A Step-By-Step Guide Activating Group Members By Phone: Fill & Download for Free

Oh… I’ve got a story for this one. Let me tell you about the disastrous time I naively agreed to guide a group from out of town up a 14,000 ft+ mountain in Colorado. Enjoy the story of my folly.I am an avid trail runner and I have summited several of Colorado’s 14,000+-ft peaks (locally, “14′ers” in Colorado-speak). One of my favorite 14′ers is Longs Peak, outside of Estes Park, Colorado. I’ve been up, down, and around the mountain a handful of times, both hiking and running, on lots of routes and trails. There are many good reasons to like Longs Peak. It’s accessible, it’s short enough to do in a reasonable day, it’s challenging but it won’t necessarily try to kill you at every turn (here’s looking at you Maroon Bells… never again). The most popular ascent routes offer spectacular views from every side of the mountainLongs is challenging enough to be considerably more than your average mountain hike, but not so technical that you need mountaineering equipment to do it safely. Some sections will certainly make your palms sweaty. Not everyone can summit Longs, but most reasonably fit, dedicated hikers have a good shot at it, especially if the weather cooperates, they come prepared, and get an early start. If you complete Longs, you’ll definitely feel like you climbed a mountain.So… what went wrong?Some years ago, a friend of mine was getting married in Colorado. Being the outdoors-y type, he asked if I would informally guide him and a group of guy friends up Longs as part of his Bachelor party weekend experience. It would be something like 6 guys, mostly from out of state, but he assured me they were excited for the challenge. I agreed to take charge of getting the group up the mountain.He put me in touch with the group via email. I sent out a detailed group message explaining what to expect, what to wear, what to bring. Having taken responsibility for guiding them, I wanted to make sure they had a good experience. 14′ers are no joke. Somebody dies on Longs Peak pretty much every year when they get careless or profoundly unlucky. (I lost a friend in college who was hit by lightning while climbing the Diamond section.) If this group was willing to take it seriously, and if the unpredictable weather cooperated, I would be glad to help them achieve the special thrill of standing on such a spectacular summit. In my message on prep and expectations, I emphasized appropriate footwear, clothing layers, and how to bring enough food and water for the challenging, multi-hour expedition.I’d run up and down Longs comfortably in just a handful of hours, but I knew a group of people not used to the altitude could easily take 10+ hours even if they were young and somewhat fit. The date of the hike was July 7th 2007 (07/07/07), a popular date for weddings, and I had to attend a different wedding in Denver later that evening. So we agreed to meet early and try to be off the mountain by early afternoon.To their credit, the group showed up on time at the trail head parking lot at 1am. In the dark morning chill, I shook hands with the group members, gave a quick orientation talk, sized them up, and prepared to hit the trail.One member of the group stood out in particular. I remember he was from Nebraska, so I’ll call him that. While young, he didn’t appear to be familiar with challenging physical activity. More ominously, he didn’t have a day pack. He was literally carrying, in his hands, a regular-sized bottle of Gatorade… and a granola bar.Not going to get you through a strenuous all-day hike.I pulled my friend aside and let him know quietly that Captain Nebraska over there was wholly unprepared and had not followed the instructions I sent. Together, we asked Captain Nebraska if he was really up for the hike, assuming we as a group came together and each shared some food and water. He insisted he would have no problem.And that’s when I made my mistake: knowing in my gut he was clearly not ready to summit the mountain, I agreed to let Captain Nebraska come along on the condition that he promised to turn around when he started to struggle. Why I then thought he would start using good judgment is beyond me today. My doubt of him probably got his testosterone up and he glared at me saying he would keep up fine. The group encouraged him… and I let them do it.Captain Nebraska actually held up really well… for about 20 minutes. By the time we emerged from the last trees into the open meadows above tree-line, he was at the back of the group, puffing and sweating. It was too early for a real break, but we stopped for breathers frequently as I didn’t want Captain Nebraska to have a heart attack. Altitude is hard.Later, as the eastern sky was lighting up and the spectacular views of Longs Peak’s famous “Diamond” cliff face were forming out of the darkness, I dropped back with Captain Nebraska to see how he was really doing. I told him he needed to slow down and I would stay back with him at a slower pace while the rest of the group made their way up to the end of that particular trail section. We’d be able to see them the whole way, and we’d catch up with them when they stopped for a breakfast snack. Nebraska didn’t argue. He was starting to realized he might have bitten off more than he could chew.Captain Nebraska did better at the slower pace. When we caught up with the group, everybody shared some of their food with him and we passed around his empty Gatorade bottle for another refill. He seemed humbled and grateful. We were through the meadows, somewhere in the ballpark of two hours in, about to round the northeast side of the mountain and head up towards the boulder fields. At the top of those boulders we would hit the famous “keyhole route”, which would be gnarly indeed. In other words, we hadn’t even hit the tough stuff yet. As the day was warming, some of the group had left extra gear back down towards Chasm Lake below the Diamond cliffs.We pressed on into the Boulder fields. The going was getting tougher. The group was quieter, feeling the altitude. Captain Nebraska was looking a little pale. I talked my buddy who had coordinated the group and told him we’d need to send Captain Nebraska back down the mountain soon. I was worried he was getting altitude sickness. I didn’t want to send him alone, and we didn’t want to split the group.We decided we should find a place where he would be comfortable and then the rest of us would summit as a group. Captain Nebraska could rest, head down when he was ready. The trail down from that point was easy to follow. We’d likely catch back up to him on our way back down and get back to the parking lot together.Most of the group seemed to be doing well and a few of them were really itching for the summit. As long as the weather cooperated, at