Hello dear readers of the blog site! In the previous articles, we got acquainted with the most popular representative of the cryptocurrency empire - bitcoin. If you still do not know what it is, then read the articles "Bitcoin - what is it" and "".

The topic of today's material mining- less profitable than, way of earning (but more profitable than), but much more popular and not as risky as method of replenishing bitcoin wallets.

Bitcoin mining - what is it in simple words

Cryptocurrency is informational money that exists on the network due to the active work of a certain algorithm (read). It can also be called cryptogold or a virtual analogue of gold. Like gold, the amount of cryptocurrency is strictly limited and can be obtained either by purchasing or by mining... The latter is called Mining.

The extraction of cryptocurrencies (and bitcoins in particular) is carried out by enumerating numbers, for each of which the so-called is calculated (it is often used to check the integrity of data, for example, when downloading from the network). If it (hash) matches a given pattern (for example, there will be so many zeros ahead), then a new unit of cryptocurrency is released (in fact, its production).

The complexity of the template is set so that the probability of production matches the plan (there is a plan until 2033 for bitcoin). This complexity is constantly adjusted so that the next coin is mined about once every ten minutes (at the same time, all transactions made during this time are confirmed).

Over time, mining (mining) will only become more difficult. For each block (found number) miner receives a reward... The greater the computing power of the system he uses, the higher the probability of receiving a reward.

For the algorithm to run successfully, a computer of colossal power is required (GPU video cards that support a huge number of parallel pipelines are best suited for calculations). The popularity of bitcoins is constantly growing (as well as the number of miners), which means the complexity of the information operations associated with this is increasing.

Mine alone now it is practically pointless, because the probability of getting a coin is practically zero (life is not enough). Therefore, people are united in pools (of thousands of participants), which share the received reward between all participants in proportion to the capacities they use. The reward here will be less, but it will be.

Moreover, earnings from mining cryptocurrency, starting from 2008 to 2015, amounted to a total of more than two billion dollars (now this amount is probably already significantly exceeded):

Minin plays an irreplaceable role for cryptocurrency systems in need of it (and there are already more than a thousand different ones, according to the service). It increases security by randomly choosing who will write the next transactions to the blockchain (the one who mined the next coin does this) and, in fact, ensures the storage of this very blockchain (block chain).

In general, there is nowhere without it, and it is the consortium of miners who now, in fact, decide the fate of cryptocurrencies. As an example - recent events around the Bitcoin fork and problems with high transaction fees. Miners benefit from a high commission, although it can kill the whole idea of ​​"virtual cash" in the bud.

Options for making money on cryptocurrency mining

Through a regular PC- you download a program to your computer, donate part of the power of your video card to the process of calculating the cryptocurrency (mining) and successfully make money just sitting at the computer and going about your business.

In this case, no additional investments will be required from you, but you will not be able to earn a lot of bitcoins in this way.

Mining through special equipment- you buy an ASIC device ("special purpose integrated circuit", literally translated) and create a "farm" that is actively working and brings you very large sums.

It goes without saying that in this case you will first have to spend a considerable amount real money(from $ 1000 for everything about everything) to start making money virtual (cryptocurrency) on an industrial scale.

Recently began to be produced video cards specially sharpened for mining... There is nothing superfluous about them, just pure performance. Some of them don't even have video outputs, because miners don't need them.

Due to the fact that lately bitcoin has risen in price, cryptocurrency mining is gaining more and more popularity, because the costs of equipment and electricity are more than paid off. after a sharp takeoff upward, it is in no hurry to descend.

Many on this wave are now striving to invest in ASIC (and powerful video cards used in it, often specialized), as well as services for the provision of computing power.

For some people it will be a revelation that cryptocurrency is not limited to bitcoins alone: there are also litecoins, dodecoins and so on and so forth. In the process of mining, it is worth paying attention, probably, to new types of cryptocurrencies, since bitcoin is a rather outdated option.

An increasing number of people are making transactions with Bitcoin, and the maximum number of units of this informational money - 21 million - sooner or later the limit will be exhausted. It is necessary to analyze, of course, a number of indicators in order to make the right choice. There are special mining calculators helping to make the right choice for example WhatToMine:

But it's up to you to decide, but I'm just trying to describe in a nutshell the current situation in the mining market and describe the emerging trends.

Cloud mining

As in many other areas of business, some processes are also possible in making money on cryptocurrency mining. You probably know that now, for example, no one hosts sites on their computers, but uses them. Finally, it is cheaper, easier, more reliable and more profitable.

So why mine on your hardware? This is inconvenient in many ways. After all, you need to buy video cards or ASICs, configure, mount and place them in a suitable place, monitor and constantly monitor the performance, as well as the state of this hardware and the situation for fire and other hazards. Really troublesome.

Therefore, they have appeared on the market for a long time. The company buys iron in bulk at a price significantly lower than the retail price (at which it won't be sold to you). It is placed in special rooms (data centers), where the costs of accommodation, cooling and monitoring are minimized. After that, they lease part of the available capacity (or all of it) for mining.

Why don't they make money on this hardware themselves? Why don't companies specializing in logistics, for example, deal with the entire process (from production to sale)? Because by focusing on one thing, you can achieve more success and get more bottom line while reducing risks. It's the same here.

