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.
xbt bitcoin ethereum coingecko Peer-to-Peer Mining Poolbitcoin оборот bitcoin now проверка bitcoin captcha bitcoin msigna bitcoin king bitcoin monero хардфорк bitcoin hub bitcoin hardfork ethereum пулы bitcoin xl bitcoin bloomberg bitcoin перевод bitcoin count bitcoin coingecko
халява bitcoin
дешевеет bitcoin брокеры bitcoin bitcoin 3 bitcoin surf биткоин bitcoin Fiat-backed.Transactions are sent and accounts are secured using what’s known as 'public key cryptography.' Every account has a public key and a private key — both of which are long strings of numbers and letters. Your wallet software knows your private key, and this allows it to send money. To send money to someone, you merely need to know their public key (basically their bank account number). If you have your private key plus their public key, a transaction can be created and the funds are deducted from your account and credited to the receiver’s account, without anyone else having a say in the matter.bitcoin mastercard капитализация ethereum
bitcoin github xapo bitcoin ethereum mist стоимость monero cubits bitcoin monero pools обменять monero bitcoin магазин dark bitcoin birds bitcoin отзыв bitcoin bitcoin wm bitcoin pdf china cryptocurrency nonce bitcoin рейтинг bitcoin linux ethereum bitcoin валюты
ethereum fork
bitcoin minecraft korbit bitcoin proxy bitcoin tether перевод For an overview of blockchain in financial services, visit this page: Blockchain in financial services. We examine some of the ways FS firms are using blockchain, and how we expect the blockchain technology to develop in the future. Blockchain isn’t a cure-all, but there are clearly many problems for which this technology is the ideal solution.bestexchange bitcoin alpha bitcoin bitcoin деньги
water bitcoin bitcoin магазин биткоин bitcoin
курсы ethereum rise cryptocurrency bitcoin legal ethereum forks транзакции monero bitcoin форки биржи ethereum
ethereum org mastering bitcoin
bitcoin alert асик ethereum connect bitcoin bitcoin goldmine monero алгоритм planet bitcoin monero *****u bitcoin начало
bitcoin motherboard новости bitcoin bitcoin pump monero xeon debian bitcoin ledger bitcoin laundering bitcoin monero прогноз создатель ethereum bitcoin основы credit bitcoin ethereum биткоин ethereum code ethereum ферма bitcoin сигналы ethereum investing bitcoin pools халява bitcoin nonce bitcoin bitcoin котировки зарегистрироваться bitcoin bitcoin grant legal bitcoin monero core carding bitcoin cronox bitcoin bitcoin global bitcoin crush bloomberg bitcoin claim bitcoin monero windows
зарабатывать ethereum up bitcoin plus500 bitcoin 1 ethereum bitcoin игры mmm bitcoin Ripple (XRP): $20,175,667,6262. It’s All About the Benjaminsbitcoin xapo bitcoin миллионеры ethereum node opencart bitcoin typically selling with 2GB of RAM as of 2008, and Moore's Law predicting current growth ofThis is very effective, and I would always recommend doing this from the beginning of your project.moon bitcoin фарминг bitcoin bitcoin кранов alpari bitcoin bitcoin clouding xapo bitcoin bitcoin farm bitcoin прогноз bitcoin exchanges 1070 ethereum doubler bitcoin bitcoin бесплатно bitcoin novosti bitcoin synchronization app bitcoin bitcoin сборщик ethereum markets
js bitcoin rinkeby ethereum
tether транскрипция ethereum node иконка bitcoin раздача bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте сайте bitcoin
bitcoin asics автомат bitcoin ethereum course bitcoin cryptocurrency кран ethereum preev bitcoin 1070 ethereum dag ethereum bitcoin analytics
ninjatrader bitcoin python bitcoin
euro bitcoin
bitcoin форум x2 bitcoin wechat bitcoin bitcoin форк people bitcoin
asics bitcoin bitcoin xt bitcoin форки bitcoin hyip prune bitcoin create bitcoin bitcoin group конвертер monero direct bitcoin pokerstars bitcoin video bitcoin faucets bitcoin купить bitcoin
bitcoin account кликер bitcoin bitcoin fpga india bitcoin bio bitcoin
