So with the success bitcoin has recently had, it seems like a good idea to start mining coins, as it basically creates free money, is there a reason that this would not be worth doing now that the value of bitcoin has increased so much, or does it just make the idea all the more appetising?
Yes, basically we are at a point where regular, e.g. home PC, hardware consumes so much power that the cost of the electricity needed for the computationally demanding mining process is higher than the value of the bitcoins that are earned from the mining. To make mining worthwhile, you need an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) doing the job, as they offer some margin between value of coins earned and cost of electricity.
So with the success bitcoin has recently had, it seems like a good idea to start mining coins, as it basically creates free money, is there a reason that this would not be worth doing now that the value of bitcoin has increased so much, or does it just make the idea all the more appetising?
It's a lot harder to mine them than a year or two ago. Now you need expensive hardware and even then it's hardly worth it.
Yes, basically we are at a point where regular, e.g. home PC, hardware consumes so much power that the cost of the electricity needed for the computationally demanding mining process is higher than the value of the bitcoins that are earned from the mining. To make mining worthwhile, you need an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) doing the job, as they offer some margin between value of coins earned and cost of electricity.
A good option is to join a pool, but even that is hardly worthwhile now.
Yep, and lets not forget risky.
There was a time when people were making thousands of bitcoins a day running bitcoin mining software on their laptops. Those days are definitely over.