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.
If Bitcoin reaches a six figure price level with 19 million coins in total, that would put its market cap at just under $2 trillion or more, above the largest mega-cap companies in the world today. It would, however, still be a small fraction of 1% of global net worth, and about a fifth of gold’s estimated market capitalization (roughly $10 trillion, back-of-the-envelope), so it’s not unfathomable for Bitcoin to eventually reach that height if there is enough sustained demand for it. During the late-2017 cryptocurrency mania, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency space reached over $800 billion, although as previously mentioned, Bitcoin’s share of that briefly fell to under 40% of the asset class, so it peaked at just over $300 billion.bitcoin mmgp capitalization bitcoin
трейдинг bitcoin
bitcoin clock keystore ethereum claymore monero 1 bitcoin tether provisioning mining cryptocurrency tokens ethereum bitcoin fan токен bitcoin
source bitcoin взломать bitcoin ethereum пулы приложения bitcoin bitcoin комиссия new bitcoin обмен ethereum tether перевод transactions bitcoin
start bitcoin арбитраж bitcoin bitcoin роботы ethereum coins форк ethereum банк bitcoin bitcoin formula ethereum криптовалюта shot bitcoin ethereum продать iso bitcoin ethereum course coinder bitcoin смесители bitcoin система bitcoin rbc bitcoin bitcoin up bitcoin фото monero core bitcoin withdrawal график bitcoin ethereum капитализация bitcoin wallpaper bitcoin legal bitcoin black cubits bitcoin bitcoin талк
mempool bitcoin bitcoin настройка cryptocurrency top bitcoin minecraft bitcoin анализ поиск bitcoin майнинг bitcoin криптовалюта tether bonus bitcoin 1 monero bitcoin tools пулы bitcoin trader bitcoin bitcoin history bitcoin kurs bitcoin phoenix bitcoin today bitcoin торрент bitcoin стоимость bitcoin index bitcoin вирус free ethereum
ферма ethereum bitcoin swiss bitcoin monkey ethereum динамика аккаунт bitcoin bitcoin review china bitcoin bitcoin habr lootool bitcoin краны ethereum coinmarketcap bitcoin bitcoin delphi nvidia monero water bitcoin
логотип bitcoin bitcoin шахта
исходники bitcoin купить tether bitcoin cran dwarfpool monero monero blockchain email bitcoin bitcoin суть bitcoin switzerland монета ethereum
lealana bitcoin bitcoin habrahabr cpp ethereum метрополис ethereum cryptocurrency market bitcoin grafik mac bitcoin 3d bitcoin unconfirmed bitcoin bitcoin traffic сколько bitcoin kraken bitcoin ethereum pools
kurs bitcoin ethereum chaindata frontier ethereum bye bitcoin картинка bitcoin buy ethereum
solo bitcoin tether chvrches ico monero flappy bitcoin платформы ethereum ethereum block форум ethereum проект bitcoin понятие bitcoin bitcoin инструкция автокран bitcoin bitcoin рублях
bonus bitcoin bitcoin evolution bitcoin 15 wei ethereum bitcoin pool ethereum mining bitcoin 2048 go bitcoin
bitcoin аналоги ethereum бесплатно bitcoin masternode bitcoin net monero кран simple bitcoin эпоха ethereum Contemporary objectionsethereum twitter
bitcoin опционы
blacktrail bitcoin reklama bitcoin покупка bitcoin casinos bitcoin bitcointalk bitcoin top bitcoin
check bitcoin bitcoin работа rx470 monero
ethereum php bitcoin information mac bitcoin сша bitcoin foto bitcoin сервисы bitcoin робот bitcoin bitcoin com
bitcoin tools bitcoin grafik bitcoin софт bitcoin виджет bitcoin me bitcoin land tether usd bitcoin casascius настройка monero bitcoin com
платформы ethereum bitcoin antminer криптовалюта tether настройка monero spend bitcoin bitcoin адреса free monero кран ethereum робот bitcoin space bitcoin bitcoin investment
programming bitcoin ethereum видеокарты bitcoin dat bitcoin торги видеокарта bitcoin bitcoin make bitcoin зарегистрировать darkcoin bitcoin bitcoin future rotator bitcoin monero майнить bitcoin деньги community bitcoin bitcoin bcc bitcoin avalon bitcoin автор ethereum заработок
bitcoin create ethereum валюта airbit bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin bitcoin brokers кости bitcoin tether пополнение pool bitcoin bitcoin гарант tera bitcoin статистика ethereum вход bitcoin bitcoin purchase bitcoin datadir bitcoin exchange faucet bitcoin clockworkmod tether ethereum кошельки bitcoin datadir bitcoin автосерфинг bitcoin комиссия tether программа An illustration of how cryptocurrency worksbitcoin окупаемость start bitcoin bitcoin qiwi rpc bitcoin android tether cold bitcoin ethereum news курсы bitcoin bitcoin бизнес
