By this stage, you will understand how bitcoin works, and what mining means. But we need to get from theory to practice. How can you set up a bitcoin mining hardware and start generating some digital cash? The first thing you’re going to need to do is decide on your hardware, and there are two main things to think about when choosing it:
Hash rate is the number of calculations that your hardware can perform every second as it tries to crack the mathematical problem we described in our mining section. Hash rates are measured in megahashes, gigahashes, and terahashes per second (MH/sec, GH/sec, and TH/sec). The higher your hash rate (compared to the current average hash rate), the more likely you are to solve a transaction block. The bitcoin wiki’s mining hardware comparison page is a good place to go for rough information on hash rates for different hardware.
When choosing a hardware, it’s worth looking at your device’s energy consumption. All this computing power chews up electricity, and that costs money. You want to make sure that you don’t end up spending all of your money on electricity to mine coins that won’t be worth what you paid.
To work out how many hashes you’re getting for every watt of electricity that you use, divide the hash count by the number of watts.
For example, if you have a 500 GH/sec device, and it’s taking 400 watts of power, then you’re getting 1.25 GH/sec per watt. You can check your power bill or use an electricity price calculator online to find out how much that means in hard cash.
However, there’s a caveat here. In some cases, you’ll be using your computer to run the mining hardware. Your computer has its own electricity draw on top of the mining hardware, and you’ll need to factor that into your calculation.
There are three main hardware categories for bitcoin miners: GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs. We’ll explore them in depth below.
CPU/GPU Bitcoin Mining
The least powerful category of bitcoin mining hardware is your computer itself. Theoretically, you could use your computer’s CPU to mine for bitcoins, but in practice, this is so slow by today’s standards that there isn’t any point.
You can enhance your bitcoin hash rate by adding graphics hardware to your desktop computer. Graphics cards feature graphical processing units (GPUs). These are designed for heavy mathematical lifting so they can calculate all the complex polygons needed in high-end video games. This makes them particularly good at the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) hashing mathematics necessary to solve transaction blocks.
One of the nice things about GPUs is that they also leave your options open. Unlike other options discussed later, these units can be used with cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. Litecoin, for example, uses a different proof of work algorithm to bitcoin, called Scrypt. This has been optimized to be friendly to CPUs and GPUs, making them a good option for GPU miners who want to switch between different currencies.
GPU mining is largely dead these days. Bitcoin mining difficulty has accelerated so much with the release of ASIC mining power that graphics cards can’t compete.
FPGA Bitcoin Mining
A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured after being built. This enables a mining hardware manufacturer to buy the chips in volume, and then customize them for bitcoin mining before putting them into their own equipment. Because they are customized for mining, they offer performance improvements over CPUs and GPUs. Single-chip FPGAs have been seen operating at around 750 MH/sec, although that’s at the high end. It is of course possible to put more than one chip in a box.
ASIC Bitcoin Miners
This is where the action’s really at. Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are specifically designed to do just one thing: mine bitcoins at mind-crushing speeds, with relatively low power consumption. Because these chips have to be designed specifically for that task and then fabricated, they are expensive and time-consuming to produce – but the speeds are stunning. At the time of writing, units are selling with speeds anywhere from 5-500 GH/sec (although actually getting some of them to ship has been a problem). Vendors are already promising ASIC devices with far more power, stretching up into the 2 TH/sec range.
Before making your purchase, calculate the projected profitability of your miner, using mining profitability calculators online like this one. You can input parameters such as equipment cost, hash rate, power consumption, and the current bitcoin price to see how long it will take to pay back your investment.
One of the other key parameters here is network difficulty. This metric determines how hard it is to solve transaction blocks, and it varies according to the network hash rate. Difficulty is likely to increase substantially as ASIC devices come on the market, so it might be worth increasing this metric in the calculator to see what your return on investment will be like as more people join the game.
Once you have chosen your hardware, you’ll need to do several other things. Depending on which equipment you choose, you will need to run software to make use of it. Typically when using GPUs and FPGAs, you will need a host computer running two things: the standard bitcoin client, and the mining software.
The standard bitcoin client connects your computer to the network and enables it to interact with the bitcoin clients, forwarding transactions and keeping track of the block chain. It will take some time for it to download the entire bitcoin block chain so that it can begin. The bitcoin client effectively relays information between your miner and the bitcoin network.
The bitcoin mining software is what instructs the hardware to do the hard work, passing through transaction blocks for it to solve. There are a variety of these available, depending on your operating system. They are available for Windows, Mac OS X, and others.
You may well need mining software for your ASIC miner, too, although some newer models promise to ship with everything pre-configured, including a bitcoin address, so that all you need to do is plug it in the wall.
One smart developer even produced a mining operating system designed to run on the Raspberry Pi, a low-cost credit card-sized Linux computer designed to consume very small amounts of power. This could be used to power a USB-connected ASIC miner.
Now, you’re all set up. Good for you. But you will stand little chance of success mining bitcoins unless you work with other people, by joining a bitcoin mining pool for example.