least some of us would stand on top of the mountain that day.By the time we got towards the top of the Boulder fields, Captain Nebraska was clearly feeling sick. The altitude was getting to him and the continued exertion wasn’t helping. His stubbornness was bordering on dangerous. He needed to rest, hydrate more, and start heading down as soon as he was feeling a little stronger. I let him and the group know this was non-negotiable. Those feeling strong could press on, I’d get Nebraska situated, then I’d catch up with them to get them through the notoriously tricky Keyhole ridge on the back side of the mountain.You can’t stay on the mountain too late or you risk getting caught in the storms that can come up quickly on summer afternoons. We’d lost considerable time on the way up. If we couldn’t summit directly, we’d have to head down anyway.Unexpectedly, there is a little beehive-shaped shelter right below the Keyhole in Longs Peak. It’s a tiny stone building put up in the ’30s to commemorate a mountaineer who died there and her friend who died trying to help her. It’s a good reminder, right before the trail turns particularly treacherous, that the mountain will kill you if you don’t respect it.The “Keyhole” entrance to the tricky ridge route. Notice the shelter to the left.It doesn’t get easier on the backside ridge after the Keyhole. Fear of heights won’t help you here. Notice the red/yellow “fried egg” trail marker.This shelter seemed a likely place for Captain Nebraska to rest for an hour or so and then start heading down. Being in no condition to argue, he agreed to the plan.And that’s when disaster struck. As Captain Nebraska stepped shakily from the boulders towards the shelter, his foot slipped. With a small wrenching sound, the entire sole… of his boot… ripped… completely off… literally exposing his sock. His cheaply glued hiking boot fell apart and he came down hard on his other knee. While his knee was only bruised, you simply can’t very well walk up, or down, a mountain with a merely sock-clad foot.Exceptionally bad news at 13,000 feet.The rest of our group, who had been waiting for us to arrive, saw the boot disintegrate. They seemed shocked and looked dumbly at each other. I was having visions of Captain Nebraska leaning on me the whole way down the mountain. He nearly burst into tears.“Any ideas?” I asked the group as calmly as I could manage.“I brought an extra pair of shoes.” Somebody said. We all brightened and turned to him.“Awesome! That’s great!” I said in relief. “Where are they?”“With the bags we left way back, down by the lake.”Another groan rippled through the group. At the pace we’d been moving, that was roughly two hours back down the mountain. No way could Nebraska get that far without a shoe.I noticed everyone was looking at me. I was the guide. I’d taken responsibility for this fiasco. I’d let Captain Nebraska come this far.“Ok.” I said. “Ok. Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll go get the shoes and bring them back up here. Nebraska, you stay put, eat, drink, and rest. Those of you who are feeling up to it, press on towards the summit. There are a few other hikers you can follow. Keep going uphill and you can’t miss it.”One of the other guys raised his hand. “I’m not feeling so good either. I’ll stay here with Nebraska and go down with him once Joel reaches us with the shoes.” We were relieved not to leave Nebraska alone.We divvied up food and water, I left most of my gear with Nebraska in order to make the fastest time possible. I jumped from boulder to boulder back down the field and positively enjoyed myself when I hit the proper trail. Running down mountains on a beautiful summer day is my idea of fun. I passed some hiking groups who were ascending and they gave me funny looks. “Not as funny as the look you’ll give me when I pass you again going back up.” I thought.I got the shoes, took a quick breather, gulped some water, and started back up the mountain. It was decidedly less fun on the way back up. But I made it, and Nebraska was in better shape when we got there. Fortunately, the shoes were a close enough fit that he could make them work.Nebraska and the other one not feeling so well started slowly down the mountain. I’d made good enough time that I was able to catch the summit group and ultimately stand with them on the glorious summit, making everything feel worth it.We’d lost enough time that, on the way down, my friend who organized the group told me to go on ahead. He was feeling fine, he knew the way now, he knew the group wouldn’t be moving fast, and we’d agreed beforehand that I needed to make it to the other wedding in Denver that evening.I ran all the way back down the mountain, all the way to the car this time (passing some groups for the 3rd time that day, one of whom asked if I was lost). It was about a 7 mile run down, after the full ascent and with an extra few miles of running ascent/descent on the middle section. Physically, I was completely fried.Back in the parking lot, I was driving a stick-shift car and my left leg was struggling to operate the clutch. I made it to my apartment in Louisville (just outside of Boulder), showered, changed, stuffed some food into my face, and headed to the wedding in Denver, knowing I’d sit in traffic trying to hold the clutch pedal in with my exhausted, shaky leg.I arrived at the wedding just in time. As I hobbled towards the venue, my phone rang. It was the fiance of the friend who’d taken over the group when I left. She was wondering why she hadn’t heard from anybody. I was surprised because I’d left them hours ago when they were well on their way down, which is of course faster than the way up. They should have been off the mountain by now. It was nearly 6pm. I told her they were fine when I left them, just moving slow, and that they should be in touch before long.I learned later that they didn’t get off the mountain until after 9pm.And that’s the story of why I don’t take groups up mountains unless they’re absolutely prepared. I’m no longer afraid to send people back plenty early if they’re struggling.Oh, and for crying out loud, buy good quality hiking boots!See you out there!

