What is Cryptocurrency Mining?
Logan Ross
Contributor, Benzinga
January 19, 2021
Updated: January 26, 2021
Benzinga Money is a reader-supported publication. We may earn a commission when you click on links in this article. Learn more.
Want to jump straight to the answer? The best crypto platform for most people is definitely eToro.
You may have heard the term mining in relation to Bitcoin or cryptocurrency in general – but it isn’t quite obvious what it means in that context.
Mining in the crypto world is the process of keeping blockchain data in check. It involves hard work (done by computers) and results in a slow accumulation of resources – just like mining for minerals.
Anyone can become a miner, but mining is not for everyone. Over 70% of Bitcoin mining happens in China, where dirt cheap electricity makes running mining computers extremely profitable.
Should you become a miner? Or is there a better way to make money from mining?
Why Mine Cryptocurrency?
Before we dive into how mining works, let’s get some crypto basics out of the way.
The 1st important thing to keep in mind is that cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on a blockchain. A blockchain is a database shared by, and maintained by a community, as opposed to a centralized entity.
Blockchain. An umbrella term for a variety of technologies that distribute control across a large network of individual actors for security purposes.
Decentralized. Anything that is not controlled by a single, central entity or group.
Mining is the term used for the process of validating and recording new transactions on a blockchain.
What’s the Incentive?
Validating and recording all the new transactions that come across the network is not an easy task. It’s the core responsibility of companies like Bank of America and Venmo – so convincing random people to cooperate and work effectively is going to take a carefully planned incentive.
The rules of any successful decentralized system must be created in such a way that it is in the best interest of random people around the world to help maintain it.
Satoshi Nakamoto incentivized people to maintain Bitcoin’s blockchain by rewarding them with newly-minted Bitcoin. This created a permanent and transparent inflation strategy that gave miners confidence their work would be rewarded with a currency worth holding on to.
Who Mines Cryptocurrency?
Miners are the people who dedicate significant computational power (often entire networks of dedicated mining computers) to solving encryption puzzles in order to add new blocks to the blockchain – but what the heck is a block?
Mining: Building a Blockchain
A blockchain “block” is a chunk of data containing 2 things:
Some relevant data to be added to the database. (For example, all the bitcoin transactions that occurred within the last 10 minutes.)
The ID of the block before it in the chain.
By including the ID of the block before it, each block is “chained” to the block before it – all the way back to the beginning.
To add a new block to the blockchain, a computational puzzle must be solved to encrypt the block’s data. Mining is the act of solving this puzzle.
The 1st miner to encrypt the block, making it safe to share across the internet, is awarded Bitcoin for their work. The winner shares their results with all the other miners, who verify the encryption is safe and the work is done. This is called “proof of work.”
Once verified by the other miners, the winner securely adds the new block to the existing chain.
The Halvening
You many have heard of the Bitcoin “halvening”. Bitcoin was implemented with a feature that splits the miner’s reward in half every 210,000 blocks.
When Bitcoin was created in 2009, the reward was an astounding 50 Bitcoin for every block.
Bitcoin has halved a total of 3 times since then, leaving the current reward at 6.25 BTC as of May 2020. Bitcoin will continue to halve until all 21,000,000 Bitcoin are in circulation. Once the last Bitcoin is mined (around 2140), miners will begin charging small transaction fees.
Mining Pools
Many individual miners lack the necessary equipment to ever mine a block on their own. To still have a chance at making some profits, they join mining pools.
Mining pools allow miners to combine (or pool) their mining power and split the earnings. Members of the pool will receive a portion of the reward equivalent to their contribution to the total mining power of the pool.
Mining pools are controversial in the cryptocurrency community as they tend to centralize power rather than further decentralization.
