Bitcoin mining guide getting started with bitcoin mining step 1 get the best bitcoin mining hardware purchasing bitcoins in some cases you may need to purchase mining step 2 download free bitcoin mining software once youve received your bitcoin mining hardware youll need to step . How to mine bitcoin method 1 of 3 setting up a bitcoin wallet download a software or mobile wallet if youre just getting started method 2 of 3 getting a cloud mining contract decide which cloud mining service provider to use there are a number of method 3 of 3 using your own hardware use . In general the best way to mine bitcoin is by setting up a designated rig ie an asic and mining it this way cryptocurrency mining pools are also a great option but with time its becoming increasingly more difficult to make a profit mining bitcoin this way. In order to mine a block participants must solve cryptographic hash problems this is referred to as hashing bitcoin relies on a specific hash function called sha 256 this is only important insofar as the nature of sha 256 has led to an arms race of increasingly efficient computer chips purpose built for bitcoin mining