Online services that provide cloud mining services have a stable income (charging a fee for the rental of their equipment), regardless of how correct the mining strategy they have chosen. It's like hosters who don't care what sites they host and how successful they are - as long as they get paid for rent.

Therefore, the main criterion when choosing cloud mining will be the analysis of reviews about the service on the Internet. Please note that there are only a few really working data centers with real mining equipment for a hundred "trickery". And everything else - quickly dying scams, where you can make money, but the risk of losing everything, not having time to withdraw the money, is always very high.

If you will, then I will bring mine list of cloud mining services for bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies you can trust (at least you can start your consideration of the topic with them). It is clear that the situation in this market is constantly changing and therefore your additions in the comments will be very appropriate.

I cannot name other cloud mining services that are more or less really mining cryptocurrency, and not building a pyramid of cloud mining services. If you know, then write in the comments.

Conclusion on mining earnings

The efficiency of mining is directly proportional to the power that you are willing to donate to the resource in exchange for money. If you carry out a qualitative analysis, you can come to the conclusion that income is not very impressive, taking into account the cost of electricity and other parameters. Cloud services also have their own nuances and much depends on how much it brings you.

Of course, the growth of the rate of cryptocurrencies plays into the hands of miners now. True, the prospects of bitcoin and others, about which they talk and write a lot, are not so unambiguously rosy: a large number of people are involved in the business, therefore, the likelihood of the depreciation of this "bubble" is growing. However, time will tell. So far, everything is very tempting, because the value of the cryptocurrency is growing by leaps and bounds.

Yes, I almost forgot, earned for the currency you need, or withdraw it to your account through the list of exchangers provided on the link:

If you have the time and desire to understand the intricacies of cryptocurrency exchanges, then you can even more profitably use the cryptocurrency you earned here:

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

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The modern crypto space makes it possible not only to have fun and get a wide variety of knowledge, but also to earn bitcoin on your equipment. And with the invention of the so-called, it became much easier to do. Moreover, now there is a great opportunity to combine business with pleasure and turn bitcoin mining from simple entertainment into an additional source of income. The extraction of bitcoins by mining is available to everyone, if only you have a special. equipment. This requires specific knowledge, a kind of mining instruction. Everyone can choose for themselves the best option mining bitcoins.

It's time to find out what it means. A popular method of mining cryptocurrency is mining. It is classic, but rather difficult to use. There are also other methods that provide less income, but are much more affordable. Virtual coins can be earned using, which is one of the most popular, using bots, games, doublers, faucets and much more.

How to start mining?

Since the invention of cryptocurrencies, interest in them has grown significantly, many new users are interested in how to mine bitcoins and how bitcoin mining works, and people who have been doing this since the early days of crypto wallets have managed to amass decent capital. At first, the cost of coins did not exceed a cent, but now this figure is about $ 9,500 for one bitcoin (relevant for February 2020). And the value of the virtual coin should rise.

But it is worth immediately disappointing the lovers of easy money who think about how to earn bitcoins on a computer: even 1 btc is not so easy to get. The vast majority of miners are forced to limit themselves to the so-called satoshi - these are a kind of virtual cents and pennies. But even they can be obtained up to 1,000 per hour for the simplest tasks. In fact, this is not such a large amount: 1 thousand satoshi is equal to only 0.1125 dollars.

Mining Bitcoin: Basic Principles

Mining simplifies the complex bitcoin mining process. There have been cases when mining bitcoins on a home PC brought up to 25 btc for completing a single task, but this is extremely difficult. And last year this figure was halved. Now, the discovery of a new block can bring in only 12.5 bitcoins.

The Russian segment of the cryptocurrency market is constantly being persecuted by the law, but users are not going to give up, so they just hide their hobby more carefully and still wonder how to mine bitcoins.

Spending cryptocurrency is a snap. It is enough just to exchange it for any other electronic currencies. No matter how many bitcoins you receive, you can always exchange them through Yandex.Money, QIWI, WebMoney or any other wallet or service, and then use it at your discretion.

Mining on a home computer

So how to mine bitcoins, what is it?

Mining bitcoins is the first and only way to mine. He is unique.

So how do you make bitcoin? The method consists in using cryptocurrency using special ASIC equipment and its power resource. He simply has to solve mathematical problems, and when the so-called hash is found, the miner will receive a reward. This is the answer to the question of how to mine BTC.

For 1 hash, bitcoin production is 12.5 coins, but this is quite a good amount, given the cost of one bitcoin, which reaches 11 thousand dollars. As a result, the miner will have about $ 140,000 in his hands. But here the seeker of clues, who wants to know how to mine bitcoins with a video card, faces the main catch: modern tasks can only be solved by the latest specialized computers, the cost of which can be estimated at several thousand dollars, an ordinary PC simply cannot cope with the search for a hash. In addition, several hundred miners are probably carrying out BTC mining right at the same second, solving the same problem. And there is no guarantee that the hash will be yours.

Mining at home ceased to be considered an extremely profitable activity immediately after specific devices began to appear on the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin mining turned into a real profession, in which there was nothing to do for stationary computers and their owners, and almost everyone learned what bitcoin mining is.