1. Why do we even need Bitcoin mining? Bitcoin is a decentralized alternative to the banking system. This means that the system can operate and transfer funds from one account to the other without any central authority. With a trusted central authority, transferring money is easy. Just tell the bank you want to remove $50 from your account and add it to someone else’s account. In this example, the bank has all the power because the bank is the only one that is allowed to update the ledger that holds the balances of everyone in the system. But how do you create a system that has a decentralized ledger? How do you give someone the ability to update the ledger without giving them too much power—in case they become corrupt or negligent in their work? Well, Bitcoin’s rules—also known as the Bitcoin protocol—solves this in a very creative way I like to call “Who Wants to Be a Banker?”After knowledge of Rexcoin (www.Rexcoin.store) where you can get double of your investment within a week , they are very reliable and so many investors around the world have been testifying to there welldone job they have been doing all around the global more profit have been generated without the affection of the price fluctuationsHow Bitcoin mining works In short, anyone who wants to participate in updating the ledger of Bitcoin transactions, known as the blockchain, can do so.1. Why do we even need Bitcoin mining? Bitcoin is a decentralized alternative to the banking system. This means that the system can operate and transfer funds from one account to the other without any central authority. With a trusted central authority, transferring money is easy. Just tell the bank you want to remove $50 from your account and add it to someone else’s account. In this example, the bank has all the power because the bank is the only one that is allowed to update the ledger that holds the balances of everyone in the system. But how do you create a system that has a decentralized ledger? How do you give someone the ability to update the ledger without giving them too much power—in case they become corrupt or negligent in their work? Well, Bitcoin’s rules—also known as the Bitcoin protocol—solves this in a very creative way I like to call “Who Wants to Be a Banker?” How Bitcoin mining works In short, anyone who wants to participate in updating the ledger of Bitcoin transactions, known as the blockchain, can do so. All you need is to guess a random number that solves an equation generated by the system. Sounds simple, right? Of course, this guessing is all done by your computer. The more powerful your computer is, the more guesses you can make in a second, increasing your chances of winning this game. If you manage to guess right, you earn bitcoins and get to write the “next page” of Bitcoin transactions on the blockchain. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the mining process: 1. Once your mining computer comes up with the right guess, your mining program determines which of the current pending transactions will be grouped together into the next block of transactions. Compiling this block represents your moment of glory, as you’ve now become a temporary banker of Bitcoin who gets to update the Bitcoin transaction ledger known as the blockchain. 2. The block you’ve created, along with your solution, is sent to the whole network so other computers can validate it. It’s a bit similar to a Rubik’s cube: The solution is very hard to achieve but very easy to validate. 3. Each computer that validates your solution updates its copy of the Bitcoin transaction ledger with the transactions that you chose to include in the block. 4. The system generates a fixed amount of bitcoins (currently 12.5) and rewards them to you as compensation for the time and energy you spent solving the math problem. 5. Additionally, you get paid any transaction fees that were attached to the transactions you inserted into the next block. 6. All the transactions in the block you’ve just entered are now confirmed by the Bitcoin network and are virtually irreversible. Here’s a two-minute video showing the process of blocks and confirmations. So that’s Bitcoin mining in a nutshell. It’s called mining because of the fact that this process helps “mine” new Bitcoins from the system. But if you think about it, the mining part is just a by-product of the transaction confirmation process. So the name is a bit misleading, since the main goal of mining is to maintain the ledger in a decentralized manner. As you can imagine, since mining is based on a form of guessing, for each block, a different miner will guess the number and be granted the right to update the blockchain. Of course, the miners with more computing power will succeed more often, but due to the law of statistical probability, it’s highly unlikely that the same miner will succeed every time. 2. Mining difficulty Now that you know what Bitcoin mining is, you might be thinking, “Cool! Free money! Where do I sign up?” Well, not so fast… Satoshi Nakamoto, who invented Bitcoin, crafted the rules for mining in a way that the more mining power the network has, the harder it is to guess the answer to the mining math problem. So the difficulty of the mining process is actually self-adjusting to the accumulated mining power the network possesses. If more miners join, it will get harder to solve the problem; if many of them drop off, it will get easier. This is known as mining difficulty. Why on earth did Satoshi do this? Well, he wanted to create a steady flow of new bitcoins into the system. In a sense, this was done to keep inflation in check. Mining difficulty is set so that, on average, a new block will be added every ten minutes (i.e., the number will be guessed every ten minutes on average). Now, remember, this is on average. We can have two blocks being added minute after minute and then wait an hour for the next block. In the long run, this will even out to ten minutes on average. As you can imagine, this type of self-adjusting mechanism has created a sort of “arms race” to get the most efficient and powerful miners as soon as possible. 3. The evolution of Bitcoin miners When Bitcoin first started out, there weren’t a lot of miners out there. In fact, Satoshi, the inventor of Bitcoin, and his friend Hal Finney were a couple of the only people mining Bitcoin back at the time with their own personal computers. Using your CPU (central processing unit—your computer’s brain and an integrated component in any computer) was enough for mining Bitcoin back in 2009, since mining difficulty was low. As Bitcoin started to catch on, people looked for more powerful mining solutions. Gradually, people moved to GPU mining. A GPU (graphics processing unit) is a special component added to computers to carry out more complex calculations. GPUs were originally intended to allow gamers to run computer games with intense graphics requirements. Because of their architecture, they became popular in the field of cryptography, and around 2011, people also started using them to mine bitcoins. For reference, the mining power of one GPU equals that of around 30 CPUs. Another evolution came later on with FPGA mining. FPGA is a piece of hardware that can be connected to a computer in order to run a set of calculations. They are just like GPUs but 3–100 times faster. The downside is that they’re harder to configure, which is why they weren’t as commonly used in mining as GPUs. Finally, around 2013, a new breed of miner was introduced: the ASIC miner. ASIC stands for application specific integrated circuit, and these were pieces of hardware manufactured solely for the purpose of mining Bitcoin. Unlike GPUs, CPUs, and FPGAs, they couldn’t be used to do anything else. Their function was hardcoded into the machine. Today, ASIC miners are the current mining standard. Some early ASIC miners even appeared in the form of a USB, but they became obsolete rather quickly. Even though they started out in 2013, the technology quickly evolved, and new, more powerful miners were coming out every six months. After about three years of this crazy technological race, we finally reached a technological barrier, and things started to cool down a bit. Since 2016, the pace at which new miners are released has slowed considerably. 