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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 does come with expenses -- and risks -- of its own. And also the more popular bitcoins become, the harder it is to mine profitably. .

Unlike paper currency, which is printed by both governments and issued by banks, bitcoins do not arrive in any physical form. This creates a major risk, as hackers can theoretically produce bitcoins from nothing. Bitcoin mining is how the bitcoin network keeps its transactions protected.

Bitcoin transactions are secured with blockchains, which make up a public ledger of transactions. Due to the way blockchain transactions are structured, they are extremely tough to change or compromise, even by the top hackers. But in order to secure these transactions, someone needs to dedicate computing power to verifying the action and packaging the details in a block which goes into the bitcoin ledger.

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As a reward for doing the work to monitor and secure transactions, miners earn bitcoins for each block they effectively process. .

The bitcoin founders have set a limit of 21 million bitcoins available for mining. Once that total is reached, miners will continue to have the ability to benefit from transaction fees, however they won't be granted bitcoins as a reward for their job. As of mid-January 2018, roughly 16.8 million of the 21 million bitcoins have been mined.  Assuming that the bitcoin mining industry doesn't change radically, it looks like we won't hit the 21 million-bitcoin restrict 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 practical, because solving bitcoin transactions has become too difficult 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 people have been bitcoin mining at any given time, then the network will probably be generous and share bitcoins easily in order to reach the predetermined number. However, now this bitcoin mining has become so widespread, the network has become much stingier about handing out bitcoins into wikipedia reference miners.

These days, in order to have a chance in being rewarding, miners need to adopt one of two approaches: 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 any other virtual currency), set it up, and let it run 24/7 solving bitcoin transactions. Ideally, this will result in a steady flow of payments with no needing to get involved.

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As soon as it's fairly simple to establish and utilize a bitcoin mining rig, actually making money on the process is something of a challenge. Because more and more people are signing up to mine bitcoins, the mining process continues to get more difficult and will probably keep doing this for a while.

And since bitcoin mining rigs aren't cheap -- expect to pay at least $1,000 for the hardware, or several times that for a top-quality rig -- having to replace it every year or 2 takes a massive bite from any profits you make from mining. Plus, most mining channels consume enormous amounts of electricity, so you also need to subtract expense in the bitcoins you earn to determine your own profits. .

If buying and maintaining your own mining hardware doesn't appeal to you, then cloud mining may be the way to go. Cloud mining companies invest in huge mining rigs, often filling entire information centers together with 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 few months, and then vanish into the sunset. If you choose to look at these guys 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 offers enormous incentives for referring new customers; anything over a 10% referral commission is deeply suspicious, because legitimate mining pools just don't generate a high enough profit margin to pay huge commissions. .