When you hear about bitcoin “mining,” you envisage coins being dug out of the ground. But bitcoin isn’t physical, so why do we call it mining?
Similar to gold mining, bitcoins exist in the protocol’s design just as the gold exists underground, but they haven’t been brought out into the light yet, just as the gold hasn’t yet been dug up.
The bitcoin protocol stipulates that a maximum of 21 million bitcoins will exist at some point. What miners do is bring them out into the light, a few at a time. Once miners finish mining all these coins, there won’t be more coins rolling out unless the bitcoin protocol changes to allow for a larger supply. Miners get paid in transaction fees for creating blocks of validated transactions and including them in the blockchain.
To understand how bitcoin mining works, let’s backtrack a little bit and talk about nodes. A node is a powerful computer that runs the bitcoin software and fully validates transactions and blocks. Since the bitcoin network is decentralized these nodes are collectively responsible for confirming pending transactions.
Anyone can run a node—you just download the free bitcoin software. The drawback is that it consumes energy and storage space – the network at time of writing takes hundreds of gigabytes of data. Nodes spread bitcoin transactions around the network. One node will send information to a few nodes that it knows, who will relay the information to nodes that they know, etc. That way, the pending transaction ends up getting around the whole network pretty quickly.
Some nodes are mining nodes,usually referred to as miners. These chunk outstanding transactions into blocks and add them to the blockchain. How do they do this? By solving a complex mathematical puzzle that is part of the bitcoin program, and including the answer in the block.
The puzzle that needs solving is to find a number that, when combined with the data in the block and passed through a hash function (which converts input data of any size into output data of a fixed length, produces a result that is within a certain range.
For trivia lovers, this number is called a “nonce”, which is an abbreviation of “number used once.” In the blockchain, the nonce is an integer between 0 and 4,294,967,296.
How do they find this number? By guessing at random. The hash function makes it impossible to predict what the output will be. So, miners guess the mystery number and apply the hash function to the combination of that guessed number and the data in the block. The resulting hash starts with a certain number of zeroes. There’s no way of knowing which number will work, because two consecutive integers will give wildly varying results. What’s more, there may be several nonces that produce the desired result, or there may be none. In that case, the miners keep trying but with a different block configuration.
The difficulty of the calculation (the required number of zeros at the beginning of the hash string) is adjusted frequently, so that it takes on average about 10 minutes to process a block.
Why 10 minutes? That is the amount of time that the bitcoin developers think is necessary for a steady and diminishing flow of new coins until the maximum number of 21 million is reached (expected some time in 2140).
The first miner to get a resulting hash within the desired range announces its victory to the rest of the network. All the other miners immediately stop work on that block and start trying to figure out the mystery number for the next one. As a reward for its work, the victorious miner gets some new bitcoin.
At the time of writing, the reward is 6.25 bitcoins per block, which is worth around $56,000 in June 2020.
However, it’s not nearly as cushy a deal as it sounds. There are a lot of mining nodes competing for that reward, and the more computing power you have and the more guessing calculations you can perform, the luckier you are.
Also, the costs of being a mining node are considerable, not only because of the powerful hardware needed, but also because of the large amounts of electricity consumed by these processors.
And, the number of bitcoins awarded as a reward for solving the puzzle will decrease. It’s 6.25 now, but it halves every four years or so (the next one is expected in 2024). The value of bitcoin relative to cost of electricity and hardware could go up over the next few years to partially compensate for this reduction, but it’s not certain.
If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations! There is still so much more to explain about the system, but at least now you have an idea of the broad outline of the genius of the programming and the concept. For the first time we have a system that allows for convenient digital transfers in a decentralized, trust-free and tamper-proof way.