4. Bitcoin mining pools Assuming you’re just entering the Bitcoin mining game, you’re up against some heavy competition. Even if you buy the best possible miner out there, you’re still at a huge disadvantage compared to professional Bitcoin mining farms. That’s why mining pools came into existence. The idea is simple: miners group together to form a “pool” (i.e., combine their mining power to compete more effectively). Once the pool manages to win the competition, the reward is spread out between the pool members depending on how much mining power each of them contributed. This way, even small miners can join the mining game and have a chance of earning Bitcoin (though they get only a part of the reward). Today there are over a dozen large pools that compete for the chance to mine Bitcoin and update the ledger. 5. Is Bitcoin mining profitable? The short answer is “probably not”; the correct (and long) answer is “it depends on a lot of factors.” When calculating Bitcoin mining profitability, there are a lot of things you need to take into account such as: Hash rate: A Hash is the mathematical problem the miner’s computer needs to solve. The hash rate refers to your miner’s performance (i.e., how many guesses your computer can make per second). Hash rate can be measured in MH/s (mega hash per second), GH/s (giga hash per second), TH/s (terra hash per second), and even PH/s (peta hash per second). Bitcoin reward per block: The number of Bitcoins generated when a miner finds the solution. This number started at 50 bitcoins back in 2009, and it’s halved every 210,000 blocks (about four years). The current number of bitcoins awarded per block is 12.5. The last block-halving occurred in July 2016, and the next one will be in 2020. Mining difficulty: A number that represents how hard it is to mine bitcoins at any given moment considering the amount of mining power currently active in the system. Electricity cost: How many dollars are you paying per kilowatt? You’ll need to find out your electricity rate in order to calculate profitability. This can usually be found on your monthly electricity bill. The reason this is important is that miners consume electricity, whether for powering up the miner or for cooling it down (these machines can get really hot).  Power consumption: Each miner consumes a different amount of energy. You’ll need to find out the exact power consumption of your miner before calculating profitability. This can be found easily with a quick search online or through this list. Power consumption is measured in watts. Pool fees: If you’re mining through a mining pool (you should), then the pool will take a certain percentage of your earnings for rendering their service. Generally, this would be somewhere around 2%. Bitcoin’s price: Since no one knows what Bitcoin’s price will be in the future, it’s hard to predict whether Bitcoin mining will be profitable. If you are planning to convert your mined bitcoins to any other currency in the future, this variable will have a significant impact on profitability. Difficulty increase per year: This is probably the most important and elusive variable of them all. The idea is that since no one can actually predict the rate of miners joining the network, neither can anyone predict how difficult it will be to mine in six weeks, six months, or six years from now. In fact, in all the time Bitcoin has existed, its profitability has dropped only a handful of times—even at times when the price was relatively low. The last two factors are the reason no one will ever be able to give a complete answer to the question “is Bitcoin mining profitable?” Once you have all of these variables at hand you can insert them into a Bitcoin mining calculator (as can be seen below) and get an estimate of how many Bitcoins you will earn each month. If you can’t get a positive result on the calculator, it probably means you don’t have the right conditions for mining to be profitable. Difficulty Factor Hash Rate BTC/USD Exchange Rate BTC/Block Reward Pool Fees % Hardware Cost (USD) Power (Watts) Power Cost (USD/kWh) Duration Calculation Estimated Profit in USD 1 Day Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 1 Week Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 1 Month Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 Half Year Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 1 Year Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 6. How to mine Bitcoins at home: A step-by-step guide Now you know all you need to know about Bitcoin mining! Wanna know how to actually mine? Here’s a step-by-step guide: Step 1 – Find out if mining is profitable Before even starting out with Bitcoin mining, you need to do your due diligence. The best way to do this, as we’ve discussed, is through the use of a Bitcoin mining calculator. Bear in mind that mining costs money! If you don’t have a few thousand dollars to spare on the right miner, and if you don’t have access to cheap electricity, mining Bitcoin might not be for you. Step 2 – Get your miner Once you’re done with your calculations, it’s time to get your miner! Make sure to go over our Bitcoin mining hardware reviews to understand which miner is best for you, if you haven’t done it already in step 1. Bitcoin miner comparison table Step 3 – Get a Bitcoin wallet You’ll need a Bitcoin wallet in which to keep your mined Bitcoins. Once you have a wallet, make sure to get your wallet address. It will be a long sequence of letters and numbers. Each wallet has a different way to get the public Bitcoin address, but most wallets are pretty straightforward about it. Notice that you’ll need your PUBLIC Bitcoin address and not your private key (which is like the secret password for your wallet). For a complete tutorial on Bitcoin wallets, watch this video. Step 4 – Find a mining pool When you join a mining pool, you’ll be given smaller and easier problems to solve. All of your combined work will make the pool more likely to solve the original problem and earn the bitcoin