How Bitcoins are Obtained and Who are Bitcoin Miners?

As investment in Bitcoin is gaining popularity, more and more people are getting attracted towards it. A question they keep on asking is, how can I get Bitcoin? You can obtain Bitcoin by the process of Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin mining is the process of obtaining or recovering Bitcoins. In order to mine Bitcoin, a computer is required by the miners along with a special program. They need these programs and various other computer resources as well for competing with other miners by solving the confusing mathematical problems. In an average of every ten minutes, a miner tries to solve a block, which carries the latest transaction data with the assistance of cryptographic hash functions. Block reward is the term used for the number of Bitcoins released with each mined block.

Who are Bitcoin Miners?

The Bitcoin enthusiasts are referred to as Bitcoin miners. Potential miners use their spare computer power for supporting the blockchain. This is how they earn Bitcoins. As the kind of profits Bitcoins have offered in past, more and more investors are getting attracted towards it. As a result, they invest in warehouses and hardware in order to mine as many Bitcoin as possible.

How Can One Mine Bitcoins?

For mining Bitcoins, there are several pieces of equipment that you will need. Following is the list of major equipment required for mining:

• CPU: In the starting, Bitcoin were mined with the help of a CPU and this process was only possible with the assistance of the original Satoshi client. Mining with CPU has become an absolute technology now as the miners wanted it to be more secure and earn as many Bitcoins possible. You might keep mining for a long time using this technology and still won’t succeed.

• GPU: After a year and a half of establishment of this network, high-end graphics cards entered the game of Bitcoin mining. This eventually changed the scenario of Bitcoin mining. Mining through CPU made way for the GPU (Graphical Processing Unit). The efficient working of GPUs increased the Bitcoin mining power from 50x to 100x while being economical as well because it used less power per unit of work.

• FPGA: As the time changed from CPU to GPU, the Bitcoin mining’s system upraised the technology food chain to the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). After the introduction of Butterfly Labs FPGA 'Single', the Bitcoin mining hardware landscape made way for specially designed hardware that was entirely dedicated to the mining of Bitcoins.

• ASIC: The world of Bitcoin mining is now a crucial part of the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) era. An ASIC is a chip designed only for a specified job. Unlike FPGAs, ASIC cannot be manipulated for performing different types of tasks.

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The process of mining Bitcoins is extremely confusing and in order to do that, a high-level understanding of the Bitcoin system is required by the miner. If you are thinking to invest in Bitcoin you must consult an experienced trader for guidance.