To mine BTC on your computer, it is best to use the power of the ASIC hardware. It is such equipment that is capable of generating about 2.5 GB of hash per second, with its help you can mine bitcoins. At the same time, electricity consumption is quite insignificant - about 2.5 watts. For example, mining on a home PC with Radeon card HD 7990, will generate a maximum of 1.2 GB of hash, while consuming as much as 200 watts. In this case, home mining will not be able to compete with seasoned players. What internet speed is needed for mining? Naturally, the highest and most stable to date.

Now classic mining is used only by professionals, but the question of how to earn bitcoins using a computer is of interest to both beginners and amateurs. But it is preferable for them to act using more modern methods of mining cryptocurrency. Even specific farms began to appear on which equipment is used, whose power is many times higher than that demonstrated by the ASIC. Given this market situation, it is better to give preference to modern programs and to questions such as how to become a bitcoin miner, answer: choose cloud mining, with which you can earn bitcoins with a much greater probability.

Cloud mining: how to mine bitcoins with it?

The attractiveness of such mining lies in the fact that the equipment does not need to be purchased. How to mine in this case? The miner only invests in the purchase or lease of the required capacity. What do you need to mine bitcoins? The following scheme is relevant:

• find a suitable site to understand how to mine bitcoins on your computer;
• register there to deposit the required amount of cryptocurrency to your account;
• purchase capacity in the amount as you can afford it
• start mining bitcoin.

In this case, bitcoins will be mined by you along with other miners. The trick is how to mine cryptocurrency on your computer will no longer be a secret. And the winnings are divided among all, taking into account the invested funds. Of course, given the way how to mine cryptocurrency, the profit will be much smaller. But the chance of winning will be several hundred times higher.

Where to mine bitcoins?

There are sites that demonstrate how to get bitcoin and allow you to do it without investing your own funds. For example, these portals will tell you what bitcoin is, how to earn it:

List of reputable cloud mining services:

• Iqmining - Sold to own a share of the mining capacity for the cryptocurrency BTC, ETH and another 150 altcoins. Besides, registration is encouraged 10% to the purchased power. Profitability: up to 217% / year.
• Hashflare - () Lease mining facilities for DASH, ZEC, ethereum, sha-256 (BTC) and scrypt (Litecoin) mining. Yield: 239.04% / year, 0.65% / day. The code HF18OSE8OD10 gives a 10% discount on all contracts.
• Mizes - Lease power for SHA 256 mining, SCRYPT, ETHASH. Profitability: 1-3% / day.
• Bitdeer - () Lease capacity for mining BTC. The project also has an affiliate program.
• Hashing24 - Lease out a share for mining BTC cryptocurrency. Profitability: 0.56% / day.
• Genesis-mining - Lease mining power for SHA 256, Dagger, X11, Zcash mining. Profitability: 71.23% / year 0.2% / day. Promo code - IVUZQn gives a 3% discount.
• Hashtoro - BTC, Litecoin, Ethereum, Zcash cloud mining. Minimum contract 20 €. There is an affiliate program. Substation capacity - 650kw / h. Profitability: write 80% / year. Minimum payout: 0.005 BTC, 0.5 LTC and 0.1 ETH, excluding commission fees.
• Aliencloud. Lease facilities for mining BTC, LTC, ETH, DASH, etc. Profitability: 105% / year. And you can also use a crypto exchange on this platform.

Bitcoin mining: can you make money on it?

This is the name of the services where it is possible to get cryptocurrency by performing any actions. And a specialized computer for mining bitcoins is completely optional.

To know how to mine bitcoins on your computer, you can use. For example:

Domestic projects where bitcoin mining is possible are still significantly inferior to foreign ones. But the time is not far off when they will be able to compete with English-language sites.

Bitcoin mining as a business: perspective

It should be assumed that the value of bitcoins will continue to grow. In this regard, since the resource is finite, and finding it becomes more and more difficult. What do you need for mining now? State-of-the-art equipment. In addition, the cryptocurrency turns into a reserve currency.

If you are also planning to start mining bitcoins. And if you are interested in how to become a miner, then you can well start with faucets. It is this method that ensures the constant wins of Satoshi. Having studied Bitcoin mining, it will be possible to try out others, more complex ways for the extraction of cryptocurrency. In addition, having received virtual funds for free, you can invest them in classic or cloud mining. The classic way to mine cryptocurrency will eventually become completely irrelevant. Since the cost of equipment will invariably rise, and it itself will become obsolete faster and faster. The difficulty in solving blocks will increase and as a result, mining on a PC will cease to be profitable.

In any case, you already know how bitcoin mining takes place.

What is Bitcoin mining and how it works (video):

In the comments below, write which services are no longer paying, together we will eradicate HYIPs and SCAM that no longer pay. And also share projects that work stably and have confidence in them, except for HYIPs and SCAM.

Important! No one will ever give a 100% guarantee that all services will work forever, so be responsible for your choice.

What kind of mining are you doing? Tell us your success or failure story. Thus, you will help many deal with this topic.

While getting acquainted with bitcoins, many users have a question: what is cryptocurrency mining and why does it exist. To simplify the description, this term means the extraction of virtual coins using special devices. The word “mining” is the English word “mining”, which means “mining”. And, accordingly, the miners of digital currencies are called miners.

