I know some people make it like a full-time thing, and even build supercomputers to mine. Is it really worth all the time, money and effort? What kind of yield can you expect in say-a week?
There is an average of 25,200 brand new bitcoins that come in to existence every week for approximately the next 4 years. After 4 years, that will be reduced to 12,600 bitcoins per week for the next 4 years. These bitcoins are split up between all the miners that week with each miner receiving a portion determined by the hashing power they contribute to the network. The more hashing power that a miner contributes, the more of the 25,200 bitcoins they receive.
The estimated total hashing power on the network as of when I am writing this is about 23.862 terrahash per second. All the revenue estimated is based on this number. If difficulty increases (more people add more hashing power), then income will drop. If difficulty decreases then income will rise. So to receive at least 0.01 bitcoin per week, you'd need to provide at least 9.47 megahash per second. If you were running specialized hardware, you might manage 700 megahash per second for each processor you maintain earning you about 0.74 bitcoin per week per processor.
Also, is it possible to mine without building a rig/dedicating all your computer's CPU to it?
Like a mining program that could run in the background?
Or is there a program I could download and run at night while I'm sleeping (I imagine it takes up A LOT of CPU).
If you are running an Intel Core i7 620M (2.66 GHz) CPU mining 24 hours per day and doing nothing else, you might manage 6 megahash per second. That might get you 0.005 per week, reduce that value for any time that you don't have the computer mining. Having your computer continuously calculating hashes at that rate will substantially increase the amount of electricity it uses. You'll end up spending dollars in electricity to earn pennies worth of bitcoin. Financially, it would make more sense to use the dollars at an exchange to get dollars worth of bitcoin.
These are questions I've had for the longest time. I just figured the mining game I would stay away from. But if anyone can answer my questions I would really appreciate it. Maybe theres some bitcoins out there waiting for me to mine.
There are over 9 million bitcoin out there waiting for someone to mine over the next 130 years. However, much like gold mining, if you don't have the right equipment it really isn't worth the effort and cost involved. Like gold mining, it can be a hobby that will help you learn, but expect that hobby to cost you money not earn it.
