So you decided to try mining cryptocurrency and hope you mine a block? What does that even mean?

Here’s a bit of background to what NiceHash platform actually does, and why you are able to use it to try EasyMining for yourself.

GET AN EASYMINING PACKAGE HERE

Quick info:

• First, what is mining?
• How does mining work?
• Blockchain difficulty
• Block rewards
• How do I get started?

First, what is mining?

Don’t worry, you don’t need a helmet, a pickaxe, or a hairy chest for this. With NiceHash EasyMining, you don’t even need a graphics card, powerful computer, or expensive ASICs (not the shoe brand, it means Application Specific Integrated Circuit) machines. All you need is nicehash.com

Mining is a system that verifies transactions and provides security to blockchains. It is also how new cryptocurrency coins (eg. Bitcoin) enter the market. 

NiceHash is a hashpower broker that sells the computing power required to mine cryptocurrency (verify transactions - a process called ‘validating blocks’).

HOW MINING WORKS

Blocks

Cryptocurrency transactions (such as Bitcoin) are grouped together in a “block”.

Solving the Block

Once a block is formed, miners compete to solve a mathematical puzzle. The puzzle is difficult to solve, yet simple to verify (think like sudoku or battleships, but on a much harder level). This process is called ‘mining’ and requires the computing device to produce ‘hashes’ to try to be the first to solve the puzzle. This process is called ‘Proof of Work’, since the miner has to prove they completed the computing work, and include the correct data.

Verifying the Block

As soon as a miner solves the puzzle for a block, the transactions in that block are “verified” by the network. The new block of verified transactions is attached to a chain of chronologically ordered blocks, called a “blockchain”.

Blockchain difficulty

This is one of the most important parts of mining to understand. You can read a detailed description of it by our Mining Manager here. ‘Difficulty’ is how the puzzle adjusts in order to maintain a level playing field and network stability. It takes a lot of computing power to create ‘hashes’ in order to try to solve the puzzle.

But if millions of people are all trying to solve the puzzle with lots of computing power, then the puzzle will get solved more quickly and more frequently, right?

Wrong. The network difficulty adjusts itself to maintain more or less the same block time (eg. ~10 minutes for Bitcoin), meaning more or less the same probability of validating a block. The more miners are mining (trying to solve the puzzle with their computer power) the harder the difficulty gets. When this happens, miners need even more computing power to solve the puzzle, so those who don’t have enough (older machines for example) either upgrade their hardware, buy more hardware, or stop mining (since the extra cost of hardware + electricity makes mining for them unprofitable or less profitable during the time difficulty is high). 

So what happens then? Doesn’t that mean it’s not profitable for anyone?

Well then many miners stop mining since they are not profitable, but when miners start to drop off the network, the difficulty adjusts downwards (easier) and mining becomes more profitable again (less hashpower needed to solve the puzzle during when difficulty is easy, since less computer power is needed, resulting in lower operating cost), and the cycle repeats.

Each network adjusts its difficulty a bit differently, for example, with Bitcoin the network adjusts every 2 weeks on average.  This is why you will see the ‘Probability’ change on the EasyMining packages. 

Miners who are buying hashpower on NiceHash marketplace are calculating and watching very carefully the network difficulty and number of miners on the network (and many other factors) in order to catch the right moment to boost their computing power and increase the chance of validating a block and therefore getting the rewards. This is exactly why our EasyMining is an excellent way to try mining, and have a good chance to catch a block reward. All the odds (probability) are calculated for you, all you have to do is buy a package and wait!

Block Reward

For solving the puzzle, the miner is rewarded with cryptocurrency (in this example, Bitcoin). The current block reward is 6.25 BTC per block (about $130,000 at time of press). Blocks are solved every 10 minutes on average on the Bitcoin network.

The mathematical algorithm behind each blockchain is different, some blockchains have a much shorter block time, such as Litecoin, which is only 2.5 minutes.

So what is EasyMining?

So now you know what mining is, why should you try it? With NiceHash EasyMining, you don’t even need to know any of the above information! We made it so simple, that all you have to do is buy a package, sit back, grab a beer and wait for the mining to finish.  

Your package is simply buying computing power (called ‘hashpower’) to mine cryptocurrency. If the hashpower you bought validates a block, then you get the full block reward!

How do I get started?

EasyMining is the simplest way to try mining yourself, all you need to do is buy a package. You can find more detailed information about EasyMining and how it works in our help section.

1. You need some Bitcoin to buy a package. NiceHash makes this easy, find out how to get some here.
2. Then, choose your package. You can choose to try to catch a Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Dogecoin reward. You can buy tickets here.
3. Buy your package. The package will then show up on your dashboard. The package will show you the amount of hashpower you have (speed) and the progress bar will turn yellow if you sign a block.
4. If you catch a reward, it will show a Rocket icon. If you caught a block, congratulations! You can now claim your reward, after the block has been confirmed by the network.

Which coins can I mine with EasyMining?

Currently you can try EasyMining these coins:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
• Litecoin (LTC)
• Dogecoin (DOGE)
• Ravencoin (RVN)
• Kaspa (KAS)

More coins will be coming soon, stay tuned!

Can’t I just buy hardware and mine it myself? 

Of course you can! Instead of EasyMining, you can connect up and get paid in Bitcoin for your hashpower. NiceHash made it easy for anyone to earn Bitcoin by selling their computer power for mining and we provide the best mining software in the industry. Check out our Profitability Calculator if you know what hardware you have, and find out how to get started here.

I still need help

You can check our more help articles on EasyMining here. Our support team is available 7 days a week and in 9 different languages, just drop them a line and they will be happy to help you get started mining. You should also join our Discord community or social media pages, where we have around half a million miners helping each other out, and an active team of representatives providing tips and tricks.