› What is Bitcoin Mining? › Bitcoin Mining Software
Now that you already know about the best Bitcoin mining hardware, we’re going to talk about Bitcoin mining software.
Of course, the free software is undoubtedly more favored among Mac users. Among these Mac app, few are gems, but some stand out from the crowd. If you are looking for the best free Mac software to optimize your OS X, here's the best downloads on Mac helping to break down the barrier for better productivity, entertainment, and more. MacUpdate is the best way to discover Free Mac Software. Download, install, or update Mac Apps, read user reviews or submit your own.
What is Bitcoin Mining Software?
Bitcoin mining hardware handles the actual Bitcoin mining process, but:
Bitcoin mining software is equally as important.
- If you are a solo miner: the mining software connects your Bitcoin miner to the blockchain.
- If you mine with a pool: the software will connect you to your mining pool.
- If you are cloud mining: you do not need mining software.
Quick Tip
Using mining software is not the fastest way to buy bitcoins.
Buying bitcoin with a debit card is the fastest way.
Importance of Bitcoin Mining Software
The main job of the software is to deliver the mining hardware’s work to the rest of the Bitcoin network and to receive the completed work from other miners on the network.
Bitcoin mining software monitors this input and output of your miner while also displaying statistics such as the speed of your miner, hashrate, fan speed and the temperature.
Bitcoin Wallets
One of the most important things you will need before using any kind of Bitcoin mining software is a wallet.
Why?
This is because all Bitcoin mining software will ask you for a Bitcoin address that will be used to send your mining rewards and payouts. Once you create or download a wallet you will be able to get a Bitcoin address from your wallet.
There are many Bitcoin wallets, but these are the ones we recommend if you are just starting out:
- Ledger Nano X – Secure Bitcoin hardware wallet for all platforms.
- Electrum – Simple Bitcoin wallet that works on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
- Samourai Wallet – The most popular Bitcoin wallet on Android.
- DropBit – The most popular Bitcoin wallet for iOS.
If you expect to earn a lot of money through mining then it would be smart to purchase a more secure wallet: a hardware wallet.Now that we understand mining software and how it helps in the mining process, and you got your Bitcoin wallet and address, let’s look at different software on different operating systems.
Bitcoin Mining Software for Windows
Bitcoin Miner
You can use Bitcoin Miner on Windows 10 and Windows 8.1.
It has an easy to use interface, power saving mode, mining pool support and fast share submission.
One useful feature is the profit reports feature because this feature will help you know if your mining is profitable or not. The latest version of this software is Bitcoin Miner 1.27.0.
BTCMiner
BTCMiner is an Open Source Bitcoin Miner for ZTEX USB-FPGA modules 1.5.
BTCMiner comes with the following features:
- Dynamic frequency scaling in that BTCMiner automatically chooses the frequency with the highest rate of valid hashes
- Ready-to-use Bitstream i.e. no Xilinx software or license required.
It also comes with supported FPGA boards which contain a USB interface used for communication and programming.
CGMiner
CGMiner is arguably the most famous and commonly used among Bitcoin miners at the moment.
CGMiner is based on the original code of CPU Miner.
This software has many features but the main ones include:
- fan speed control
- remote interface capabilities
- self-detection of new blocks with a mini database
- multi GPU support
- CPU mining support
Best Mac Os X Cad Software
BFGMiner
BFGMiner is more or less the same as CGMiner.
The only major difference is that it doesn’t focus on GPUs like CGMiner but instead it is designed specifically for ASICs.
Some unique features of BFGMiner include: mining with free mesa/LLVM OpenCL, ADL device reordering by PCI bus ID, integrated overclocking and fan control.
EasyMiner
EasyMiner is GUI based and it acts as a convenient wrapper for CGMiner and BFGMiner software.
This software supports the getwork mining protocol as well as stratum mining protocol. It can also be used for both solo and pooled mining.
Among its main features is that it configures your miner and provides performance graphs for easy visualization of your mining activity.
Bitcoin Mining Software for Linux
CGMiner
CGMiner is arguably the most famous and commonly used among Bitcoin miners at the moment.