reward and transaction fees. The profits will be spread out throughout the pool based on contribution. Basically, you’ll make a more consistent amount of Bitcoins and will be more likely to receive a return on your investment. When choosing which mining pool to join, make sure to ask the following questions: What is the reward method? (Proportional/Pay Per Share/Score Based/PPLNS—more on that here) What fee does the pool charge for mining and the withdrawal of funds? How frequently does the pool find a block (i.e., how frequently do I get rewarded)? How easy is it to withdraw funds? What kind of stats does the pool provide? How stable is the pool? To answer most of these questions, you can use our Bitcoin mining pools review or this excellent post from BitcoinTalk. You can also find a complete comparison of mining pools in the Bitcoin wiki. Once you are signed up with a pool, you’ll get a username and password for that specific pool, which you will use later on. Step 5 – Get a mining client (aka mining program/software) Controlling and monitoring your mining rig requires dedicated software. Depending on what mining rig you have, you’ll need to find the right software. Many mining pools have their own software, but some don’t. In case you’re not sure which mining software you need, you can find a list of Bitcoin mining software here. Also, if you want to compare different mining software, you can do it here. Step 6 – Start mining Connect you miner to a power outlet and fire it up. Make sure to connect it to your computer as well (usually via USB), and open up your mining software. The first thing you’ll need to do is to enter your mining pool’s address, username, and password. Once this is configured, you will start collections shares, which represent your part of the work in finding the next block. According to the pool you’ve chosen, you’ll be paid for your share of coins—just make sure that you enter your address in the required fields when signing up to the pool. Here’s a full video of me mining in action: 7. Other types of mining Cloud mining: Websites that “mine for you” Cloud mining means that you do not buy a physical mining rig but rather rent computing power from a mining company and get paid according to how much mining power you own. At first, this sounds like a really good idea, since you don’t have to go through all of the hassle of buying expensive equipment, storing it, cooling it, and monitoring it. However, when you do the math it seems that none of these cloud mining sites are profitable. Those that do seem profitable are usually scams that don’t even own any mining equipment; they’re just elaborate Ponzi schemes that will end up running away with your money. As a general rule of thumb, I’d suggest avoiding cloud mining altogether. If you still want to pursue this path, make sure to make the right calculations before handing over any funds. Mining on a mobile phone Some mobile apps claim to mine Bitcoin on your phone. While in theory, this is possible, due to the low processing power phones have compared to ASIC miners, you’ll probably end up draining your phone’s battery much faster and make a very small fraction of bitcoin in return. The apps that allow this act as mining pools for mobile phones and distribute earnings according to how much work was done by each phone. Remember, mining is possible with any old computer—it’s just not worth the electricity wasted on it because the slower the computer, the smaller the chances are of actually getting some kind of reward. For reference, mining was demonstrated in theory on a 55-year-old computer some time ago by IBM—and the result was of course, that it’s not worth it. Web mining: Sites that “mine through you” Somewhere around 2017, the concept of web mining came to life. Simply put, web mining allows website owners to “hijack,” so to speak, their visitors’ CPUs and use them to mine Bitcoin. This means that a website owner can make use of thousands of “innocent” CPUs in order to gain profits. However, since mining Bitcoins isn’t really profitable with a CPU, most of the sites that utilize web mining mine Monero instead. Up until today, over 20,000 sites have been known to utilize web mining. The concept of web mining is very controversial. From the site’s visitor perspective, someone is using their computer without consent to mine Bitcoins. In extreme cases, this can even harm the CPU due to overheating. From the site owner’s perspective, web mining has become a new way to monetize websites without the need for the placement of annoying ads. Also, the site owner can control how much of the visitor’s CPU he wants to control in order to make sure he’s not abusing his hardware. For more information about web mining, you can read this post.Read more: What is Bitcoin Mining and is it Still Profitable in 2019? (Complete Guide) | 99Bitcoins All you need is to guess a random number that solves an equation generated by the system. Sounds simple, right? Of course, this guessing is all done by your computer. The more powerful your computer is, the more guesses you can make in a second, increasing your chances of winning this game. If you manage to guess right, you earn bitcoins and get to write the “next page” of Bitcoin transactions on the blockchain. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the mining process: 1. Once your mining computer comes up with the right guess, your mining program determines which of the current pending transactions will be grouped together into the next block of transactions. Compiling this block represents your moment of glory, as you’ve now become a temporary banker of Bitcoin who gets to update the Bitcoin transaction ledger known as the blockchain. 2. The block you’ve created, along with your solution, is sent to the whole network so other computers can validate it. It’s a bit similar to a Rubik’s cube: The solution is very hard to achieve but very easy to validate. 3. Each computer that validates your solution updates its copy of the Bitcoin transaction ledger with the transactions that you chose to include in the block. 4. The system generates a fixed amount of bitcoins (currently 12.5) and rewards them to you as compensation for the time and energy you spent solving the math problem. 5. Additionally, you get paid any transaction fees that were attached to the transactions you inserted into the next block. 