How to mine bitcoins

How Bitcoin Mining Works

Where do bitcoins come from? With paper money, a government decides when to print and distribute money. Bitcoin doesn't have a central government.

With Bitcoin, miners use special software to solve math problems and are issued a certain number of bitcoins in exchange. This provides a smart way to issue the currency and also creates an incentive for more people to mine.

Bitcoin is Secure

Bitcoin miners help keep the Bitcoin network secure by approving transactions. Mining is an important and integral part of Bitcoin that ensures fairness while keeping the Bitcoin network stable, safe and secure.

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Bitcoin Mining Hardware Comparison

Currently, based on (1) price per hash and (2) electrical efficiency the best Bitcoin miner options are:

AntMiner S7

AntMiner S9

Overview - Table of Contents
Mining Hardware Comparison
What is Bitcoin Mining?
What is the Blockchain?
What is Proof of Work?
What is Bitcoin Mining Difficulty?
The Computationally-Difficult Problem
The Bitcoin Network Difficulty Metric
The Block Reward

Bitcoin mining is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin's public ledger of past transactions or blockchain. This ledger of past transactions is called the block chain as it is a chain of blocks. The block chain serves to confirm transactions to the rest of the network as having taken place.

Bitcoin nodes use the block chain to distinguish legitimate Bitcoin transactions from attempts to re-spend coins that have already been spent elsewhere.

What is Bitcoin Mining?

What is the Blockchain?

Bitcoin mining is intentionally designed to be resource-intensive and difficult so that the number of blocks found each day by miners remains steady. Individual blocks must contain a proof of work to be considered valid. This proof of work is verified by other Bitcoin nodes each time they receive a block. Bitcoin uses the hashcash proof-of-work function.

The primary purpose of mining is to allow Bitcoin nodes to reach a secure, tamper-resistant consensus. Mining is also the mechanism used to introduce Bitcoins into the system: Miners are paid any transaction fees as well as a "subsidy" of newly created coins.

This both serves the purpose of disseminating new coins in a decentralized manner as well as motivating people to provide security for the system.

Bitcoin mining is so called because it resembles the mining of other commodities: it requires exertion and it slowly makes new currency available at a rate that resembles the rate at which commodities like gold are mined from the ground.

What is Proof of Work?

A proof of work is a piece of data which was difficult (costly, time-consuming) to produce so as to satisfy certain requirements. It must be trivial to check whether data satisfies said requirements.

Producing a proof of work can be a random process with low probability, so that a lot of trial and error is required on average before a valid proof of work is generated. Bitcoin uses the Hashcash proof of work.

What is Bitcoin Mining Difficulty?

The Computationally-Difficult Problem

Bitcoin mining a block is difficult because the SHA-256 hash of a block's header must be lower than or equal to the target in order for the block to be accepted by the network.

This problem can be simplified for explanation purposes: The hash of a block must start with a certain number of zeros. The probability of calculating a hash that starts with many zeros is very low, therefore many attempts must be made. In order to generate a new hash each round, a nonce is incremented. See Proof of work for more information.

The Bitcoin Network Difficulty Metric

The Bitcoin mining network difficulty is the measure of how difficult it is to find a new block compared to the easiest it can ever be. It is recalculated every 2016 blocks to a value such that the previous 2016 blocks would have been generated in exactly two weeks had everyone been mining at this difficulty. This will yield, on average, one block every ten minutes.

As more miners join, the rate of block creation will go up. As the rate of block generation goes up, the difficulty rises to compensate which will push the rate of block creation back down. Any blocks released by malicious miners that do not meet the required difficulty target will simply be rejected by everyone on the network and thus will be worthless.

The Block Reward

When a block is discovered, the discoverer may award themselves a certain number of bitcoins, which is agreed-upon by everyone in the network. Currently this bounty is 25 bitcoins; this value will halve every 210,000 blocks. See Controlled Currency Supply.

Additionally, the miner is awarded the fees paid by users sending transactions. The fee is an incentive for the miner to include the transaction in their block. In the future, as the number of new bitcoins miners are allowed to create in each block dwindles, the fees will make up a much more important percentage of mining income.

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Welcome to 99Bitcoins’ simple Bitcoin Mining Calculator

This simple Bitcoin mining calculator will allow you to determine how much you can profit from a certain Bitcoin miner. It takes into account all relevant costs such as hardware, electricity and fees. See below for detailed instructions on how to use it.