CGMiner is based on the original code of CPU Miner.
This software has many features but the main ones include: fan speed control, remote interface capabilities, self-detection of new blocks with a mini database, multi GPU support and CPU mining support.
BFGMiner
BFGMiner is more or less the same as CGMiner.
The only major difference is that it doesn’t focus on GPUs like CGMiner but instead it is designed specifically for ASICs.
Some unique features of BFGMiner include: mining with free mesa/LLVM OpenCL, ADL device reordering by PCI bus ID, integrated overclocking and fan control.
EasyMiner
EasyMiner is a GUI based software and it acts as a convenient wrapper for CGMiner and BFGMiner software.
This software supports the getwork mining protocol as well as stratum mining protocol. It can also be used for both solo and pooled mining.
Among its main features is that it configures your miner and provides performance graphs for easy visualization of your mining activity.
Bitcoin Mining Software for Mac OS X
RPC Miner
RPC Miner can be used on Mac OS 10.6 or higher and features integration with Mac OS APIs and systems.
More
All of the mining software above listed for Linux and Windows also works for Mac OS X. Scroll up to learn more!
Viruses in Mining Software
Be aware that a lot of mining software may try to steal your bitcoins. Be sure to read reviews on any software you download.
Also:
Make sure you are downloading from the actual site and not a copy-cat site.
Cash Out your Coins
Once you have this setup and are mining, you may need to cash out some of your coins in order to pay off your expenses such as electricity.
For this you can use Buy Bitcoin Worldwide to find a Bitcoin exchange in your country.
Learn More
Macs may be a far less tempting target for malware and viruses, but they’re not immune from attack. Even if you don’t care about adware or being used as a means to infect users on other platforms, it’s still possible to fall victim to ransomware, password theft, or stolen iPhone backups.
Accordingly, good antivirus software will protect your Mac on all of these fronts. It’ll catch malware that’s still spreading or in circulation; block ransomware; protect older systems with out-of-date software from security vulnerabilities; prevent your Mac from acting as a carrier for malware aimed at other operating systems; and keep infected files off of any virtual machines you’re running.
Antivirus for Mac cheat sheet
Our quick-hit recommendations:
- Best paid antivirus for Mac:Sophos Home Premium for Mac[sophos.com]
- Best free antivirus for Mac:Avast Free Mac Security[avast.com]
Many antivirus suites provide a decent level of protection, but a few rise above all others by providing the very best in performance. Our top contenders dominate by posting perfect (or virtually near perfect) scores from security research labs, passing our own malware detection tests with flying colors, offering well-designed interfaces, and even throwing in extra features like a firewall or password manager.
Updated 08/15/19: Added our review of Avira Free Antivirus, a worthy free option that’s easy to use and effective.
Looking for Windows antivirus recommendations? You can read about the best antivirus suites for PC on our sister site, PCWorld.
Best overall antivirus software
on Sophos
Best Mac Os X Virtualization Software
Sophos Home Premium has the most extensive and up-to-date approach to fighting malware at an unbeatable price.
Sophos Home Premium has it all: Effective malware protection, ransomware monitoring, protection against potentially-unwanted-apps, and additional features that often require separately licensed software. Its cloud-based configuration and generous licensing (up to 10 Macs and PCs) also make it easy to shield friends and family from threats, no matter where they live. (Full details available in our review.)
Best free antivirus software
Though Sophos does offer a good free version of its software, Avast Free Mac Security edges it out as the best free antivirus software for macOS. In security lab tests, Avast detected 99.9 percent of macOS malware, and 100 percent of Windows malware. However, if you want more advanced protection (like ransomware detection), you’ll need to upgrade to paid software.
What to look for in antivirus software
By our reckoning, antivirus software should be able to neutralize a threat before it can begin wreaking havoc. That means preventing the download, installation, or execution of malicious software.