From the article you will learn: how promising the mining business is, what are its features, where to start, and what experts think about the future of cryptocurrency. After studying the collected information, you will be able to make an informed decision: start investing in mining or earn in another way.

Where does Bitcoin come from?

Let's watch a video explaining in simple words where bitcoin comes from and how ordinary people mine.

Concept and types of mining

So, you are interested in cryptocurrency and its mining. To understand the term, let us recall three important points from the previous article: "Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies: what is it in simple words."

1. Bitcoin is an encrypted program code whose value is influenced by market demand.
2. The number of coins is limited and the issue volume is known in advance.
3. The release of cryptocurrency is not regulated by any government organization, so anyone can get it.

Mining is the extraction of an encrypted and limited amount of cryptocurrency program code, the required combination for which is formed by selecting a set of numerical variations.

Mining can be organized in two ways:

1. Solo loot. You buy equipment yourself, find coins and leave all the income to yourself.
2. Working in pools. The bottom line is that many users unite into a virtual pool, connect their equipment to it, jointly mine and share cryptocurrency according to their share of participation.

The video below contains answers for beginners to basic questions about cryptocurrency mining, basic mining principles and how to get started.

Business perspective

To assess the situation, we need to analyze three fundamental factors: cost, time and amount of available cryptocurrency. Let's see the numbers and try to draw a conclusion.

The cost

The first cryptocurrency was released in 2009 and cost less than a dollar.

1,309.03 BTC = 1 $

Until 2013, the value of bitcoins increased and reached $ 600. In 2014, there was a price collapse, and the cryptocurrency fell by half.

2015 and 2016 saw new growth, with users giving away $ 1,000 for one coin. In March 2017, Bitcoin hit its all-time high and was valued at $ 1238.

It is now April 2017. The average cost of one bitcoin is at $ 1,200.

8 years have passed since the introduction of the cryptocurrency. During this time, its value from a few cents increased to the value of an ounce of gold.

Time

It is now April 2017. The last bitcoin is scheduled to be issued in 2140. This means you have 123 more years at your disposal.

number

In total, 21 million bitcoins have been developed. The main part will go into circulation by 2033. In 2017, more than 14 million coins were mined: you can see the exact figure and follow the updates here: http://bitkurs.ru/stats. Less than 35% remained uncovered. The mining algorithm is periodically complicated and therefore is not uniform in itself.

conclusions

We analyzed three key factors affecting the value of a cryptocurrency. In 2017, the development of the mining business looks like a profitable direction that you need to enter immediately. How much you can earn in the future, no one will definitely say. An increase in the value of coins, increased competition and technical difficulties with decoding the program code are expected. These moments scare off solo miners, but if you approach mining as a business with a business plan, then this is essentially one of the most innovative and promising areas.

Earning scheme

In theory, organizing a cryptocurrency mining business is not difficult. This requires:

1. Purchase special equipment containing a miner - a program for performing computational operations;
2. Join a pool or organize solo mining;
3. Get a reward.

All the complexity rests on the cost of the equipment required to start. In 2009, it was possible to calculate a block of a bitcoin code using paper and a calculator. Therefore, most of the operations took place on the home PC processor.

Since 2011, the demand for cryptocurrency has increased, and the complexity of calculating the code and the power of a home PC has ceased to be enough. In simple words, the cost of electricity for the computer has ceased to be recouped by mining coins. Therefore, users began to use processors on a video card, which in a short time grew into giant farms. Farms are huge assemblies of computers to which hundreds of video cards are connected. The larger the farm, the more profitable it is to maintain it and, accordingly, the higher the mining efficiency. Higher business profitability.

To understand why at the present stage you will not be able to make money without investing on the machine in this business, take a look at what a professional farm looks like. It is located in China and generates 3% of all bitcoins in the world.

Now compare it to a home farm in Russia. Estimated profit: $ 182 per month.

The less cryptocurrency, the more sellers offering equipment to receive it. To see this, visit Avito.

Investment risks

For novice investors and businessmen, we will highlight three main points:

1. No cryptocurrency unit has physical value under it. This means that the cost of virtual money at any second can be repeatedly overestimated or drops to zero.
2. It is difficult and expensive to mine the popular cryptocurrency. At a minimum, professional equipment is required. You can forget about solo mining right away.
3. It makes no sense for small and medium investors to start investing in the search and development of a new currency. Back in 2015, over 2,000 options were circulating on exchanges, each of which had an equal chance of disappearing or repeating the success of Bitcoin.

If we combine all of the above factors, we get a very negative scenario: an investor can buy expensive professional equipment, choose bitcoins as an object of mining, get a sufficient number of coins on the wallet, but due to a fall in user demand, he will lose all his invested capital.

See what the bitcoin / dollar chart looks like. Note the sharp rise in cryptocurrency in 2013 (1 BTC = $ 1110) and subsequent depreciation in 2014 and 2015 (1 BTC = $ 220).

You can view the updates here by selecting BTCUSD. This means that price dips in the past are not ruled out in the future.

• The general advice is to strive to reduce energy costs as much as possible while maximizing the performance of your computer (farm). This is achieved by combining multiple video cards into one computer and common system cooling. There is also specialized equipment for mining, called ASIC or Asik in Russian. With ASICs, not only the hardware itself is supplied, but also the program. As a rule, everything is done on a turnkey basis - plug it in, install the software and get it. However, ASICs are very expensive and it is better to start "trying" with several video cards.