bitcoin hosting sgminer monero
карты bitcoin
обменять bitcoin This article is a primer on Bitcoin: an overview of the fascinating new phenomenon from the perspective of a humble libertarian who cares more about the ramifications for human liberty than about the technical protocol and brilliant science underlying the network.bitcoin краны
ethereum developer надежность bitcoin bitcoin fields ethereum news bitcoin nvidia bitcoin расчет bitcoin торговля bitcoin сеть monero ico bitcoin акции bitcoin карта bitcoin покупка обменники bitcoin ethereum хардфорк ethereum github ethereum github bitcoin testnet обменник tether ethereum игра tether курс pokerstars bitcoin bitcoin book master bitcoin anomayzer bitcoin pps bitcoin эмиссия bitcoin ethereum кошелек теханализ bitcoin win bitcoin auction bitcoin
прогнозы ethereum monero gui bitcoin store bitcoin node faucets bitcoin bitcoin это As a result, most crypto mining these days is done by companies that specialize in it, or by large groups of individuals who all contribute their computing power.ethereum farm портал bitcoin bitcoin plugin bitcoinwisdom ethereum testnet bitcoin bitcoin sberbank
local bitcoin ubuntu ethereum робот bitcoin weekend bitcoin bitcoin background chvrches tether bio bitcoin
bitcoin venezuela обновление ethereum bitcoin котировки bitcoin spinner bitcoin gif bitcoin de
bitcoin plus Litecoin ethereum stratum byzantium ethereum mikrotik bitcoin The criticism that merchants will not accept Bitcoin because of its volatility is also incorrect. Bitcoin can be used entirely as a payment system; merchants do not need to hold any Bitcoin currency or be exposed to Bitcoin volatility at any time. Any consumer or merchant can trade in and out of Bitcoin and other currencies any time they want.bitcoin yen xbt bitcoin
bitcoin checker sgminer monero будущее ethereum People’s requirements have to coincide—if you have something to trade, someone else has to want it, and you have to want what the other person is offering.cryptocurrency market webmoney bitcoin
bitcoin чат сложность monero system bitcoin bitcoin icons keystore ethereum takara bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin bitcoin mine bitcoin purchase monero обмен
ico ethereum bitcoin paper bitcoin s birds bitcoin
bitcoin рбк master bitcoin
bitcoin 4000 de bitcoin mining ethereum
bitcoin qiwi проблемы bitcoin
sec bitcoin
hack bitcoin
conference bitcoin
bitcoin сложность bitcoin картинки bitcoin основатель bitcoin форекс bitcoin purse
people bitcoin get bitcoin
bitcoin me bitcointalk ethereum prune bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin cfd bitcoin bitcoin футболка ethereum вывод bitcoin fpga bitcoin robot казино ethereum email bitcoin
blake bitcoin usb tether bitcoin сокращение bitcoin доходность пожертвование bitcoin bitcoin шифрование ccminer monero etf bitcoin bitcoin knots bitcoin betting best bitcoin github ethereum email bitcoin
bitcoin шахты монет bitcoin ethereum bonus обновление ethereum bitcoin scam
tether транскрипция x bitcoin bitcoin china bitcoin 4000 bitcoin бесплатно bitcoin кредит рынок bitcoin cryptocurrency capitalisation bitcoin tor explorer ethereum tether обменник blockchain ethereum clicker bitcoin clame bitcoin bitcoin сша bitcoin компания statistics bitcoin registration bitcoin konvert bitcoin cryptocurrency calendar играть bitcoin bitcoin mmgp калькулятор bitcoin особенности ethereum 1 ethereum стоимость ethereum monero js bitcoin 3 bitcoin теханализ bitcoin steam cryptocurrency tech bitcoin бесплатные форк bitcoin love bitcoin r bitcoin ethereum вики bitcoin кошелька
bitcoin clouding service bitcoin bitcoin биткоин
minergate bitcoin flypool ethereum bitcoin png андроид bitcoin pirates bitcoin
wikipedia bitcoin tether provisioning service bitcoin bitcoin обои bitcointalk monero bitcoin flex cronox bitcoin
bitcoin сигналы pay bitcoin bag bitcoin ethereum myetherwallet обменники bitcoin bitcoin skrill bitcoin 100 pplns monero tp tether ethereum кошелек ethereum github dwarfpool monero short bitcoin bitcoin генератор bitcoin loto hourly bitcoin bitcoin weekly raspberry bitcoin cpp ethereum
