beginners-guide-mining-cryptocurrency

The Beginner’s Guide to Mining Cryptocurrency

Whether you are simply looking for ways to make money with your smart devices, or you recently became aware of cryptocurrency and want to learn more, this article will walk you through the basics and introduce you to a beginner friendly crypto currency mining tool.

First, let me set the stage with a short story.

Please note there are affiliate links in this article – I personally use this tool and believe in the product.

Short Story

Several years ago, I had written about a company that created a super computer by allowing people to install a small program on their computer.

The program would siphon off and combine unused processing power and bandwidth across a network of participant’s devices.

This combined power was then purchased by universities and other institutions that required heavy computational processing (e.g. data crunching for cancer research).

In return, those that installed the program were paid for their unused processing power.

It was a win-win for everyone involved and I always thought this brilliant idea was ahead of its time.

It was… the company eventually went out of business.

Introduction to Cryptocurrency Mining

Oh-my have the times changed dramatically with the latest advancements in blockchain technology.

Everyone has heard of the cryptocurrency “Bitcoin”, but only a select few understand there is entire ecosystem of over 1,000 altcoins, or “alternative coins”, such as Monero, Bytecoin, and Ethereum.

Each of these Altcoins have their own reason for existence, architectural and conceptual differences, and communities of supporters (and haters).

Many, if not most, are either copycats of Bitcoin or complete crap.

Anyway, I digress.

Depending on the type of cryptocurrency, “miners” are required to process and validate blockchain transactions.

Without going into heavy technical details, the mining process basically ensures the transaction has not been tampered-with through the use of cryptographic challenges and is validated before it becomes an official “link” in the block “chain” ledger.

In return, miners are rewarded with a small cryptocurrency processing fee. For example, if you are mining Bytecoin, you would be rewarded with Bytecoin depending on how many transactions you helped validate.

In the early days, you could mine Bitcoin on a regular computer.

However, Bitcoin and other Altcoins have built in algorithms that increase mining difficulty as more resources become available.

Eventually, the difficulty rating exceeded the processing power of a standard computer. Over the years, different types of mining technology and processes have sprung up as the “cryptocurrency arms race” unfolded.

These included everything from using computer graphics cards to special ASIC devices specifically created for mining cryptocurrency. 

Miners are smart and eventually created “mining pools” to combine processing resources with other miners and get the most rewards.

Unfortunately, even with mining pools, these days you can’t profitably mine Bitcoin unless you have access to your own supercomputer.

China has entire warehouses full of networked supercomputers and you simply can’t compete, sorry.

However, many of the Altcoins still have low mining difficulty making it possible for the Average Joe to get in on the cryptocurrency mining craze, and that is where MinerGate comes in.

What is MinerGate?

MinerGate is one of the easiest ways for beginners to start mining cryptocurrency using their laptop, smart phone, or tablet.

This free cryptocurrency mining program takes less than a minute to signup and absolutely no setup or configuration is required.

Literally anyone can mine cryptocurrency with MinerGate in a matter of minutes.

If you wanted to mine cryptocurrency in the past, you would have to carefully select various pieces of hardware and spend hours installing programs, running scripts, and fine tuning the “mining rig”.

Not anymore, MinerGate takes care of all of that for you.

MinerGate packs a ton of features other mining programs don’t offer.

For example, there is the auto-miner function which automatically calculates the most profitable coin to mine for you to ensure you squeeze every last penny out of your devices computing power.

The best part is that MinerGate is a multi-cryptocurrency mining pool, meaning you aren’t stuck with mining a single crypto currency.

As of this writing, MinerGate currently supports mining the following coins:

  • Bytecoin (BCN)
  • Bitcoin Gold (BTG)
  • Zcash (ZEC)
  • Bitcoin (BTC)
  • Monero (XMR)
  • Ethereum (ETH)
  • Ethereum (Classic ETC)
  • Litecoin (LTC)
  • FantomCoin (FCN)
  • QuazarCoin (QCN)
  • DigitalNote (XDN)
  • MonetaVerde (MCN)
  • Dashcoin (DSH)
  • Aeon coin (AEON)
  • Boolberry (BBR)

It is important to note that many of these coins are not going to make you rich anytime soon. Actually, some of these coins are complete crap IMO. You still need to research each coin and determine which one has the highest rate of short / long term return.

How I Use MinerGate

Like me, I’m sure you have upgraded your phone, tablet, or laptop at some point and have an old device laying around.

Why not make use of that device to mine crypto and make a little money on the side?

Considering smart phones use almost no energy, it simply makes sense to put your old devices to work for you.

I’m currently using MinerGate on an older Samsung smart phone and a few other devices. Of course, faster more modern devices will mine cryptocurrency at a faster rate, but I got tired of constantly turning the miner on/off on my current phone.

With older devices, I plug them in, start the miner, and check on them a few times throughout the week.

Occasionally the phone will get an update or the miner will restart, so I check it every so often to ensure everything is running smoothly.

As far as the cryptocurrency, again, this all comes down to your own research.

Personally, I’m mining Bytecoin. This particular coin was “one of the originals” in the crypto space and although it has had a troubled past, new developers have taken it under their wing recently and injected life back into the project.

This is also one of the only coins that is nearly completely mined, and I speculate this will drive up the price in the future and bring more experienced talent into the project at some point.

Again, complete speculation, but I figure each device only sucks up a tiny amount energy. I’m basically breaking even and if Bytecoin goes up in price, I’ll potentially make a profit.

How to Get Started with MinerGate

Really, there is not much to it:

  1. First, you need to click here and sign up at MinerGate. Like most online apps, you’ll need to enter an email address and create a password.
  2. Once logged in, from the header menu click the the “Downloads” button and download the most appropriate version of MinerGate. You can also download MinerGate from your Android or Apple apps marketplace.
  3. After installing MinerGate, you’ll login with your email and password. From there, everything is pretty self explanatory. You’ll select Miner, the coin you want to mine, and click the start button. Pretty simple, right?

I highly recommend this app for beginners, even intermediate miners. Its a quick way to start mining with little to no technical knowledge.

After you learn the ropes, you can still use this tool on your older devices while you build your own mining rig.

With nearly 2 million users and 99.7% up-time, this highly developed and community driven platform will continue to bring cryptocurrency mining to the masses with its simple interface and ease-of-use.

Get started today at MinerGate.com and please remember to share this article with others.

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