The popularity of digital currency is growing every day, as is the value of virtual coins. The leader of the direction was and remains Bitcoin, a unique financial phenomenon created by a genius person who, for unknown reasons, hides and watches the success of his brainchild from the shadows, hiding behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. There is an opinion that this phrase should mean a whole team of talented scientists.

Digital assets are a mixture of the simple and the ingenious. They have opened to mankind access to new, very profitable options for the implementation of secure mutual settlements in the incognito mode, carried out remotely via the Internet. Is it any wonder that the multi-million dollar army of crypto-miners is constantly replenishing with new volunteers, among whom the question is: how to mine Bitcoins in order to get the maximum benefit from generating virtual coins?

What is mining?

Mining is usually called the process of "birth" of new virtual coins, devoid of physical embodiment. Lets try to figure out where this name came from, but lets start from afar?

Our contemporaries are accustomed to stereotypical thinking and do not really appreciate everything that has an intangible essence. It is Bitcoin, which is not only a means for mutual settlements, but also a payment system of the same name based on a decentralized distributed ledger technology, that has become an institution that has managed to radically change the prevailing preconceived notions that are fundamentally wrong.

With the advent of the first digital asset, the value of which has recently reached unprecedented heights and continues to grow, more and more often you can hear the question: how to mine Bitcoin yourself? We have to admit that the digital analogue of fiduciary currencies, together with their smaller brothers, of which there are more than a thousand, has become an investment hit of all times and peoples.

The classic type of generation (mining) involves the implementation of complex arithmetic calculations, the result of which is the appearance of a strictly limited number of coins that have a virtual shape. They are solved in the form of an alphanumeric code, and the total number is strictly limited to 21 million and is incorporated into the algorithm for the functioning of the cryptocurrency system.

The genius of Satoshi Nakamoto lies in the development of a special mechanism that ensures the "birth" of conventional units according to a strict schedule, preventing the possibility of copying and reusing a cryptographically protected code (coins).

Mining or Bitcoin generation is a term borrowed from English speech. It means mining. Given the value of virtual coins, one shouldnt be surprised at the name given to Bitcoin, which is quite rightly called virtual gold.

What should you know before you start mining Bitcoins?

The term mining in the phenomenon of alternative monetary units has a double information load. Miners are called not only crypto-miners who generate blockchain blocks and include transaction records in them, but also special computing equipment for mining Bitcoins, which is often used in parallel to generate other types of digital assets.

A separate and very important indicator of the cryptocurrency ecosystem is the complexity of the mining process, the role of which is determined by the Proof-of-work principle. The difficulty indicator changes every 2016 blocks, which take approximately 14 days to generate.

But the complexity of the network is not one obstacle in the way of crypto-miners. When mining, one should take into account the importance of the Halving phenomenon, which implies a 2-fold decrease in the number of prize crypto coins issued to a successful miner for the discovery of each block. After another halving that took place in the summer of 2016, the system credits 12.5 Bitcoin. Another decrease occurs every 4 years and is scheduled for 2020.

Mining methods and a little history

For a long time, the existence of new digital assets was known only to academics and small activists. And the cost of the latter was very meager until 2013, when unexpectedly quotations rose to the level of 1243 US dollars, also plummeting by about 70 percent.

Initially, the generation of the first crypto-asset, which has a penny cost, was not difficult. How to mine Bitcoins on a home computer or laptop, not many people knew then, because the generation by most users was made purely out of sports interest and there were few enthusiasts who believed in the star of alternative currency units. History has shown the veracity of this choice, making them wealthy people. Not without curiosities. There are many cases when people who collected a significant amount of coins of the first digital asset at one time simply threw away a hard drive with a wallet or otherwise lost access to crypto savings, the price of which today is calculated at least in six figures.

Individual mining, called Bitcoin solo mining, has lost all relevance over the past 4-5 years against the background of the professionalization of the generation process. Now we can talk about the profitability only in the case of using special computing devices, Asik miners, the cost of which is considerable. When purchasing the latter, it is worth considering the cost of electricity spent, depreciation and obsolescence, as well as the costs associated with thermal insulation and cooling. Equally important is the amount of equipment purchased for Bitcoin mining. After all, more ASICs means more earnings with proper planning of the mining process.

Of course, if you wish, you can accumulate cryptocoins on your PC today, but it should be borne in mind that it will take years to create significant capital, and you simply wont recoup the costs.

How can I mine Bitcoins in other ways?

