Before you can jump head first into mining your first bit of cryptocurrency, there are some things you’ll need. Cryptocurrency mining requires computer hardware and software at the minimum. In order to get the most out of that hardware, you may want to work together with others.

It used to be that one was able to mine Bitcoin well enough with nothing more than a home PC. As the mining difficulty has increased, though, using simple CPUs became less and less profitable. People learned that graphics cards typically used for high-end gaming were capable of producing much better results. Anymore, though, it’s becoming necessary to build what is known as a “mining rig”.

A mining rig is essentially a collection of hardware designed to do the work quickly and efficiently. These days, there are a number of companies who sell hardware purpose-built for mining. They're made to give as much computing power as possible while consuming as little electricity as they can. The overall profitability of a mining rig will depend on the gap between the amount of cryptocurrency it’s able to mine, and the cost of electricity required to power the mining rig. Click here to learn about the best Bitcoin mining hardware of 2019.

Most cryptocurrency mining hardware uses ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) chips. These were created to be really good at one task at a time, such as solving the logarithmic equations involved with mining. Once one has the hardware to mine, they’ll also need software to point all the computing power in the right direction. Much like with hardware, there are numerous options when it comes to cryptocurrency mining software. Some are little more than command consoles. Others are very user-friendly, having sleek interfaces that make it easy for beginners to get started.