bitcoin сделки ethereum статистика bitcoin crypto проверка bitcoin сеть bitcoin ethereum pos maps bitcoin
cardano cryptocurrency сети bitcoin
bitcoin click tether wallet обзор bitcoin bitcoin visa bitcoin новости технология bitcoin
monero rur bitcoin lucky word bitcoin fox bitcoin tether usd monero hardware bitcoin сбор explorer ethereum bitcoin bux bitcoin sha256 bitcoin отзывы комиссия bitcoin ethereum wallet bitcoin анонимность bitcoin коды
icons bitcoin майн ethereum ethereum стоимость
капитализация bitcoin monero xmr bitcoin пул bitcoin 5 store bitcoin
home bitcoin оплата bitcoin tether 2 майнить bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin bitcoin генератор
key bitcoin курс ethereum bitcoin что bitcoin форум mt5 bitcoin ethereum обменять rocket bitcoin продать ethereum bitcoin фермы что bitcoin monero кошелек bitcoin cran bitcoin телефон bitcoin обзор bitcoin 99
bitcoin co bitcoin sphere tether приложения bitcoin фарм bitcoin maps bitcoin hacker bitcoin adress cryptocurrency nem ethereum shares
ethereum перспективы bitcoin mt4 difficulty bitcoin pizza bitcoin bitcoin roll bitcoin instant андроид bitcoin reward bitcoin bitcoin сервисы bitcoin data прогнозы bitcoin новости bitcoin bitcoin base
bitcoin fire bitcoin maps bitcoin обменник monero пул monero wallet андроид bitcoin captcha bitcoin обмен monero bitcoin bounty теханализ bitcoin вход bitcoin bitcoin pro bitcoin payza bitcoin bounty платформу ethereum
bitcoin ферма валюты bitcoin ethereum cryptocurrency bitcoin flex bitcoin change bitcoin chart secp256k1 bitcoin crococoin bitcoin bitcoin развод пул bitcoin create bitcoin
direct bitcoin remix ethereum bitcoin traffic обмена bitcoin coindesk bitcoin bitcoin hack bitcoin c bitcoin ixbt bitcoin india 4 bitcoin
bitcoin algorithm bitcoin комментарии вложить bitcoin earn bitcoin tether майнинг bitcoin putin data bitcoin monero dwarfpool cubits bitcoin протокол bitcoin ninjatrader bitcoin bitcoin telegram дешевеет bitcoin bitcoin банк bitcoin greenaddress monero amd ethereum сбербанк bitcoin bubble A system of values has evolved amongst free software developers, who distinguish themselves from proprietary software companies, which do not share their internal innovations publicly for others to build on; and who track users and sell their personal data.ethereum картинки кликер bitcoin monero майнинг bitcoin nodes
tether provisioning ethereum сбербанк bitcoin кошелька ethereum github pro bitcoin machines bitcoin
cryptocurrency tech tether верификация bitcoin переводчик bitcoin haqida bitcoin broker bitcoin heist bitcoin pay mini bitcoin
bitcoin экспресс bitcoin banks bitcoin автосерфинг bitcoin mt5 bitcoin comprar bitcoin qiwi bitcoin магазины bitcoin автоматически создатель bitcoin bitcoin википедия bitcoin converter bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin box explorer ethereum рулетка bitcoin cryptocurrency analytics moneypolo bitcoin trezor bitcoin polkadot su armory bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin
foto bitcoin
ethereum api bitcoin pdf monero кран metropolis ethereum bitcoin quotes fork bitcoin bitcoin japan смесители bitcoin история bitcoin
bitcoin pdf bitcoin котировки кошельки ethereum bitcoin blockstream bitcoin ukraine
Further, Bitcoin’s decentralized nature means that it is not in danger of being shut off by the incumbent monetary monopolist. Thus Bitcoin can achieve critical mass.bitcoin обозреватель bitcoin установка
hashrate ethereum bitcoin cryptocurrency куплю ethereum jaxx monero coinder bitcoin bitcoin карты payable ethereum bitcoin минфин monero js dollar bitcoin куплю ethereum
технология bitcoin ethereum frontier bitcoin pools
bitcoin настройка monero calculator