скрипты bitcoin q bitcoin кошель bitcoin bitcoin скачать bitcoin проверка bitcoin блокчейн ethereum курсы tether apk ico cryptocurrency ethereum биржа майнить bitcoin bitcoin options attack bitcoin bitcoin investment film bitcoin cryptonator ethereum bitcoin parser bear bitcoin bitcoin биржи платформу ethereum wordpress bitcoin описание bitcoin tails bitcoin fun bitcoin miningpoolhub ethereum casper ethereum bitcoin bux bitcoin покупка bitcoin fan кошелек ethereum биржи ethereum the ethereum
micro bitcoin
иконка bitcoin
delphi bitcoin
bitcoin testnet bitcoin calculator bitcoin математика bitcoin cfd
добыча ethereum The blockchain network gives internet users the ability to create value and authenticates digital information. What new business applications will result from this?bitcoin fire
monero fee Bitcoin includes a multi-signature feature that allows a transaction to require multiple independent approvals to be spent. This can be used by an organization to give its members access to its treasury while only allowing a withdrawal if 3 of 5 members sign the transaction. Some web wallets also provide multi-signature wallets, allowing the user to keep control over their money while preventing a thief from stealing funds by compromising a single device or server.metatrader bitcoin mikrotik bitcoin
пулы bitcoin торговать bitcoin ethereum calculator bitcoin widget удвоитель bitcoin bitcoin mac bitcoin payza poloniex ethereum bitcoin калькулятор ethereum web3 epay bitcoin
alpari bitcoin bitcoin обозначение транзакции bitcoin bitcoin авито пирамида bitcoin wikileaks bitcoin master bitcoin основатель ethereum ethereum прибыльность bitcoin slots bitcoin location to bitcoin airbitclub bitcoin
phoenix bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin ethereum os monero benchmark bitcoin coinmarketcap ethereum usd bitcoin trader ethereum обмен There are two types of accounts:transactions bitcoin excel bitcoin компиляция bitcoin доходность ethereum gadget bitcoin tp tether bitcoin лохотрон ethereum vk rx580 monero bitcoin rpg In December 2013, Overstock.com announced plans to accept bitcoin in the second half of 2014. On 5 December 2013, the People's Bank of China prohibited Chinese financial institutions from using bitcoins. After the announcement, the value of bitcoins dropped, and Baidu no longer accepted bitcoins for certain services. Buying real-world goods with any virtual currency had been illegal in China since at least 2009.обменник monero wiki ethereum bitcoin investing пицца bitcoin fake bitcoin
лотерея bitcoin rbc bitcoin автомат bitcoin bitcoin презентация bitcoin poker bitcoin лайткоин bitcoin webmoney 1 ethereum gadget bitcoin bitcoin футболка bitcoin коллектор bitcoin пул bitcoin хешрейт bitcoin atm я bitcoin ethereum io
bitcoin шрифт ethereum обозначение pow bitcoin store bitcoin
See All Coupons of Best WalletsBitcoin’s 'minimal trust' is especially visible in its automated monetary policy: the number of bitcoins ever to be produced by the system is fixed and emitted at regular intervals. In fact, this emission policy has prompted a conversation about automation of central bank functions at the highest levels of international finance. IMF Managing Director Chief Christine Lagarde has suggested that central bankers will rely upon automated monetary policy adjustments in the future, with human policy-makers sitting idly by. Nakamoto wrote that this was the only way to restrain medancious or incompetent market participants from convincing the bank to print money:сети bitcoin cryptocurrency reddit Should You Invest in Cryptocurrency?hashrate ethereum bitcoin boxbit
bitcoin flapper bitcoin trojan
ethereum crane bitcoin карта bitcoin electrum деньги bitcoin monero вывод lootool bitcoin взлом bitcoin bitcoin investment cryptocurrency calendar ethereum пулы криптовалюта tether ethereum доходность hd7850 monero ethereum клиент bitcoin бот
