David RodeckInvesting Expert Writer
David Rodeck specializes in making insurance, investing, and financial planning understandable for readers. He has written for publications like AARP and Forbes Advisor, as well as major corporations like Fidelity and Prudential. Before writing full time, David was a financial advisor. That added a layer of expertise to his work that other writers cannot match.
David Rodeck
David RodeckInvesting Expert Writer
David Rodeck specializes in making insurance, investing, and financial planning understandable for readers. He has written for publications like AARP and Forbes Advisor, as well as major corporations like Fidelity and Prudential. Before writing full time, David was a financial advisor. That added a layer of expertise to his work that other writers cannot match.
Investing Expert Writer
Michael AdamsLead Editor, Investing
Michael Adams is lead editor, investing at Forbes Advisor. He's researched, written about and practiced investing for nearly two decades. As a writer, Michael has covered everything from stocks to cryptocurrency and ETFs for many of the world's major financial publications, including Kiplinger, U.S. News and World Report, The Motley Fool and more. Michael holds a master’s degree in philosophy from The New School for Social Research and an additional master's degree in Asian classics from St. John’s College.
Fact Checked
Michael Adams
Michael AdamsLead Editor, Investing
Michael Adams is lead editor, investing at Forbes Advisor. He's researched, written about and practiced investing for nearly two decades. As a writer, Michael has covered everything from stocks to cryptocurrency and ETFs for many of the world's major financial publications, including Kiplinger, U.S. News and World Report, The Motley Fool and more. Michael holds a master’s degree in philosophy from The New School for Social Research and an additional master's degree in Asian classics from St. John’s College.
Lead Editor, Investing
Fact Checked
Published: May 1, 2024, 10:13am
Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.
Bitcoin mining software lets you use computer hardware to help administer the blockchain technology that runs bitcoin (BTC). As a reward, you can earn newly created bitcoins.
Most bitcoin mining software is free and runs on all of the leading operating systems. Computer hardware—commonly known as mining rigs—can be as simple as a cloud computing option or as complicated as a highly customized system costing thousands of dollars. Forbes Advisor has surveyed the landscape to come up with this list of the best bitcoin mining software.
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The Best Bitcoin Mining Software of May 2024
BEST FOR CROSS-PLATFORM HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY
CGMiner
Editor's Take
Developed in 2011, CGMiner is one of the oldest bitcoinmining software programs—and today it also lets you mine other cryptocurrencies, like Dogecoin and Litecoin. This highly flexible, open-source platform helps you scale up your mining operations rapidly, as it works with a variety of hardware options.
Pros & Cons
- Flexible platform that allows for the mining of many cryptocurrencies
- Works with a variety of hardware options
- Allows for remote management of mining rigs
- Steep learning curve
Details
CGMiner runs on a command-line interface, rather than a graphical interface. That means the platform has a steeper learning curve than some other mining platforms, but CGMiner remains the go-to choice for experienced users who deploy a variety of different platforms and devices.
With CGMiner you can easily manage mining rigs remotely, via keyboard commands, allowing you to adjust settings on devices such as fan speeds for cooling.
CGMiner runs on Windows, Mac or Linux. It’s compatible with various types of mining hardware, including application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and graphic processing systems (GPUs). The latest version, however, is only for ASIC hardware.
BEST FOR CENTRALIZED HARDWARE MANAGEMENT
Awesome Miner
Editor's Take
If you plan on growing your mining operation by using a mix of different hardware, Awesome Miner will let you do so in one convenient location. You can even track your mining performance while away from your main computer.
Pros & Cons
- Manages all mining activity across different hardware in one program
- Features a dashboard to track progress and workflow
- Accessible via web browser
- Could be complicated for beginning miners
Details
The Awesome Miner interface manages all your mining activity in one program, allowing you to manage multiple mining engines and control mining pools in the same place. In addition, it can manage several different types of mining hardware rigs.
Through the dashboard, you can track information like your mining hash rate, fan speeds, the temperature of your devices and earnings.
Awesome Miner runs on Windows and Linux, and it also offers a cloud-based web version that can be accessed via a browser on any internet-connected device.
BEST FOR FAST, SECURE SETUP
EasyMiner
Editor's Take
If you’re in a hurry to start mining bitcoin and don’t want to figure out a complicated program, EasyMiner might be the right fit. When you set up the software, it immediately begins mining cryptocurrency for you.
