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If you're mining Bitcoin, you do not need to calculate the total value of that 64-digit number (the hash). I repeat: You do not need to figure the entire value of a hash.

Remember that ELI5 analogy, where I composed the number 19 on a piece of paper and put it in a sealed envelope

In Bitcoin mining terms, that metaphorical undisclosed number in the envelope is called the target hash.

What miners are doing with these huge computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing in the target hash. Miners create these guesses by randomly generating as many"nonces" as you can, as fast as possible. A nonce is short for"number only used once," and also the nonce is the secret to generating these 64-bit hexadecimal numbers I keep talking about.

About Coin Mining Hardware

The first miner whose nonce generates a hash that is less than or equal to the target hash is awarded credit for completing that block, and is awarded the spoils of 12.5 BTC. .

In theory you could Attain the same goal by rolling a 16-sided die 64 times to Reach random numbers, but why on earth would you want to do this

The screenshot below, taken from the site Blockchain.info, might enable you to put all of this information together at a glance. You are looking at a list of everything that happened when obstruct #490163 was mined. The nonce that generated the "winning" hash was 731511405. The goal hash is shown on top.

As you see here, their contribution to the Bitcoin community is they confirmed 1768 transactions for this block. If you truly want to see all 1768 of those transactions for this block, go to this page and scroll down to the heading"Transactions." .

There's no minimum target, but there is a maximum target set by the Bitcoin Protocol. No target can be higher than this number:

Here are some examples of randomized hashes and also the criteria for if they will lead to achievement for the miner:

You would need to find a fast mining rig , more realistically, join a mining pool--a bunch of miners that combine their computing power and split the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are somewhat comparable to those Powerball clubs whose members purchase lottery tickets en masse and consent to share any winnings. A disproportionately high number of blocks are mined by pools rather than by individual miners. .

In other words, it is literally only a numbers game.  You cannot guess the pattern or make a prediction based on preceding target hashes. The difficulty level of the most recent block at the time of writing is 2,874,674,234,416, i.e. the chance of any given nonce producing a hash beneath the target is just 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--significantly less than 1 in two trillion. .

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The aforementioned site Cryptocompare delivers a very helpful calculator which allows you to plug in numbers such as your hash speed, electricity costs etc. to estimate the costs and benefits.

Mining rewards are paid to the miner who finds a solution to the puzzle , and also the likelihood that a participant is going to be the one to click this find the solution is equal to the portion of the total mining power on the network.  Participants with a small percentage of the mining power stand a very small chance of discovering the next block on their own.  For instance, a mining card that one could purchase for a couple thousand dollars would represent less than 0.001% of the network's mining power.  With such a small chance at finding the next block, it could be a long time before that miner finds out a block, and the problem going up makes things even worse.  The miner may never recover their investment.  The answer to this predicament is mining pools.  Mining pools are run by third parties and coordinate groups of miners.  By working together in a pool and sharing the payouts amongst participants, miners can find a steady stream of bitcoin starting the afternoon that they activate their miner.  Statistics on a few of the mining pools can be seen on Blockchain.info. .

Sure. As mentioned, the simplest way to get Bitcoin is to buy it on an exchange like Coinbase.com. Alternately, you can always leverage the"pickaxe plan". This relies on the old saw that during the 1848 California gold rush, the wise investment was not to pan for gold, but rather to make Website the pickaxes taken for mining.

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In a crypto context, the pickaxe equivalent are a company that manufactures equpiment utilized for Bitcoin mining. You can start looking into companies which make ASICs miners or GPU miners. .