Instructions on how to use the Bitcoin Mining Calculator:

Enter the hash rate of the Bitcoin miner you’re planning to use
Click on “Calculate mining revenue”
That’s it! (we said it was simple….)

Note: If some values in the Bitcoin mining calculator don’t seem right (exchange rate, block reward, etc.) you can adjust them manually. However normally they are all up to date.

Keep in mind that:

Revenue is shown in USD based on the current exchange rate, the exchange rate can (and probably will) change from time to time.
Revenue is based on current difficulty to mine Bitcoins. Difficulty can (and probably will) change. From past experience it usually goes up as time goes by.
Revenue IS NOT profit. You still have to take into account the cost of your mining hardware and the electricity to run it (and cool it down if needed).

If you want to know more about Bitcoin mining profitability check out this page.

How to Calculate Bitcoin Mining Profitability

Bitcoin mining secures the Bitcoin network. Without miners, Bitcoin could easily be attacked and even shut down. Since Bitcoin miners provide such an important service to the network, they are paid for their services! Each block mined by miners contains a block reward, which is paid out to the miner that successfully mined the block.

While mining today is very competitive, it is possible to run a successful and profitable mining farm. This post will outline the many factors that will determine whether or not your mining operation will be profitable.

Mining Hardware Costs

The upfront costs to pay for mining hardware is usually the largest expense for any new mining farm. Just like good computers cost more money, good mining hardware is expensive. The Antminer S7 is one currently the most efficient miner and costs $629. It only mines about $200 worth of bitcoins per month, meaning just based on hardware costs alone it will take more than three months to get back your money. This does not include electricity costs or equipment costs (more on this below).

When purchasing mining hardware, you will want to look at these metrics: Th/s and W/GH. Th/s, or sometimes Gh/s, measures a miner’s terahashes (Th/s) or gigahashes (Gh/s) per second and is called hash rate. A higher hash rate means a more powerful miner. You can use this simple calculator from Bitcoin Wisdom to determine how much money an amount of hash power will earn per month.

Hardware Efficiency

Hash power is not the end all for determining good miners, though. Miners use massive amounts of electricity. You want a miner that has both a high hash rate and uses the electricity provided efficiently.

W/GH is the metric used to display a miner’s efficiency. The Antminer S7 is also the most efficient miner available on the market, with 0.25 W/GH. Consider that the previous version of the S7, the S5, had an efficiency of just 0.51 W/GH. That means the S5 uses twice as much electricity per hash as the S7.

Buying a miner that has a low W/GH and also has good hash power is the key for any profitable mining operation.

Equipment Costs

Miners generate heat, and also need to be supplied with electricity. Unless you already have the needed parts, you will likely need to purchase cooling fans and power supplies.

Electricity Costs

Electricity costs can make or break any mining operation. A monthly electric bill means monthly costs on top of the upfront cost of the hardware.

China’s cheap electricity is one reason that nearly 60% of the Bitcoin network’s hashing power is located there. In the USA, for example, most mining hardware is run in Washington State, where there is cheap hydroelectricity. Venezuela’s crisis and cheap electricity has also made Bitcoin mining extremely profitable there.

Don’t discount electricity as a cost. It can make or break your mining operation.

Extra Heat and Weather

Creative miners in cold areas can use the heat generated by miners to heat their houses in the winter. If the heat generated by miners will partly replace your normal heating costs, it is one way to save money and improve your chances of profitability.

Miners in cold areas also have an advantage because they may not need to use extra fans to cool the hardware.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty and Network Hash Power

The Bitcoin mining difficulty makes sure that Bitcoin blocks are mined, on average, every 10 minutes. A higher difficulty is indicative of more hash power joining the network.

As you would expect, more hash power on the network means that existing miners then control a lower percentage of the Bitcoin network hash power.

The image above shows the network hash power over the last 2 years. From September 2015 to February 2016, the network hash rate tripled. That means any miner who added no additional hardware to his farm would earn about 33% less bitcoins.

Hash rate and network difficulty are external factors that should be accounted for. It’s impossible to know difficulty months in advance. However, pay attention to advances in mining technology and efficiency to get a better idea of how the hash rate and difficulty may look down the line.

Bitcoin Price and Block Reward

Bitcoin’s price is volatile and can’t be predicted. You may calculate your profitability with a Bitcoin price of $500, but it won’t be accurate if the price drops to $300 the next day. Be prepared for price movements and understand that the Bitcoin price is a factor that you cannot control.