It’s also an incredibly secure system. EasyMiner makes all your mining activity private while protecting your mined bitcoins from being stolen.
Pros & Cons
- Easy-to-use platform
- Excellent security
- Dashboard provides insights into mining workflows
- Mostly for less powerful CPU and GPU mining capabilities
Details
When you set up EasyMiner, it starts mining cryptocurrency automatically. The tradeoff for this ease of use is that this program is mainly for less powerful central processing unit (CPU) and GPU mining capabilities.
The EasyMiner dashboard provides graphical representations of your crypto mining workflows, making it simple to switch mining pools, change your network settings and check your crypto wallets.
You are not limited to just bitcoin mining on EasyMiner. You can also mine for Litecoin and other cryptocurrencies.
BEST FOR OPTIMIZING MINING PROFITABILITY
Kryptex Miner
Editor's Take
As market conditions change, so does the most profitable cryptocurrency to mine. Kryptex Miner, a Windows app, pays users for their computer powers.
Users with gaming PCs can earn around $95 per month, while those with more expensive, powerful mining rigs can expect a richer payout.
Pros & Cons
- Pays miners for their computer power
- Offers a “lite mode” to allow internet use for other activities
- Charges fees for your payments
Details
Kryptex Miner is meant to run in the background and automatically switch your equipment to mine the coins that will earn you the highest profit. It even offers a “lite mode” for when you want to use your computer for other things, like using the internet or playing games.
Your mining work is paid in bitcoin or other payout options, ranging from Amazon eGift Cards to Visa/Mastercards denominated in fiat currencies.
Be warned, payment comes with a few strings attached. For example, if you’re receiving your remuneration in bitcoin, there is a 0.00005 BTC fee, with a minimum payout of 0.00025 BTC.
BEST FOR CLOUD-BASED MINING
ECOS
Editor's Take
ECOS offers as simple an experience as you can get for mining bitcoin. It’s a cloud-based program that works online, so you don’t need to buy actual cryptocurrency mining equipment to run ECOS. Instead, you pay upfront for a mining contract, and through that, you lease bitcoin mining equipment and electricity through ECOS.
Pros & Cons
- Easy-to-use platform
- Allows you to mine without buying equipment yourself
- Profit margins could be lower than if you bought your own mining equipment
Details
At the start of the contract, you pick what you forecast the price of bitcoin will be over time, the duration of the mining contract, and the total hash power from your mining, based on how much you want to spend. ECOS will then estimate a profit, but the actual results will depend on the price of bitcoin as you mine.
When you buy a cloud mining contract, you pay a fixed amount of money to use ECOS devices for mining. While your long-term profit margins could be lower than if you invested in your own equipment, it’s hard to beat ECOS as an easy mining solution.
What Is Bitcoin Mining?
Bitcoin mining is the proof of work consensus mechanism that creates new bitcoins.
Like many other cryptocurrencies, bitcoin is based on blockchain technology. This is a distributed ledger that tracks all past transactions, a decentralized system that’s not controlled by a centralized authority.
To record transactions and encode them on the blockchain, bitcoin miners use their computers to solve complex math equations in order to earn the right to add new blocks to the blockchain.
It takes an ever increasing amount of computing power to obtain the solution to these equations, known as a hash. Miners deploy computers, sometimes referred to as mining rigs, to solve the next hash. In exchange for their work, successful miners receive payment in the form of newly created bitcoins.
As of March 2024, a successful miner receives 6.25 BTC for solving a hash. The bitcoin payout rate decreases over time, dropping in half roughly every four years. The next halving event is expected in April 2024.
How Does Bitcoin Mining Work?
Bitcoin mining is the process of solving increasingly complex cryptographic puzzles to confirm that a bitcoin transaction has taken place.
These puzzles are necessary since there is no central authority overseeing bitcoin’s ledger. Thus, there is no individual or group who can decide that any single bitcoin transaction is legitimate. Instead, with the help of cryptography, a group of miners must reach consensus about any legitimate transaction.
Here’s how this works when, let’s say, Chris wants to transfer 100 BTC to Alex. The first thing Chris does is use a platform or service to initiate the digital transfer. Then, the following occurs:
- Chris’s transaction data is shared with a memory pool, which is simply a term for where bitcoin transactions wait until they are able to be confirmed.
- Next, a group of bitcoin miners start competing to solve a mathematical puzzle that will verify the transaction.
