Now that cryptocurrency has reached immense popularity, everyone wants to extract money from it. Most of the people are looking for new currencies that could get a huge hike. But isn’t that just a bet on your luck?
The alternative to earn money from Cryptocurrency is Bitcoin(and other currency) mining.
To better understand mining let us first understand how does Bitcoin Work.
How does Bitcoin Work?
Let’s understand a little about money first. Why does a 6.14-inch piece of paper gets valued as a dollar bill and another same size paper viewed as normal paper?
The reason is the Government. The government has entrusted people that this paper is recognized by us and its value shall be one dollar. We entrust the government and we accept this paper value should be equal to a dollar.
Now bitcoins are also currencies. The difference? They are digital and lack a governing organization. This means you can still use them to buy and sell stuff.
The lack of Government control has both benefits and limitations. For instance, any economic crisis faced by the government will not fluctuate the Bitcoin price and, because these currencies are global and un-maintained by an organization their prices tend to fluctuate on a global basis.
Is there a reserve (like gold) from where they are mined? Not exactly. The devs programmed it in such a way that mining Bitcoin would require solving mathematical problems.
Bad in mathematics? Worry not. Solving problems doesn’t mean you have to personally solve them to get them. Your computer can do that for you.
Now that you know a lot about them, let us get to how to do Bitcoin mining at home!
How to do Bitcoin mining at home?
Contrary to popular belief you can mine Bitcoin in (almost) any computer. So how to mine them?
You will need a mining program. There are many mining programs available. Few popular one includes - Bitminter and bfgminer. Using these softwares is pretty simple. Simply sign up, enter your destination Bitcoin address, click on start mining.
You will notice that the amount you generate from your traditional PC is meager. It is because mining these currencies, require special high power miners. The most popular(and the best) one is the antminer s9.
However, there are few things to note before you buy a miner:
- They will consume huge amount of electricity
- Is it profitable for you?
The answer to if a miner is worth your money can be estimated by a simple mining calculator.
Verdict
As I mentioned earlier Bitcoin is a lot like gold. The more people mine them, the lesser they get. The lesser they get, the harder is to get more profit from them So, if you are into mining for a huge amount of time(like 50-60 years) you may find disappointment in the future (although next few years will fetch huge profit to survive decades).
That’s it for Bitcoin mining.
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