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 magazine clame bitcoin bitcoin реклама ethereum алгоритм
froggy bitcoin
bitcoin hardfork bitcoin github txid ethereum фильм bitcoin
котировки bitcoin bitcoin автосерфинг фри bitcoin кошелек ethereum bitcoin 33 maining bitcoin карты bitcoin bitcoin аналоги bitcoin миллионеры
amazon bitcoin bitcoin инвестиции майн bitcoin технология bitcoin
total cryptocurrency bitcoin cudaminer bitcoin block bitcoin markets android tether key bitcoin bitcoin maps форк ethereum bitcoin автомат ethereum mine dwarfpool monero
bitcoin рейтинг usa bitcoin
nonce bitcoin ethereum проблемы space bitcoin bitcoin gambling Unlike informal governance systems, which use a combination of offline coordination and online code modifications to effect changes, on-chain governance systems solely work online. Changes to a blockchain are proposed through code updates. Subsequently, nodes can vote to accept or decline the change. Not all nodes have equal voting power. Nodes with greater holdings of coins have more votes as compared to nodes that have a relatively lesser number of holdings.проверка bitcoin ethereum asic реклама bitcoin bitcoin login bitcoin flapper bitcoin carding goldsday bitcoin bag bitcoin nicehash bitcoin
monero xeon accepts bitcoin bitcoin android bitcoin market water bitcoin bitcoin services xapo bitcoin ethereum описание 0 bitcoin ethereum russia bitcoin laundering bitcoin пирамиды abi ethereum bitcoin конвектор dapps ethereum
difficulty ethereum cz bitcoin bitfenix bitcoin капитализация bitcoin удвоитель bitcoin bitcoin pool ethereum rub
tokens ethereum javascript bitcoin майнинг ethereum bitcoin okpay bitcoin golden claim bitcoin bitcoin conveyor
bitcoin hub blocks bitcoin bitcoin purse bitcoin poloniex ann bitcoin
bitcoin scrypt bitcoin ann cryptocurrency calculator search bitcoin bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin википедия half bitcoin bitcoin script робот bitcoin forex bitcoin lite bitcoin bitcoin froggy bitcoin bow oil bitcoin валюта tether bestchange bitcoin cryptocurrency reddit tx bitcoin config bitcoin работа bitcoin работа bitcoin bitcoin депозит lite bitcoin bitcoin coingecko your bitcoin x2 bitcoin bitcoin google bitcoin crash bitcoin андроид bitcoin торрент bitcoin reindex ethereum swarm bank cryptocurrency ethereum course bitcoin logo why cryptocurrency bitcoin change 2016 bitcoin ethereum mining pool bitcoin bitcoin png bitcoin пополнить gps tether ферма ethereum monero алгоритм bitcoin создать майнить ethereum bitcoin монет KEY TAKEAWAYScarding bitcoin ethereum пулы обменники bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте bitcoin аналоги bitcoin 123 fox bitcoin
bitcoin blog bitcoin phoenix monero курс ethereum coin андроид bitcoin новости bitcoin bitcoin отзывы When you receive your monthly salary, the bank knows how much you are being paid. The list goes on and on, but the point is that third-party intermediaries have lots of information on you. But what gives them the right to know exactly what you’re doing with your hard-earned money? Nothing does! They shouldn’t know.FRAUD!!!ethereum php bitcoin kurs
ethereum сбербанк bitcoin доходность bitcoin world проверка bitcoin flash bitcoin
bitcoin prosto bitcoin playstation bitcoin crypto bitcoin установка bitcoin получить hd7850 monero bitcoin 10 bitcoin rpg алгоритм monero bitcoin options bitcoin сервера
обменники ethereum фермы bitcoin bitcoin аналоги ethereum blockchain lurkmore bitcoin bitcoin flip xapo bitcoin lucky bitcoin bitcoin лучшие bitcoin roll ethereum курс кран bitcoin lite bitcoin надежность bitcoin euro bitcoin bitcoin neteller bitrix bitcoin bitcoin tm registration bitcoin bitcoin автосерфинг nicehash bitcoin математика bitcoin rbc bitcoin mineable cryptocurrency обмен ethereum
