Are you new to Bitcoin? Maybe you’ve already chosen and setup a Bitcoin wallet for yourself but have no cryptocurrency to put in it yet?
The free Bitcoin Miner app for Windows won’t make you rich and will probably cost more in electricity than it will make you back in Bitcoin. However, it will set you up with some fractions of a Bitcoin to experiment with Bitcoin software.
Your puny little computer can’t possibly compete against the very competitive server farms that dominate the Bitcoin blockchain nowadays. Cracking the tough cryptographic proof required by the Bitcoin blockchain is statistically very improbable for an individual computer. By joining a Bitcoin mining pool and working together with other amateur miners, you can get some fractions of a Bitcoin back for your effort. The earnings will let you perform a few small test transactions but not much else.
You can start mining immediately after installing and opening the app. After you’ve started the app, there will be a big Start button in the middle of the screen that will get you going right away — no configuration needed!
You can then set up your payout address (any Bitcoin wallet address) from the left side menu at any time. You won’t lose any of the Bitcoin you’ve mined if you choose not to input a payout address right away.
The app is available in the Windows Store for free but with ads.
You must leave the program running for several hours or possibly days, depending on your PC, to meet the minimum payout requirement of 0,00005 BTC. Payments are made automatically once a week. The app can’t be minimized because of restrictions in the Universal Windows Platform but you can put other apps and windows in front of the app while it’s running. Considering that the absolute minimum transaction fee is currently at 0,0001 BTC, the Bitcoin Miner app certainly isn’t a get rich quick scheme! If you’ve several computers, you can assign all of them the same payout address and they’ll all work together on reaching the minimum payout requirement.
The group behind the app, GroupFabric, and their mining pool are also working on an Xbox One version of the mining app. That would indicate that developers are starting to take advantage of the Universal Windows Platform that allows apps to run on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, and Xbox One. The Bitcoin Miner app is currently available for Windows 10 and 10 Mobile. However, running the app on a mobile device is entirely pointless pursuit due to the limited processor capacity on a mobile device.
The economics of this app would suggest that the in-app advertisement is subsidizing the tiny amounts of Bitcoin paid out to its users. I don’t know for sure that this is the case, but I would be very surprised if such a small mining pool could otherwise make enough of a return to pay its users a fixed per-hash fee.
Bitcoin Miner app for Windows 10 supports GPU and CPU mining, depending on your system capabilities. You should make sure to update the drivers of your graphic card for increased performance.
If you prefer spending your hard-earned traditional bank-issued money to purchase Bitcoins instead of mining it out of bit dust; you can have a look at my reviews of the Cubits.com and Cex.io Bitcoin exchanges.
Happy mining!