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For example, the SHA-256 of the word BUTTERFLY (source) is 8c62ace4f9ef8ccd08ca6fb992a8524bb7dbdc0530654bd254c9da07a660949a (HASH). This seemingly random string of letters and numbers has three important properties:

Bitcoin mining involves three variables: the block, the mining difficulty and a random number. Heres how it all comes together:

Imagine our block consists of the word BUTTERFLY discussed previously. In reality, the cube would contain a listing of recent, unverified transactions, but lets keep it simple. In order for the block to be solved, bitcoin utilizes a simple test: If the HASH consequence of the block begins with a certain number of zeros, the cube is considered verified.

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For instance, lets say that we have a mining difficulty of simply two, ie, our HASH must begin with two zeros. .

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The problem: BUTTERFLY will return the exact same HASH, and it doesnt begin with two zeros. Thus what we need is your third variable, a random number (called a NONCE). We carry this number, combine it with BUTTERFLY, and HASH again. If it doesnt begin with two zeros, we change the number and try again, and since changing one little number changes the whole HASH outcome, there is no method to predict the number well need to solve this! .

We repeat this procedure over and over until we find a number that, when combined with BUTTERFLY, gives us a HASH that begins with two zeros. That number is your solution to the block. Here are some tries:

This arduous process of randomly trying to find a number that gives the solution is the thing that creates bitcoin mining such a computationally expensive procedure, and as more miners join the network, the tougher it gets. At November 2017, a normal home computer working alone, ie, not an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and not part of a cloud mining network, could take 2.7 million years to mine one block. .

This has led to the growth of ASIC computers built particularly for mining and also to an increase in cloud mining.

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CPU mining. In the first days of bitcoin, mining issue was reduced and not a lot of miners were competing for blocks and rewards. This made it worthwhile to utilize your computers own central processing unit (CPU) to mine bitcoin. However, that approach was soon replaced by GPU mining.

GPU mining. A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a powerful processor whose sole purpose is to help your own computers graphics card in rendering 3D graphics. GPUs are not built for executive decisions (like CPUs) but to be very great labourers, hence GPUs are able to execute over 800 times more instructions in precisely the exact same amount of time as a CPU.

FPGA mining. Next came mining using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These significantly outperformed GPUs and CPUs in the mining procedure as FPGAs are chips which can be programmed to execute certain instructions and only those instructions (instead of being repurposed for mining, such as GPUs were).

ASIC mining. Similar to FPGAs, application-specific integrated circuits are processors designed for a particular purpose, in our situation mining bitcoin, and nothing else. ASICs for bitcoin were introduced in 2013 and, as of November 2017, they're the best processors available for mining bitcoin and they outperform FPGAs in power consumption. .

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Mining pools. To offset the problem of mining a block, miners started organising in pools or cloud mining networks. Whenever a miner in one of these pools solves a block, the reward is shared with everyone in the pool in a ratio representative of just how much work you put into the pool (even though you personally never solved the mystery ). .

Cloud mining. Clouds provide prospective miners the ability to purchase mining rigs in a remote data centre location. There are many obvious advantages, the most obvious beingno electricity expenses, no extra heat and nothing to market when you decide to hang up your digital pickaxe.

Once miners receive bitcoin, they are given a digital key to the bitcoin addresses. You can use this digital key to gain access and confirm or approve transactions.

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Desktop wallets. Software such as Bitcoin Core lets you send and save bitcoin addresses and connects to the network to monitor transactions.

Online wallets. Bitcoin keys are saved online by exchange platforms such as Coinbase or Circle and can be accessed from anywhere.

Mobile wallets. Programs like Blockchain store see this page and encrypt your own bitcoin keys so that you can make payments using your mobile device.

Paper wallets. Some websites offer paper wallet services, generating a bit of paper using two QR codes on it. One code is your public address at which you get bitcoin and the other one is your personal address you can use for spending.