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If you want to join in the bitcoin frenzy without just buying the digital currency in today's inflated prices, then bitcoin mining is another way to become involved. However, mining bitcoins will include expenses -- and dangers -- of its own. And also the more popular bitcoins become, the harder it is to mine profitably. .

Unlike paper currency, which can be printed by both governments and issued by banks, bitcoins do not come in any physical type. This creates a significant hazard, as hackers could theoretically produce bitcoins from nothing. Bitcoin mining is how the bitcoin network retains its transactions protected.

Bitcoin transactions are secured by blockchains, which compose a public ledger of transactions. Because of how blockchain transactions are structured, they are extremely difficult to change or compromise, even from the best hackers. But in order to protect those transactions, someone needs to dedicate computing power to verifying the activity and packaging the details in a block that goes into the bitcoin ledger.

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As a reward for doing the job to track and secure transactions, miners earn bitcoins for each block that they successfully procedure. .

The bitcoin founders have set a limit of 21 million bitcoins offered for mining. Once that amount is reached, miners will still have the ability to benefit from transaction fees, but they won't be granted bitcoins as a reward for their work. As of mid-January 2018, roughly 16.8 million of the 21 million bitcoins have already been mined.  Assuming that the bitcoin mining industry doesn't change dramatically, it looks like we won't reach on the 21 million-bitcoin limit until the year 2140. .

During the first days of bitcoin mining, miners would often download a software bundle designed to allow their computers to process bitcoin transactions in the background. Unfortunately, that's no longer sensible, because solving bitcoin transactions has become too hard for your average computer to manage.

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The bitcoin network is designed to make a certain number of new bitcoins every 10 minutes. If only a couple men and women are bitcoin mining at any given time, then the network will be generous and share bitcoins easily in order to reach the predetermined number. But now this bitcoin mining has become so widespread, the network has become much stingier about handing out bitcoins to miners.

These days, in order to have a chance at being rewarding, miners need to adopt one of two strategies: 1) purchase technical hardware (aka a bitcoin mining rig) or 2) join a cloud mining pool. .

To get started with your own mining rig, you buy hardware designed for mining bitcoin (or some other virtual currency), set it up, and let it run 24/7 solving bitcoin transactions. Ideally, index this will result in a continuous stream of payments without your needing to get involved.

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While it's fairly easy to set up and utilize a bitcoin mining rig, really making money on the course of action is something of a challenge. Since more and more people are signing up to mine bitcoins, the mining process continues to have more difficult and will probably keep doing so for some time.

And since bitcoin mining rigs aren't cheap -- expect to pay at least $1,000 for the hardware, or several times that to get a top-quality rig -- having to replace it every year or two takes a massive bite from any profits you earn from mining. Plus, most mining channels consume enormous amounts of electricity, which means you also need to subtract that expense in the bitcoins you earn to determine your profits. .

If buying and maintaining your own mining hardware doesn't appeal to you, then cloud mining may be the best way to go. Cloud mining companies invest in huge mining channels, often filling entire data centers with all the hardware, and then sell subscriptions to individuals interested in dipping a toe into bitcoin mining.

The largest challenge facing cloud mining readers is avoiding fraud. The field is rife with pseudo-companies which sell thousands of multiyear subscriptions, pay out for a couple of months, and then disappear into the sunset. If you choose to try cloud mining, do your homework in advance and confirm that the company that you're dealing with is a real cloud miner Bitcoin Shopping and not a strategy.

Avoid companies with anonymous domain registration (you can look up their registration info at Network Solutions), in addition to any mining company that"guarantees" profits or provides huge incentives for referring new clients; anything above a 10% referral commission is profoundly suspicious, because legitimate mining pools simply don't generate a large enough profit margin to pay big commissions. .