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If you want to join in the bitcoin frenzy with no just buying the digital currency in the inflated prices, then bitcoin mining is another way to become involved. But, mining bitcoins does include expenses -- and risks -- of its own. And the more popular bitcoins become, the more difficult it would be to mine profitably. .

Unlike paper currency, that can be printed by governments and issued by banks, bitcoins do not arrive in any physical form. This creates a significant hazard, as hackers could theoretically create bitcoins from nothing. Bitcoin mining is the way the bitcoin network retains its transactions protected.

Bitcoin transactions are secured with blockchains, which make up a public ledger of transactions. Because of the way blockchain transactions are structured, they are extremely difficult to alter or undermine, even by the top hackers. But in order to secure those transactions, someone needs to dedicate computing power to verifying the activity and packaging the details in a block which goes into the bitcoin ledger.

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As a reward for doing the work to monitor and secure transactions, miners earn bitcoins for every block they effectively process. .

The bitcoin founders have put a limit of 21 million bitcoins available for mining. Once that total is reached, miners will still be able to benefit from transaction fees, but they won't be granted bitcoins as a reward for their job. As of mid-January 2018, approximately 16.8 million of those 21 million bitcoins have already been mined.  Assuming that the bitcoin mining industry doesn't change dramatically, it looks like we won't hit the 21 million-bitcoin limit until the year 2140. .

During the early days of bitcoin mining, miners would often download a software bundle designed to allow their computers to process bitcoin transactions in the background. Unfortunately, that's no longer practical, because solving bitcoin transactions has become too hard for your computer to manage.

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The bitcoin network is designed to produce a certain number of new bitcoins every 10 minutes. If only a few people have been bitcoin mining at any given time, then the network will be generous and discuss bitcoins readily in order to reach the predetermined number. However, now that bitcoin mining has become so prevalent, the network is now much stingier about handing out bitcoins to miners.

Nowadays, in order to have a chance at being rewarding, miners need to adopt one of two approaches: 1) purchase technical hardware (aka a bitcoin mining rig) or 2) join a cloud mining pool. .

To get started with your own mining rig, you purchase hardware designed for mining bitcoin (or some other virtual currency), set it up, and let it run 24/7 solving bitcoin transactions. Ideally, this will result in a continuous stream of payments without your needing to get involved.

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As soon as it's fairly easy to set up and use a bitcoin mining rig, actually making money on the process is something of a challenge. Because more and more people are signing up to mine bitcoins, the mining process continues to have more difficult and will probably keep doing this for some time.

And because bitcoin mining rigs aren't cheap -- expect to pay at least $1,000 for the hardware, or several times that for a top notch rig -- having to replace it every year or 2 takes a huge bite out of any gains you earn from mining. Plus, most mining channels consume enormous amounts of electricity, so you also have to subtract that expense from the bitcoins you earn to determine your profits. .

If buying and maintaining your own mining hardware doesn't appeal to you, then cloud mining may be the best way to go. Cloud mining look at this site companies invest in enormous mining rigs, often filling entire data centers together with all the hardware, and then sell subscriptions to individuals interested in dipping a toe into bitcoin mining.

The biggest challenge facing cloud mining readers is avoiding fraud. The area is rife with pseudo-companies that sell thousands of multiyear subscriptions, pay out for a couple of months, and then vanish into the sunset. If you choose to try out cloud mining, do your homework in advance and confirm that the company you're dealing with is a true cloud miner and not a scheme.

Avoid companies with anonymous domain registration (you can look up their registration info Network Solutions), as well as any mining company that"guarantees" profits or provides huge incentives for referring new clients; anything over a 10% referral commission is deeply suspicious, because legitimate mining pools just don't generate a high enough profit margin to pay huge commissions. .