cpuminer monero golden bitcoin
trading cryptocurrency ethereum асик supernova ethereum магазины bitcoin bitcoin ads
6000 bitcoin 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. bitcoin coins dog bitcoin bitcoin ocean blake bitcoin remix ethereum dwarfpool monero casper ethereum mikrotik bitcoin
bitcoin luxury bitcoin apk wifi tether
film bitcoin пример bitcoin bitcoin cny cubits bitcoin
4 bitcoin kraken bitcoin карты bitcoin local ethereum ethereum википедия 6000 bitcoin bitcoin capitalization xbt bitcoin bitcoin коллектор
rate bitcoin lottery bitcoin bitcoin 3 bitcoin keywords bitcoin block
пополнить bitcoin bitcoin fpga pay bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость обменник monero lite bitcoin Nothing has ever been able to claim these attributes before, and this is why it’s foolish to compare Bitcoin to any other digital currency from Facebook Credits to World of Warcraft Gold to our most favorite virtual currency, the United States Dollar itself.bitcoin sha256 обменники bitcoin kupit bitcoin bitcoin betting youtube bitcoin ethereum кран
testnet bitcoin bitcoin википедия bitcoin instagram blacktrail bitcoin bitcoin matrix config bitcoin bitcoin xt
bitcoin anonymous компьютер bitcoin ethereum капитализация
bitcoin news p2pool monero bitcoin лохотрон claymore monero
bitcoin сеть bitcoin развод bitcoin цена pizza bitcoin пулы ethereum bitcoin оплатить bitcoin python accepts bitcoin чат bitcoin cpuminer monero visa bitcoin
bitcoin goldmine bitcoin кредит monero hardware bitcoin оборудование bitcoin sell ethereum node bitcoin видеокарта виталий ethereum zcash bitcoin bitcoin nodes golang bitcoin pos ethereum bitcoin delphi bitcoin займ bitcoin вложить bitcoin gambling miner monero bitcoin car биржа bitcoin rush bitcoin qr bitcoin трейдинг bitcoin In 2011, the price started at $0.30 per bitcoin, growing to $5.27 for the year. The price rose to $31.50 on 8 June. Within a month, the price fell to $11.00. The next month it fell to $7.80, and in another month to $4.77.ethereum complexity A fork is when changes are made to an original blockchain to make it better. To make things even more confusing (sorry), there are two types of forks!json bitcoin ethereum заработать bitcoin сборщик бесплатный bitcoin cryptocurrency prices bitcoin mine bitcoin деньги bitcoin protocol кошелек tether
ethereum скачать bitcoin neteller bitcoin валюта bitcoin видео capitalization bitcoin ethereum википедия microsoft ethereum market bitcoin salt bitcoin
bitcoin cards electrum ethereum shot bitcoin bitcoin mempool ethereum block total cryptocurrency bitcoin зебра ethereum клиент There are lots of things to consider when picking Bitcoin mining hardware. It’s important to judge each unit based on their hashing power, their electricity consumption, their ambient temperature, and their initial cost to buy.ethereum chaindata bitcoin site кошелек tether bitcoin testnet курс ethereum ethereum заработать математика bitcoin новости bitcoin forum ethereum bitcoin links kinolix bitcoin
bitcoin usa bitcoin payeer ethereum алгоритм bitcoin buy bitcoin png bitcoin map bitcoin poloniex bitcoin cgminer bitcoin avalon что bitcoin bitcoin tools avalon bitcoin bitcoin пополнить ethereum курсы bitcoin sha256
bitcoin neteller monero rub bitcoin plus
bitcoin red PwC estimates that global money laundering is $1-$2 trillion per year.mt5 bitcoin расчет bitcoin bitcoin protocol