Mining BitCoin – Types of BitCoin Miners

Mining BitCoin – Types of BitCoin Miners

For individuals looking to make money using BitCoin miners, the road can often be difficult to get started down. Like most methods of making money online, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of different sites claiming to offer users the best experience in earning money through BitCoin mining. Depending on how much you intend to earn through your BitCoin mining software and how much money you have to invest, your results could vary greatly.

With the explosion of value in the BitCoin market, many individuals are jumping on the train, but the reality is that this increased popularity means increased competition. At the onset of this crypto-currency, users could simply run mining software off of their desktop computers and start getting paid for BitCoin mining. Now, the requirements are much more resource intensive, so knowing what to look for in both hardware and software is a necessity.

What is Mining?

Due to the nature of crypto-currency, BitCoin needs to have some form of verification to ensure the integrity and overall strength of the system. For this, it uses a public ledger to make the transactions available as public record. Without these BitCoin miners operating to facilitate transactions, there would be a total lack of accountability and integrity within the system.

By becoming a BitCoin miner, you become a part of this verification and authentication process, much like a payroll processer does in physical storefronts. In exchange for this service, you are compensated with bitcoins that are minted upon completion of these transactions. With the amount of exchanges happening daily, this has become extremely resource intensive, so you need to make sure that you have the right combination of hardware and software.

BitCoin Mining Servers

Having servers set up can be expensive, but with the large amount of users that are starting to attempt BitCoin mining, it can certainly be worth it.The first thing to realize about servers used for BitCoin mining is that not just any will do. In fact, the only real way to make this profitable is to invest in servers with ASIC (application specific integrated circuits).

ASIC allows the server to actually customize the server specifically for crunching date and tracking bitcoins. Some server companies have already run their own tests to confirm this, showing that even with the most powerful servers available running, bitcoin mining is simply not profitable. On the other hand, if you can get a powerful enough setup utilizing ASIC, you can certainly go about having a server set up for BitCoin mining.

As far as cost is concerned, buying a server is the most expensive option for hardware. Many individuals spend upwards of thousands of dollars for a high enough quality server. Before purchasing a server for this purpose, make sure that it is really the best value and that it has ASIC, because otherwise you will not be getting the results you desire.

USB BitCoin Miners

For those looking to spend a bit less on the setup, there is also the option of a USB miner. This option is particularly popular among beginners or forthose looking to avoid the high energy and cooling costs associated with servers. Though the production is clearly less than a powerful server, a USB miner will allow the individual to get started in BitCoin mining just fine.

The cost of a USB miner is much lower than running a full server and the cooling required is much less as well. With the lower cost of cooling coupled with the lower power consumption, this makes a USB miner much more cost-effective than more expensive servers. On the other hand, the power simply cannot match the larger and more powerful servers.

Mining Software

Before looking at the different options for hardware, remember that regardless of which type of option you choose, getting the right mining software is a must. There are dozens of different options that are available for this. For starters, there is software available for Windows as well as Mac OS. There is software that runs off of Java, OpenCL, GPU, GUI and even some have been developed to run off of Flash Player. After establishing the hardware that you are using, pick out software that will be compatible with your choice and you can get started.

When it comes down to it, just compare the features of what you are looking for and choose software that fits your needs. Sometimes, software is intended to work only with specific hardware, so if that is the case, make sure that you know what hardware you intend to use before deciding on software. The last thing that you want is to pick out software and then find that it will not work with your chosen hardware method.

Getting Started

Once you have decided what software and hardware combination to use, the best choice is to put together an actual budget. If you already have bitcoins, you can often use those to purchase the necessary equipment, but, as indicated above, some options can get very pricy. Remember to establish how many transactions you hope to facilitate each day and what you need to accomplish this.

Having a clear goal set for your BitCoin mining endeavors will not just help you decide on what equipment to buy, but it will also help you measure your success. If you are not reaching the volume you intended to, re-evaluate your hardware and software. Change as necessary, and remember to stay up to date with the latest developments in BitCoin news.

BitCoin Farms

Another thing to consider for those looking to get started is to look at BitCoin farms. These communities will allow users to actually increase the likelihood of participating as part of sales and as such will allow that user to gain much more money BitCoin mining. Joining one of these communities is usually free, and whether you have a server or just use USB mining hardware, you can certainly benefit from what they have to offer.

Finally, consider joining forums meant for BitCoin and mining software. Being part of a community can help you discover new developments before they even happen. Like any other business venture, the key is to be persistent.