The Ultimate Guide To Bitcoin Mining Efficiency

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

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

In Bitcoin mining terms, that metaphorical undisclosed number in the envelope is called the target hash.

What miners are doing with these tremendous computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing in the 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 also the nonce is the secret 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 awarded the spoils of 12.5 BTC. .

In theory you could achieve the Exact Same goal by rolling a 16-sided die 64 times to arrive at random numbers, but why on earth do you want to do this

The screenshot below, taken by the site Blockchain.info, might help you put all this information together in a glance. You're looking at a list of everything that happened when obstruct #490163 was mined. The nonce that generated the "winning" hash was 731511405. The goal hash is shown on top.

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

There is no minimum goal, but there is a maximum goal determined by the Bitcoin Protocol. No target can be greater than this number:

Here are some examples of randomized hashes and also the standards for whether they will lead to achievement for your miner:

You would need visit homepage to find a fast mining rig or, more realistically, join a mining pool--a bunch of miners that combine their computing power and split the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are somewhat comparable to those Powerball clubs whose members purchase lottery tickets en masse and consent to share any winnings. A disproportionately large 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 below the goal is just 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--less than 1 in two trillion. .

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The aforementioned site Cryptocompare delivers a very helpful calculator that allows you to plug in numbers like your hash speed, electricity costs etc., to gauge the costs and benefits.

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

Sure. As discussed, the easiest way to get Bitcoin is to buy it on an exchange such as Coinbase.com. Alternately, you can consistently leverage the"pickaxe plan". This is based on the old saw that during the 1848 California gold rush, the wise investment was not to pan for gold, but rather to create the pickaxes used for mining.

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