- The first miner who solves this puzzle will share their result with the other miners, also referred to as nodes.
- Once the necessary number of nodes—which averages out to about six—agree the solution is correct, the transaction block is verified and added to the blockchain.
- As soon as the block is added to the blockchain, the miner who solved the puzzle will receive a 6.25 BTC reward.
- Simultaneously, Alex will receive the 100 BTC from Chris.
Obviously, this is not an instantaneous process. Each transaction takes approximately 10 minutes to confirm.
How To Mine Bitcoin
- Acquire software. To mine bitcoin, you first need software like the programs described above to solve mathematical problems.
- Acquire hardware and set up your mining rig. The programs require powerful computing hardware to solve complicated equations. In the early days of cryptocurrency, it was possible to use the standard CPUs found in regular home computers. Today, miners install more powerful systems based on GPUs to build mining rigs. They also set up standalone ASIC-based rigs for the sole purpose of mining bitcoin.
- Invest in electricity and other necessary hardware. Expect to invest considerable amounts in electricity and hardware to successfully mine bitcoin. The rigs need to run 24-7 in order to earn more value in bitcoin than you spend on resources. A rig with three GPUs consumes as much energy as a medium-sized window AC unit. You also need to spend on fans to cool your systems so they don’t overheat and break down.
If you don’t want to buy the equipment yourself, you could lease it and bitcoin mine through a cloud system.
Another way to combine resources is by joining a mining pool. That’s when you share your systems with other miners through your mining software. If one person in your pool succeeds at completing the hash, you split the value of the bitcoin. This increases your chances of solving a hash (which is quite rare).
How Profitable Is Bitcoin Mining?
The amount of overhead required for bitcoin mining will most likely cut into any profits one tries to earn by investing their time and energy in the process.
“The probability that an individual’s mining rig can solve the algorithm that results in a successful block is infinitesimal. It’s almost like winning the lottery. Instead a lot of people join mining pools. Mining pools can be profitable,” says Wade Guenther, partner at Wilshire Phoenix.
However, if you were to complete the puzzle solely on your own, as of March 2024, you would earn approximately $404,000 worth of bitcoin. The reality of an individual solving these puzzles, though, in today’s highly competitive mining environment is unlikely.
The puzzles will more likely be solved by a mining pool, and the profits will be split among all the miners in the pool. If an individual miner can keep their equipment and electricity costs low enough, then joining a mining pool could still be profitable for them.
Mining is very interesting but a very risky activity. If someone wants to do that, they have to understand that I would not advise to invest all of their money in this activity.
–Didar Bekbauov, founder and CEO of bitcoin group mining company Xive
How To Pick The Best Bitcoin Mining Software
When picking the best bitcoin mining software, it is important to take into account your individual needs and level of expertise in the mining space. For example, beginners may prefer:
- Cloud-based software, which does not require mining equipment
- Programs designed for more basic CPU and GPU mining
- Low withdrawal requirements, since it could take a long time to mine enough bitcoin to make it worth using mining software with high limits
On the other hand, more sophisticated miners with more powerful systems may prefer customizable programs to utilize a wide variety of mining equipment, mining pools and more ways to tailor their mining rigs.
When choosing a technology solution for our mining operations, we focus on the following three things: reliability, compatibility and ultimately performance. We identify software that is compatible with our mining hardware and size of operation, then test the providers against each other to find the highest levels of performance.
–Taylor Monnig, senior vice president of mining, CleanSpark
Bitcoin Mining FAQs
Is bitcoin mining legal?
As of March 2024, bitcoin mining is legal in the U.S. If you live outside of the U.S., be sure to research the laws in your country before getting started.
How much do bitcoin miners make?
How much a bitcoin miner can make depends on a variety of factors, including the type of equipment they use, how much their fixed costs are and whether they are part of a mining pool.
What happens when all bitcoins are mined?
After all 21 million bitcoins are mined, no more bitcoins will be issued. Bitcoin miners may still be able to make money via transaction fees, however.
How hard is it to mine bitcoin?
Bitcoin mining can be complicated and difficult for an individual, and it is a competitive business overall. Be sure to do your research on the process before investing in any equipment or software.
Next Up in Investing
- What Is Bitcoin And How Does It Work?
- Why Does Bitcoin Use So Much Energy?
- Bitcoin Energy Consumption Survey
- How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC)
- What Is Bitcoin Cash?
- Proof of Stake Explained