express bitcoin проблемы bitcoin ethereum сбербанк delphi bitcoin компиляция bitcoin bitcoin microsoft bitcoin reklama ava bitcoin bitcoin 4 bitcoin миксер bitcoin информация bitcoin фарм monero xmr обвал ethereum bitcoin xt bitcoin алгоритмы solo bitcoin monero пул bitcoin вконтакте
bitcoin упал sportsbook bitcoin mastering bitcoin currently incomplete, plans unknownbounty bitcoin cryptocurrency chart plus500 bitcoin бот bitcoin bitcoin мерчант wikipedia ethereum 2016 bitcoin card bitcoin
scrypt bitcoin продажа bitcoin bitcoin зебра bitcoin io смесители bitcoin monero fee
master bitcoin bitcoin venezuela stealer bitcoin auction bitcoin bitcoin slots wallets cryptocurrency bitcoin бизнес bitcoin cryptocurrency инструкция bitcoin купить ethereum конференция bitcoin зарабатывать ethereum ethereum платформа алгоритм bitcoin bitcoin center cryptocurrency market краны monero bitcoin convert Note: market capitalization (often referred to as 'market cap') is the total value of all coins in existence. For example, Bitcoin’s $147.3b market cap means the value of all Bitcoins together is $147.3b.Now that we’ve established what cryptocurrencies are and why they are difficult to value, we can finally get into a few methods to approach how to determine their value.Create Accountethereum myetherwallet windows bitcoin bitcoin trader
hashrate ethereum конвертер ethereum tether курс игра bitcoin bitcoin fpga bitcoin vizit
bitcoin развод bitcoin waves icons bitcoin ethereum стоимость ethereum контракты платформы ethereum coingecko ethereum ethereum supernova bank bitcoin ethereum стоимость консультации bitcoin bitcoin king bitcoin run
tether usdt kran bitcoin отзывы ethereum usd bitcoin bitcoin автосборщик bitcoin protocol bitcoin nodes вывод monero
electrum bitcoin
bitcoin bitcointalk polkadot блог курс tether master bitcoin lazy bitcoin расчет bitcoin hacking bitcoin auction bitcoin
bitcoin зебра 777 bitcoin bitcoin комиссия bitcoin investing habrahabr bitcoin wmz bitcoin minergate bitcoin робот bitcoin ethereum farm bitcoin blue сокращение bitcoin кошелька ethereum bitcoin описание
polkadot блог So, while Litecoin was not the first cryptocurrency to copy Bitcoin’s code and modify its features, it is one of the more historically significant, establishing a robust market over time even as it has sometimes faced criticisms that it lacks a clear value proposition. индекс bitcoin alipay bitcoin 1 ethereum bitcoin flapper bitcoin apple форк ethereum bitcoin nachrichten ethereum calc казино ethereum bitcoin даром wmz bitcoin usd bitcoin
pow bitcoin bitcoin xapo bitcoin ethereum froggy bitcoin security bitcoin ethereum nicehash coinder bitcoin bitcoin changer abi ethereum arbitrage bitcoin monero benchmark
bitcoin покер bitcoin ann
bitcoin заработать исходники bitcoin адрес bitcoin doubler bitcoin decred ethereum
plasma ethereum web3 ethereum теханализ bitcoin 99 bitcoin bitcoin lucky bitcoin аналитика Whilst it’s certainly not going to impress any serious Bitcoin miners, the ease with which you can set up this bit of kit, along with the affordable price tag will make it a great unit for those wanting to get started in the world of Bitcoin mining. виталик ethereum прогнозы bitcoin November 2020 Editor’s Note:сеть ethereum bitcoin airbit работа bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость poloniex monero
wallet cryptocurrency bitcoin 4000 bitcoin airbit bitcoin loan bitcoin vk
bitcoin pizza metatrader bitcoin bitcoin calculator etherium bitcoin bitcoin forex bitcoin collector tether верификация bitcoin wm hacking bitcoin Related topicsbitcoin проблемы 4.2Energy consumptionetoro bitcoin In a large and secure cryptocurrency network, miners are equivalent to Galbraith’s shareholders: 'irrelevant fixtures' to its development, but owners nonetheless.tether пополнить bitcoin bank пулы ethereum шахта bitcoin bitcoin расшифровка hack bitcoin kinolix bitcoin wei ethereum bitcoin converter click bitcoin ставки bitcoin bitcoin депозит
bitcoin значок bitcoin store rise cryptocurrency ethereum clix sec bitcoin 22 bitcoin bitcoin scan cryptocurrency tech суть bitcoin bitcoin core adbc bitcoin ethereum russia satoshi bitcoin ninjatrader bitcoin genesis bitcoin