Since 2009, Bitcoin has gone from being yet another creative invention on the internet to the most sought-after cryptocurrency. A lot of the traction and popularity has been fueled by the fact that Bitcoin is not a controlled currency per second and it’s traded on the internet to anywhere in the world. Over the years, a lot of interest has been on the rising value of the cryptocurrency with everyone saving up everything they own a fraction of the much coveted bitcoin.
As predicted, as the price of a single coin continues to get out of reach for most people, investors and opportunists alike are looking for their next big break by looking for new ways to make money from the Bitcoin gold mine. One of those methods is Crypto Mining.
What is Crypto Mining?
The term ‘Mining’ in this case can be misleading and doesn’t refer to mining in every sense of the word. Crypto mining is the record keeping and verification of transactions that are done using Bitcoin. A miner is tasked with keeping a ledger with all the operations in the Bitcoin network.
In the case of Bitcoin, the miner is not a person. Instead, this is a sophisticated computer hardware with incredible computing power that goes through every transaction in the network. Ideally, there is a lot of math and algorithms involved which is mainly done by the computer software.
What do you need to get started?
When Bitcoin first started, the mining was done by bare-bones dedicated computers. This was because the number of transactions in a day was minimal. Over time and with increased popularity, such hardware doesn’t cut it anymore. You need powerful equipment with the ability to compute and tabulate the transactions in the network at blistering speeds. If you’re going to make any money out of it, then there is no question that the better the hardware you get, the better your chances of striking it rich.
You will also need a reliable source of internet and power. Because of the immense power uptake of the hardware, the cheaper the electricity per Kilowatt in your locality the better for you.
What are the start-up costs?
As earlier indicated, the cost of starting out a crypto mining escapade will largely depend on your dedication and hunger to make money. Miners have equipment running from a couple of hundred dollars into the thousands of dollars. Just remember, the better the equipment, the better the pay.
How do I Make Money?
Every ten minutes, block chains of transactions are released by the Bitcoin network. Your job is to decrypt the block chains, but first, you have to find them. There is a price that is attached to every block that is successfully decoded, but that depends on the current conversion rate of bitcoin. The more the blocks your system can work on the better pay you get.
Ways to Mine Bitcoin
There are two main avenues that you can use to mine. The first which is usually not advisable because of the high running cost is, solo-mining. Under solo mining, you invest in everything yourself, and every time you complete decrypting the block before other miners in the network, you get paid.
The other more forgiving and more profitable method is pool-mining. In this case, you get a group of other miners to come together and work on the blocks together. Once you finish decrypting the block, each of you gets paid depending on the output of their hardware.
There is no doubt that computer hardware plays a vital role in crypto-mining. If you’re looking to get rich mining, your sole biggest concern should be getting the best possible hardware to decrypt the blocks. Don’t forget, the higher end the hardware, the more the juice needed. It’s important to find the right balance between quality machinery and consumption of power.