The Bitcoin block reward is at least one factor that is predictable. Every 4 years, the amount of bitcoins rewarded in each block is cut in half. The reward started at 50 bitcoins per block, and is now 25 bitcoins per block. In July 2016, this reward will fall to just 12.5 bitcoins per block.

Each block reward halving cuts miners’ shares of bitcoins in half. Miners can, however, see similar incomes after a reward halving if the fiat price of Bitcoin doubles.

Bitcoin Mining Calculators

To conclude, use a Bitcoin mining calculator to input your hardware information and electricity costs. This will give you a much better idea on your overall potential to run a profitable mining farm. Remember, however, that some factors like the Bitcoin price and mining difficulty change everyday and can have dramatic effects on profitability.

How To Mine Bitcoins

Mining bitcoins – a process that helps manage bitcoin transactions as well as create new “wealth” – is the new Beanie Babies. Luckily for us, however, bitcoins seem to be going up in value and should maintain their value over time, unlike your mint condition Tiny the stuffed Chihuahua.

But how do you get bitcoins? You can begin by buying them outright, but the market is currently wild. At $188 per coin, the direction of the bitcoin is anyone’s guess right now and, unlike equities, these things don’t split. In short, you should probably mine. But what is bitcoin mining?

Think of it as work done by groups of people to find large prime numbers or trying keys to decrypt a file. You can read a lot more about it here but just understand that for every block mined you get 25 coins or, at current rates, $4,722.25. Currently a single bitcoin is valued at $188, an alarming result that is probably caused by money movements related to Cyprus and a general bubble-like excitement over the platform in general. In fact, many wager that the DDOS attacks on many bitcoin-related services are direct action by hackers to inject instability in order to reduce the price.

As it stands, mining solo is very nearly deprecated. The process of finding blocks is now so popular and the difficulty of finding a block so high that it could take over three years to generate any coins. While you could simply set a machine aside and have it run the algorithms endlessly, the energy cost and equipment deprecation will eventually cost more than the actual bitcoins are worth.

Pooled mining, however, is far more lucrative. Using a service like “Slush’s pool” (more on that later) you can split the work among a ground of people. Using this equation:

While this is simplified, it is basically how the system works. You work for shares in a block and when complete you get a percentage of the block based on the number of workers alongside you, less fees. Using this method, I have been able to raise about $1.50 over the weekend by running a dormant PC. The astute among you will note that I probably used twice that amount of electricity.

Being a neophile, I’m surprised it took me so long to start mining. My buddy Tom explained how to set up a pooled mining account so I thought it would be interesting to share the instructions.

1. Get a wallet. You can either store your wallet locally or store it online. Coinbase.com is an online wallet that is surprisingly simple to set up. Wallets require you to use or download a fairly large blockchain file – about 6GB – so downloading and updating a local wallet may be a non-starter. Like all wealth storage mediums, keeping your bitcoins “local” is probably a better idea than trusting a web service, but that’s a matter of private preference. There is no preferred wallet type and there are obvious trade-offs to both. Privacy advocates would probably say a local wallet is best.

You can download a local wallet here but make sure you keep a copy of your data backed up.

Once you’ve created a wallet, you get an address like this: 1BEkUGADFbrEShQb9Xr4pKPtM8jAyiNQsJ. This, without the period, is a direct way to send bitcoins to your wallet. Make a note of your address. In Coinbase, the wallet address found under linked accounts.

2. Join a pool. To mine in a pool you have to work with a group of other miners on available blocks. The most popular is Slush’s Pool found here. You can also try guilds like BTC Guild as well as a number of other options. Each of the pools is characterized mostly by the fees they charge per block – 2% for Slush’s pool, for example – and the number of users. Pools with fewer users could also have a slower discovery time but pools with many users usually result in smaller payments.

How can you be sure the pool owner doesn’t steal all your bitcoins? You can’t. However, as one pool owner, Slush, notes:

For simplicity’s sake, I’m using Slush’s Pool and have created three workers. First, create a pool login. Then add workers. The workers are sub-accounts with their own passwords and are usually identified by [yourlogin].[workername]. I have three workers running, currently – one on my iMac and two on my old PC.

You must create workers to mine. The instructions are very straightforward for most services so don’t become overwhelmed. Like any online club, you can dig deeply into the subculture surround bitcoin as you gain experience. I like to think of it as a financial MMORPG.