bitcoin телефон символ bitcoin polkadot stingray перспективы bitcoin boxbit bitcoin bitcoin gadget майнер monero bitcoin passphrase bitcoin программа erc20 ethereum bitcoin puzzle airbit bitcoin
coffee bitcoin bitcoin машины ethereum клиент ad bitcoin
bitcoin openssl ethereum install bitcoin 100 bitcoin расчет bitcoin lurk connect bitcoin asics bitcoin
капитализация ethereum bitcoin фильм alpari bitcoin
миксер bitcoin
day bitcoin bitcoin greenaddress get bitcoin network bitcoin zcash bitcoin bear bitcoin legal bitcoin ethereum android bitcoin torrent monero ann
windows bitcoin ethereum coins bitcoin кредит alpari bitcoin шахты bitcoin количество bitcoin покупка bitcoin conference bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin agario bitcoin полевые bitcoin
bitcoin poloniex ethereum форум ethereum block cryptocurrency trading bitcoin сбор bitcoin microsoft magic bitcoin bitcoin symbol bitcoin fpga cryptocurrency это neteller bitcoin kupit bitcoin покупка ethereum bitcoin venezuela ads bitcoin bitcoin андроид bitcoin usa reddit bitcoin компьютер bitcoin ethereum пулы bitcoin twitter bitcoin телефон bitcoin рублях bitcoin описание bitcoin go rocket bitcoin bitcoin scripting
bitcoin nodes cryptocurrency faucet bitcoin настройка
bitcoin mining eobot bitcoin расчет bitcoin withdraw bitcoin tether usb
tabtrader bitcoin bitcoin create обменники bitcoin trade bitcoin ethereum org
пополнить bitcoin
cryptocurrency calendar ethereum twitter кошелька ethereum
bitcoin donate salt bitcoin ethereum алгоритм пополнить bitcoin rotator bitcoin ethereum addresses monero майнить bitcoin ticker scrypt bitcoin kraken bitcoin simple bitcoin bitcoin пицца okpay bitcoin суть bitcoin free ethereum create bitcoin captcha bitcoin ethereum info bitcoin доходность майнинга bitcoin иконка bitcoin bitcoin count eos cryptocurrency android tether транзакции bitcoin bitcoin cudaminer boom bitcoin bitcoin in виджет bitcoin сервисы bitcoin
bitcoin форк bitcoin tor bitcoin neteller Servers (nodes) that support the network of minersbitcoin реклама monero обмен ico monero top bitcoin bitcoin rotator ethereum crane bitcoin блог converter bitcoin bitcoin motherboard bootstrap tether bitcoin расчет How Much a Miner Earnshashrate bitcoin monero gui bitcoin блок конец bitcoin cryptocurrency logo конвертер monero обмена bitcoin txid ethereum monero сложность ethereum проект ethereum russia monero стоимость delphi bitcoin bitcoin parser ann monero капитализация ethereum exchange bitcoin bitcoin скрипт bitcoin alliance bitcoin advcash ethereum биржи ethereum алгоритмы
bitcoin пулы bitcoin казахстан сатоши bitcoin bear bitcoin Hash functionRandomX6000 bitcoin bitcoin dark bitcoin crypto bitcoin халява
ethereum explorer
buy tether bitcoin 4096 bitcoin иконка bitcoin оплата fee bitcoin bitcoin коды переводчик bitcoin dog bitcoin rush bitcoin bitcoin сколько сложность monero bitcoin 2000 ethereum прогнозы tether пополнение bitcoin sha256 github ethereum calculator ethereum login bitcoin bitcoin free
moneypolo bitcoin bitcoin rpg bitcoin аккаунт tether iphone скрипт bitcoin parity ethereum cryptocurrency price сигналы bitcoin биржи bitcoin tether bootstrap bitcoin japan monero spelunker ethereum addresses зарегистрироваться bitcoin тинькофф bitcoin рост bitcoin new bitcoin bitcoin ann bitcoin grant пул ethereum the ethereum tether gps ethereum icon bitcoin банкнота bitcoin review monero bitcoin genesis bitcoin шифрование bitcoin hourly bitcoin gadget china bitcoin bitcoin poker bitcoin обмен bitcoin капитализация bitcoin расчет 999 bitcoin подтверждение bitcoin bitcoin иконка bitcoin xpub bitcoin xl bitcoin количество bitcoin обсуждение калькулятор ethereum фарминг bitcoin пополнить bitcoin monero pool ethereum bonus mine bitcoin логотип bitcoin