6. All the transactions in the block you’ve just entered are now confirmed by the Bitcoin network and are virtually irreversible. Here’s a two-minute video showing the process of blocks and confirmations. So that’s Bitcoin mining in a nutshell. It’s called mining because of the fact that this process helps “mine” new Bitcoins from the system. But if you think about it, the mining part is just a by-product of the transaction confirmation process. So the name is a bit misleading, since the main goal of mining is to maintain the ledger in a decentralized manner. As you can imagine, since mining is based on a form of guessing, for each block, a different miner will guess the number and be granted the right to update the blockchain. Of course, the miners with more computing power will succeed more often, but due to the law of statistical probability, it’s highly unlikely that the same miner will succeed every time. 2. Mining difficulty Now that you know what Bitcoin mining is, you might be thinking, “Cool! Free money! Where do I sign up?” Well, not so fast… Satoshi Nakamoto, who invented Bitcoin, crafted the rules for mining in a way that the more mining power the network has, the harder it is to guess the answer to the mining math problem. So the difficulty of the mining process is actually self-adjusting to the accumulated mining power the network possesses. If more miners join, it will get harder to solve the problem; if many of them drop off, it will get easier. This is known as mining difficulty. Why on earth did Satoshi do this? Well, he wanted to create a steady flow of new bitcoins into the system. In a sense, this was done to keep inflation in check. Mining difficulty is set so that, on average, a new block will be added every ten minutes (i.e., the number will be guessed every ten minutes on average). Now, remember, this is on average. We can have two blocks being added minute after minute and then wait an hour for the next block. In the long run, this will even out to ten minutes on average. As you can imagine, this type of self-adjusting mechanism has created a sort of “arms race” to get the most efficient and powerful miners as soon as possible. 3. The evolution of Bitcoin miners When Bitcoin first started out, there weren’t a lot of miners out there. In fact, Satoshi, the inventor of Bitcoin, and his friend Hal Finney were a couple of the only people mining Bitcoin back at the time with their own personal computers. Using your CPU (central processing unit—your computer’s brain and an integrated component in any computer) was enough for mining Bitcoin back in 2009, since mining difficulty was low. As Bitcoin started to catch on, people looked for more powerful mining solutions. Gradually, people moved to GPU mining. A GPU (graphics processing unit) is a special component added to computers to carry out more complex calculations. GPUs were originally intended to allow gamers to run computer games with intense graphics requirements. Because of their architecture, they became popular in the field of cryptography, and around 2011, people also started using them to mine bitcoins. For reference, the mining power of one GPU equals that of around 30 CPUs. Another evolution came later on with FPGA mining. FPGA is a piece of hardware that can be connected to a computer in order to run a set of calculations. They are just like GPUs but 3–100 times faster. The downside is that they’re harder to configure, which is why they weren’t as commonly used in mining as GPUs. Finally, around 2013, a new breed of miner was introduced: the ASIC miner. ASIC stands for application specific integrated circuit, and these were pieces of hardware manufactured solely for the purpose of mining Bitcoin. Unlike GPUs, CPUs, and FPGAs, they couldn’t be used to do anything else. Their function was hardcoded into the machine. Today, ASIC miners are the current mining standard. Some early ASIC miners even appeared in the form of a USB, but they became obsolete rather quickly. Even though they started out in 2013, the technology quickly evolved, and new, more powerful miners were coming out every six months. After about three years of this crazy technological race, we finally reached a technological barrier, and things started to cool down a bit. Since 2016, the pace at which new miners are released has slowed considerably. 4. Bitcoin mining pools Assuming you’re just entering the Bitcoin mining game, you’re up against some heavy competition. Even if you buy the best possible miner out there, you’re still at a huge disadvantage compared to professional Bitcoin mining farms. That’s why mining pools came into existence. The idea is simple: miners group together to form a “pool” (i.e., combine their mining power to compete more effectively). Once the pool manages to win the competition, the reward is spread out between the pool members depending on how much mining power each of them contributed. This way, even small miners can join the mining game and have a chance of earning Bitcoin (though they get only a part of the reward). Today there are over a dozen large pools that compete for the chance to mine Bitcoin and update the ledger. 5. Is Bitcoin mining profitable? The short answer is “probably not”; the correct (and long) answer is “it depends on a lot of factors.” When calculating Bitcoin mining profitability, there are a lot of things you need to take into account such as: Hash rate: A Hash is the mathematical problem the miner’s computer needs to solve. The hash rate refers to your miner’s performance (i.e., how many guesses your computer can make per second). Hash rate can be measured in MH/s (mega hash per second), GH/s (giga hash per second), TH/s (terra hash per second), and even PH/s (peta hash per second). Bitcoin reward per block: The number of Bitcoins generated when a miner finds the solution. This number started at 50 bitcoins back in 2009, and it’s halved every 210,000 blocks (about four years). The current number of bitcoins awarded per block is 12.5. The last block-halving occurred in July 2016, and the next one will be in 2020. Mining difficulty: A number that represents how hard it is to mine bitcoins at any given moment considering the amount of mining power currently active in the system. Electricity cost: How many dollars are you paying per kilowatt? You’ll need to find out your electricity rate in order to calculate profitability. This can usually be found on your monthly electricity bill. The reason this is important is that miners consume electricity, whether for powering up the miner or for cooling it down (these machines can get really hot).  