Also be sure to enter your wallet address into the pool information. This will ensure you get your bitcoins.

3. Get a miner. There are a number of mining options for multiple platforms although OSX users may find themselves in a bit of a pickle. Miners use spare GPU cycles to power the mining operation, much like services like SETI@Home uses spare cycles for finding intelligent life. Miners, on the other hand, use these cycles to help handle peer-to-peer processes associated with bitcoins. Thus by doing “work” you are maintaining the network as well.

GUIMiner is the simplest solution for Windows users as it allows you to create miners using almost all standard graphics cards. You can download it here. 50Miner is also a popular solution. Both require you to enter your worker info and pool and they’ll start mining.

Linux users can run miners like CGMiner. An excellent guide to installing a miner on Ubuntu is available here.

OS X users can use DiabloMiner, a two-year old command-line program that will mine using OpenCL. Sadly, it uses deprecated calls to Bitcoin and is quite a bit slower. As a result, you need to run your own proxy, Stratum, that allows Diablo to connect with services like Slush’s pool. Both of these programs usually run without issue on OS X although you may need to install OpenCL for OSX.

To mine I’ve created a script that I run in Terminal that simply runs the proxy in the background and then connects Diablo. Note the last two arguments are necessary for Mountain Lion.

RPCMiner is far easier to run – you simply click an icon and enter some data – and both have very rudimentary, text-based interfaces. Running Diablo on my iMac has not had much effect on application performance under OS X although it does slow down my Windows 8 machine considerably.

4. Keep your mind on your money. Bitcoins are baffling in that they are wildly simple to use and mine. Speculators, then, would probably be able to throw hundreds of machines at the problem and gather bitcoins like raindrops, right? Wrong. As more bitcoins are found, they become more difficult to find. This profitability calculator will help you understand what you’re up against but understand that this isn’t a sure thing. I’ve run my systems for a weekend and seen a mere $1.50 – enough for a coke – but other users may have improved hardware and methods to succeed. In short, if it costs more to run your hardware than you gain in bitcoins, you’re probably doing something wrong.

Good luck in your journey and enjoy your first foray into this wild and wooly world.

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I want all my lost access yahoo account 'delete'; Requesting supporter for these old account deletion; 'except' my Newest yahoo account this Account don't delete! Because I don't want it interfering my online 'gamble' /games/business/data/ Activity , because the computer/security program might 'scure' my Information and detect theres other account; then secure online activities/ business securing from my suspicion because of my other account existing will make the security program be 'Suspicious' until I'm 'secure'; and if I'm gambling online 'Depositing' then I need those account 'delete' because the insecurity 'Suspicioun' will program the casino game 'Programs' securities' to be 'secure' then it'll be 'unfair' gaming and I'll lose because of the insecurity can be a 'Excuse'. Hope y'all understand my explanation!

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Repair the Yahoo Search App.

Yahoo Search App from the Google Play Store on my Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone stopped working on May 18, 2018.

I went to the Yahoo Troubleshooting page but the article that said to do a certain 8 steps to fix the problem with Yahoo Services not working and how to fix the problem. Of course they didn't work.

I contacted Samsung thru their Samsung Tutor app on my phone. I gave their Technican access to my phone to see if there was a problem with my phone that stopped the Yahoo Search App from working. He went to Yahoo and I signed in so he could try to fix the Yahoo Search App not working. He also used another phone, installed the app from the Google Play Store to see if the app would do any kind of search thru the app. The Yahoo Search App just wasn't working.

I also had At&t try to help me because I have UVERSE for my internet service. My internet was working perfectly. Their Technical Support team member checked the Yahoo Search App and it wouldn't work for him either.

We can go to www.yahoo.com and search for any topic or website. It's just the Yahoo Search App that won't allow anyone to do web searches at all.

I let Google know that the Yahoo Search App installed from their Google Play Store had completely stopped working on May 18, 2018.

I told them that Yahoo has made sure that their Yahoo members can't contact them about anything.

I noticed that right after I accepted the agreement that said Oath had joined with Verizon I started having the problem with the Yahoo Search App.
No matter what I search for or website thru the Yahoo Search App it says the following after I searched for
www.att.com.

