All the Reddit threads and all the cryptocurrency blogs say that CPU mining is dead and even using ASICs at home is getting harder to turn a real profit with bitcoin or any other digital currency mining.

I tend to agree and disagree a little bit.

Here's where I agree:

Most of all the negative positions can be summed up by people saying your Macbook or laptop will overheat and ruin your hardware and even if it lasts for awhile your hashrate will be so low it won't even cover the cost of your electricity.

This I all agree with even though I believe the hardware being ruined is a little overblown. Testing out CPU mining software for a few days or weeks and not running it 24/7 for months will not do huge harm to your hardware.

They have a point on the electricity but not huge.

Here's where I disagree:

The main point of initially mining altcoins should be for you to better learn how cryptocurrencies and the technology surrounding them work. I'm an entrepreneur and eventually want to turn a profit as well and the first key to doing this is understanding and learning.

Also digging deeper on the electricity and hardware argument, the math in these equations only stand up if you're not bullish on cryptocurrencies moving into the long run. If you believe digital currency is the future then essentially when you're mining, you're trading old school electricity into the digital currency of the future.

I'm bullish on the idea of digital currency moving into the future and that's why I believe mining is at least a worthy endeavor to understand the basics.

START HERE IF YOU ARE NEW TO CRYPTOCURRENCY BUY $100 GET $10 FREE

So now what:

I bought my first shares of Bitcoin a year ago on Coinbase and didn't understand mining.

After a year of watching the price go up and down I wanted to dive back in and realized that now it is impossible to mine bitcoin on a personal computer and you now need specialized machines referred to as ASICS.

Here is where my new understanding of Altcoins comes in. There are still several altcoin currencies that allow CPU and GPU mining. Then all you need is an exchange solution for trading your altcoins for bitcoin which I suggest because it will hold the value of the new currency you just spent all your time mining better.

Here is a simple set up of components you can use on any machine, Windows, Mac, Linux, Etc:

Altcoin Miner and Wallet - Minergate

Altcoin to Bitcoin Exchange - Changelly

Bitcoin Wallet - Coinbase

Currently I would advise starting with Monero, and Fantomcoin. Happy Mining!

February 2017 Update:

Monero is getting tons of positive press, click to read more HERE

Learn how to buy Monero with cash HERE

June 2017 Update:

Listen to this episode of the Tim Ferriss show with Nick Szabo: The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin have all seen great price surges, and Litecoin was just added to Coinbase, read about the simplest way to buy Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin HERE

July 2017 Update:

Moved my portfolio off Coinbase and into Exodus.io for storage during the hard fork. They are the only simple place I could find that let's you have access to your keys if you want to go out and claim your bitcoin cash (BCC).

August 2017 Update:

Received my BCC using Bitfinex but then it just closed to US customers so I sold off. May have done it a little early since it's on the rise this week.

December 2017 Update:

The price swing is a crazy wild ride. Best thing you can do is buy $100 using Coinbase and watch the movements for awhile to get started with cryptocurrency.

The cool guys over at BitCoinPlay.net reached out and sent over this infographic with some fun facts.