Bitcoins are gaining popularity and people are using it for different transactions. The central government decides when to print the paper money, but bitcoins are not made by any central government. There are bitcoin miners who help in keeping the Bitcoin network secure. They are the ones who approve the transactions and ensure fairness.
Bitcoin mining adds transaction records to the public ledger of blockchain or previous transactions. The miners use software to issue bitcoins. The miners get a transaction fee and also a subsidy for creating the new coins. If you want to set up a bitcoin miner you need to take the following steps.
Get the hardware
You should first buy mining hardware with bitcoins which you can find on Amazon. In the past, it was done with a computer with a high-speed processor card. Now you need custom Bitcoin ASIC chips that offer hundred times better performance. If you use the previous system now the electricity bill will come out to be more than the money you will earn by bitcoin mining.
You can also buy Bitcoin cloud mining contracts. You can choose Genesis Mining. However, it is a bit risky as you are not controlling the physical hardware. With cloud mining, you need to choose a specific package.
Download the software
Next, you will need to download the bitcoin mining software which is free. CGminer and BFGminer are popular software. You can read reviews of various bitcoin mining software and then choose one.
Join bitcoin mining pool
You should join a bitcoin mining pool. It is a group of bitcoin miners who work to solve a block together. Later, they share the reward among each other. You can join Slush Pool or the other ones. Make sure you do research to find the best pool to join. You should know that they charge a fee of 2% of your earning.
Choose a wallet
You should then set up a bitcoin wallet to receive the bitcoins. You can choose Copay or other wallets. You can keep the wallet safe with two-factor authentication. You can choose between a local wallet and an online wallet. After you start bitcoin mining, you will soon notice that
bitcoins are coming to your wallet. With the bitcoins, you will be able to purchase different products and services.
Stay updated
You should always stay up-to-date with different news regarding bitcoin. This will help you to earn more profit. You should visit different bitcoin sites and learn about the latest news on bitcoins.
Difficulty in bitcoin mining
Bitcoin mining is complicated. The SAH-256 hash of the block’s header should be less than or equal to your target; otherwise, it won’t be accepted. When the rate of block generation increases it becomes difficult to compensate. So, the rate of block creation may become lower. If the block creation doesn’t meet the difficulty target it will not be accepted on the network.
Block reward
When a block is created, the miner will get a certain number of bitcoins. At present, you will get 25 bitcoins and it will become half every 210,000 blocks. The miners will also get the transaction fees.
Bitcoin miners help to keep bitcoin transactions secure. If you want to become a bitcoin miner, you should first find out if it will be profitable. Many people are making money out of it and you can try it too.
