A Brief Introduction to Bitcoin

I don’t want to get too involved in the complicated mechanics of Bitcoin, but in essence it’s an electronic currency formally known as a cryptocurrency. Each BitCoin has to be generated using an algorithm in an application called a Bitcoin miner. When Bitcoin was first launched, it was relatively easy to generate Bitcoins, but as time went on, the computational power needed for each Bitcoin increased.

Despite the fact that a Bitcoin isn’t really anything other than a digitally signed code that isn’t backed by any sort of government or financial institution, it actually has value. You can sell (or buy) Bitcoins on exchanges for more conventional currency, or you can use it to buy goods or services from anyone that accepts them. Because the system is anonymous and untraceable, it’s sometimes used for illicit means.

The price of Bitcoins has soared in the past year, from around $15 in 2012 to around $100 in mid-2013.

Generating Bitcoins

It’s fairly easy to generate your own Bitcoins with a PC, but to get a decent rate you need to have a reasonably fast video card. This is because the GPUs on video cards can perform the necessary calculations much faster than computer CPUs can. ATI video cards are known to perform particularly well for Bitcoin generation.

Starting to generate your Bitcoins then requires a Bitcoin wallet, a mining program, and you probably want to join a mining pool. For now, though, I’m going to focus on a couple of pieces of software that do most of the work for you and simply pay you in cash for your computers time spent generating Bitcoins.

Eobot

The first thing I should point out is that the Eobot is incorrectly detected as a Trojan by some antivirus software. This is because the code that generates Bitcoins is also used in some viruses to generate coins for their creators. The software is perfectly safe to use, however, but you may need to temporarily disable your AV software to download and install it.

Signing up for an account is really easy, but do make sure you use the same as email as your PayPal account. Once signed up, you just download the software and run it. You then need to enter your email address and decide whether you want to start the CPU or GPU version. If you have a reasonably modern video card, you almost certainly want to run the GPU version. Once up and running, you can see your balance increase in real time and the rate at which you’re earning money.

Eobot in action

 

Eotbot in action

You can cash out your earnings to PayPal anytime you have at least 1 cent in your balance. When you sign up, you’ll also be given a $5 signup bonus, although you won’t be able to claim this until you’ve earned at least $20 normally. Their website estimates that you can expect to earn about $100/month on a high-end gaming system and $25/month on a more low-end system with a reasonable video card.

Rublik

Unlike Eobot, which is based in the USA, Rublik is run out of Russia. The website is a little awkwardly translated in parts, but it’s perfectly understandable.

Installing Rublik is also very easy, and it can be configured to run itself automatically in a low-load, hidden mode. Unlike Eobot, the Rublik software doesn’t seem to cause any problems with antivirus software. The Rublik software also seems a little more polished and has a wider range of options.

rublik

Rublik running on my not-so-good video card

The payment conditions are roughly the same as Eobot with withdrawals of 1 cent or higher, although Rublik also provides other payment options in addition to PayPal, depending on your country.

Conclusion

Looking in terms of potential earnings, Eobot seems to be the better option, but if PayPal doesn’t suit you for some reason, you might be better off using Rublik