Free Bitcoin Mining Game for Dummies
Insteadthey went with Solution 2. The resulting currency, known as bitcoin cash, increased the blocksize to 8 Mb in order to accelerate the verification procedure to allow a performance of around 2 million transactions per day. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash is valued at $545.00 to Bitcoins $6,328.11.
When you hear about bitcoin mining, you envisage coins being dug from the ground. But bitcoin isnt physical, so why do we call it mining
Because its similar to gold mining in that the bitcoins exist in the protocols design (just as the gold exists underground), but they havent been introduced into the light yet (like the golden hasnt been awakened ). The bitcoin protocol stipulates that 21 million bitcoins will exist at some point.
They get to do so as a reward for creating cubes of validated transactions and including them in the blockchain.
Backtracking a bit, lets talk about nodes. A node is a powerful computer that runs the bitcoin software and helps keep bitcoin running by participating in the relay of information. Anyone can run a node, you just download the bitcoin software (totally free ) and leave a certain port open (the drawback is that it consumes energy and storage space the network at time of writing takes up about 145GB).
One node will send information to a few nodes that it knows, that will relay the information to nodes they know, etc.. That way it ends up getting around the entire network fairly quickly. .
Some nodes are mining nodes (usually known as miners). These set outstanding transactions into cubes and add them to the blockchain. How can they do this By solving a intricate mathematical puzzle that is part of the bitcoin app, and including the answer in the block. The mystery that needs solving is to find a number that, when combined with the data in the block and passed through a hash function, creates a result that is within a certain range.
How do they find this number By guessing at random. The hash function which makes it impossible to forecast what the output will be. So, miners guess the puzzle number and use the hash function to the combination of that guessed number and also the data in the block. The resulting hash has to begin with a pre-established number of zeroes.
Whats more, there may be several nonces that make the desired result, or there might be none (in which case the miners keep trying, but using a different block configuration). .
The first miner to acquire a resulting hash within the desired range announces its success to the rest of the network. The rest of look at this site the miners immediately cease work on that block and begin trying to figure out the mystery number for your next one. As a reward for its own work, the victorious miner has some new bitcoin. .
At the time of writing, the payoff is 12.5 bitcoins, which at time of writing is worth nearly $200,000.
Additionally, the expenses of being a mining node are considerable, not only due to the powerful hardware needed (if you've got a faster processor than your opponents, you have a better chance of finding the correct number before they perform ), but also due to the large amounts of power that running these processors consumes. .
And, the number of bitcoins awarded as a reward for solving the mystery will decrease. Its 12.5 now, however, it pits each four years or so (the next one is expected in 2020-21). The value of bitcoin relative to cost of power and hardware could extend up during the next few decades to partly compensate this reduction, but its not certain. .
The difficulty of the calculation (the necessary number of zeroes at the beginning of the hash string) is corrected frequently, so it takes on average about 10 minutes to process a block.
Why 10 minutes That is the amount of time check here that the bitcoin developers think is necessary for a continuous and diminishing flow of new coins look here until the highest number of 21 million has been attained (expected some time in 2140).