How to Use Your Own Hardware When Mining Bitcoins?

1Buy ASIC miners and a power supply for your mining rig. An ASIC miner is an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designed specifically to mine Bitcoin. Essentially, it's a computer chip that needs a power supply to run it. ASIC miners vary in price depending on their hashing power and their efficiency. For example, the Bitmain Antminer S15 has a maximum hash rate of 28 TH/s and consumes 1596W of power. Over the course of a year, you could earn a little under $200 worth of Bitcoin with this miner, depending on the cost of your electricity. However, considering the miner costs between $1500 and $2000, it would still take you at least 7 to 10 years at that rate to start turning a profit, at the Bitcoin price of $4000.

2Use an online mining calculator to calculate mining profitability. Mining rigs can be relatively expensive and consume a lot of power. Playing with different setups on an online mining calculator can help you determine whether it's worth it to you to start mining. If you're just getting started, you may not have all the information available, such as mining pool fees or power cost. However, the more information you provide, the more accurate the profitability estimate will be.

3Connect your miner and boot it up. Connect your power supply to your ASIC miner, then connect your miner to your router. Use an ethernet cable to connect your miner – a wireless connection is not stable enough. If you type your router's IP address in a web browser. This will take you to your router's admin page. Click on "Connected Devices" to find the IP address for your ASIC miner. Copy and paste the IP address for your ASIC miner into your web browser. This will enable you to configure your miner.

4Download Bitcoin mining software to a networked computer. After you've connected your hardware, you need to download software so you can mine Bitcoin. There are a number of different mining programs to choose from. Two of the most popular are CGminer and BFGminer. These are both command-line programs, so if you aren't particularly tech-savvy, they may present a challenge for you.

5Join a mining pool. Mining pools are groups of miners that pool their hashing power to mine Bitcoin more quickly. A pool enables you to compete with massive mining conglomerates that have mining farms with tremendous hashing power. You don't need to pay anything up front to join a mining pool. Instead, the pool takes a percentage of the Bitcoin mined (typically between 1 and 2 percent).

6Configure your miner to work in your mining pool. Once you've chosen your mining pool and set up a worker account, access your ASIC miner configuration screen and enter the IP address for your mining pool. Then enter the worker name and password you created for the mining pool. When you've entered this information, save your settings. As soon as you save your settings, your miner will start working in your mining pool. You can go to your mining pool account to see your status and evaluate your miner's performance. However, keep in mind it may take up to an hour for your mining pool to display your miner's hashing rate.

7Transfer any Bitcoin you mine to your secure wallet. As you mine Bitcoin, it will show up in your mining pool account. Your mining pool may have a monthly or quarterly payout schedule, or you may be responsible for manually moving your Bitcoin from your account to your wallet. Some mining pools may only allow you to transfer Bitcoin to your wallet once you have a certain amount, typically around 0.001 BTC. You may be able to withdraw smaller amounts for a fee.