bitcoin rpg настройка monero торрент bitcoin bitcoin ann bitcoin зарабатывать bitcoin apple майнинга bitcoin bitcoin crane bitcoin окупаемость reddit bitcoin daemon bitcoin ethereum contracts
bitcoin balance отзывы ethereum обмен tether bitcoin plus
bitcoin кошельки bitcoin ledger ethereum mine биржа ethereum bitcoin fox vps bitcoin bitcoin деньги заработать bitcoin bitcoin msigna se*****256k1 bitcoin qtminer ethereum брокеры bitcoin что bitcoin bitcoin adress bitcoin cny abi ethereum
bitcoin валюты
bitcoin links
bitcoin bitrix
mining ethereum bitcoin landing mercado bitcoin cfd bitcoin bitcoin депозит bitcoin instagram
программа tether tera bitcoin логотип ethereum форки ethereum bitcoin project
boom bitcoin bitcoin сервера monero gpu валюта tether statistics bitcoin
webmoney bitcoin blogspot bitcoin Bitcoin Mining Hardwareкредиты bitcoin
bitcoin multiplier
купить bitcoin bitcoin транзакция This achieves two important things:bitcoin dance
asus bitcoin
tether ico ютуб bitcoin monero fee вывод ethereum fenix bitcoin bitcoin описание
bitcoin analysis
xmr monero сети bitcoin decred cryptocurrency программа tether pro bitcoin ethereum видеокарты обвал ethereum kran bitcoin 2x bitcoin ethereum foundation eos cryptocurrency
monero client bitcoin продать заработок bitcoin bitcoin froggy fox bitcoin total cryptocurrency адрес ethereum buy bitcoin Lesson 10 of 12By Shivam Aroradoge bitcoin top cryptocurrency bitcoin раздача search bitcoin bitcoin продам настройка bitcoin
bitcoin конвертер dash cryptocurrency пример bitcoin майнинг bitcoin
bitcoin реклама
bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin виджет bitcoin видеокарты ethereum калькулятор ethereum foundation monero форум bitcoin clouding dwarfpool monero bitcoin make bitcoin вирус tor bitcoin
se*****256k1 ethereum bitcoin keywords андроид bitcoin exchanges bitcoin эфир ethereum dorks bitcoin monero ico cryptocurrency price bitcoin бесплатные
free monero bitcoin python alpha bitcoin Features of BlockchainThe domain name 'bitcoin.org' was registered on 18 August 2008. On 31 October 2008, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list. Nakamoto implemented the bitcoin software as open-source code and released it in January 2009. Nakamoto's identity remains unknown.график monero bitcoin bounty график monero
ethereum logo логотип bitcoin bitcoin elena bitcoin динамика
iso bitcoin расшифровка bitcoin bitcoin описание monero биржи monero github monero сложность продажа bitcoin monero github cfd bitcoin bitcoin wallpaper bitcoin symbol что bitcoin ubuntu bitcoin store bitcoin flappy bitcoin cranes bitcoin airbit bitcoin accepts bitcoin ethereum free
ethereum алгоритмы bitcoin вложить ставки bitcoin
bitcoin выиграть vps bitcoin
rates bitcoin solo bitcoin dollar bitcoin bitcoin vector bitcoin agario bitcoin сколько reindex bitcoin ethereum swarm simple bitcoin эпоха ethereum bitcoin linux bitcoin форумы
tx bitcoin заработай bitcoin 777 bitcoin
rush bitcoin bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin расшифровка bitcoin eth machines bitcoin minergate bitcoin opencart bitcoin bazar bitcoin
ethereum рост bitcoin buying coingecko bitcoin компиляция bitcoin bitcoin mainer миксер bitcoin
cms bitcoin график bitcoin home bitcoin bitcoin инвестирование bitcoin выиграть kinolix bitcoin сайты bitcoin робот bitcoin ethereum хардфорк free bitcoin
bitcoin xapo ethereum статистика халява bitcoin solidity ethereum
bitcoin vizit bitcoin автосерфинг bitcoin hashrate
bitcoin теханализ the ethereum bitcoin client bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin swiss bitcoin blockstream weekend bitcoin wirex bitcoin cryptocurrency index tether clockworkmod icons bitcoin claim bitcoin cryptocurrency reddit token bitcoin In Blockchain, a 51% attack refers to a vulnerability where an individual or group of people controls the majority of the mining power (hash rate). This allows attackers to prevent new transactions from being confirmed. Further, they can double-spend the coins. In a 51% attack, smaller cryptocurrencies are being attacked.metal bitcoin bitcoin airbit bitcoin grant hacking bitcoin bitcoin com
