<p>No, you can't. Your existing hardware is general purpose and is so inefficient at mining Bitcoins that the value of the Bitcoins you mined would be a tiny fraction of the cost of the electricity it would use. Think of existing miners as aircraft carriers and your computer as a bow and arrow, at least when it comes to mining Bitcoins.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-11T05:04:02.990Z
2014-03-11T05:04:02.990Z
David Schwartz
<p>I agree with what David said. However, if you have a GPU, then you can mine Scrypt coins like Litecoin or Dogecoin. For Nvidia GPUs, check out <a href="https://github.com/cbuchner1/CudaMiner" rel="nofollow">CudaMiner</a>, and for AMD GPUs, check out <a href="https://github.com/veox/sgminer" rel="nofollow">sgminer</a>. CPUs aren't really worth the effort to mine with, even for CPU-only coins like Primecoin (where an Intel Xeon can probably get you $1 a day).</p>

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2014-03-11T05:53:51.380Z
2014-03-11T05:53:51.380Z
Tony
<p>I have just learnt about Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining. Is it really important to buy Bitcoin mining hardware like BFGMiner to earn Bitcoins ? Can't we just download the software and join a pool?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-11T09:12:01.970Z
You should search for existing answers to questions before posting.  Your question is answered here:
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1433/how-can-i-start-mining-bitcoin/22916#22916
hafnero
<mining-hardware>
Is it important to buy Bitcion hardware to start mining?
user14373
# Is it important to buy Bitcion hardware to start mining?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-03-11)

I have just learnt about Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining. Is it really important to buy Bitcoin mining hardware like BFGMiner to earn Bitcoins ? Can't we just download the software and join a pool?

**Tags:** mining-hardware

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: You should search for existing answers to questions before posting.  Your question is answered here: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1433/how-can-i-start-mining-bitcoin/22916#22916  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-03-11. Score: 3

No, you can't. Your existing hardware is general purpose and is so inefficient at mining Bitcoins that the value of the Bitcoins you mined would be a tiny fraction of the cost of the electricity it would use. Think of existing miners as aircraft carriers and your computer as a bow and arrow, at least when it comes to mining Bitcoins.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2014-03-11. Score: 0

I agree with what David said. However, if you have a GPU, then you can mine Scrypt coins like Litecoin or Dogecoin. For Nvidia GPUs, check out [CudaMiner](https://github.com/cbuchner1/CudaMiner), and for AMD GPUs, check out [sgminer](https://github.com/veox/sgminer). CPUs aren't really worth the effort to mine with, even for CPU-only coins like Primecoin (where an Intel Xeon can probably get you $1 a day).


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