More About Bitcoin Mining Efficiency

If you're mining Bitcoin, you do not need to figure the entire value of that 64-digit number (the hash). I repeat: You do not need to calculate the total value of a hash.

Remember that ELI5 analogy, where I composed the number 19 on a piece of newspaper and put it in a sealed envelope

In Bitcoin mining conditions, that metaphorical undisclosed number in the envelope is known as the target hash.

What miners are doing with those tremendous computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing in the target hash. Miners create these guesses by randomly generating as many"nonces" as possible, as quickly as possible. A nonce is short for"number only used once," and the nonce is the key to generating these 64-bit hexadecimal numbers I keep talking about.

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The first miner whose nonce generates a hash that is less than or equivalent to the target hash is awarded credit for completing that block, and is given the spoils of 12.5 BTC. .

In theory you can Attain the Exact Same aim by rolling a 16-sided expire 64 days to Reach random numbers, but why on earth do you want to do that

The screenshot below, taken from the site Blockchain.info, might help you put all of this information together at a glance. You're looking at a summary of everything which happened when block 490163 was mined. The nonce that generated the "winning" hash was 731511405. The target hash is shown on the top.

As you see here, their contribution to the Bitcoin community is they confirmed 1768 transactions for this block. If you truly want to see all 1768 of those transactions for this block, then go to this page and scroll down to the heading"Transactions." .

There's no minimum goal, but there's a maximum goal set by the Bitcoin Protocol. No target can be higher than this number:

Here are some examples of randomized hashes and the criteria for if they will lead to achievement for the miner:

You would need to get a speedy mining rig or, more realistically, join a mining pool--a bunch of miners read the full info here that combine their computing ability and split the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are somewhat comparable to those Powerball clubs whose members purchase lottery tickets en masse and consent to discuss any winnings. A disproportionately high number of blocks are mined by pools rather than by individual miners. .

In other words, it is literally only a numbers game.  You cannot guess the pattern or make a prediction based on previous target hashes. The difficulty level of the most recent block at the time of writing is 2,874,674,234,416, i.e. the chance of any given nonce producing a hash beneath the target is 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--less than 1 in two trillion. .

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The aforementioned website Cryptocompare delivers a very helpful calculator which allows you to plug in numbers like your hash rate, electricity prices etc., to estimate the costs and benefits.

Mining rewards are paid into the miner who discovers a solution to the puzzle , and the likelihood that a participant will be the one to discover the solution is equivalent to the portion of the entire mining energy on the network.  Participants with a small percentage of their mining capability stand a very small chance of discovering the next block on their own.  For instance, a mining card that one could buy for a couple thousand dollars would represent less than 0.001percent of their network's mining power.  With such a small chance at finding the next block, it might be a long time before that miner finds a block, and the problem going up makes things even worse.  The miner may never recoup their investment.  The answer to this problem is mining pools.  Mining pools are operated by third parties and coordinate groups of miners.  By working together in a pool and sharing the payouts amongst participants, miners can find a steady stream of bitcoin starting the day they activate their miner.  Statistics on a few of the mining pools can be seen on Blockchain.info. .

Sure. As mentioned, the easiest way to get Bitcoin is to purchase it image source on an exchange like Coinbase.com. Alternately, you can always leverage the"pickaxe plan". This relies on the old saw that during the 1848 California gold rush, the wise investment was not to pan for gold, but instead to create the pickaxes taken for mining.

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In a crypto context, the pickaxe you can try here equivalent are a company that manufactures equpiment utilized for Bitcoin mining. You can look into companies that make ASICs miners or GPU miners. .