Since you can encounter threats by visiting compromised or malicious websites, receiving virus-laden attachments, or accessing USB drives with malware, good AV software should scan on a continuous basis unless you configure it otherwise. And ideally, files identified as malicious should be quarantined into a special storage area managed by the AV software, with the option to automatically delete files known to be malware or repair normal documents that also carry devious payloads.
Great AV suites also will monitor the filesystem for certain kinds of changes. Ransomware—which is malware that will rapidly encrypt user files like documents and mailboxes and then delete the originals—has become a huge moneymaker on other platforms. As a prime opportunity for attackers, it’s the greatest danger Mac users likely face as a category.
Detecting this pattern and halting it before any files are unavailable should be possible without an anti-malware system knowing the specific innards of a ransomware virus. Sophos, our top pick, includes this feature in the Home Premium version of its 2018 update. Other vendors, like Avast and Trend Micro Antivirus, offer an alternative feature that allows you to whitelist programs allowed to manipulate files in specific directories. So if this particular type of attack becomes rapidly popular, you’ll be protected.
Good antivirus software should also use minimal computational resources. That’s especially the case these days—AV monitoring hasn’t become much more complicated than when it first became available, and faster, multi-core CPUs can easily handle the demands of running AV software in the background without disturbing your active work.
Beyond these primary features, an easy-to-navigate interface and extra features are worth factoring into your decision. Some AV software are full-fledged suites that offer additional options like backup service for essential files, a password manager, parental controls, anti-tracking and privacy modes or options, a more advanced firewall, and the blocking of Potentially Unwanted Applications (PUAs).
How we test
Each software package is evaluated creating a clean installation of macOS Mojave, cloning it for each AV product, and then booting separately into each one to install a different package. This was to ensure that previous app installations didn’t interfere with new ones—sometimes AV software treats other AV software as an infection.
In addition to visiting malicious websites, downloading known malicious software, and even running said malware, we also reference the most recent reports from two labs that regularly cover macOS malware: AV Comparatives and AV-TEST. These laboratories test AV software against sets of known malware as well as products that are grouped as potentially unwanted applications (like adware).
The latter doesn’t damage or expose your computer or its files but may consume power and CPU cycles. Because the testing effectively looks at a combination of virus databases and behavior, they remain good gauges even after many months. When an antivirus software package lacks a rating from a known security research lab, we do more extensive testing with real malware.
Finally, while we gave props for a lot of different features and behaviors, we marked products down if they lacked any or all of the following:
- A nearly perfect score on macOS malware detection
- Ransomware monitoring
- Native browser plug-in or system-level Web proxy
- A high score on Windows malware detection
Privacy concerns
Using an anti-virus product, especially any that includes tools to also improve your online privacy, may lull you into believing you’re safe from personal and private information leaking out. That’s not quite the case. While there’s no reason to panic, you should consider a few reasonable issues.
First, an antivirus product may upload the complete text of files flagged to the cloud, where it can be analyzed by separate tools hosted there. This practice is normal and sensible: Some malware can detect when a running process may examine it, and will then engage in subterfuge. Antivirus software makers also can access their massive databases to examine files with characteristics that trigger their algorithms—certain elements that match known malware. As a result, security researchers discover new viruses, worms, Trojans horses, and the like.
However, helping the greater good means you’ll have to be comfortable with trusting a third-party with your file contents. Where appropriate, we noted privacy policy issues in individual reviews.
Second, this software may also rely partly or entirely on cloud-based checks of URLs, malware, and the like. Accordingly, an AV package might upload every URL you visit, metadata about files, signatures of files, information about your computer’s hardware, a list of running or installed applications, and more. Companies vary on their disclosure of such policies, and may not let you opt out of this kind of sharing. We note issues in each review as available.
Third, anti-virus software makers also get a sense of what behavior is happening on your computer that’s being monitored or blocked, and may use that information for their own purposes. In some cases, you can opt out of this information gathering.
All of our antivirus for Mac reviews
If you have specific requirements or just wish to see other options, below is a list of all the antivirus software we’ve reviewed. We’ll keep evaluating new and refreshed software on a regular basis, so be sure to come back to see what else we’ve put through the ringer.