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

Unlike paper currency, which is printed by both governments and issued by banks, bitcoins do not come in any physical form. That makes a major risk, as hackers can theoretically produce bitcoins from nothing. Bitcoin mining is the way the bitcoin network retains its transactions secure.

Bitcoin transactions are secured by blockchains, which make up a public ledger of transactions. Because of the way blockchain transactions are structured, they're extremely difficult to alter or undermine, even by the top hackers. But in order to secure these transactions, someone needs to dedicate computing power to verifying the activity and packaging the facts in a block that goes into the bitcoin ledger.

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

The bitcoin founders have put a limit of 21 million bitcoins offered for mining. Once that amount is reached, miners will still be able to benefit from transaction fees, however they won't be granted bitcoins as a reward for their work. As of mid-January 2018, roughly 16.8 million of those 21 million bitcoins have been mined.  Assuming that the bitcoin mining industry doesn't change radically, it seems 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 is becoming too hard for your average computer to manage.

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The bitcoin network is designed to produce a certain number of new bitcoins each 10 minutes. If only a few people are bitcoin mining at any given time, then the network will probably be generous and discuss bitcoins easily in order to reach the predetermined number. But now that bitcoin visit mining has become so widespread, the network has become much stingier about handing out bitcoins into miners.

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

To begin with your own mining rig, you buy hardware designed for mining bitcoin (or any other virtual currency), set it up, and let it run 24/7 solving bitcoin transactions. Ideally, this will result in a continuous stream of payments with no needing to get involved.

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While it's fairly easy to establish and use a bitcoin mining rig, actually 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 your hardware, or several times that for a top notch rig -- having to replace it every year or 2 takes a huge bite out of any gains you earn from mining. Plus, most mining channels consume enormous amounts of electricity, which means you also need to subtract expense from the bitcoins you earn to determine your profits. .

When buying and maintaining your own mining hardware doesn't attract 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 market subscriptions to individuals interested in dipping a toe into bitcoin mining.

The largest challenge facing cloud mining readers is avoiding fraud. The area is rife with pseudo-companies which sell thousands of multiyear subscriptions, cover for a few months, and then disappear into the sunset. If you decide to try out cloud mining, do your homework in advance and confirm that the company that you're dealing with is a true cloud miner and not a scheme.

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