Hardly a week goes by without the cryptocurrency world making international headlines in one way or another. With so much excitement, energy, and focus on crypto – and Bitcoin in particular – thousands of people are now starting to wonder how they can get involved.
Is mining Bitcoin right for you and your business? Keep reading to find out.
What is Bitcoin mining?
First things first, it is important to understand exactly what Bitcoin mining is before committing to a Bitcoin mining launch as part of your company strategy. Bitcoin mining is essentially the process in which new Bitcoins are circulated.
Bitcoin mining is the most exciting way to acquire Bitcoin, but it is also incredibly difficult. Someone who wants to start mining Bitcoin will need quite a bit of tech power, as the mining process requires extremely — and increasingly — high computing power to solve complex math equations. These equations are then used to verify Bitcoin transactions, which are then added to the digital ledger that makes up the blockchain.
Math, hashrates and mining
The math equations are essentially puzzles that the mining computer must solve in order to verify segments of transactions on the ledger. These “cryptographic” puzzles are so complex that they require intense computing power together with some specialized equipment.
Like many other currencies, there are a finite number of Bitcoin that can be mined. Currently, there is just a little over four million Bitcoin left, which have not yet been released into circulation. As you can probably conclude, once the last Bitcoin has been mined, there will not be any more to mine, and the number of Bitcoin in existence will remain constant.
Getting into the game
Although some “crypto bros” may make it sound like mining crypto is as easy as setting up something on your laptop while you head out for a coffee, the opposite is true. Mining Bitcoin is an incredibly difficult and expensive process that should only be started by individuals who know what they are getting into and are ready to commit.
The specialized equipment, known as ‘rigs’, used to mine Bitcoin is an incredibly important part of the entire process. Interestingly, access to rigs determines the success of individuals and companies when it comes to Bitcoin mining. Unfortunately, these rigs are expensive pieces of equipment and not particularly easy to come by.
When Bitcoin mining was outlawed in China in 2021, many miners fled to the US and neighboring Asian countries. This allowed US and Canadian miners to capture more of the market and take advantage of newly freed-up rig stock.
Hashrate climbing
Due to the finite number of Bitcoin floating around and the increasing overall amount, it has become more and more difficult to solve mathematical equations. Hashrate is the industry’s tool to measure the difficulty of mining activities, and it has doubled in recent years.
This means that if you are interested in incorporating mining into your business strategy, you would be better off starting sooner rather than later. There are still over four million Bitcoins to be mined, and the industry is still booming, but it will only become increasingly complex with every passing year to mine Bitcoin.
A range of options
Although Bitcoin is one of the biggest and most popular cryptocurrencies available, it is by no means the only crypto that can be mined. If you are interested in incorporating mining into your business strategy but you are unsure of whether Bitcoin is the right choice, you can consider any number of the other cryptos which require mining.
There are now hundreds of different cryptos on the OKX cryptocurrency list, which provides real-time updates, and many of them are incredibly popular and successful. Trying your hand at mining a smaller, less-discovered crypto might be the right choice for your company.
Taking a step back
Before committing to mining any type of crypto, it is worth taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture. If your business can accommodate the expenses, energy usage, and tech involved in mining crypto, then you may want to get in on the game that way.
That being said, businesses can also incorporate crypto through trading and buying and by implementing crypto-friendly payment processing methods. The crypto world is big and ever-expanding, and there are always several ways to get involved.