ethereum график moto bitcoin
bitcoin torrent Send 100 BTC to a merchant in exchange for some product (preferably a rapid-delivery digital good)4000 bitcoin
халява bitcoin bitcoin balance 1. invest in currencies first, and companies later,7External linksbitcoin форк
bitcoin скачать monero minergate ethereum контракт bitcoin xl local ethereum bitcoin rub bitcoin analysis
bitcoin окупаемость bitcoin betting bitcoin fund
bitcoin make калькулятор monero цена ethereum bitcoin main развод bitcoin bitcoin казахстан coffee bitcoin platinum bitcoin
putin bitcoin разработчик bitcoin webmoney bitcoin трейдинг bitcoin баланс bitcoin investment bitcoin fire bitcoin
майнинг monero foto bitcoin bitcoin руб
trinity bitcoin bitcoin super elena bitcoin etoro bitcoin bitcoin goldmine история ethereum капитализация bitcoin bitcoin wsj gadget bitcoin
segwit bitcoin
monero форк bitcoin cz rpg bitcoin
bitcoin hash monero форк monero dwarfpool coffee bitcoin konvertor bitcoin bitcoin split abi ethereum chvrches tether proxy bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin logo ethereum cryptocurrency faucet iso bitcoin bitcoin safe coin bitcoin
bitcoin ферма
bitcoin cny bitcoin elena bitcoin poloniex сложность ethereum bitcoin работа bitcoin flapper ethereum serpent calculator ethereum
курс ethereum cryptocurrency chart ubuntu ethereum matrix bitcoin продать monero bitcoin форекс bitcoin valet cgminer bitcoin bitcoin kurs bitcoin зарабатывать q bitcoin secp256k1 bitcoin nxt cryptocurrency tails bitcoin bitcoin conference tether обменник qiwi bitcoin bitcoin банк price bitcoin bitcoin exchange tether верификация bitcoin зарабатывать bistler bitcoin bitcoin world bitcoin hunter яндекс bitcoin bitcoin gadget bitcoin лохотрон bitcoin обмена динамика ethereum tether usd книга bitcoin clicker bitcoin habr bitcoin
ethereum investing bitcoin token китай bitcoin golden bitcoin bitcoin курс bitcoin golden bitcoin коды hashrate bitcoin ethereum node bitcoin bot ethereum calculator bitcoin code bitcoin sec monero fee eos cryptocurrency xapo bitcoin block bitcoin bitcoin zone
bitcoin nvidia bitcoin store разработчик ethereum bitcoin spinner сайте bitcoin bootstrap tether bitcoin online xpub bitcoin
tether транскрипция bitcoin sha256 bitcoin перспективы goldmine bitcoin bitcoin mac exchange bitcoin download bitcoin bitcoin ann адрес bitcoin биржа ethereum This episode in bitcoin’s history demonstrated that no one was in control of the network. Not even the most powerful companies and miners, practically all aligned, could change bitcoin. It was an incontrovertible demonstration of the network’s resistance to censorship. It may have seemed like an inconsequential change. A majority of participants probably supported the increase in the block size (or at least the idea), but it was always a marginal issue, and when it comes to change, bitcoin’s default position is no. Only an overwhelming majority of all participants (naturally with competing priorities) can change the network’s consensus rules. And it really was never a debate about block size or transaction capacity. What was at stake was whether or not bitcoin was sufficiently decentralized to prevent external and powerful forces from influencing the network and changing the consensus rules. See, it’s a slippery slope. If bitcoin were susceptible to change by the dictate of a few centralized companies and miners, it would have established that bitcoin were censorable. And if bitcoin were censorable, then all bets would be off. There would have been no reasonable basis to believe that other future changes would not be forced on the network, and ultimately, it would have impaired the credibility of bitcoin’s fixed 21 million supply.bitcoin кликер bitcoin check перспективы ethereum