How to get one bitcoin

New members of the Bitcoin community are often attracted to the idea of mining bitcoin. Bitcoin is mined in blocks, rather than in a consistent stream. Roughly every ten minutes, a block is produced by a miner, earning that miner new bitcoin. Mining is a random�or stochastic�process, more akin to a lottery than a construction project in that past work does not bring a miner any closer to mining a block. The amount of bitcoin earned by a miner for a single block can vary. Currently, every block produces 6.

This subsidy will fall by half every four years. In addition, miners collect fees from every transaction included in their block. Today, fee revenue is volatile, but it forms a small portion of the total block reward.

In order to smooth out revenue and reduce uncertainty, many mining operations, especially smaller ones, join mining pools. These pools aggregate the compute power, called hash rate , of many mining operations and distribute the rewards they earn from blocks to their members. Mining pools are analogous to a lottery pool: every member contributes, and every member receives rewards proportional to their contributions.

There are several factors that determine the revenue of a Bitcoin mining operation and the time it will take to mine a single bitcoin. The best way to win a lottery is to buy as many tickets as possible; the same is true for bitcoin mining. Special computers called ASICs are built solely to mine bitcoin with extreme efficiency and speed. The more ASICs a miner can deploy, the more lottery tickets they will accumulate, and the higher the chance that they will eventually create a block.

The Bitcoin network has a mechanism for ensuring that no matter how much hash rate is produced by all miners, one new block is only created on average every ten minutes.

This mechanism is called the difficulty adjustment. The calculation above determines the revenue of a given mining operation in bitcoin terms. However, most miners pay their costs�salaries, rent, and energy costs�in fiat currencies such as the U. Therefore, the price of bitcoin matters a great deal to miners. When the price of bitcoin drops, some miners no longer find it profitable to mine. When they stop producing hash rate, the difficulty decreases, and remaining miners have an easier time finding blocks because they comprise a greater portion of the total hash rate.

Conversely, when the price rises, more miners join the network, driving the difficulty up. Every existing miner will see their share of total hash rate decline, leading to a decline in their expected revenue as denominated in bitcoin. However, since the price of bitcoin is rising, their revenue denominated in fiat could still rise.

The above calculations estimated Bitcoin mining revenue. However, Bitcoin mining involves heavy costs, often yielding thin profit margins. How Bitcoin Mining Pools Work. Bitcoin mining is a competitive industry with economies of scale.

In order to take advantage of economies of scale and smooth revenue streams, smaller mining operations join mining pools and share hash rate and rewards. What Is Proof-of-Work? Proof-of-Work is a mechanism which allows decentralized networks to arrive at consensus in a trustless manner. The Bitcoin network relies on Proof-of-Work to build and maintain the state of the blockchain. When all bitcoin have been mined, miner revenue will depend entirely on transaction fees.

The cost of transaction fees and purchasing power of bitcoin will likely adjust higher to the lack of new supply. Get zero fees and more bitcoin on recurring orders. Sign Up. Login Sign Up. River Intelligence. How Do Bitcoin Transactions Work? What Are Public and Private Keys? Is Bitcoin Fair? Bitcoin vs. Gold Bitcoin vs. How Secure Is My Bitcoin?

Who Creates New Bitcoin? How Do I Get Bitcoin? Why Is Bitcoin Volatile? Who Are the Actors in Bitcoin Markets? What Is a Bear Market? After choosing an exchange, you have to fund your account before beginning to invest in Bitcoin. Check if your exchange has a Bitcoin wallet built into its platform. Once your account is funded, you can place your first order to buy Bitcoin. You can buy BTC on several different crypto exchanges. Here are a few exchanges where you can exchange U. You might be tempted to buy your Bitcoin on PayPal , but purchasing crypto this way means you cannot move your Bitcoin around easily.

Additionally, the cryptocurrency in your account cannot be transferred to other accounts on or off PayPal. You will not be able to transfer crypto assets from your cryptocurrencies hub to another cryptocurrency wallet. For example, crypto exchanges like Coinbase and eToro will allow you to link to your PayPal account as a payment processor to purchase crypto.

In this instance, PayPal is being used as a deposit method to fund your account. Investors should consider that platforms may charge higher transaction fees for certain funding options. While you may purchase BTC with a credit card , we strenuously advise against it. In addition, if you use a credit card to buy cryptocurrency, it generally will count as a cash advance and be subject to a higher interest rate than you pay on regular charges.

Moreover, taking on debt to buy volatile investments is extremely risky. Given its position as the first and largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin could easily be a sizable portion of those holdings. One reason is that although cryptocurrencies have been lucrative for some long-term investors and still suffer from extreme volatility. The crypto exchange you use probably has an integrated Bitcoin wallet or at least a preferred partner where you can safely hold your BTC.

However, many major exchanges have private insurance to reimburse clients if this happens. BTC can be stored in several ways, whether with online or offline storage:. Once converted from Bitcoin to a fiat currency, Bitcoin users can use their cash to purchase anything they want. As far as using BTC directly for payments, those options are much more limited. Featured Partner Offers.

Kat Tretina is a freelance writer based in Orlando, FL. She specializes in helping people finance their education and manage debt. Select Region. United States. United Kingdom. Kat Tretina. Reviewed By. Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. What Is Bitcoin? How to Buy Bitcoin After choosing an exchange, you have to fund your account before beginning to invest in Bitcoin.

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