Guide to Cryptocurrency Mining – How to Mine Bitcoin & Other Altcoins

The mining of cryptocoins is a kind of race, and the people who get on it early reap the most benefits. By this point you’ve probably heard about Bitcoin, which was released in 2009 as the first decentralized cryptocurrency in the world. Many digital currencies have come into existence since then. If you learn the basics from here, you can get involved with this crypto rush. Keep in mind that mining crypto coins is best as a hobby; do not count on it as a second source of income, or your sole source of income, because making money from it is not reliable.

Which Crypto Coins Should I Mine?

When Bitcoin came onto the scene, early adopters could have earned lots of money, however they could also have lost a lot of money. If you’re a beginner, Bitcoin isn’t the best choice for mining, because it’s a huge investment and has high costs of maintenance. It’s simply not profitable for beginners and it’s used for operations that are large-scale only.

Some great alternative coins for you to mine are Feathercoins, Dogecoins, and Litecoins. These are all Scrypt-based, and beginners will find great cost-benefit with them. You’ll get a slightly less profit, however these coins are gaining popularity which will bring you more money in the future. They definitely bring a great ROI for your investment of energy and time. You need to keep reasonable expectations in mind–you might make a couple digital bucks that you can spend. There’s a small chance that the currency you mine might see an increase in value, but the likelihood of this is pretty narrow. There are also scam coins out there, so be careful.

How Does Crypto Mining Work?

When it comes to mining coins that are Scrypt-based, your focus on mining them will be about several things:

  • Providing a service to the network behind the coin as you perform bookkeeping. Essentially, mining is just computer accounting that operates 24/7 as you verify transactions.
  • Keeping your own costs low as you experiment with the hardware and level of electricity you need.
  • Receiving small compensation for your services; every couple of days, you’ll get a fraction of a coin or a couple of coins for mining.

What Do I Need in Order to Mine?

To mine coins such as Feathercoin and Litecoin, you’ll need ten things:

  • A reliable Internet connection
  • A location for hardware setup
  • A package of mining software that’s free
  • Membership for an online mining pool; these pools are communities of miners who put their computers together to increase the stability of their income and profitability
  • A coin wallet where you keep your earnings and keys so you can make transactions
  • Membership for a currency exchange online, so you can trade out those coins for real cash
  • A computer that has been built for mining
  • A GPU (ATI graphics processing unit) which will bear the brunt of your mining and accounting work
  • A fan to cool down your computer and its hardware
  • A strong sense of curiosity and a willingness to learn–the technology constantly changes and you will have to adapt to optimize your results