Should i mine ppcoin

The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 1,, times. You've heard of Bitcoin and you're ready to get your hands on some digital wealth. However, this may be easier said than done. When you "mine" Bitcoin, you actually verify Bitcoin transactions in the public, decentralized ledger of Bitcoin transactions called the blockchain. Every time you find a new block to add to the chain, the system gives you some Bitcoin as a reward.

Back in the early days of Bitcoin, it was easy to mine Bitcoin using your own computer. However, as the cryptocurrency has become more popular, it has become all but impossible for individuals to make a profit mining Bitcoin. That doesn't stop a lot of people from trying, though. If you want to mine Bitcoin, you can either sign up with a cloud-mining company or build your own mining rig to mine for yourself.

Tip: If you have a software or mobile wallet, keep in mind that your wallet is only as secure as the device where it's located. Make sure you have set up robust security on your computer or smartphone, with encryption, a firewall, and up-to-date antivirus protection. Tip: Even if you start making Bitcoin fairly early on in your contract, you still have to cover the price you paid for the contract before you're turning a profit. Most smaller contracts never turn a profit.

For larger contracts, it may take you several years. Tip: You can access your router and your ASIC miner from any computer or electronic device on the same network as your miner — even your smartphone. Make sure your network is protected by a firewall and a strong password. To mine Bitcoins, start by downloading a Bitcoin wallet on your computer or mobile device, which you'll need to store your mined Bitcoins in.

Once you have a digital wallet, look for a cloud mining service provider online and sign up for one of their packages to receive processing power to mine Bitcoin remotely. Then, join a mining pool through the provider, which will increase your chances of earning Bitcoins.

To learn what equipment you'd need to mine Bitcoin yourself at home, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods.

Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. All rights reserved. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc. Download a software or mobile wallet if you're just getting started. Software wallets are kept on your computer, while mobile wallets are apps that you install on your smartphone. Software and mobile wallets are reasonably secure, can be downloaded for free, and are suitable for smaller amounts of Bitcoin.

Some wallets are hybrid, meaning that you can access them through software on your computer and through an app on your mobile phone. Invest in a hardware wallet if you're serious about Bitcoin. Hardware wallets may set you back a couple of hundred dollars but are considered more secure. Since they aren't connected to the internet, they aren't vulnerable to hackers.

If you intend to keep your Bitcoin long-term, a hardware wallet is likely a worthwhile investment. You can buy them online or at brick-and-mortar stores that sell computer supplies and accessories.

Enable all security features on your wallet. Once you've chosen a Bitcoin wallet, set it up for maximum security to protect your Bitcoin. Use two-factor authentication to secure your account. When you log in, a code will be sent to you in a text message or email.

You have to enter the code to access your account. This makes your account less vulnerable to hacking. If you have a password manager on your computer or smartphone, you can use that to create a secure, encrypted password.

Method 2. This hash rate was more than acceptable when bitcoin mining took less computing power and each block yielded 50 bitcoin. And it's been profitable recently. But it could be a money-losing endeavor if computing power floods the market and the difficulty increases at a faster pace than bitcoin's price.

This has happened several times before, when bitcoin's price crashes or the difficulty level rises to the point where once profitable rigs become unprofitable.

In the oil industry , new wells won't be drilled if the breakeven price per well is too close to the current price of oil. Bitcoin is similar. New rigs won't be bought and miners won't mine if the breakeven is too close to the current price.

And if the network is flooded with computing power and the difficulty goes up, you could be out of luck entirely. The common theme behind all commodities is that they have tangible use in everyday life. Therefore, prices spike if production goes down. Electricity prices go up during a power outage. Water prices go up if a water main bursts.

These tangible effects can also offer opportunity. But new technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing unlocked previously unprofitable reserves. Unlike oil, bitcoin isn't tangible and doesn't have practical use in the physical world. It has a limited supply. And the bitcoin protocol ensures that new bitcoins are produced at a consistent though dwindling rate independent of computing power.

In this way, bitcoin's relationship with supply, production, and price is completely different from traditional commodities. That makes sense, because it was, after all, originally intended to be something else -- currency. The power of halving is truly incredible, considering that by the annual bitcoin supply will be increasing by hundreds, not millions, per year.

Once that additional supply becomes negligible, we could see bitcoin's price volatility go way down. And only then, perhaps, will bitcoin stop reminding us of commodities and investments and truly become what it was intended to be.

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Stock Market. Industries to Invest In. Getting Started. Planning for Retirement. The first two methods are self-explanatory, and they're the usual subjects of the debate around bitcoin: its value as an investment and as a currency. As for the third method, bitcoins are created through a process called mining, in which computer power hashing power is used to solve a puzzle in pursuit of a number called a nonce.

In theory, these puzzles could be done with a pen and paper. They aren't mathematically challenging, they just require a lot of number-crunching and guesswork. To answer that question, it helps to think of the traits bitcoin shares not with other currencies or investments, but with something else -- commodities. The U. Commodity Futures Trading Commission characterizes bitcoin as a commodity so that derivative contracts like futures and options can be traded based on its underlying value.

This makes a certain amount of sense. What's considered a commodity has changed over time, but from goats to gold, commodities all have something in common: They're fungible, meaning interchangeable. There may be different types of tea and grades of motor oil. But a gallon of unleaded gasoline is more or less the same no matter where you get it. In most commodity-dependent industries, when the price of the underlying commodity goes up, supply starts to increase, as well.

When prices of gold or copper go up, miners respond by ramping up production. It's the same with oil. Higher supply eventually causes prices to go down, and the cycle repeats. But something strange is happening with bitcoin: Its price is near its all-time high, but supply is increasing at its slowest pace ever. There are several reasons for this. In the early days, the puzzles that bitcoin miners had to solve were relatively easy and didn't require a lot of hashing power.

A dusty old central processing unit CPU would do the trick. But the puzzles have gotten exponentially harder over time. This is because bitcoin's founders decided each block of bitcoin should take about 10 minutes to mine, in an effort to keep a lid on supply. As computing power surged, so did the difficulty. The difficulty is adjusted every 2, blocks -- which is roughly every two weeks if it takes 10 minutes to mine a block.

In theory, you could take the average hash rate and the time per block of the prior 2, blocks to estimate what the next difficulty number will be. But it's not a perfect science since sometimes a block is mined in far less than 10 minutes by pure luck.

In January of , the difficultly was 1. So there's one part of our answer: the computing power required to mine one block of bitcoin is exponentially higher now than it was 12 years ago, even if the time it takes to mine one block is still around 10 minutes. If the time to mine a block is relatively constant over time, why is bitcoin supply increasing at a slowing rate? The answer is due to bitcoin "halvings.