Can you make money mining Bitcoin at home in the UK?

Can you still make money mining Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies at home?

Whether you believe in crypto or not, it’s made a lot of money for some people, especially the early adopters.

Whether it’s through investing or mining, there are plenty of success stories floating around the internet.

But what about now? 

Here, we take a look at cryptocurrency mining and whether it’s still possible to mint cryptocurrencies using a home PC or Mac.

Can you mine Bitcoin?

Let’s start with a cold hard fact: these days it simply isn’t possible to mine Bitcoin at home because of the vast computing power it requires. 

Instead, only those with the resources to operate vast warehouses packed with power hungry, specialised computers known as ASICs, can mint new Bitcoins.

However, it’s still possible to earn small amounts of Bitcoin by joining what are called mining pools or by using mining apps that run on your home computer.

And there are several other cryptocurrencies that you can profitability mine at home to earn a bit of extra cash each month.

What are mining pools?

Mining pools are platforms that literally pool together the processing power of computers around the world to mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The advantages of mining pools are: 

• A lower barrier to entry – you can use your home PC to participate.
• No financial outlay – the chances are your existing equipment will work (although newer computers will earn more).

Getting started with a mining pool is as simple as signing up for an account with one of the many platforms running the pools and connecting your computer to the software.

You can usually select how much of your CPU or GPU power is dedicated to mining at any given time. The higher the intensity the more crypto you’ll earn.

However, even with a good setup the amount of Bitcoin you’ll earn per day will be quite low, and you’ll need to balance your electricity costs against your returns.

There are other disadvantages as well:

• Constantly running your CPU and GPU at full pelt can damage your equipment.
• The mining pool operator will take a cut of your earnings in return for their service.
• Some technical know-how required to get started.

Mining pools are similar to what are called mining apps. With the latter you need hardly any technical knowledge to get started.

All you need to do is download a desktop client from whichever app you choose, adjust some basic configurations and away you go. 

You can even set the app to start mining as soon as you boot your computer each day so that it’s always working in the background.

This is generally fine if you choose lower settings, but could degrade the performance of your PC on a higher work rate.

Which mining pool/app should I choose?

Some mining pools/apps have higher payout rates than others so you should do your research before signing up.

As there’s no financial outlay with either method, you might want to try a few different pools to see which one offers the best return based on your set up.

Your computer will need to meet certain minimum requirements of the pool, but these are generally quite low for both apps and pools.

Even though you shouldn’t expect to earn much, joining a mining pool still or using an app offers a way of generating a small passive income.

Also, the price of Bitcoin could rise in the future meaning your coins could be worth more if you HODL (Hold On for Dear Life) them.

Slush Pool and AntPool are two of the largest mining pools, while NiceHash and CGMiner are widely used crypto mining apps.

Solo mining cryptoassets like Ethereum

Solo mining Bitcoin means you’re attempting to confirm transaction blocks using your own hardware without connecting to a pool.

You can choose to go it alone and build your own mining rig and run your own full node, but you need deep pockets and a lot of technical know-how to be successful.

However, there are other cryptocurrencies that you can mine at home which are profitable now and have the potential to rise significantly in value in the future.

One of these is Ethereum (ETH) which is the second most valuable cryptoasset on the market today by Market Cap after Bitcoin.

At present you can mine Ethereum using a high end graphics card as the crypto is what’s called a Proof of Work (PoC) token.

However, all this is about to change when Ethereum shifts to a new Proof of Stake (PoS) model, although this is still a way off.

There are other coins you can mine, such as Dogecoin, the meme coin made popular by Elon Musk, and Ravencoin, which is attracting a growing following online, among many others.

Final thoughts on mining crypto at home

It’s unlikely that you’ll get rich mining crypto at home, but you could earn a bit of extra cash each month, and there’s always the chance you’ll mine a crypto that soars in value at a later date.

There are no guarantees with crypto mining, so you may like to check out our ideas for how to make money from home with side hustles.