• If you are going to mine Bitcoin alone or make a small farm at home, then forget about mining Bitcoin - it is not profitable. Concentrate on mining “simpler” cryptocurrencies, the complexity of which is not so great. For example: litecoin, namecoin, darkcoin, etherium.

• Solo bitcoin mining can only become profitable if its rate grows significantly, for example, up to 5000

• When mining little-known cryptocurrencies, it is worth constantly monitoring their course and mining only those that are becoming more expensive (have the prospect of becoming more expensive). And in any case, immediately after mining, exchange them for bitcoin or dollars. Since there are risks of depreciation of newly mined coins.

• When drawing up a business plan, you need to take into account the ability to buy the most advanced video cards for mining at a wholesale price and the ability to sell them when their capacity becomes insufficient.
• Be careful if someone offers you cloud mining. These are projects that allegedly have huge and powerful farms and lease them via the Internet. You pay for the use of equipment and mine whatever cryptocurrency you want. The profitability is high. But scammers are almost always hiding behind these services! At one point, you will pay for the rent, but you will not be able to withdraw the money or mined coins. Beware of cloud mining offers!

Expert forecasts

Most experts agree that in 2017 one bitcoin will be trading at $ 1000-1450 per dollar.

2017 year. 1 BTC = 1000-1450 $

Cliff High (creator of the WEB BOT project) believes that in the spring of 2018 users will pay $ 13,000 for one bitcoin.

2018 year. 1 BTC = $ 13,000

2020 year. 1 BTC = 5000-11000 $

Jeremy Liu (Snapchat investor) and Peter Smith (Blockchain CEO) argue that bitcoins will gain their true value by 2030, when they rise in value to 500,000 per coin.

2030 year. 1 BTC = $ 500,000

But all these predictions fade due to the fact that the crypto bitcoin rate is highly dependent on demand. And demand often depends on political reasons. For example, the state can prohibit the circulation of bitcoin and introduce criminal liability for using it. Investors will get scared and start selling it, and then bitcoin will become much cheaper.

Conclusion

Now you have learned what cryptocurrency mining is in simple words and how to start mining it yourself. We cannot say for sure how profitable this direction will be, since we cannot see the future. The thing is that the views of experts and ordinary users are fundamentally different. Therefore, you must independently analyze the information and make an informed decision: start mining or move on to the implementation of other investment ideas.

P.S. Friends, what do you think about mining? Please share your opinion and history of your earnings in the comments below the article

Thank you for your help in preparing the article, the MegaXchange.com exchanger - here are the most profitable bitcoin exchange rates!

Despite the fact that the cryptocurrency appeared eight years ago, it gained the greatest popularity in the post-Soviet space at the beginning of this year. An unprecedented excitement flared up around it, and many Internet users literally rushed to study what blockchain, pool, bitcoin are. And they also began to find out where to start mining cryptocurrency. To date, quite a few films have already been shot about this phenomenon, which have been translated into Russian and are in the public domain. They can hardly be called a guide to mining (mining) bitcoin or any other.That is why today we will tell you about cryptocurrencies in simple words.

What is cryptocurrency?

More lucidly, cryptocurrency is digital currency that has cryptographic protection. The new unit appears in the process of solving complex mathematical algorithms and consists of one hundred million parts, each of which carries a unique cryptographic code (signature). Immediately I would like to note the fact that it is impossible to forge a digital currency, since information about each unique cryptographic signature is copied and stored on all computers involved in the extraction (mining) of the cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency only has digital view... It is impossible to touch it, put it in a purse or a safe in a bank. The main advantage of such money is that it is decentralized and not under the control of any state or institution.

The number of coins created is strictly limited and cannot be changed. Everyone can find out for certain when, for example, the last bitcoin will be mined. Controlled emission gradually complicates and slows down the mining process, and also eliminates problematic phenomena such as inflation.

The value of digital money directly depends on demand. The more investors show interest in a particular cryptocurrency, having invested a significant amount in its development, the more expensive it will be. State banknotes are backed by gold reserves, and cryptocurrencies are backed by investments.

What is cryptocurrency mining in simple words?

We have already mentioned that cryptocurrency appears as a result of solving complex mathematical algorithms. It is beyond the power of an ordinary person to effectively cope with such tasks, which is why they began to use the computing power of a computer for this purpose, and the process itself was called mining.

During the mining of cryptocurrency on a PC that is connected to the Internet and is involved in the cryptocurrency system, information comes in the form of blocks (blockchains). Such blocks contain a huge number of algorithms that need to be processed and get the only correct solution. Every decision is digital signature for a specific information cell located in a block. And also it is the very same cryptographic protection against hacking.

The blocks themselves appear as a result of transactions using a certain type of cryptocurrency. For example, if someone paid for a purchase in an online store using Bitcoin, and your equipment is configured to mine the bitcoin cryptocurrency, then it will immediately identify this transaction and contribute to its completion by solving all the same algorithms. And you will receive a reward in the form of several hundred Satoshi (1 Bitcoin = 100,000,000 Satoshi).