WEBPAGE NOT AVAILABLE
This webpage at gttp://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geJGq8BbkrgALEMMITE5jylu=X3oDMTEzcTjdWsyBGNvbG8DYmyxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDTkFQUEMwxzEEc2VjA3NylRo=10/Ru=https%3a%2f%2fwww.att.att.com%2f/Rk=2/Es=plkGNRAB61_XKqFjTEN7J8cXA-
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I tried to search for things like www.homedepot.com. The same thing happened. It would say WEBPAGE NOT AVAILABLE. The only thing that changed were all the upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.
Then it would again say
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net::ERR_CLEARTEXT_NOT_PERMITTED

This is the same thing that happened when Samsung and At&t tried to do any kind of searches thru the Yahoo Search App.

Yahoo needs to fix the problem with their app.

Yahoo Search App from the Google Play Store on my Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone stopped working on May 18, 2018.

I went to the Yahoo Troubleshooting page but the article that said to do a certain 8 steps to fix the problem with Yahoo Services not working and how to fix the problem. Of course they didn't work.

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How to make money mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies without knowing anything about it

FILE PHOTO - Representation of the Bitcoin virtual currency standing on the PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture Thomson Reuters Cryptocurrency mining isn't for everyone, and it might seem daunting even if you are interested.

You might think you need an extreme know-how of computers to do any kind of crypto mining, that it couldn't possibly be done by the average person.

Turns out, it's absurdly easy.

You just need computer parts that are powerful enough to make mining profitable, and a handy piece of software called Nicehash. You literally press a green button on Nicehash to start mining.

I've been experimenting with crypto mining on Nicehash myself, and it's been a fun little project. I'm not raking in a huge amount of cash, as my mining rig is small enough that it's more like looking for change on a sidewalk. Bigger mining organizations have warehouses full of powerful computer parts that can generate a ton of cryptocurrencies.

And at the end of the day, I'd only really suggest it if you already have a gaming PC with an appropriately powerful graphics card - the key component for mining. And you need to make sure your electricity costs aren't too high, as mining can suck up a ton of energy.

How Bitcoin Mining Works

Last updated: 29th January 2018

When you hear about bitcoin "mining," you envisage coins being dug out of the ground. But bitcoin isn't physical, so why do we call it mining?

Because it's similar to gold mining in that the bitcoins exist in the protocol's design (just as the gold exists underground), but they haven't been brought out into the light yet (just as the gold hasn't yet been dug up). The bitcoin protocol stipulates that 21 million bitcoins will exist at some point. What "miners" do is bring them out into the light, a few at a time.

They get to do this as a reward for creating blocks of validated transactions and including them in the blockchain.

Backtracking a bit, let's talk about "nodes." A node is a powerful computer that runs the bitcoin software and helps to keep bitcoin running by participating in the relay of information. Anyone can run a node, you just download the bitcoin software (free) and leave a certain port open (the drawback is that it consumes energy and storage space – the network at time of writing takes up about 145GB). Nodes spread bitcoin transactions around the network. One node will send information to a few nodes that it knows, who will relay the information to nodes that they know, etc. That way it ends up getting around the whole network pretty quickly.

Some nodes are mining nodes (usually referred to as "miners"). These group outstanding transactions into blocks and add them to the blockchain. How do they do this? By solving a complex mathematical puzzle that is part of the bitcoin program, and including the answer in the block. The puzzle that needs solving is to find a number that, when combined with the data in the block and passed through a hash function, produces a result that is within a certain range. This is much harder than it sounds.

(For trivia lovers, this number is called a "nonce", which is a concatenation of "number used once." In the case of bitcoin, the nonce is an integer between 0 and 4,294,967,296 .)

Solving the puzzle

How do they find this number? By guessing at random. The hash function makes it impossible to predict what the output will be. So, miners guess the mystery number and apply the hash function to the combination of that guessed number and the data in the block. The resulting hash has to start with a pre-established number of zeroes. There's no way of knowing which number will work, because two consecutive integers will give wildly varying results. What's more, there may be several nonces that produce the desired result, or there may be none (in which case the miners keep trying, but with a different block configuration).

The first miner to get a resulting hash within the desired range announces its victory to the rest of the network. All the other miners immediately stop work on that block and start trying to figure out the mystery number for the next one. As a reward for its work, the victorious miner gets some new bitcoin.

At the time of writing, the reward is 12.5 bitcoins, which at time of writing is worth almost $200,000.

Although it's not nearly as cushy a deal as it sounds. There are a lot of mining nodes competing for that reward, and it is a question of luck and computing power (the more guessing calculations you can perform, the luckier you are).

