How to mine Bitcoin? All you need to know about mining Bitcoin
Welcome to our guide to Bitcoin mining. This shows you how you might be able to benefit from using your computer to bring more Bitcoin into circulation. An interesting way to profit from the Bitcoin revolution!
Bitcoin mining has grown to become a major global operation over the past decade. While it used to be a hobbyist activity, our guide reveals how crypto mining might not be a truly profitable endeavour. Despite this, it’s still worth knowing how Bitcoin mining works. So take a look below to see how to mine Bitcoin.
What is Bitcoin mining?
Bitcoin mining is a process that requires you to use computer hardware to bring new Bitcoin into circulation. This process is also necessary to verify and add each individual BTC transaction to the blockchain ledger. Such a process is done by solving a computational puzzle that preserves the integrity of the decentralised blockchain.
Simply put, if you get your computer to solve a complex series of algorithms, you will be awarded a Bitcoin. Sounds simple? Well, it’s worth bearing in mind that cryptocurrency mining is a very energy-intensive process that leaves a carbon footprint equal to that of a large South American country. All of which suggests that Bitcoin mining might not be the preserve of home hobbyists that it once was. So keep reading to see whether or not Bitcoin mining could work for you.
Why so many people have enjoyed Bitcoin mining
Bitcoin was invented back in 2009, and at the time you could easily mine the cryptocurrency from a standard household computer. This meant that just about anyone could put their computer to work and then sit back and reap the benefits of being rewarded in Bitcoin. Obviously, the best part of this was the fact that you could get Bitcoin without having to pay for it.
The popularity of Bitcoin mining has gone hand with the soaring rise in value of this cryptocurrency. At the time of writing this guide, the value of Bitcoin had already hit the high watermark of $50,000, and it’s expected to keep growing over the coming months. This is because the renewed interest from celebrity entrepreneurs like Elon Musk as well as major banks such as Goldman Sachs have kept Bitcoin in the headlines.
However, the fact that the cost of Bitcoin has reached such eye-watering highs has meant that the average consumer simply won’t be able to afford a single unit of the cryptocurrency. Plus, it’s worth noting that having the computer hardware required to bring a new unit of Bitcoin into circulation will be out of reach of most people. This is why we, at Zeply, strive to provide customers with a safe and easy way to buy, sell, and exchange Bitcoin.
How do you mine Bitcoin?
Mining Bitcoin basically means getting your computer to solve a mathematical puzzle. Your computer will have to carry out thousands of calculations, and by doing so, it would hope to earn a Bitcoin. The number of calculations that your computer undertakes is known as its hash rate. Each Bitcoin miner has a different hash rate which is a good guide as to the profitability of their operation.
There are two main ways that you’ll get to improve your profitability. The first is by investing a lot of money into an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) device that is constructed with the simple intention of mining digital currency like Bitcoin. With the most basic of these devices being sold for thousands of pounds, it’s evident that you’ll have to spend a lot before you accumulate if you take this approach to Bitcoin mining.
The second is to join a Bitcoin mining pool. This is where you club together with other people to combine your computer power to stand a better chance of solving each algorithm. Obviously, the larger the mining pool that you join, the higher your chances of getting a reward, but the lower your payout will.
While this is a fairly popular approach, it’s up for debate as to how profitable it is once you factor in things like commission fees for whoever is organising the mining pool. All of which makes crypto trading at a site like Zeply a little more enticing.
What do you need to know to mine Bitcoin?
It’s fair to say that mining Bitcoin isn’t something that just anyone can do. This is because you will need to have a fairly detailed understanding of how Bitcoin works and know how the blockchain operates in order to have a hope of successfully mining this cryptocurrency. Even if you make the move to join a Bitcoin mining pool, you’ll need to think carefully about whether you join a single or multi-coin pool. Plus, when you enter the debate about local versus cloud mining, things get even more complicated.
But it’s the sheer cost of buying the hardware required to successfully mine Bitcoin that is the biggest reason why this activity is out of bounds for most people. Even if you had an in-depth knowledge of things like the Segregated Witness software upgrade, it won’t matter anything unless you can afford to splash out on a high-powered ASIC Bitcoin mining rig. Thankfully, you won’t have to deal with any of these issues when you come to Zeply to buy Bitcoin.
Is mining Bitcoin profitable?
While it was easy for just about anyone to mine Bitcoin from a home computer a little over a decade ago, things have changed rapidly in the past few years. This is due to the finite number of Bitcoins that can be mined. There were only ever meant to be 21 million Bitcoin in existence and this number is rapidly starting to get closer.
At the time of writing this guide, over 18.5 million Bitcoins had been mined. While this is a success story in itself, such is the profitability of Bitcoin that the average home computer can no longer mine these cryptocurrencies. Instead of this, Bitcoin mining is now a near-industrial operation that frequently uses more electricity than that of many small countries.
This is because the more Bitcoin that gets mined, the trickier the computational puzzles are to solve in order to verify and add each transaction to the blockchain ledger. This means that being able to solve the algorithms necessary to mine Bitcoin requires people to have special computer equipment that is capable of handling the massive amount of processing power required to mine Bitcoin.
All of which pushes the activity of cryptocurrency mining out of the preserve of private individuals into the realm of large-scale business operations. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t be able to benefit from the Bitcoin revolution. This is because sites like Zeply give you an easy way to buy Bitcoin with currencies like the euro. Then you’ll be able to send, exchange or store the cryptocurrency which is much less labour intensive than Bitcoin mining and potentially more profitable too.
Conclusion - Why Bitcoin mining isn’t for everyone
It’s fair to say that Bitcoin mining might not be best suited to those who are new to cryptocurrencies. This is primarily due to the fact that successfully mining the cryptocurrency requires an enormous amount of specialist computer hardware.
As such, there is no way that you are going to be able to mine Bitcoin from your home computer. After all, the current energy consumption of global Bitcoin mining is now higher than that of the whole of Ireland, so it’s easy to see why Bitcoin mining might not be for you.
However, it never hurts to know more about how this cryptocurrency works. So while you might not be able to mine Bitcoin successfully, there’s no reason why you can’t put your knowledge of mining to good use when you come to Zeply to buy and sell Bitcoin.