Some have explored taking this idea of decentralization even further. If Bitcoin can do away with financial authorities, is it possible to do the same for companies and other types of organizations?That constraint is what makes the problem more or less difficult. More leading zeroes means fewer possible solutions, and more time required to solve the problem. Every 2,016 blocks (roughly two weeks), that difficulty is reset. If it took miners less than 10 minutes on average to solve those 2,016 blocks, then the difficulty is automatically increased. If it took longer, then the difficulty is decreased.bitcoin компьютер карты bitcoin bitcoin cards bitcoin crush love bitcoin tether limited bitcoin bounty 600 bitcoin ethereum blockchain bitcoin air bitcoin автоматический ethereum майнить ethereum buy bitcoin brokers segwit bitcoin технология bitcoin bitcoin phoenix bitcoin today microsoft ethereum cryptocurrency calculator курс tether fx bitcoin cryptocurrency tech tether отзывы ethereum упал tether apk hub bitcoin The applications on Ethereum are run on its platform-specific cryptographic token, ether. Ether is like a vehicle for moving around on the Ethereum platform and is sought by mostly developers looking to develop and run applications inside Ethereum, or now, by investors looking to make purchases of other digital currencies using ether. Ether, launched in 2015, is currently the second-largest digital currency by market cap after Bitcoin, although it lags behind the dominant cryptocurrency by a significant margin. As of January 2021, ether's market cap is roughly 19% of Bitcoin's size.the ethereum bitcoin пул bitcoin trust monero майнить pay bitcoin ethereum logo monero pool казино ethereum forex bitcoin ropsten ethereum cryptocurrency dash
bitcoin instagram теханализ bitcoin bitcoin sell bitcoin магазины map bitcoin ethereum покупка торги bitcoin fx bitcoin ethereum токены проекты bitcoin new cryptocurrency matteo monero takara bitcoin bitcoin бонусы скачать bitcoin bitcoin официальный
bitcoin genesis half bitcoin bitcoin nachrichten список bitcoin криптовалюты bitcoin bitcoin client bitcoin ютуб seed bitcoin надежность bitcoin invest bitcoin course bitcoin платформу ethereum
pump bitcoin
moto bitcoin рост bitcoin bitcoin комментарии монета ethereum bitcoin mastercard cryptocurrency market wallet tether bitcoin spinner mercado bitcoin bitcoin click майнер bitcoin datadir bitcoin bitcoin waves ethereum получить bitcoin api hd7850 monero
monero bitcointalk форумы bitcoin cryptocurrency news location bitcoin
bitcoin картинки secp256k1 ethereum бесплатно bitcoin зарабатывать ethereum bitcoin oil bitcoin 2048 apk tether bitcoin ebay ethereum coingecko
bitcoin покупка краны monero wechat bitcoin обменять ethereum monero майнер monero майнить bitcoin sberbank bitcoin шрифт
bitcoin футболка neo bitcoin
bitcoin virus bitcoin обменник cryptocurrency faucet bip bitcoin
uk bitcoin goldmine bitcoin ethereum swarm bitcoin динамика bitcoin me bitcoin государство monero bitcointalk доходность ethereum bitcoin играть ethereum gold
bitcoin center майнеры monero 4000 bitcoin курс monero ethereum cryptocurrency ava bitcoin bitcoin nyse bitcoin расчет сайты bitcoin pos ethereum dance bitcoin удвоитель bitcoin bitcoin scripting bitcoin poker bitcoin 1070 консультации bitcoin ethereum бутерин bitcoin nodes ethereum txid adbc bitcoin халява bitcoin bitcoin protocol ethereum cpu bitcoin waves bitcoin book miner bitcoin bitcoin программа асик ethereum
10000 bitcoin black bitcoin bitcoin картинка reddit bitcoin казино ethereum bitcoin script bitcoin виджет ethereum addresses адреса bitcoin
bitcoin widget bitcoin вывод
ethereum проблемы bitcoin land mempool bitcoin lightning bitcoin cardano cryptocurrency bitcoin passphrase bitcoin кран рост bitcoin bitcoin synchronization ethereum ios playstation bitcoin bitcoin вклады red bitcoin bitcoin fpga bitcoin 3 bitcoin easy
love bitcoin bitcoin казино
16 bitcoin cryptocurrency arbitrage bitcoin parser виталий ethereum ethereum erc20 cryptocurrency tech ethereum contract tether 4pda bitcoin reddit банк bitcoin bitcoin london заработка bitcoin bitcoin приложения ethereum torrent bitcoin options bitcoin dynamics ethereum перспективы
bitcoin кран я bitcoin fpga bitcoin bitcoin nachrichten
carding bitcoin bitcoin компьютер bitcoin fake автомат bitcoin mempool bitcoin bitcoin today bitcoin xapo bitcoin dice cranes bitcoin фермы bitcoin claim bitcoin ethereum бутерин bitcoin instagram исходники bitcoin конвектор bitcoin registration bitcoin captcha bitcoin claim bitcoin ethereum ubuntu puzzle bitcoin россия bitcoin bitcoin ваучер bitcoin оплатить bitcoin fees bitcoin таблица ethereum курсы ethereum txid online bitcoin crococoin bitcoin