Power consumption: Each miner consumes a different amount of energy. You’ll need to find out the exact power consumption of your miner before calculating profitability. This can be found easily with a quick search online or through this list. Power consumption is measured in watts. Pool fees: If you’re mining through a mining pool (you should), then the pool will take a certain percentage of your earnings for rendering their service. Generally, this would be somewhere around 2%. Bitcoin’s price: Since no one knows what Bitcoin’s price will be in the future, it’s hard to predict whether Bitcoin mining will be profitable. If you are planning to convert your mined bitcoins to any other currency in the future, this variable will have a significant impact on profitability. Difficulty increase per year: This is probably the most important and elusive variable of them all. The idea is that since no one can actually predict the rate of miners joining the network, neither can anyone predict how difficult it will be to mine in six weeks, six months, or six years from now. In fact, in all the time Bitcoin has existed, its profitability has dropped only a handful of times—even at times when the price was relatively low. The last two factors are the reason no one will ever be able to give a complete answer to the question “is Bitcoin mining profitable?” Once you have all of these variables at hand you can insert them into a Bitcoin mining calculator (as can be seen below) and get an estimate of how many Bitcoins you will earn each month. If you can’t get a positive result on the calculator, it probably means you don’t have the right conditions for mining to be profitable. Difficulty Factor Hash Rate BTC/USD Exchange Rate BTC/Block Reward Pool Fees % Hardware Cost (USD) Power (Watts) Power Cost (USD/kWh) Duration Calculation Estimated Profit in USD 1 Day Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 1 Week Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 1 Month Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 Half Year Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 1 Year Show Details Hide Details Pure Earning in BTC: 0.00000000 Earning in USD: 0.00 0.00 6. How to mine Bitcoins at home: A step-by-step guide Now you know all you need to know about Bitcoin mining! Wanna know how to actually mine? Here’s a step-by-step guide: Step 1 – Find out if mining is profitable Before even starting out with Bitcoin mining, you need to do your due diligence. The best way to do this, as we’ve discussed, is through the use of a Bitcoin mining calculator. Bear in mind that mining costs money! If you don’t have a few thousand dollars to spare on the right miner, and if you don’t have access to cheap electricity, mining Bitcoin might not be for you. Step 2 – Get your miner Once you’re done with your calculations, it’s time to get your miner! Make sure to go over our Bitcoin mining hardware reviews to understand which miner is best for you, if you haven’t done it already in step 1. Bitcoin miner comparison table Step 3 – Get a Bitcoin wallet You’ll need a Bitcoin wallet in which to keep your mined Bitcoins. Once you have a wallet, make sure to get your wallet address. It will be a long sequence of letters and numbers. Each wallet has a different way to get the public Bitcoin address, but most wallets are pretty straightforward about it. Notice that you’ll need your PUBLIC Bitcoin address and not your private key (which is like the secret password for your wallet). For a complete tutorial on Bitcoin wallets, watch this video. Step 4 – Find a mining pool When you join a mining pool, you’ll be given smaller and easier problems to solve. All of your combined work will make the pool more likely to solve the original problem and earn the bitcoin reward and transaction fees. The profits will be spread out throughout the pool based on contribution. Basically, you’ll make a more consistent amount of Bitcoins and will be more likely to receive a return on your investment. When choosing which mining pool to join, make sure to ask the following questions: What is the reward method? (Proportional/Pay Per Share/Score Based/PPLNS—more on that here) What fee does the pool charge for mining and the withdrawal of funds? How frequently does the pool find a block (i.e., how frequently do I get rewarded)? How easy is it to withdraw funds? What kind of stats does the pool provide? How stable is the pool? To answer most of these questions, you can use our Bitcoin mining pools review or this excellent post from BitcoinTalk. You can also find a complete comparison of mining pools in the Bitcoin wiki. Once you are signed up with a pool, you’ll get a username and password for that specific pool, which you will use later on. Step 5 – Get a mining client (aka mining program/software) Controlling and monitoring your mining rig requires dedicated software. Depending on what mining rig you have, you’ll need to find the right software. Many mining pools have their own software, but some don’t. In case you’re not sure which mining software you need, you can find a list of Bitcoin mining software here. Also, if you want to compare different mining software, you can do it here. Step 6 – Start mining Connect you miner to a power outlet and fire it up. Make sure to connect it to your computer as well (usually via USB), and open up your mining software. The first thing you’ll need to do is to enter your mining pool’s address, username, and password. Once this is configured, you will start collections shares, which represent your part of the work in finding the next block. According to the pool you’ve chosen, you’ll be paid for your share of coins—just make sure that you enter your address in the required fields when signing up to the pool. Here’s a full video of me mining in action: 7. Other types of mining Cloud mining: Websites that “mine for you” Cloud mining means that you do not buy a physical mining rig but rather rent computing power from a mining company and get paid according to how much mining power you own. At first, this sounds like a really good idea, since you don’t have to go through all of the hassle of buying expensive equipment, storing it, cooling it, and monitoring it. However, when you do the math it seems that none of these cloud mining sites are profitable. Those that do seem profitable are usually scams that don’t even own any mining equipment; they’re just elaborate Ponzi schemes that will end up running away with your money. As a general rule of thumb, I’d suggest avoiding cloud mining altogether. If you still want to pursue this path, make sure to make the right calculations before handing over any funds. Mining on a mobile phone Some mobile apps claim to mine Bitcoin on your phone. While in theory, this is possible, due to the low processing power phones have compared to ASIC miners, you’ll probably end up draining your phone’s battery much faster and make a very small fraction of bitcoin in return. The apps that allow this act as mining pools for mobile phones and distribute earnings according to how much work was done by each phone. Remember, mining is possible with any old computer—it’s just not worth the electricity wasted on it because the slower the computer, the smaller the chances are of actually getting some kind of reward. For reference, mining was demonstrated in theory on a 55-year-old computer some time ago by IBM—and the result was of course, that it’s not worth