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For instance, 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 cube consists of the word BUTTERFLY discussed earlier. In reality, the block would contain a list of recent, unverified transactions, but lets keep it simple. In order for the block to be solved, bitcoin uses a deceptively simple test: If the HASH result 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 just two, ie, our HASH should begin with two zeros. .

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The problem: BUTTERFLY will always return the exact same HASH, and it doesnt start with two zeros. Thus what we need is the third variable, a random number (known as a NONCE). We take 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 result, there's absolutely 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, provides us a HASH that starts with two zeros. That number is the solution to the block. Here are some tries:

This arduous procedure of randomly trying to find a number that supplies the solution is the thing that makes bitcoin mining such a computationally expensive procedure, and as more miners join the network, the harder it gets. As of November 2017, a regular home computer working alone, ie, not an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and not part of a cloud mining network, would require 2.7 million years to mine one block. .

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

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CPU mining. In the early days of bitcoin, mining issue was reduced and not a great deal 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 strategy 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 can execute over 800 times more instructions in precisely the same amount of time as a CPU.

FPGA mining. Next came mining with field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These greatly outperformed GPUs and CPUs in the mining procedure as FPGAs are chips that can be programmed to execute specific instructions and only those instructions (instead of being repurposed for mining, like GPUs were).

ASIC mining. Comparable to FPGAs, application-specific integrated circuits are processors designed for a particular function, 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 cancel the difficulty of mining a block, miners started organising in pools or cloud mining networks. Whenever a miner in one of those pools solves a block, the payoff is shared with everyone in the swimming pool in a ratio representative of 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 buy mining channels in a remote data centre location. There are many obvious advantages, the most obvious being: no electricity expenses, no excess heat and nothing to market when you opt to hang your digital pickaxe.

Once miners get 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 also connects to the network to monitor transactions.

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

Mobile wallets. Programs Source like Blockchain shop and encrypt your bitcoin keys so that you can make payments using your cellular device.

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