Mining bitcoins may sound like earning money out of nowhere. In reality, it is much more than that. To find out how much can you make mining bitcoin in 2018 you have to know the basic information about the blockchain.
Finding Out How Much Can You Make Out Of Mining
If you are a newcomer in mining cryptocurrency, it is recommended to spend a few days on a research of the basics of how does blockchain work and why is it a good thing to do” as Elon Mask has stated in his interview. For example, everyone realizes that it is possible to earn money on miming cryptocurrency, but only a few realize that miners are practically volunteers who keep the chain working and at the same time defend it from attackers. For their hair work, they receive coins.
What is bitcoin?
It is hard to explain in a nutshell what is bitcoin. For that reason, the Internet offers plenty of various definitions which sometimes contradict each other. The whitepaper published by Satoshi Nakamoto, no matter who he is, states that Bitcoin is a chain of digital signatures. It contains the information of all the previous owners, all the transactions performed, all the signatures, timestamps, proof of works and other information which is encrypted. This information creates a chain which tracks all the transactions made and record it to a single ledger. To make the transaction legit, it should be publicly announced to all the nodes in the system which must confirm that they don’t have the same transaction on their ledgers. It is called peer-to-peer system.
How does bitcoin mining work?
To count how much can you make mining bitcoin in 2018 you should realize how the process works. The first bitcoins could have been written on a piece of paper. Imagine how much transactions should be approved if, since the creation in 2008, 24 new coins were appearing every ten minutes which makes the number of coins 16,967,988 at the moment. Find more details here. Each coin has huge encrypted with SHA-256 algorithm chain of information which must not only be decrypted but also approved. All this information can make you realize why the difficulty of process is growing every day. Note that the number of bitcoins is limited. When the number reaches 21 million, the process stops all over the world.
Long-term perspectives in mining
Creating a block is rewarded with 12,5 bitcoins. Every 210,000 blocks, the coin reward is halved which will make it decrease from 12.5 to 6.25 coins in the next two years. All the coins will be mined in 2140. The demand for hardware will instantly grow so there is no sense in creating a graphics card farms. The more and more powerful micro schemes will be created to make more powerful ASIC hardware (application-specific integrated circuit).
What you need to start Bitcoin mining?
How much money can you make from bitcoin mining? It depends on the initial conditions. To start mining you have to think how much spare money do you have. If there are 1,5-10 thousand dollars which you can invest, it would be reasonable to buy a personal ASIC hardware and start doing it at home. Buying an ASIC you should pay attention to:
- Capacity, which is a hash power, which is measured in Gh/s or Th/s (giga- or terahash per second)
- Efficiency, W/Th (watts per terahash),
- Price of the hardware
For example, if you buy an ASIC called Antminer S7 for $1,099 with capacity 47300.0 Gh/s and power 1293 Watt, with the current price for Bitcoin you will have results like this:
To calculate any other hardware you can use this calculator. Note that price for cryptocurrency is changing every day. Research prediction the price of electronic cash for the future. You should also note that the difficulty is constantly growing and the reward for creating blocks will be halved in two years. Keep this information in mind when investing in ASIC. On the other hand, you may want to mine coins for a long-term investment which makes sense.
Cloud services
“How much can I make mining bitcoins on a cloud service” is a frequently googled phrase of people who are not ready buying expensive equipment. Cloud services give you to rent hardware for mining. The price depends on the capacity. The principle is the same except you are paying a pool fee. The biggest problem of cloud services is a scam. Simply saying you may rent hardware which barely exists. To avoid such a situation, it is recommended:
- To demand the proof of the equipment, its type, capacity, and efficiency. You need this information not only to proof the existence of the equipment but also to calculate your reward using a previously mentioned method.
- Check the domain name with who.is. It should be a real person with all the information.
- To check the location of the company which should not differ from the location of the equipment.
- To demand to provide any technical information of the equipment.
- To research the cloud service, find trustful reviews.
You should be skeptical about choosing a cloud service. Look for the most trustworthy, not the cheapest one. Since it is not possible to attach a blockchain, the scammers are looking for other ways to cheat.
How much money does a miner make a year?
Do you want to acknowledge how much can u make with bitcoin mining per year? On the example mentioned before you can see the income of BTC 1.251346 or $7,320 if bitcoin won’t become cheaper. With cloud service, you can earn less but with the less investment accordingly. Check it directly with a cloud provider after ensuring that it is not a scam.
What do Bitcoin miners solve?
Bitcoin miners are volunteers who support the peer-to-peer network gaining coins as the reward. The more miners mine coins, the fewer chances they leave attackers to attack the network.
Is Bitcoin mining profitable in 2018?
In 2018 and next few years the mining will be profitable with according equipment. As the complexity of the process constantly grows, the equipment will become less efficient.
Useful tips and advice
To make a profit per day, it is reasonable to buy an ASIC and mine coins yourself. This will help you to get one coin in a year and prevents you from scam cloud services. If you don’t want to invest more than $1,000 then use cloud service. Make sure that it is trustworthy before using it.
General conclusion
Today it is impossible to make any money on your PC today. One computer can have one wallet to store the reward. How much you make depends on the opacity and efficiency of the hardware. Cryptocurrency is not the money to make of nowhere. Like gold mining, it requires much efforts and knowledge together with analytical thinking. Cloud services offer to withdraw the reward even in a month, but you have to pay a mining pool fee. There are plenty of other cryptocurrency except Bitcoins. Keep in mind all the information and make your choice reasonably.