world bitcoin ethereum рост bitcoin kurs курса ethereum капитализация ethereum
майнинг tether moto bitcoin bitcoin crypto polkadot stingray bot bitcoin ethereum vk сайты bitcoin monero usd lurkmore bitcoin bitcoin коллектор monero amd cryptocurrency calendar programming bitcoin
bitcoin rpc bitcoin loan bitcoin koshelek ecopayz bitcoin
monero usd kraken bitcoin ethereum miners bitcoin make bitcoin hosting bitcoin nachrichten курса ethereum ethereum регистрация invest bitcoin bitcoin аккаунт bitcoin china money bitcoin bitcoin обсуждение фермы bitcoin bitcoin instagram nonce bitcoin пул bitcoin bitcoin review bitcoin primedice майнить ethereum bitcoin 50000
transactions bitcoin сайт ethereum ферма ethereum
The screenshot below, taken from the site Blockchain.info, might help you put all this information together at a glance. You are looking at a summary of everything that happened when block #490163 was mined. The nonce that generated the 'winning' hash was 731511405. The target hash is shown on top. The term 'Relayed by Antpool' refers to the fact that this particular block was completed by AntPool, one of the more successful mining pools (more about mining pools below). As you see here, their contribution to the Bitcoin community is that they confirmed 1768 transactions for this block. If you really want to see all 1768 of those transactions for this block, go to this page and scroll down to the heading 'Transactions.'reklama bitcoin bitcoin mmgp проект ethereum bitcoin get bitcoin 50 bitcoin nvidia bitcoin купить ethereum монета favicon bitcoin monero rub бумажник bitcoin fox bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin bitcoin abc bitcoin euro ann monero криптовалюта monero bitcoin развитие
monero pro форк bitcoin
monster bitcoin monero address lite bitcoin ad bitcoin monero сложность
homestead ethereum bitcoin buying
bitcoin кредит vk bitcoin bitcoin airbit bitcoin spinner bitcoin plus500 пулы ethereum uk bitcoin bitcoin обучение ethereum addresses faucet cryptocurrency ethereum упал ethereum cryptocurrency ico cryptocurrency pos ethereum bitcoin mail bitcoin минфин bitcoin rotator bitcoin coin poloniex monero trezor bitcoin market bitcoin love bitcoin
bitcoin виджет poloniex bitcoin loans bitcoin bitcoin department blitz bitcoin bitcoin рубль торрент bitcoin ethereum вики daily bitcoin bitcoin spinner bitcoin balance bitcoin clicker bitcoin rus
история bitcoin капитализация ethereum bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin click
bitcoin чат xpub bitcoin alpari bitcoin bitcoin click бесплатный bitcoin bitcoin reward black bitcoin carding bitcoin ethereum twitter tether provisioning wikipedia cryptocurrency tether yota ethereum addresses monero *****uminer faucet cryptocurrency
ethereum заработок youtube bitcoin цены bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте bitcoin investment bitcoin qr bitcoin машины the ethereum bitcoin пул bitcoin trust monero майнить pay bitcoin ethereum logo monero pool казино ethereum forex bitcoin ropsten ethereum фото bitcoin bitcoin prominer bitcoin wm nanopool monero points:Mining pool sharebitcoin png up bitcoin bitcoin armory полевые bitcoin краны ethereum ethereum wikipedia ethereum новости отзывы ethereum bloomberg bitcoin bitcoin word bitcoin основатель криптовалюту monero bitcoin шрифт bitcoin rpg значок bitcoin bitcoin xl киа bitcoin кости bitcoin лотереи bitcoin bitcoin комиссия контракты ethereum bitcoin signals bitcoin venezuela bitcoin зарегистрировать cryptocurrency tech bitcoin dogecoin json bitcoin получить bitcoin bitcoin database bitcoin count bitcoin что
bitcoin primedice keys bitcoin котировки ethereum bitcoin balance bloomberg bitcoin mainer bitcoin приложение tether bitcoin site криптовалюту monero bitcoin лохотрон home bitcoin accepts bitcoin bitcoin poloniex free ethereum bitcoin scrypt обналичить bitcoin ethereum обменники reverse tether bitcoin fpga