Also, the costs of being a mining node are considerable, not only because of the powerful hardware needed (if you have a faster processor than your competitors, you have a better chance of finding the correct number before they do), but also because of the large amounts of electricity that running these processors consumes.

And, the number of bitcoins awarded as a reward for solving the puzzle will decrease. It's 12.5 now, but it halves every four years or so (the next one is expected in 2020-21). The value of bitcoin relative to cost of electricity and hardware could go up over the next few years to partially compensate this reduction, but it's not certain.

The difficulty of the calculation (the required number of zeroes at the beginning of the hash string) is adjusted frequently, so that it takes on average about 10 minutes to process a block.

Why 10 minutes? That is the amount of time that the bitcoin developers think is necessary for a steady and diminishing flow of new coins until the maximum number of 21 million is reached (expected some time in 2140).

If you've made it this far, then congratulations! There is still so much more to explain about the system, but at least now you have an idea of the broad outline of the genius of the programming and the concept. For the first time we have a system that allows for convenient digital transfers in a decentralized, trust-free and tamper-proof way. The repercussions could be huge.

Authored by Noelle Acheson. Bitcoin and bitcoin mining images via Shutterstock.

What is Bitcoin and can you still get rich with Bitcoin?

The popularity of cryptocurrencies are certainly on the rise, and Bitcoin is still king of the kill. We explain what it is, and how to mine it.

We explain how to mine Bitcoin on your PC, or up in the Cloud.

By Jim Martin | 02 Feb 2018

Bitcoin is wildly confusing. And here’s the bad news: the fact you’re reading this now means you’re late to the game, and it’s going to be tough to turn a profit in Bitcoin mining. Nevertheless, if you want to try your hand at mining bitcoins, here we present the beginner's guide to generating bitcoins.

Following a dodgy patch in 2016, Bitcoin's value has recovered and actually surpassed the value of gold. Right now it's at £8,392.04, but yesterday hit an all time high of £8806.08(according to Coinbase).

But despite this Bitcoin is said to be under threat from several newer crypto-currencies, including Ethereum.

If you're finding yourself baffled as to what we're talking about, please let us explain.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency that operates independently of a central bank. Encryption is used to regulate both the generation of Bitcoin units and the transfer of the currency.

If you're excited, check out our guide to buying Bitcoins as well as the best Bitcoin exchanges where you can invest them.

What is Bitcoin worth?

In essence, the more bitcoins mined or ‘found’, the harder it is to ‘find’ more coins. While once it may have been possible to use a high-powered PC at home to mine Bitcoin on its own, the sheer popularity of mining Bitcoin means it’s viable only to join a pool. This is where your computer works alongside others to mine bitcoins. It’s much like [email protected] , where clusters of computers work together to try and find extra-terrestrial life. See also: The rise of Bitcoin and why you can't mine them on your own.

Without getting bogged down with the technicalities, the groups of computers in a Bitcoin pool are crunching numbers to mine a block. For every block mined, you get 25 coins.

On 4 December 2017 one Bitcoin is worth £8,392.04 .

It's crazy to think some analysts thought in 2015 that Bitcoin was doomed. Here's what prices looked like around two years ago:

What are Bitcoin Futures?

As Bitcoin Futures get the go-ahead, Bitcoin's value is scoring sky-high and the UK government is calling for increased regulation of cryptocurrencies by expanding the reach of European Union anti-money-laundering rules. But what does all that mean?

Bitcoin Futures are contracts that balance the risk associated with volatile pricing by requiring users to agree to buy or sell a specific amount of Bitcoin once it reaches a predetermined price on a future date . In the US they will go live on Sunday evening (10 December), with the first full day of trading 11 December 2017.

If you buy a Bitcoin Futures contract, you buy the right to sell Bitcoin at a specific price. Meanwhile the seller agrees to accept the Bitcoin at that specific price on a future date. The buyer hopes to buy Bitcoin at a more favourable price; the seller hopes to fetch a higher price per Bitcoin on the settlement date.

Cboe President Chris Concannon told Bloomberg: “The launch of the futures will actually make the market healthier. It will create pricing equilibrium in the market. Clients who are holding Bitcoin now have no way to hedge their risk. These products allow them to hedge, and to take opposing views. More importantly, it brings a wave of regulatory oversight.”

Can you get rich with Bitcoin?

As we mentioned in the introduction, these days it's difficult to turn a profit mining Bitcoin. But it has been known, especially for early adopters of the virtual currency.

