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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 get involved. But, mining bitcoins does include expenses -- and dangers -- of its own. And the more popular bitcoins become, the harder it would be to mine them profitably. .

Unlike paper currency, which is printed by both governments and issued by banks, bitcoins do not come in any physical form. This creates a significant hazard, as hackers could theoretically produce bitcoins from nothing. Bitcoin mining is the way the bitcoin network keeps its transactions secure.

Bitcoin transactions are secured with blockchains, which compose a public ledger of transactions. Because of the way blockchain transactions are structured, they're extremely tough to alter or compromise, even by the top hackers. But in order to protect these transactions, someone needs to dedicate computing power to verifying the action 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 each block they effectively procedure. .

The bitcoin founders have set 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 work. As of mid-January 2018, roughly 16.8 million of the 21 million bitcoins have been mined.  Assuming that the bitcoin mining industry doesn't change radically, it seems like we won't reach the 21 million-bitcoin limit until the year 2140. .

During the first days of bitcoin mining, miners would often download a software package designed to allow their computers to process bitcoin transactions in the background. Unfortunately, that's no longer sensible, because solving bitcoin transactions is becoming too hard for your average computer to manage.

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The bitcoin network is designed to make a certain number of new bitcoins each 10 minutes. If only a few men and women are bitcoin mining at any given time, then the network will probably be generous and share bitcoins easily in order to attain the predetermined number. However, now see here now that bitcoin mining has become so prevalent, the network has become much stingier about handing out bitcoins into miners.

These days, in order to have a chance at being rewarding, miners need to adopt one of two strategies: 1) buy specialized hardware (aka a bitcoin mining rig) or 2) join a cloud mining pool. .

To begin with your own mining rig, you purchase hardware designed for mining bitcoin (or any other virtual currency), set it up, and let it run 24/7 solving bitcoin transactions. Ideally, this will result in a continuous flow of payments with no needing to get involved.

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While it's fairly easy to set up and use a bitcoin mining rig, really making money on the course of action is something of a challenge. Since more and more people are signing up for mine bitcoins, the mining procedure continues to get 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 to get a top notch rig -- having to replace it every year or 2 takes a massive bite out of any profits you make from mining. Plus, most mining rigs consume enormous amounts of power, which means you also have to subtract that expense from the bitcoins you earn to determine your own profits. .

When buying and maintaining your own mining hardware doesn't appeal to you, then cloud mining might be the best way to go. Cloud mining companies invest in huge mining rigs, often filling entire information centers with the hardware, and then market subscriptions to individuals interested in dipping a toe into bitcoin mining.

The largest challenge facing cloud mining subscribers is avoiding fraud. The field is rife with pseudo-companies which sell thousands of multiyear subscriptions, pay out for a few months, and then vanish into the sunset. If you decide to try out cloud mining, do your homework in advance and confirm that the company that you're dealing with is a real 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 offers enormous incentives for referring new customers; 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. .