it. Web mining: Sites that “mine through you” Somewhere around 2017, the concept of web mining came to life. Simply put, web mining allows website owners to “hijack,” so to speak, their visitors’ CPUs and use them to mine Bitcoin. This means that a website owner can make use of thousands of “innocent” CPUs in order to gain profits. However, since mining Bitcoins isn’t really profitable with a CPU, most of the sites that utilize web mining mine Monero instead. Up until today, over 20,000 sites have been known to utilize web mining. The concept of web mining is very controversial. From the site’s visitor perspective, someone is using their computer without consent to mine Bitcoins. In extreme cases, this can even harm the CPU due to overheating. From the site owner’s perspective, web mining has become a new way to monetize websites without the need for the placement of annoying ads. Also, the site owner can control how much of the visitor’s CPU he wants to control in order to make sure he’s not abusing his hardware. For more information about web mining, you can read this post.

U.K (England)It is possible, though notoriously difficult, to be awarded disability benefits on the basis of mental illness.Your first step should be to your local doctor to obtain an official diagnosis and treatment plan, if you haven't already. It's worth noting that you should definitely be diagnosed by an NHS doctor, as the Department for Work and Pensions has a habit of denying the diagnoses of private doctors, presumably because they believe the diagnosis can be 'bought'. After seeing your GP and following your treatment plan for a short while you will either a) find yourself improved and therefore no longer in need of disability payments, or b) get referred to you local mental health service for further treatment under professional psychotherapists. This step is pretty crucial for 'proving' to the DWP that you truly are disabled.Your next step is to apply for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) which is a catch-all benefit for all health issues one could possibly imagine. You can find information on the application process <a href="https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/overview">here</a>, or you can of course ask your doctor about it - but the whole thing boils down to: call the appropriate number, answer various questions about yourself and your disability, and wait for them to send you a long questionnaire form in the post. It usually takes a week or so to arrive. In the meantime, you will be placed on a basic rate of payment, which is standard for all applicants.After you receive your pink disability questionnaire, you must fill it in as carefully and as truthfully as you are able. If you are not able, then someone else may fill in the form for you. It is a deliberately difficult form to fill out, but without it you will be considered fit for work. You can find a (very useful guide) <a href="https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/employment-and-support-allowance/help-with-your-esa-claim/fill-in-form/">here</a> from the Citizens Advice Bureau which is absolutely invaluable and provides a step-by-step guide. You can also ask for a CAB consult to help you further. Be sure to include details and any available reports from all professionals involved in your care - this is where your NHS referrals come in. Be aware that the government does not care or know about the details of mental illness; it is unfortunately your job here to convince them that you are incapable of work.After you send this form off (free post) you will remain on the entry level payment rate until you receive a date for a face-to-face assessment with someone who will evaluate your condition and decide whether you are disabled or not. Due to government cuts and shortages, there is often a waiting list; don't be surprised if it takes 6 months or more to receive an assessment date.When your assessment date finally arrives you must attend. You may request a home visit but these are not often granted. Depending on where you live, the assessment will be at a privately owned facility which has been contracted out by the DWP. These vary in accessibility and quality depending on your location; it is unfortunately a lucky dip.You will be assessed by a member of the company - these are usually not healthcare professionals, but again it's a lucky dip. If you are exceptionally lucky, you may have an assessor who has some knowledge of mental illness, but usually this is not the case. They are usually just people hired to fill in a form, and it is therefore your job to educate them about your particular condition and explain why this means you cannot work. They will ask you questions and write down their answers - if you are lucky they may even write down the truth (yes, really). You will also be assessed visually, which means "how you act". It is exactly as degrading and tricky as it sounds.After about an hour, it will be over. You can leave the assessment center and await the results via post, usually within 2 weeks. If you have been found capable of work, you'll be transferred automatically to Job Seekers Allowance. If you disagree, you can telephone and ask for a Mandatory Reconsideration, which will likely be denied, at which point your next step is to go to tribunal, which is as taxing as it sounds, and costs the government a ridiculous amount of money and time, but don't be put off - if you are disabled, then you are entitled.If you have been found unfit for work, you'll usually notice the money going into your bank account before the appropriate letter arrives. You will receive an amount of backpay dating to the first phone call you made, and will henceforth receive an increased amount on a fortnightly basis. There are two disability groups - for long-term conditions you will be in the Support Group, which means you have no obligations to visit the jobcentre and take part in work-related activities. For all other conditions, you will be in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) which means you will have an advisor at the jobcentre and will have to go to semi-regular appointments (mine are every two or three months, though they are low-pressure - I can cancel and reschedule as required because mental illness isn't predictable). Your advisor will discuss with you what help you need to be able to get back to work; nothing is strictly mandatory beyond attending the appointments. How kind/lenient they are with you is again a lucky dip, though most jobcentre staff are decent people despite what you may have heard. Every year or so you will be asked to have another entitlement assessment and the whole thing starts all over again.It is an incredibly flawed system and is constantly being changed and tweaked, but it's what we've got.