How can I do Bitcoin mining at home?

Everyone is now talking about Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency born as a virtual currency to pay for digital services anonymously and securely, which has now become an incredible investment opportunity for everyone, experts and non-experts, who have been making profits for months thanks to the unstoppable rise in value. of this coin.

While the discourse on investing in Bitcoin is linked to concepts of the economy (since it can rise and fall quickly even during the same day), much more interesting from a technological point of view is to understand how to create Bitcoin, i.e. how to generate new money from zero while sitting comfortably at home.

It is not fake news: anyone can use a computer to earn money by leaving the PC to work until the process of creating the coin is finished, especially considering that at the moment a Bitcoin is really worth a lot. Trying to be simple and as clear as possible, after understanding what Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are, let's find out how to mine Bitcoin.

Can Bitcoin Make Everyone Rich Without Working?

So why aren't we all rich, if a simple PC is enough to mine new Bitcoins? This is no longer possible (or rather it now takes a very long time) because the process to generate new Bitcoins (also called Bitcoin mining ) is a rather demanding technological activity, which requires a very powerful computer and constant consumption of electricity. which effectively cancels any gain.

Added to this is the limit of Bitcoin, which cannot be generated indefinitely: the limit of coins that can be generated is 21 million and, as we approach this number, it becomes increasingly difficult to obtain even a single coin, given that Computing capacities of different server farms are required!

If these limits do not scare us and we still want to generate a few thousandths of a fraction of Bitcoin, we can equip our computer for the purpose by reading the following chapters of the guide.

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1) Is it still worth investing in Bitcoin?

While traditional mining is perhaps the most strenuous job there is, mining Bitcoin is certainly not an activity that everyone can do. While the concept is simple enough, the practice of Bitcoin Mining requires a lot of work and an initial investment in hardware equipment which must then be updated regularly depending on the conditions of the Bitcoin market.

To be understood a bit like the job of the cashier in the bank. Each time a new transaction is generated, it must be added to the latest blockchain that records each Bitcoin exchange.

Blocks are like the pages of a stock transaction ledger or an accounting book (which is the blockchain), organized in a linear sequence over time (also known as a blockchain or blockchain ).

Miners use their specialized hardware and data keys called " nonces " to encrypt the block of the transaction data in a " hash ", an identification sequence that also includes all the data of the block. This hash is then added to the block authenticating it so that it can officially be added to the blockchain.

Miners get paid when they complete a block, but the work rate can vary based on the number of people around the world who transact Bitcoin. At the moment the pay rate is about 6.25 for each hash implemented (2021): considering that behind each hash there are thousands of miniatures, the "slice of the pie" we are entitled to be really very small now.

When it comes to hardware and encryption. Therefore, not only initial investments but also the knowledge of the English language and a high-level IT technical background are required to create Bitcoin, an activity that can only be successful if prepared in detail.

2) Choose the hardware for mining

The heart of the activity of generating Bitcoin is the Bitcoin miner or the mining rig, which is the computer that manages all the work of mining money. On Amazon, it is possible to search and buy computers dedicated to mining, while those with more technical skills can also do it themselves.

The main component on which to invest in a home PC (to be dedicated to Bitcoin) is the video card, which provides the parallel power necessary for the complicated calculations of the hashes: in fact, a very powerful video card will allow you to obtain many more Bitcoins (or one fraction of Bitcoin larger) than a computer without a video card. This also explains why video cards have become difficult to find in recent years: everyone buys them for Bitcoins, certainly not to play the latest video game!

While nothing prevents us from trying (to learn at least), the computer we use to mine Bitcoin shouldn't be the one we use every day at home, because it takes a much more powerful machine, with one or two very powerful video cards. Saving on hardware equipment is a losing strategy because in the world the creation of Bitcoin is like a world race and those who work with a poor computer.

There are many resources that you need to consult before buying hardware that can mine Bitcoin. On the Cryptocompare website, there is a calculator that can tell us how much money a miner can make. Alternatively, we can use the CoinWarz site to find out how many Bitcoins we can get (complete with conversion to dollars per day ).

Some video cards suitable for Bitcoins can be found in our guide to video cards.

3) Choose the Wallet

The Wallet is the program to use to manage Bitcoin transactions. There are many alternatives between Bitcoin Wallets, both online and software and it would be best to learn how they work before starting to mine cryptocurrencies. The best wallets available at the moment are:

• Coinbase (online)

• Vault (hardware)

• Exodus (online)

• SoFi (online)

• Ledger (hardware)

The best Wallets are the hardware ones (or offline) so that we can keep the coins in our possession in a simple USB key: obviously, we will have to connect once in a while to the Bitcoin system to update the wallet, add any new coins or spend those that already we have.

Online Wallets are easy to manage (even from the phone), but they are at risk of hackers: if someone discovers our password they could transfer all Bitcoins to their account, with an anonymous and impossible to intercept the transaction.

4) Download the mining software

While the Wallet is needed to manage Bitcoin transactions and wallet, the mining software is what is needed to mine and create money. As a program to mine we can download Cudo Miner for Windows, quite intuitive, or even Easyminer, CGMiner, or MacMiner for Mac. To this software, we must always add Bitcoin Core, the main program to be able to enter the Bitcoin blockchain (over 300 GB, therefore requires even a fast line).

Once the mining program is installed we will only have to start it and add ourselves as a miner to the Bitcoin system: the software will start using the computing power of our computer to certify the hashes, rewarding us with the new cryptocurrency.

5) Many more Bitcoins, with a mining pool

At this point, in theory, we should be ready to create Bitcoin, but with only one computer this can become impossible or too laborious and slow. To speed up the process and earn much more Bitcoins, mining pools were born.

To avoid scams it is important to find reputable pools that are large enough to receive more frequent payments. Some popular and trusted pool names are Slushpool, Bitminer, and Kano.

Conclusions.

Creating Bitcoin from scratch is still possible, but dream of the gold mines of the West: now producing Bitcoin is really very difficult and requires IT and energy resources beyond the reach of a simple Italian user. After learning the basics of mining, however, we can use these resources to mine new cryptocurrencies, those just released on the market and which have not yet achieved the success of Bitcoin.

Those who, after this reading, still think they can make money with the creation of Bitcoin and are not discouraged by the required requirements, can therefore begin to really study the subject starting from some reference sites