Mining for Bitcoins

You can get started earning Bitcoins in a variety of ways. Mining for Bitcoin is how to earn Bitcoins by participating in the network. It’s usually handled by special mining hardware that is expensive and specialized. The equipment also needs Bitcoin mining software to connect to the blockchain and your mining pool (a collaboration of many miners jointly work together and then splitting the rewards of their efforts).

Here are three standard ways to explore mining Bitcoin:

Bitcoin-QT: The Bitcoin-QT client is the original software written by Satoshi Nakamoto. You can download it at https://bitcoin.org/en/download.

CGminer: CGminer is one of the most popular mining software. It is open source and available for Windows, Linux, and OS at www.github.com/ckolivas/cgminer.

Multiminerapp: The Multiminerapp is an easy Bitcoin client to run. You can download it at www.multiminerapp.com.

remember Bitcoin is a very competitive environment, and unless you buy specialized mining equipment, you may never earn any Bitcoins. I don’t endorse or recommend any particular mining equipment in this book because the industry is constantly changing and quickly out of date. Expect to pay between $500 and $5,000 per machine on average. Amazon.com is a good place to look. They have a large offering and many customer reviews to help guide you.

Cloud mining allows you to start earning bitcoins in an industrious afternoon, without the need to download software or buy equipment. Just follow these steps:

Go to https://hashflare.io/panel.

warning The return on investment for cloud mining can be negative. Review your option carefully to make sure it is a positive investment.

Scroll down the home page and click the Buy Now button under SHA-256 Cloud Mining.

When I wrote this book, this option had the highest return on investment and the lowest startup cost. Take the time to reassess this on your own because this might have changed.

Go through the sign-up process.

Link your bitcoin address.

Buy a small amount of mining power.

This will allow you to join the bitcoin network. Join a mining pool.

This step allows you to get a faster mining reward than mining on your own. It pools the resources of several miners and then shares the prize between the pool. Congratulations! Now just sit back and wait for your mining rewards to start rolling (or dripping) in.