First steps in mining

We hope that we managed to explain in simple words what cryptocurrency mining is. If you decide to start mining, for example, Ethereum or Bitcoin, it will be enough to have an idea of ​​how the system works. Let's move on to the technical part and find out where to start mining cryptocurrency.

Most effective method mining of digital currency - mining using a video card. Just a few years ago, it was possible to earn several thousand bitcoins per day using a weak video adapter and a simple processor for this purpose. However, the process of mining any cryptocurrency in demand is constantly getting more complicated. And in order to get profit from this kind of activity today, you need to think about assembling the "farm".

"Farm"

The most profitable cryptocurrencies for mining are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Littlecoin. It is on their production that the main capacities of miners around the world are directed. Getting these coins becomes more difficult day by day. In order to speed up the process, miners began to assemble "farms" that have much in common with a regular computer, but significantly surpass it in performance.

To assemble a farm, you need to acquire the following components:

• motherboard with the ability to connect multiple graphics adapters;
• small hard drive;
• high-frequency processor;
• one bar random access memory(4-8 GB);
• 4-8 video cards with video memory from 2 GB;
• powerful power supply unit (from 750 W);
• risers (extension adapters from the video card to the motherboard);
• additional cooling;
• start button;
• frame.

Video cards for the "farm"

The most optimal video cards for mining cryptocurrency in 2017 are considered to be the Radeon RX 470. Having impressive characteristics, they are much cheaper than their closest competitors from Nvidia. However, giving preference to Radeon, you will have to think carefully about the additional cooling system, since these video adapters heat up much more than the same Nvidia. The average cost of a semi-professional "farm", working with four video cards, is $ 2300-2700, which is quite expensive for the budget of the average Russian. However, with proper setup and continuous work, such a "farm" will pay for itself in 6-9 months and will start bringing you income.

Step-by-step instructions for mining cryptocurrency

After the equipment has been purchased, fixed in the frame and connected, you need to install everything you need software. Step-by-step instruction mining cryptocurrency looks like this:

• installation of the operating system;
• registering a wallet and getting an address;
• installing and configuring the client;
• pool selection.

OS and cryptocurrency wallets

We install the operating system into our "farm". Then we set up access to the Internet and start a special wallet for digital currency. You can create a wallet for specific coins, for example, bitcoin. But we recommend using a universal one, in which you can store absolutely any cryptocurrency.

Among those who are engaged in cryptocurrency mining, the following multicurrency wallet services have extremely positive reviews:

• MultiCoinWallet.
• HolyTransaction.
• NoobWallet.
• Cryptonator.
• C-cex.com.

Client program for cryptocurrency mining

Having chosen one of the services, on which, after registration, you will be assigned a unique address-account, you need to download the client-program for the extraction of digital currency. To figure out which program is better for mining cryptocurrency, we will be helped by a rating based on the popularity of a particular client, which looks like this:

1. 50Miner... This program will not take up much hard disk space. With a rather small "weight", it has all the necessary functionality, and a simple and pleasant interface will make the client setup simple even for a beginner.
2. BFGMiner... The most popular program in the post-Soviet space, as it has a Russian interface language. Setting up the client will not take much time, since everything is very clear. Distinctive feature from many other programs is the ability to control the cooling system. You can set the optimal parameters for the rotation of coolers.
3. CGMiner... This client is perfect for those who know perfectly well how cryptocurrency mining works, and also has an understanding of MS Dos OS. Using this utility, you can create your own pools, configure them, and increase the performance of video cards installed in the "farm" by overclocking them. In order to use the program, you must have high-performance graphics adapters.
4. Diablominer... This program is popular with experienced miners who know MS Dos. To use the client, you need to equip the "farm" with a high-speed processor and powerful video cards. In the process of mining, you can use the processing power of the processor and video adapters. Works with such operating systems like Mac, Linux, Windows.
5. Bitminer... The set of functionality is very similar to 50Miner. In order to start earning your first satoshi, you do not need to install the program on your computer, you just need to run the "exe" file from the downloaded folder. A serious disadvantage of this client and 50Miner is the consumption of a large amount of RAM.

Pool selection

In our article, we have already talked about cryptocurrencies. In simple words, this is earning digital currency by using the computing power of your equipment. And they also talked about the fact that this process is constantly becoming more complicated. In order to make mining more efficient, people are united in groups (pools).

After installing one of the pools, you will have the opportunity to join the work of one of the pools, of which there are already about two thousand.

Choosing the right pool can be confusing for a beginner. After all, there are both simple groups that mine exclusively one type of digital currency, and multipools, in which it becomes possible to earn several cryptocurrencies at once, for example, bitcoin and ethereum.

Before connecting to a particular pool, it is better to spend a little time exploring it. Give preference to those resources that have been working steadily for more than one year and have the largest number of positive reviews. Also pay attention to how the accumulated coins are paid out. In total, there are about thirteen of them, but the following are more popular:

• PPLNS - all miners in the pool receive a profit, the amount of which directly depends on the last number of invested shares.
• PPS - the resource determines the share of each participant in the pool and pays for it according to the contract.
• PROP - the amount paid is proportional to your share of power in a particular pool.

