Bitcoin enthusiasts around the world can obtain it in three primary ways. They can buy Bitcoins on a cryptocurrency exchange; accept Bitcoins as payment for goods and services, and through mining new Bitcoins. The Bitcoin Mining process signifies the discovery of new Bitcoins by solving complex mathematical problems.
The process is very hard just like digging the ground to find gold. Miners need to set up a node (network) of high-powered computers to simply find out the verification key of Bitcoin transactions.
However, miners do not just verify one Bitcoin transaction; they constantly try to verify many of them at the same time. A ledger network called Blockchain keeps all these transactions virtually locked after gathering them into boxes known as hashes. Miners only run the software to find out the key that can open the box.
As soon as a computer in the node finds the key, the box or hash pops open and the transactions are verified. Miners need to solve thousands of incorrect puzzles to find out the correct one. The process becomes as hard as finding a needle in a packed pile of hay. So, after successfully creating a Bitcoin block, the miners get rewarded with 25 newly generated Bitcoins.
How Does Bitcoin Mining Work?
As mentioned earlier, Bitcoin mining is nothing but the hash verification process to validate Bitcoin transactions. After validating the transactions, miners provide the essential security for the distributed ledger of the Bitcoin network. The hashes measure the speed of mining Bitcoins per second.
A new Bitcoin block is produced when a miner initiates new transactions to the network of nodes, using the hash of the previous block. Miners verify that the new block is accurate and after that, the network confirms the transaction.
Bitcoin miners get compensated for their effort through the Bitcoin network. The mining pool releases newly formed Bitcoins for each miner. These rewarded Bitcoin are provided according to the computing power miners contribute to the process of mining.
How Do You Mine for Free?
To be a potential Bitcoin miner, you need to have the most essential things in hand before mining free Bitcoins. First of all, you need to install a Bitcoin wallet and create an account where you could hold whatever you earn. After creating the wallet account, you will need an encrypted online bank account for transferring your earnings. Secondly, you would require free mining software on your device. After installing free Bitcoin mining software, you need to set up the software and link your Bitcoin mining account with the Bitcoin wallet.
Set Up a Bitcoin Wallet
Setting up a Bitcoin wallet is the primary thing a potential Bitcoin miner should do before starting the mining process. A Bitcoin wallet will allow the miner to send, receive, and store Bitcoins securely and will also prevent Bitcoins from being exposed to possible risks.
Miners are allowed to store everything in the wallet starting from the smallest unit of Bitcoin, a Satoshi, to hundreds and thousands of BTCs. Miners need to create a wallet address using their email ID before installing any free mining software on the device.
Download Free Bitcoin Mining Software
The actual Bitcoin mining process is primarily handled by the mining hardware. But, the Bitcoin mining software is also essential to connect you to the distributed Blockchain network and your Bitcoin mining pool as well, if you are connected to a network of mining pools.
The miners get the work delivered by the software and further complete the work and give the information to the software. The mining software relays the information back to the Blockchain network as well as to the Bitcoin mining pool.
A lot of free Bitcoin mining software can run on nearly every operating system, such as Windows, Linux, OSX, etc. Some of the software can even be ported to work on some low-cost, credit-card-sized computers such as Raspberry Pi. You can port such software with some modifications depending on your mining setup.
The Bitcoin mining software also monitors the input and output in the Blockchain and displays general statistics for the temperature, hash rate, fan speed, and the average speed of the miner.
There are several different types of free Bitcoin mining software out there having advantages and disadvantages. So, you need to ensure that you have done enough research on various mining software regarding the safety of your mining device. Following are some of the best free Bitcoin mining software:
EasyMiner: It is a GUI-based free Bitcoin miner for Windows, Linux, and Android. EasyMiner auto configures your Bitcoin miners and is very transparent in terms of usage. With a user-friendly dashboard, the software provides performance graphs for easy visualization of your Bitcoin mining process.
BTCMiner: BTCMiner is an open-sourced Bitcoin miner containing a USB interface for communicating. This interface reduces additional hardware requirements such as the JTAG programmer. The process of BTCMiner is fully automated in its system. The software scales dynamic frequency based on error measurement.
MinePeon: It is also an open-sourced Bitcoin miner with prominent stability and performance. Once it is installed on the mining device, the user needs to configure it and then leave it to do the mining work automatically forever without any human interactions.
BFGMiner: It is a modular ASIC miner that features dynamic clocking and monitoring along with remote interface capabilities. Written in C, the software is in-built with multi-threaded multi-pool GPU. The software also includes support for OpenWrt-capable routers.
CGMiner: This is a multi-threaded GPU and ASIC miner and it is available for several platforms such as Windows, Linux, and OS. It is a very simple and lightweight miner in the crypto mining world. The software provides stable performance with decent hash rates.
50Miner: This is a GUI frontend miner for Windows. To start mining with this software, a miner only needs a username and password. It starts the mining process automatically with the optimal hardware settings. This software can work in advanced mode.
Join a Bitcoin Mining Pool
Once you’re ready with a Bitcoin wallet and free mining software to mine Bitcoins, you should join a Bitcoin mining pool. A group of Bitcoin miners working together to solve a block is called the Bitcoin mining pool. The mining pool shares the rewards received after creating a new Bitcoin block.
A mining pool is needed to reduce the time of an individual miner. Because without a Bitcoin mining pool an individual miner might take over a year to mine a single Bitcoin and will never earn any Bitcoins. It’s far more convenient to share the work of each miner in a pool and split the reward with the members in a much larger group of Bitcoin miners.