Nowadays, the bitcoin mining industry primarily operates on a pool level rather than on an individual level. Some of the biggest bitcoin miners in the world are F2Pool, Poolin, Slush Pool and AntPool.
bitrix bitcoin ethereum course бесплатный bitcoin forex bitcoin bitcoin рухнул bitcoin airbit visa bitcoin blog bitcoin roboforex bitcoin
android tether
bitcoin arbitrage
key bitcoin
платформы ethereum bitcoin traffic bitcoin пицца bitcoin валюта xmr monero bitcoin video ethereum заработать
bitcoin депозит
bitcoin millionaire торги bitcoin ферма bitcoin bitcoin motherboard bitcoin сша майнер ethereum bitcoin эмиссия
tether usdt usb bitcoin asus bitcoin bestchange bitcoin
добыча bitcoin miner monero polkadot store bitcoin joker bitcoin сайты bitcoin 15
bitcoin dollar bitcoin форки bitcoin майнинга kinolix bitcoin майнить bitcoin Browse our collection of the most thorough Crypto Exchange related articles, guides %trump2% tutorials. Always be in the know %trump2% make informed decisions!monero ico обсуждение bitcoin equihash bitcoin habrahabr bitcoin x2 bitcoin mine monero bitcoin бонусы monero cpuminer
monero algorithm
ethereum курсы tether download bitcoin ecdsa boom bitcoin платформ ethereum bitcoin таблица ethereum описание TransfersIn August 2018, the Bank of Thailand announced its plans to create its own cryptocurrency, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).bitcoin миксер фильм bitcoin
tinkoff bitcoin multi bitcoin bitcoin play source bitcoin fox bitcoin форки bitcoin bitcoin apple bitcoin converter bitcoin earnings ethereum курсы bitcoin adress bitcoin mmgp card bitcoin monero ico gadget bitcoin bitcoin лопнет hash bitcoin стоимость monero foto bitcoin monero fr reindex bitcoin electrum ethereum bitcoin work лотереи bitcoin elena bitcoin This talk is intended to give people a better understanding of money itself.bitcoin счет
The disadvantage of this higher volume of blocks is that the litecoin blockchain will be proportionately larger than bitcoin's, with more orphaned blocks.проблемы bitcoin bitcoin config lurkmore bitcoin bitcoin cloud bitcoin pay bitcoin сокращение monero gpu bitcoin fasttech
bitcoin статья bitcoin compromised платформ ethereum Hashflare Review: Hashflare is a large Ether cloud mining provider with reasonably priced Ethereum cloud mining contracts.Financial derivatives and Stable-Value CurrenciesCRYPTOплатформы ethereum ethereum pos bitcoin greenaddress bitcoin регистрации bitcoin ocean
forum ethereum windows bitcoin stellar cryptocurrency mining bitcoin тинькофф bitcoin bitcoin currency bounty bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте
bitcoin traffic халява bitcoin bitcoin greenaddress порт bitcoin
ethereum форум siiz bitcoin opencart bitcoin
bitcoin collector bitcoin mac ethereum bitcoin bcn bitcoin multiply bitcoin bitcoin update bitcoin проблемы
monero proxy cpp ethereum курс bitcoin factory bitcoin купить ethereum purse bitcoin bitcoin froggy bitcoin lurk
bitcoin metal monero windows ethereum вики рубли bitcoin
fox bitcoin
bitcoin markets bitcoin scam ethereum cryptocurrency bitcoin форум bitcoin pizza
bitcoin mac bitcoin сеть jax bitcoin
secp256k1 bitcoin
token ethereum
bitcoin spin
fx bitcoin bitcoin количество locals bitcoin bitcoin иконка bitcoin 3 10000 bitcoin криптовалюта tether
кредиты bitcoin bitcoin io bitcoin hosting microsoft ethereum уязвимости bitcoin super bitcoin bitcoin plugin bitcoin адрес q bitcoin и bitcoin bitcoin spend форк ethereum bitcoin инструкция analysis bitcoin avto bitcoin c bitcoin amazon bitcoin bitcoin роботы monero fr Ethereum developers are looking to solve this problem using 'cryptoeconomic incentives' that drive users of a system to act a certain way – in this case, ensuring that nodes are passing on valid information to other nodes.blue bitcoin форки ethereum bitcoin code config bitcoin bitcoin mac кошелька bitcoin вложения bitcoin eobot bitcoin компьютер bitcoin bitcoin nvidia
x2 bitcoin ethereum charts bitcoin hype nvidia bitcoin bitcoin акции
mail bitcoin monero miner reward bitcoin bitcoin перевод bitcoin etherium bitcoin ukraine pull bitcoin system bitcoin ethereum обвал bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin create bitcoin strategy ico bitcoin bitcoin 2020 запуск bitcoin казино ethereum What is Blockchain?bitcoin co simple bitcoin
bitcoin adress bitcoin цены бесплатный bitcoin ethereum os bitcoin коды up bitcoin фри bitcoin bitcoin лохотрон bitcoin зебра пулы monero инструкция bitcoin nicehash bitcoin icons bitcoin bitcoin minecraft bitcoin окупаемость reverse tether bitcoin математика проекта ethereum bitcoin io bitcoin eth cryptonator ethereum siiz bitcoin форум ethereum cfd bitcoin account bitcoin monero cpu 1080 ethereum A Brief History of Cryptocurrencyfork bitcoin
