The Art of Crypto-Mining

mining

May 7, 2018

FrederikNielsen
33

As with mining for gold, the first one to get to the source gets the most. By now, mining for cryptocurrencies has been made a little more difficult by the fact that so many around the world are doing it. It is, however, still possible to create an income from mining cryptocurrencies if you know how it works and how to avoid some of the pitfalls.

Unlike mining for gold, mining for cryptocurrencies does not require you to invest in a pickaxe and a shovel. It does require you, however, to invest heavily in some processing power for your computer. Mining for cryptocurrencies is about solving complex mathematical problems, and that will eat up not only processing power, but also electrical power.

It takes time and research to find out how much power you need to mine how many units of a given cryptocurrency, and what kind of equipment you need to do it. Once that time and effort has been put in, however, the process is simple: leave your computer on to do the hard work, and watch the coins roll in. Here is a little guide to how you can get started.

Research the cryptocurrency space

In order to get started, you need to know what kind of cryptocurrencies are out there, and how much they are worth. A good place to start is to visit CoinMarketCap where all the known cryptocurrencies are listed. Since one of the features of cryptocurrencies is that they are limited in their supply, you will discover that mining for popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is difficult.

As more coins or tokens are being mined, the mathematical problems needed to be solved become increasingly more complex. That means you will need quite a of processing power, energy and time to mine a whole Bitcoin. Finding a newer or less popular token will make mining for it easier.

Build a mining rig

Next, you will need to find out what equipment you need to mine for the cryptocurrency you have chosen. Around the web will be tutorials on how to build a mining rig, so reading some of these will give you an idea of what is involved and how much it will cost.

You will also need to know how much electricity you will need to use in order to mine for cryptocurrencies. Depending on where you are in the world, this can vary quite a lot. Once you know how much your power costs, you will need to calculate how much it will take to mine one token. Then you can see if you will be able to make a profit.

Set everything up

After you have researched the cryptocurrency market and the mining equipment, you will need to get everything ready. First, you will need the mining hardware, and then you will also need the mining software. Once this is set up, you will need a cryptocurrency wallet so you have a place to store the coins or tokens you have mined.

If this project has turned out to be too expensive for you alone, fear not. You can join a cryptocurrency mining pool, which means that you and some others pool your processing power to mine for coins together.

Let us know how you get on, and remember to share your mining experiences in the comments section below!

Frederik Nielsen
Frederik Nielsen

I’m a freelance writer and full-time curious person. My main interests are philosophy, politics, art, culture, science, and how they’re all interlinked. When I’m not writing, I’m fronting a band, producing records, and making videos. I’m also currently working on launching a YouTube channel that will focus on culture and politics. I think blockchain technology is fascinating because of the huge potential it has to revolutionise not only the financial sector, but society as a whole.

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