For example, the Guardian reports on how a Norwegian man’s $27 investment in Bitcoin turned into a $886,000 windfall four years later.

"Kristoffer Koch invested 150 kroner ($26.60) in 5,000 bitcoins in 2009, after discovering them during the course of writing a thesis on encryption. He promptly forgot about them until widespread media coverage of the anonymous, decentralised, peer-to-peer digital currency in April 2013 jogged his memory," reports the Guardian. At which point, they were worth a small fortune at $886,000.

Get started with Bitcoin mining and generate your own bitcoins

Let's say you try and mine a block of bitcoins with just one home PC. This is a bad idea: the electricity costs will be higher than the money you make from any mined bitcoins and you may have to wait months - or longer - before you get any return. By joining a pool, you should get smaller payments more regularly.

However, you could still end up out of pocket even if you join a pool such as Slush’s Bitcoin pool – one of the most popular ones. When a block is completed, you get a share based on the number of other ‘workers’ who helped mine the block. A fee – around 2 percent – will be deducted from this, and you could well earn only half the amount you’ve spent in electricity costs.

Of course, if you’re able to run the mining software on a computer for which you don’t pay the electricity bill, you might be quids in (but we don’t recommend running it on your work PC!). If you want to mine Bitcoin on a Mac, on the other hand, bear in mind the advice of our colleagues at Macworld: How to mine Bitcoin on Mac.

Cloud Mining is another option to consider if you're stepping into this realm. Cloud Mining involves renting processing power in the Cloud (aka a data centre somewhere) and using it to mine Bitcoin. The benefits of this means you don't have to worry about running the rig yourself, so you're avoiding the electricity bills, additional heat, noise, hardware failures etc. However, you will be paying for this luxury so your profit margin will be that much more slim.

So, if you’re still interested, here’s a simple step-by step guide to getting started with Bitcoin mining:

Step 1. You’ll need a ‘wallet’ to start with. This is a bit like a PayPal account where your bitcoins can be stored. You can store this wallet online, or locally on your PC. You’ll need to download a large ‘blockchain file’ to use a wallet. For an online wallet, you might like to try coinbase.com. With a coinbase account, you can buy, use and accept Bitcoin currency.

Step 2. Join a pool, such as Slush’s Bitcoin pool. There’s always a danger that the pool owner might keep all 25 bitcoins when a block is mined, since the whole 25 coins are paid to one person: the pool owner.

You’ll need to choose a trustworthy pool owner. Slush’s pool was the first and has been operating since December 2010. By the site’s own words, it has a “a long history of stable and accurate payouts”.

Step 3. Install a Bitcoin ‘miner’ on your PC. There are two types: CPU and GPU. For beginners, Kiv's GUI miner is recommended. You can find out more about how to use Kiv's GUI miner here.

Step 4. Log into your Bitcoin pool account, and enter your wallet address. You will be able to get this by checking your wallet account which you created in step 1.

Step 5. Register your workers. Each worker is a sub-account within your Bitcoin pool account. You can have more than one worker running on each computer.

Step 6. Enter your worker credentials into your Bitcoin mining software, and then enter the main pool URL so your workers can start mining.

5 Ways to Get Free Bitcoins

Do you wonder where you can get some free bitcoins? For many of us, the discovery of Bitcoin is like the discovery of organic foods. We can see the benefits of using them but find it difficult to justify the cost, and then there is the risk that we’ll be getting a bad deal since we don’t know what we’re doing.

In Bitcoin, it’s like every organic food store has someone out front, offering free samples. Also, there’s a library everywhere you look, but only a few of those libraries have any good information. The largest traders would benefit a great deal if everyone just jumped blindly into Bitcoin, investing large chunks of their life savings in the process. That would be just fine by them, but it’s unlikely to happen. More likely, people are going to get involved with Bitcoin either by necessity, by chance or because someone was willing to give them a few bitcoins to get started with.

Now, before we begin discussing the places out there to get free Bitcoin, let’s just be clear: there is no way to get wealthy without working or investing for it. It is impossible to make an income in bitcoins or any other currency just by clicking around on some websites. However, that being said, cryptocurrencies are unique in that clever marketers can make a profit doing exactly that, giving away money. This would not be possible in other currencies, where they simply can’t be broken down small enough. The operator will usually make less than a penny. If they were forced to give you a penny or more, there’d be no way to be profitable. Getting free bitcoins is not a way to get rich, and certainly not the most profitable use of one’s time, but if you’ve got some free time and would like to pick up a small amount of extra Bitcoin now and then, then this definitive guide will is a great place to start.

