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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. However, mining bitcoins will come with expenses -- and dangers -- of its own. And the more popular bitcoins become, the harder it is to mine profitably. .

Unlike paper currency, which can be printed by governments and issued by banks, bitcoins do not arrive in any physical type. That makes a significant hazard, as hackers could theoretically produce bitcoins from nothing. Bitcoin mining is how the bitcoin network keeps its transactions secure.

Bitcoin transactions are secured by blockchains, which compose a public ledger of transactions. Due to the way blockchain transactions are structured, they're extremely difficult to alter or compromise, even by the top hackers. But in order to protect those transactions, someone needs to dedicate computing power to verifying the action 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 each block that they effectively process. .

The bitcoin founders have set a limit of 21 million bitcoins offered for mining. Once that total is reached, miners will still be able to benefit from transaction fees, however they won't be granted bitcoins as a reward for their job. As of mid-January 2018, approximately 16.8 million of the 21 million bitcoins have been mined.  Assuming the bitcoin mining industry doesn't change radically, it seems like we won't hit 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 practical, because solving bitcoin transactions is becoming too difficult 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 couple people have been bitcoin mining at any given time, then the network will be generous and discuss bitcoins easily in order to attain the predetermined number. But now this 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 at being rewarding, miners need to adopt one of two approaches: 1) purchase 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 some other virtual currency), set it up, and let it run 24/7 solving bitcoin transactions. Ideally, this will result in you can try this out a steady stream 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, 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 because bitcoin mining rigs aren't cheap -- expect to pay at least $1,000 for your hardware, or even several times that for a top-quality rig -- having to replace it every year or two takes a massive bite from any profits you make from mining. Plus, most mining channels consume enormous amounts of power, so you also need to subtract expense in the bitcoins you earn to determine your own profits. .

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

The biggest 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. In case you choose to try cloud mining, do your homework in advance and confirm that the company you're dealing with is a real cloud miner and not a scheme.

Avoid companies with anonymous domain registration (you can look up their registration info at Network Solutions), as well as any mining company that"guarantees" gains or offers enormous incentives for referring new customers; 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. .