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

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

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

What miners are doing with these huge computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing in the hash. Miners make 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 key to generating these 64-bit hexadecimal numbers I keep talking about.

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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 given the spoils of 12.5 BTC. .

In theory you could achieve the same aim by rolling a 16-sided die 64 times to arrive at random numbers, but why on earth would you want to do that

The screenshot below, taken by the website Blockchain.info, might help you put all this information together at a glance. You are looking at a list of everything which happened when block #490163 was mined. The nonce that generated the "winning" hash was 731511405. The target hash is shown on the top.

As you see here, their contribution into the Bitcoin community is that they confirmed 1768 transactions for this block. If you really want to see all 1768 of these transactions for this block, then go to this webpage and scroll down to the heading"Transactions." .

There's no minimum goal, 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 the criteria for if they will lead to achievement for your miner:

You would have to find a speedy mining rig or, more realistically, join a mining pool--a bunch of miners that combine their computing power and divide the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are somewhat similar to people Powerball clubs whose members purchase lottery tickets en masse and agree to discuss any winnings. A disproportionately high number of blocks are mined by pools rather than by individual miners. .

In other words, it is literally just a numbers game.  You cannot guess the pattern or make a prediction based on preceding goal 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 below the goal is 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--less than 1 in 2 trillion. .

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The aforementioned website Cryptocompare delivers a very helpful calculator which permits you to plug in numbers like your hash rate, electricity prices etc. to gauge the costs and benefits.

Mining rewards are paid into the miner who finds a solution to the puzzle first, and the likelihood that a participant is going to be the one to discover get redirected here the solution is equivalent to the portion of the total mining power on the network.  Participants which have a small percentage of the mining capability stand a very small chance of discovering the next block on their own.  For instance, a mining card that one could buy for a couple thousand bucks would represent less than 0.001percent of their network's mining energy.  With such a tiny chance at finding the next block, it might be a long time before that miner finds out a block, and also the problem going up makes things even worse.  The miner may never recoup their investment.  The answer to this problem 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 day that they activate their miner.  Statistics on a few of the mining pools can be seen on Blockchain.info. .

Sure. As discussed, the easiest way to acquire Bitcoin is to purchase it on an exchange like Coinbase.com. Alternately, you click here for more can always leverage the"pickaxe plan". This relies on the old saw that during the 1848 California gold rush, the smart investment was not to pan for goldbut rather to make the pickaxes taken for mining.

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In a crypto context, the pickaxe equivalent would be a company that manufactures equpiment used for Bitcoin mining. You can look into companies that make ASICs index miners or GPU miners. .