1. The Blockchain Game

Since our last publishing of this guide, perhaps the most fun way to earn free bitcoins, Bitcoin Flapper, has gone by the wayside. The company which operated it no longer do, and appears to only operate iPhone apps with various titles that don’t seem to pay out in bitcoins. Other options in the Google Play Store have arisen to fill the void. Chief among them is the Blockchain Game. You sign up with a two-step sign-up process which involves giving over your e-mail address and then your Bitcoin address.

The game pays out once per week. It’s important to note that like most free games, the Blockchain Game has a lot of advertisements. This is how they are able to afford to pay others. In one sense, Bitcoin faucets and free Bitcoin games could be seen as a method of advertising profit sharing.

Playing the Blockchain game is fun, challenging, and mildly addictive. The frequent interruptions by advertising are, of course, less than ideal, but a necessary evil. Gameplay involves getting to the top level, which has the highest reward. One has to assume that this is based on skill and that the maximum reward is simply the most the company behind it, free Bitcoin veterans Bitcoin Aliens, is willing to pay out for one game.

Getting to only the first level is easy, but each level after that requires that you place the block directly above the previous level. This can be difficult because the block moves on its own and it moves faster with each level. Every ten levels, you get the option to cash out or go further. Here’s what gameplay looks like:

As you can see in the last screengrab, if you fail to place a block, you get the option to continue for watching a short ad.

2. Pop Bubbles

Another fun game available for Android devices is called Bitcoin Popper. This game takes more of a slot machine approach, and it is completely possible to get a 0.00 prize, as seen here:

The game also offers paid upgrades, such as adding more time to each session. This would make it less popular with the faucet surfers and free Bitcoiners of the world, but nonetheless, it overall seems to have less advertising interruptions.

To win, you must get a few stars that match. Once you have three, you get more payout for each additional one. Bitcoin Popper is significantly harder to play on first glance, but a continual effort will result in a win. After a couple games, the game makes you wait several minutes to try again.

The company behind Bitcoin Popper seems to only be getting started with the game, and so it appears that when they have more players (more revenue), they will be able to offer bigger and faster prizes. In any case, at present it stands as one of the more fun games of chance to win free bitcoins.

Also, a pro tip: if your phone gives you trouble exiting, as the author’s did, simply hold your power button down for a few seconds and the usual menu will appear at the bottom of the screen allowing you to get to your home screen.

3. Read Books

Readers may remember CCN’s coverage of PaidBooks.com, a site run by the friendly folks behind Bitcoin Aliens. It has the same functionality as a regular faucet, but instead pays users for reading classic books. It is one of the more interesting and engaging methods of giving away free money, as it gives the user the opportunity to engage in more ways than simply getting around a CAPTCHA and pressing a couple of buttons.

4. Roll and Ball

This new game is more straightforward than most: in the two versions of the game, you can either get 10% or 40% of the advertising. The 10% option is immediate, whereas the 40% option is based on “future” advertising profits. The concept of the actual game is simply enough: roll a ball around a table using your phone until you have collected all the coins on the table.

New levels present new difficulties and obstacles between your ball and the coin, but there is no time limit.

Following each level, a video ad will play. The winnings are small, but if you’ve got a long train commute or something, this game is an easy enough way to win free bitcoins.

5. Play Dice

Most dice websites allow the user to have a free balance to play with, albeit a very small amount. Examples of sites that do this are PrimeDice and 999Dice. Whether you’ll be able to play the actual games depends on your jurisdiction, though you can often withdraw the money you’ve earned for free regardless of where you live. It is possible to research dice strategies and take the free amount and turn it into a substantial amount of money if you’re willing to invest the time. The author once took a 0.000005 faucet payout and turned it into .1 BTC, which was over $30 at the time.

Also: Reputable Bitcoin Faucets

There are some large and reputable bitcoin faucets that have consistently made their payouts for a long time. A few that make such a list are Free Bitcoin, Bitcoin Zebra, and Moon Bitcoin. To find a long list of faucets, visit Land of Bitcoin.

As you can see, cryptocurrency enables marketers to give away the ultimate freebie in the modern age: money. While you would have to spend a significant amount of time to get actual value out of faucet visitation, it does present a chance to become fully immersed in how Bitcoin transactions work.

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