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If you want to join in the bitcoin frenzy without simply buying the digital currency in the 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 more difficult it would be to mine them profitably. .

Unlike paper currency, that can be printed by both governments and issued by banks, bitcoins do not come in any physical form. This makes a significant risk, as hackers can theoretically create bitcoins from nothing. Bitcoin mining is how the bitcoin network keeps its transactions protected.

Bitcoin transactions are secured by blockchains, which make up a public ledger of transactions. Due to how blockchain transactions are structured, they're extremely tough to alter or compromise, even from the best hackers. But in order to protect these transactions, someone needs to dedicate computing power to verifying the action and packaging the details in a block that 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 amount is reached, miners will continue to have the ability to benefit from transaction fees, but 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 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 package designed to allow their computers to process bitcoin transactions in the background. Unfortunately, that is no longer sensible, because solving bitcoin transactions has become too hard for your 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 couple people are bitcoin mining at any given time, then the network will probably be generous and discuss bitcoins easily in order to attain the predetermined number. But now that bitcoin mining has become so widespread, the network has become much stingier about handing out bitcoins to miners.

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

To begin with your own mining rig, you purchase hardware designed for mining bitcoin (or some other digital 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 easy to establish and use a bitcoin mining rig, really making money on the process 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 likely keep doing this 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 to get a top notch rig -- having to replace it every year or two takes a huge bite from any gains you make from mining. Plus, most mining rigs consume enormous amounts of power, which means you also have 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 might be the way to go. Cloud mining companies invest in huge mining rigs, often filling entire information centers together with all the hardware, and then sell subscriptions to individuals interested in dipping a toe into bitcoin mining.

The biggest challenge facing cloud mining subscribers is avoiding fraud. The area is rife with pseudo-companies which sell thousands of other multiyear subscriptions, cover for a couple of 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 important site you're dealing with is a real cloud miner and not a strategy.

Avoid companies with anonymous domain registration (you can look up their registration info Network Solutions), as well as any mining company that"guarantees" profits or offers huge incentives for referring new customers; anything over a 10% referral commission is profoundly suspicious, because valid mining pools just don't generate a large enough profit margin to pay huge commissions. .