Bitcoin mining growth started back in 2010. By 2013 Bitcoin mining became useless even with the most powerful mining servers based on simple processors. Is mining the prerogative of large companies with big computing powers or do newcomers and solo miners still have a chance to earn some digital gold?

At first several video cards could generate bitcoins. Nowadays even specialized mining computing devices sold on E-bay do not guarantee fast success. Obtaining blocks without huge computing powers is almost impossible. Even connecting to the pool may take time. Another option is generating altcoins for further conversion to bitcoins. This option is quite speculative though.

One may ask, if renting out a virtual server could be a solution? Probably yes, but it will cost money. Cloud use payment is calculated according to actual consumption. In this case on may lose money instead of gaining profit. Another issue is the significant price growth of video cards due to high demand. The number of miners on the market grows in proportion with the amount of altcoins appearing each day.

So if you are still up for mining you should make a few calculations: not just focus on the amount of money you will spend on video cards, but the amount of electricity consumption and the amount of time you will spend on building the farm. Maybe companies that offer ready solutions, for example, mining station configurators, are worth a look.

Cloud mining is recommended for beginners. Cloud mining is a mining service provided for payment (the company mines for you and you get rewards). Mining pools are for experienced miners. Mining pools suggest people who have mining hardware to split profits. Mining pools can be private and open for joining.

Here are three popular open mining pools you may want to have a look at.

Slush

(Czech Republic)

Slush is one of the best and most popular mining pools despite not being one of the largest. It is also the first mining pool and is owned by SatoshiLabs. Its good for beginners and easy to join. You will need to register an account, configure your mining software to point your hardware’s hash power to Slush Pool an enter your Bitcoin wallet address for payouts. Slush Pool charges 2% of all payouts.

Antpool

(China)

AntPool is owned by Bitmain, a mining hardware company in China. It is known to be the largest mining pool in the world. It was the second mining pool to emerge after the Slush in 2014. Joining AntPool is free and company doesn’t take transaction fees. One will need to acquire Bitcoin mining hardware, download mining software and register. The pool that you use dictates the type of Bitcoin protocol that your hardware employs.

BTCC mining pool

(China)

Another big player on the market is BTCChina Pool. BTC China is one of China’s largest bitcoin exchanges. The company offers various digital solutions such as wallet, physical Bitcoin printing and more. It is easy to join BTCC because your mining hardware can connect easily to the BTCC pool. The company takes 2-3% of transaction fees and shares Bitcoin transaction fees with its miners. BTCC evenly splits the transaction fees among its miners, just like it splits the rewards.

If you have found a spelling error, please, notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.