If you have a significant amount of money and can afford to purchase a certain amount of computing equipment, the cost of which varies between 500 and 10,000 US dollars, then you should consider creating your own farm for mining Bitcoins. Of course, this is better than a waste of time generating coins using a PC and laptop and collecting a scanty amount of satoshi through special taps. At the same time, the amount of income received depends on different components:

    The total number of miners.
    Electricity tariff.
    Correct planning of mining, maximum provision of the appropriate material and technical base, and much more.

It should be borne in mind that it will be difficult for a private investor to compete with the leaders of the crypto mining market, who, among other things, produce computing equipment themselves, but it is quite possible to create a stable source for yourself that allows you to receive a decent additional income.

How to mine Bitcoins for people who do not have solid capital? A way out was found in the application of the principles of collectivism, which more than once confirmed their efficiency and saved civilization in the most difficult moments. The emergence of special associations of crypto-raiders, voluntarily providing computing power to achieve the cherished goal of mining prize Bitcoin, has become commonplace. Such communities are a kind of modern reincarnation of medieval unions (unions) of artisans.

There are many Bitcoin mining pools on the market today. Some leaders have a particularly large number of participants, the total number of which can amount to hundreds of thousands. Naturally, such a solid hash rate allows detecting blocks with periodic success and getting prize virtual coins. At the same time, they are divided between the owners of computing nodes (in our case, PCs), taking into account the activity and share of participation. That is, the higher the performance of computing devices, the more the amount is received by a particular user.

Cloud technologies at the service of Bitcoin miners

Bitcoin mining has reached a significantly high level of development after the spread of cloud technologies. Of course, the option of creating your own farm looks very attractive, but you should take into account the inconvenience of using this method. It is necessary to show significant physical and mental activity, monitoring the health of the computing equipment, to carry out constant calculations of profitability, taking into account changes in stock quotes, the complexity of production and many other parameters.

For "lazy" crypto-miners who have free funds and are faced with a dilemma of how to start mining Bitcoins, this option looks very attractive. Remote generation of virtual Bitcoin coins using cloud technologies is rapidly gaining popularity and target audience.

This area implies the lease of computing power from the company for a reasonable fee and according to different tariff policies, which imply receiving decent dividends as quickly as possible. The profitability of the relationship, as a rule, increases with the amount of funds invested.

Should we consider the cloud-based version of digital coin generation as a universal way to get passive income? Lets talk about this in more detail.

There are a number of advantages of Bitcoin cloud mining:

    The possibility of investing a minimum amount (on some resources, the cost of the cheapest package starts from 1-1.5 US dollars).
    No need to constantly calculate the profitability of the generation process.
    In most cases, the use of cloud technology gives more profit than the acquisition of ASIC miners.
    Parallel mining of not only Bitcoin and other altcoins.
    The presence of a very profitable referral program on most Bitcoin cloud mining sites.

   There are also important disadvantages:

    Increase in the payback period of investments in case of a fall in exchange quotations.The likelihood of disruptions in the work of data centers, providers and other participants in the process of generating crypto coins, carried out using cloud technologies.
    The presence of fraudulent structures in the specialized market.
    Quite high risks of successful hacker attacks (there are quite a few examples of this).

We can say that with the growth of exchange rate indicators of almost all cryptocurrencies, the question: is it worth mining Bitcoins and other altcoins, has lost its relevance. But to complete the coverage of the issue of the profitability of generating digital assets, it is worth talking about the future of mining alternative currencies.

How to mine Bitcoins in the future?

Technological progress is likely to leave its mark on future trends in the development of the mining process of crypto coins. New technological solutions (photonics, optronics, quantum computing, and others) will make it possible to produce better, faster and more efficient equipment for Bitcoin mining. From an economic point of view, alternative energy sources should be used as much as possible, and the use of heat generated by miners with benefit will also increase the payback of the mining process.

The possibility of developing economical forms of generation based on the Proof-of-stake and Proof-of-Capacity algorithms, which make it possible to reduce electricity consumption indicators to a miniscule value, looks very likely.

It makes sense to study the profitability of generating different altcoins, solving the question: how to start mining Bitcoins? Indeed, despite significant volatility indicators, most other crypto assets are also setting new records for exchange quotes.

What can you say in the end? Of course, those who believed in Bitcoin at the very beginning of the process of establishing decentralized standards turned out to be in the most advantageous positions, but it is reasonable to assume that the last exchange rate rise will not peak. The value of Bitcoin, taking into account the scarcity of the latter, determined by the emission limit, will continue to increase in the future, reaching sky-high heights.

If you find it difficult to understand the technical details and have not yet decided how to mine Bitcoins, then you can gradually purchase virtual coins, if possible, using the services of the popular and reliable online exchanger 24PayBank.