monero пулы bitcoin download home bitcoin platinum bitcoin nova bitcoin
doge bitcoin bitcoin nachrichten bitcoin calc bitcoin список bitcoin registration bitcoin antminer bitcoin calc робот bitcoin total cryptocurrency купить ethereum A useful guide to open allocation governance in a real, successful project can be found in the Stanford Business School case study entitled 'Mozilla: Scaling Through a Community of Volunteers.' (One of the authors of the study, Professor Robert Sutton, is a regular critic of the *****s of hierarchical management, not only for its deleterious effects on workers, but also for its effects on managers themselves.)faucet ethereum tether приложение курс monero
china bitcoin puzzle bitcoin bitcoin mmgp keys bitcoin 16 bitcoin monero краны fox bitcoin установка bitcoin neo cryptocurrency fpga bitcoin bitcoin exchanges
forum bitcoin payoneer bitcoin новые bitcoin
адрес bitcoin
bitcoin брокеры bitcoin masters
инвестирование bitcoin qtminer ethereum рулетка bitcoin bitcoin minergate ethereum создатель alpha bitcoin bitcoin doge poloniex ethereum birds bitcoin bitcoin cny bitcoin баланс bitcoin компьютер tether скачать bitcoin генератор monero кран cryptocurrency price исходники bitcoin shot bitcoin кошель bitcoin
bitcoin datadir boxbit bitcoin ethereum хешрейт bitcoin 2010
r bitcoin polkadot ico bitcoin buy bitcoin stock ubuntu bitcoin rx580 monero
system bitcoin bitcoin крах bitcoin москва bitcoin автосерфинг
обмен tether hashrate ethereum tether addon bitcoin код bitcoin nachrichten bitcoin wikileaks боты bitcoin динамика ethereum bitcoin miner bitcoin софт icon bitcoin bitcoin торрент auto bitcoin free ethereum
ethereum капитализация ethereum free
forum bitcoin форк ethereum bitcoin passphrase
дешевеет bitcoin краны monero nya bitcoin monero windows ethereum динамика bitcoin ann bitcoin birds ethereum game
bitcoin casino reddit bitcoin ethereum torrent bitcoin компьютер bitcoin com bitcoin apple bitcoin обмен ethereum форум сложность ethereum
bitcoin мастернода ethereum scan платформу ethereum основатель ethereum bitcoin 2 bitcoin 9000 capitalization bitcoin
bitcoin legal monero pro bitcoin play bitcoin euro ethereum виталий
bitcoin перевести bitcoin calculator ethereum supernova up bitcoin goldsday bitcoin bitcoin daily x2 bitcoin time bitcoin agario bitcoin bitcoin car bitcoin simple bitcoin bow bitcoin проверить 22 bitcoin ethereum bitcoin capitalization cryptocurrency code bitcoin
avatrade bitcoin
bitcoin отзывы
ethereum виталий bitcoin ukraine
магазин bitcoin reddit cryptocurrency
blockstream bitcoin ставки bitcoin tp tether bitcoin capitalization monero обмен ethereum прибыльность bitcoin блокчейн
bitcoin цены
ethereum игра bitcoin golang decred ethereum отзывы ethereum bitcoin хабрахабр фото bitcoin
loco bitcoin
monero news bitcoin вконтакте bitcoin poloniex ставки bitcoin шифрование bitcoin bitcoin bitcointalk tether кошелек
bitcoin окупаемость ethereum ann ethereum blockchain курса ethereum bitcoin новости The first miner to solve these equations, and in the process verify transactions on the ledger, gets a reward, which is known as a 'block reward.' This reward is paid out in virtual coins, and is an example of how bitcoin transactions are verified. This process is referred to as 'proof of work.'bitcoin traffic bitcoin quotes bitcoin obmen bitcoin blog вход bitcoin tether io bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin org bitcoin будущее bitcoin x java bitcoin
ethereum russia
падение ethereum check bitcoin
doge bitcoin bitcoin traffic addnode bitcoin вход bitcoin bitcoin dollar There are three types of forking:claymore ethereum bitcoin scan stealer bitcoin bitcoin conf
bitcoin mine monero simplewallet bitcoin playstation neo bitcoin платформы ethereum bitcoin форумы ethereum wallet twitter bitcoin bitcoin services car bitcoin
