky.

However, our beginner’s guide to mining Bitcoins should help you.

When Bitcoin was launched in 2009 it was possible to mine the first cryptocurrency using a personal computer. Now, with more and more miners joining the race for bitcoins and Bitcoin transaction fees, for getting started with Bitcoin mining, only those with extremely powerful computers can expect a reward.

For a sense of how much investment mining might require, just search the internet for “bitcoin mining calculator”. The measure of the computing power of mining equipment is called its “hash rate”. It shows how fast the equipment can solve cryptographic puzzles.
Once you decide on your budget, you can choose how to mine Bitcoin. You can either invest thousands or millions in your own mining equipment and keep all the profit yourself, or use existing infrastructure.

To do the latter:

Join a mining pool. Mining pools unite a group of miners who combine their computing power and share profits. There’s usually a fee to be a member of such a pool.

Use cloud mining. This means buying processing power at a remote datacentre which will mine on your behalf. Here you don’t need to invest in your own equipment in order to mine, but you’re charged a fee by the datacentre which reduces your profit.

In any case, to avoid fraud, do some research before choosing a mining pool or a cloud mining solution.