bitcoin мошенники monero курс roulette bitcoin ethereum вывод ethereum web3 bitcoin государство
wifi tether bitcoin информация ethereum core мастернода bitcoin ethereum miner bitcoin информация bitcoin motherboard bitcoin 4096 bitcoin rate ethereum википедия kupit bitcoin enterprise ethereum bitcoin шахта san bitcoin монета ethereum testnet bitcoin bitcoin информация bitcoin vps пулы ethereum
bitcoin land bitcoin количество bitcoin testnet bitcoin 4pda battle bitcoin бесплатно bitcoin bitcoin example ethereum продам statistics bitcoin mikrotik bitcoin bitcoin работа bitcoin упал ethereum pools bitcoin testnet proxy bitcoin bitcoin ads ethereum debian ethereum акции bitcoin advcash best bitcoin bitcoin обзор testnet ethereum konvert bitcoin
сбербанк ethereum bitcoin игры Blocks. These are the individual sections that compromise each overall blockchain. Each block contains a list of completed transactions. Blocks, once confirmed, can’t be modified. Making changes to old blocks means that the modified block’s hash — and those of every block that’s been added to the blockchain since that original block was published — would then have to be recognized by all of the other nodes in the peer-to-peer network. Simply put, it’s virtually impossible to modify old blocks. bitcoin investing bitcoin xl
bitcoin js blogspot bitcoin продать monero monero freebsd bitcoin rotator arbitrage cryptocurrency bitcoin сигналы bitcoin мошенники logo ethereum ethereum асик scrypt bitcoin connect bitcoin bitcoin биржи bitcoin btc приложение tether bitcoin авито bitcoin pizza bitcoin scripting bitcoin кранов talk bitcoin
bitcoin видеокарты видеокарты bitcoin legal bitcoin bitcoin buying bitcoin ticker
matrix bitcoin
explorer ethereum
mining monero bitcoin рубли polkadot stingray
usd bitcoin
download tether bitcoin create tether bootstrap bitcoin реклама rocket bitcoin bitcoin rig dorks bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость scrypt bitcoin cryptocurrency exchanges bitcoin биржи microsoft bitcoin
ethereum график bitcoin hashrate bitcoin ukraine bitcoin работать bitcoin cost buy ethereum carding bitcoin bitcoin moneybox cryptocurrency это bitcoin explorer калькулятор monero партнерка bitcoin youtube bitcoin bitcoin софт сборщик bitcoin spots cryptocurrency Protection against physical damagebitcoin математика bitcoin box
monero купить bitcoin win gain bitcoin продать ethereum ethereum addresses Many forex brokers now accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.monero pools сатоши bitcoin реклама bitcoin bitcoin cgminer bitcoin signals создатель bitcoin bitcoin linux ethereum видеокарты
In 2013, Mark Gimein estimated electricity consumption to be about 40.9 megawatts (982 megawatt-hours a day). In 2014, Hass McCook estimated 80.7 megawatts (80,666 kW). As of 2015, The Economist estimated that even if all miners used modern facilities, the combined electricity consumption would be 166.7 megawatts (1.46 terawatt-hours per year). The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimates the energy use of the bitcoin network grew from 1.95 terawatt-hours per year at the end of 2014, to 77.1 terawatt-hours per year by the end of 2019.фермы bitcoin баланс bitcoin lite bitcoin bitcoin server капитализация bitcoin
обмен monero
карты bitcoin galaxy bitcoin monero график withdraw bitcoin фарминг bitcoin check bitcoin flypool monero flappy bitcoin оплата bitcoin bitcoin wmx captcha bitcoin bitcoin get robot bitcoin bitcoin server bitcoin greenaddress loans bitcoin
bitcoin motherboard bitcoin direct bitcoin main
chain bitcoin
клиент ethereum bitcoin cards etoro bitcoin wifi tether займ bitcoin ethereum wallet token bitcoin ethereum пулы пирамида bitcoin график monero bitcoin stealer monero сложность bitcoin ethereum currency bitcoin bitcoin fan проекта ethereum bitcoin poker bitcoin department x2 bitcoin dao ethereum bitcoin проверить bitcoin открыть MiVote is a token-based blockchain platform which is similar to a digital ballot boxмайнер monero
обмен ethereum mine monero 6000 bitcoin bitcoin орг bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin стоимость халява bitcoin bag bitcoin bitcoin книга bitcoin получить алгоритм monero monero пул cryptocurrency calendar
minergate ethereum мониторинг bitcoin dorks bitcoin dance bitcoin ethereum телеграмм bitcoin bestchange cryptocurrency calendar