could someone kindly walk me thru every step needed to mine bitcoins.
thank you.
The process that 99% of miners that don't bother to understand the mathematics and economics behind bitcoin before they get started:
Step 1. Purchase $2500 worth of mining equipment.
Step 2. Choose a mining pool, and configure your mining equipment to mine for the pool.
Step 3. Pay $120 per month in increased electricity usage to operate and cool the equipment.
Step 4. After 6 months, discover that your equipment is outdated and no longer efficient enough to mine effectively with.
Step 5. Sell your outdated equipment for $250.
Step 6. Notice that you have spent $2970 and managed to mine 6.5 BTC.
Step 7. Realize that you just wasted 6 months of time and effort to spend $2970 on bitcoins that you could have simply purchased today for $2600.
Step 8. Subtract $2600 from $2970 and realize that mining bitcoins took you start up capital, time, effort, and still cost you $370 MORE to get the same amount of bitcoins that you could have gotten today without all that trouble.
The process for the 1% of miners that actually realize that they are getting involved in a VERY competitive business, and that they won't do better than just purchasing bitcoins unless they have a very specific competitive advantage:
Step 1. Spend a lot of time and effort figuring out how to get the most efficient mining hardware as cheaply as possible to reduce the up-front capital costs.
Step 2. Be located in a climate such that cooling can be accomplished with minimal energy use.
Step 3. Be located in a region that provides access to very cheap electricity.
Step 4. Be in the first group to have access to purchase the newest most efficient equipment, and purchase as much of it as you can afford.
Step 5. Run that equipment, from the moment you receive it, continuously until better equipment becomes available (it would be best to have the technical skills to repair minor electronics issues you may encounter).