Best pools in 2017

From the moment the cryptocurrency attracted the attention of millions of people, pools began to appear like mushrooms after rain. However, most of the services, unable to withstand the competition, cease to exist. Many of them never returned the money they earned to people who used the computing power of their PCs in their pools. In order not to lose your own money, we recommend that you use only proven and most reliable sites. The pool rating for today looks like this:

1. F2Pool.
2. AntPool.
3. BTC China.
4. BW Pool.
5. Bitfury.

Cryptocurrency faucets

Not everyone has the opportunity to allocate about $ 3000 from the family budget to build a "farm". But this is not at all a reason to think that you will never become a miner. Today, there is a way through which cryptocurrency mining without investment becomes real. It is this opportunity that is provided by sites that are called cryptocurrency faucets among miners.

The principle of operation of such resources is quite simple. You go to the site and perform one of the actions for which you receive a reward. For example, you may be asked to enter a captcha, play a game, collect puzzles or watch a video sequence, after which a certain amount of coins will be credited to your account. It may seem to you that the owner of the resource is a rich and very generous person, but this is not so. The webmaster receives income from advertising that has been placed on the site. The more visitors there will be on its resource per day, the more the advertiser will pay for the space for the banner.

It will not work to make a lot on such "faucets", but the funds raised can be reinvested in the purchase of capacities on resources offering cloud mining services. A similar scheme can be useful for people who do not know where to start mining cryptocurrency.

Top cryptocurrency faucets

In order not to waste time, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the list of the most reliable and generous "taps":

1. Cryptoblox.
2. Getmyfaucet.
3. Cryptospout.

Today there are many such resources, but most of them are insolvent.

Alexey Russkikh

Before proceeding to a detailed consideration of the question of what is bitcoin mining, how to start and how much you can earn on it, it is worth paying attention to a number of very important points.

One of them is the fact that most cryptocurrency users do not mine. But if you do decide to take this step, then remember that Bitcoin mining is not easy. In this area, there is extremely high competition, and the volatility of the coin rate makes it difficult to predict profitability, if you do not understand the intricacies of digital money trading on exchanges.

Is it worth it to mine bitcoins?

Bitcoin mining makes sense if the foreground is simply to have fun, study the peculiarities of the blockchain or the desire to contribute to its development. If you don't care whether you make a profit or not, then you can safely dare. Low electricity tariffs will be a significant advantage, which, unfortunately, not all countries can boast of. Having sufficient start-up capital to purchase expensive and powerful mining equipment also plays a significant role.

If there is no desire to engage in setting up and maintaining the operation of your own equipment, or if you simply do not have enough money to buy it, you can opt for cloud mining. Buying a contract for a certain share of capacity will save you from all of the above problems and worries (more on that below).

Bitcoin-linked plastic cards are another tool that is gaining popularity in some countries. It allows you to replenish them with cryptocurrency, and then pay with it on the Internet or in ordinary stores. This option is a kind of "bridge" connecting the digital money ecosystem with traditional finance.

The main parameters of the bitcoin cryptocurrency

Characteristics of the bitcoin cryptocurrency (11/21/2017):

• date of creation - 09.01.2009;
• market capitalization - $ 137,211,640,766;
• bitcoin price - $ 8226.21;
• block creation time - 10 minutes;
• block reward - 12.5 BTC;
• total issue volume - 21,000,000 BTC;
• the volume of mined coins - 16 679 811 BTC.

Bitcoin network characteristics (11/21/2017):

• the number of blocks created - 495,425;
• mining difficulty - 1 364 422 081 125;
• network hashrate (hash rate) - 11.882 Ehash / s.

Despite the fact that any modern graphics card can be used for mining, AMD's product line was the most successful thanks to the architecture from nVidia, and the most economical choice at the time was the ATI Radeon HD 5870.

FPGA mining

After the abandonment of mining on processors, the development of the sphere of mining electronic money did not stop there. After the successful release of Butterfly Labs' Single FPGA device, the bitcoin mining hardware direction moved towards specialized hardware. It was created with one single purpose - to improve the efficiency of cryptocurrency mining.

FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) could not boast of the same increase in mining speed as during the transition from processors to graphics cards. However, energy efficiency and ease of use have allowed such devices to capture the market. On average, a video card with 600 MH / s had a power of 400 W, while an FPGA at 80 W produced a hash rate of 826 MH / s.

This fivefold improvement has spurred the development of large mining farms with high operating margins. This is how the industrial mining of digital money began to emerge.

ASIC mining

Today, mining has entered the era of special purpose integrated circuits (ASICs). ASICs are chips created exclusively for generating digital money. Unlike FPGAs, their settings cannot be changed to perform other tasks.

These devices are designed exclusively for bitcoin mining. The lack of flexibility of ASICs is compensated by the fact that they offer a hundredfold increase in hashing power, unlike all previously created technologies. At the same time, they are characterized by reduced power consumption.

Graphics cards changed processors, followed by FPGAs, and then ASICs. So far, nothing is foreseen in the foreseeable future that could replace the ASIC. They can be the last link in the mining technological development chain, unlike the above hardware.

Most likely, we should expect a gradual improvement in ASIC models, including an increase in their efficiency. However, it is unlikely that something will appear that will provide such a manifold increase in hashing power or a significant reduction in power consumption. Energy saving is an important indicator of this type of device, since their potential useful life exceeds in duration the entire period of Bitcoin mining from the very beginning of the development of the cryptocurrency.