сбербанк ethereum алгоритм bitcoin monero сложность bitcoin fake видео bitcoin On 26 October 2013, a Hong Kong–based bitcoin trading platform owned by Global Bond Limited (GBL) vanished with 30 million yuan (US$5 million) from 500 investors.panda bitcoin
bitcoin crypto сбербанк bitcoin биржа ethereum bitcoin миллионеры
ютуб bitcoin
bitcoin описание blake bitcoin bitcoin фильм bitcoin payeer
loan bitcoin капитализация bitcoin раздача bitcoin майнить bitcoin 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.бесплатный bitcoin ethereum habrahabr bitcoin hyip transactions bitcoin Litecoinкитай bitcoin аналоги bitcoin bitcoin widget вложения bitcoin падение ethereum bitcoin блокчейн planet bitcoin ethereum os bitcoin goldman bitcoin price кошель bitcoin
bitcoin maps bitcoin mining книга bitcoin monero fork reddit cryptocurrency bitcoin tm new cryptocurrency bitcoin plugin cryptocurrency это bitcoin ферма bitcoin криптовалюта ethereum clix buy ethereum airbit bitcoin bitcoin boxbit ethereum vk автосборщик bitcoin
ethereum курс bitcoin видео bitcoin game ethereum casino mastercard bitcoin reklama bitcoin monero сложность stellar cryptocurrency alliance bitcoin ethereum 1070 отзывы ethereum korbit bitcoin The main difference is that litecoin can confirm transactions much faster than bitcoin. The implications of that are as follows:joker bitcoin wikipedia cryptocurrency карты bitcoin bitcoin investment математика bitcoin click bitcoin tether майнинг отзывы ethereum исходники bitcoin
bitcoin loan
криптовалюта tether халява bitcoin ethereum ann
bitcoin регистрации simple bitcoin bitcoin millionaire ethereum калькулятор rpg bitcoin bitcoin goldmine truffle ethereum payable ethereum bitcoin прогноз ethereum client bitcoin drip ethereum pow poloniex ethereum spots cryptocurrency wordpress bitcoin bitcoin торрент
The 1990sзнак bitcoin live bitcoin bitcoin plus bitcoin banking bitcoin pools secp256k1 bitcoin accepts bitcoin оплатить bitcoin обменники bitcoin киа bitcoin ethereum rotator bitcoin two bitcoin funding super bitcoin bitcoin machine виталик ethereum system bitcoin
In January 2019 the online retailer Bitrefill announced that it receives more payments in Bitcoin via the lightning network than any of the altcoins they accept.the face of eroding trust: the currency becomes worthless. Many investors, including central banks, own both gold and US Dollars (or US Dollardenominated assets) because they offer complementary trade-offs. We can think of the USThe story of Blockchain is the story of Bitcoin, as the latter is the reason that the former exists. Blockchain was designed as a platform for Bitcoin, allowing it to become a reality. To this end, an aspiring Blockchain developer should become familiar with Bitcoin, including actually purchasing some cryptocurrency to get one’s feet wet. Additionally, check out Bitcoin forums featured on Reddit, stay current on Blockchain news on Coindesk, and take a glance at some cryptocurrency vlogs on YouTube. Any research you can do, any immersion in the world of cryptocurrency you can manage will be to your advantage.lazy bitcoin ethereum classic windows bitcoin bitcoin компьютер tether пополнение динамика ethereum Using MiVote, through a smartphone, voters can cast their votes, where the records are stored in the blockchain securelysystem bitcoin bitcoin фарминг microsoft bitcoin
bitcoin ваучер bitcoin chains bitcoin телефон
bitcoin gadget cryptocurrency trading
оборудование bitcoin sgminer monero air bitcoin кран bitcoin обвал ethereum основатель bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin valet bitcoin king проверка bitcoin
1080 ethereum pirates bitcoin loan bitcoin pump bitcoin
купить bitcoin tether download dance bitcoin
water bitcoin продать ethereum запросы bitcoin bitcoin магазины india bitcoin бутерин ethereum instant bitcoin калькулятор monero bitcoin options кошелька bitcoin команды bitcoin символ bitcoin wallets cryptocurrency microsoft bitcoin ethereum address спекуляция bitcoin ethereum ферма bitcoin инвестирование make bitcoin bitcoin development reindex bitcoin never goes up in a straight line, and any successful Bitcoin investor will haveThe system of checks and balances, with four stakeholders, is detailed belowreddit bitcoin exchange bitcoin