Obviously, the ASIC purchased today will retain its relevance in a couple of years, provided that the level of energy consumption of the device remains within the profit from the sale of mined coins. The bitcoin rate undoubtedly affects the profitability of mining, but in practice, the more energy efficient a device is, the more profitable it is.

Mining profitability calculation

To calculate the income from mining bitcoins, use our.

You can set the hashrate and power of your device, the cost of electricity, the amount of investment and the size of the pool commission. The calculator will add actual values ​​of mining difficulty, current rate and block reward. The result will be the amount of mining profit for the given parameters.

Mining software

There are two main types of mining: solo or pool. As for contracts for the extraction of bitcoin (cloud mining), this is a separate topic for conversation, since here the risk of fraud should be taken into account. Almost all participants opt for pools as they increase the chances of successful mining.

First, you need to open a bitcoin wallet, since the received coins need to be stored somewhere. Then you need to connect to the mining pool and configure the equipment for a specific resource. In the course of such mining, all community members receive a part of the profit from each new block according to their share. It is determined by the number of hashes that they contribute to the common business.

What throughput is required for this? When it comes to pool usage, this figure is insignificant, about 10 MB per day. But the quality of the connection is necessary for fast receipt of up-to-date information about the network update.

This approach provides more stable and frequent coin payouts, but their size can be lower compared to solo mining due to the fees charged by the pool. Self-mining at home provides less frequent but larger payouts. In the long run, they will be roughly equivalent to working in a pool with zero commissions.

Cloud mining

By purchasing Bitcoin mining contracts based on cloud technologies, investors can earn tokens by bypassing any problems with choosing, purchasing, configuring and maintaining hardware, software, paying electricity bills, and much more.

This list is not a confirmation that this method of mining is the most profitable, and is just for comparison with other options. Indeed, a huge number of fraudsters operate in this area.

Below are some of the most popular cloud mining companies:

Comparison of the profitability of cloud pools for a 13.5 TH / s contract (excluding changes in mining difficulty and market volatility):

* rate 7041.57 USD / BTC
** rate as of 11/13/2017, taking into account service and electricity charges
Note: instead of Genesis, MinerGate was taken, since at the time of calculation, the first did not have contracts on the SHA-256 algorithm.

Hashflare's range of services includes mining based on the SHA-256 protocol. Mining of other lucrative coins is also available, but automatic payments are still made in BTC. The minimum contract size is 10 GH / s.

Genesis Mining ranks among the largest players in this market offering SHA-256 and Scrypt mining. There are three types of contracts available, as well as mining Zcash.

Hashing24 has been on the market since 2012. Its computing centers are located in Georgia and Iceland and are equipped with ASICs with the latest BitFury chips. This allows them to achieve a very high level of efficiency.

How Bitcoin mining works

This is the process of entering data on new transactions into the blockchain (public ledger). The blockchain contains data on all transfers of funds since the start of the network. It is also known as a blockchain because it is made up of individual, interconnected blocks. Network nodes use it to distinguish real transactions from attempts to re-spend the same tokens.

Mining is arranged as a resource-intensive and complex process, so the number of blocks that miners find and attach to the blockchain every day is a constant parameter. Each block must contain proof that the work done is valid. Verification of this so-called proof-of-work is carried out by other network nodes (nodes) when the next block is created.

The main goal of mining is to allow the nodes of the network to reach a consensus resistant to external influence... Mining is also used to issue new bitcoins in the form of block rewards and transaction fees. These two important components of mining are aimed at the decentralized distribution of digital money on the network and motivating participants to contribute to maintaining its security.

Mining got its name from the English word mining (extraction of minerals), as it requires a lot of effort and is carried out at a slow speed, which resembles the extraction of natural resources from the bowels of the earth, such as gold.

Proof of work

This term is understood as a part of the data, the acquisition of which is complex (expensive, laborious) in order to meet the established requirements. Simply put, it checks whether they meet the specified requirements.

This mechanism is a random process, the success of which is rather unlikely. Therefore, its implementation most often requires a lot of attempts, which is fraught with a lot of errors.

A proof of work in bitcoin is iterating over a nonce to find the correct SHA-256 hash. The miner builds a candidate block and fills it with transactions. After that, it calculates the hash of the block header and compares it to the target difficulty value. If the hash is greater than the current difficulty value, the miner changes the nonce value and retries.

Nonce - block header element. In addition to the nonce, the block header includes:

• hash of the previous block;
• timestamp;
• information on the target difficulty of the proof of work;
• software version;
• the hash of the root of the transaction Merkle tree of this block.

As you can imagine, only nonce is a fetch parameter. All other elements of the block are dynamic, which you can learn about at the time of its creation.

Miners reward

After creating a new block, the reward is received by the miner who managed to find the correct hash. At the time of this writing, the size of the award was 12.5 BTC. It is halved every 210,000 blocks.

Miners also receive commission fees paid by network members for their transactions. This encourages them to include transactions in the nearest block. Over time, as the number of new coins for the creation of each new block will decrease, fees will play a more important role in the income from Bitcoin mining.