See This Report about Free Bitcoin Mining Game
Instead, they went with Solution 2. The resulting currency, known as bitcoin cash, increased the blocksize to 8 Mb in order to accelerate the verification procedure to permit a performance of around 2 million transactions per day. In the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash is valued at $545.00 to Bitcoins $6,328.11.
When you hear about bitcoin mining, you envisage coins being dug out of the ground. However, bitcoin isnt physical, so why do we call it mining
Since its like gold mining in that the bitcoins exist in the protocols design (like the gold exists underground), but they havent been introduced into the light yet (just as the gold hasnt yet been dug up). The bitcoin protocol stipulates that 21 million bitcoins will exist at some point.
They get to perform this as a reward for creating cubes of validated transactions and including them in the blockchain.
Backtracking a bit, lets talk about nodes. A node is a powerful computer that runs the bitcoin software and assists to keep bitcoin running by participating in the relay of information. Anyone can run a node, you simply download the bitcoin applications (free) and leave a certain port open (the downside is the fact that it consumes energy and storage space the network at time of writing carries up about 145GB).
One node will send information to a few nodes that it knows, who will relay the information to nodes they know, etc.. This way it ends up getting around the whole network pretty quickly. .
Some nodes are mining nodes (usually referred to as miners). These group outstanding transactions into cubes and add them into the blockchain. How do they do so by solving a complex mathematical puzzle that's part of this bitcoin app, and including the answer in the cube. The puzzle that needs solving is to find a number that, when combined with all the information in the block and passed via a hash function, creates a result that is within a certain range.
How can they find this number By guessing at random. The hash function makes it impossible to predict what the output will be. So, miners suppose the mystery number and apply the hash function to the combination of the guessed number and also the information in the block. The resulting hash has to begin with a pre-established number of zeroes.
Whats more, there might be several nonces that make the intended result, or there may be none (in the event the miners keep trying, but using a different block configuration). .
The first miner to acquire a resulting hash within the desired range announces its victory to the rest of the network. All the other miners immediately stop work find this on that block and start trying to find out the puzzle number for the next one. As a reward for the work, the victorious miner has some new bitcoin. .
At the time of writing, the reward is 12.5 bitcoins, which at time of writing will be worth nearly $200,000.
Also, the expenses of being a mining node are considerable, not only due to the powerful hardware needed (if you have a faster processor than your competitors, you have a better chance of finding the correct number before they perform ), but also because of the large amounts of electricity that running these chips consumes. .
And, the number of bitcoins given as a reward for solving the puzzle will decrease. Its 12.5 now, but it pits each four decades or so (the next one is anticipated in 2020-21). The worth of bitcoin relative to cost of power and hardware could go up during the next few decades to partially compensate this reduction, but its not certain. .
The problem of the calculation (the required number of zeroes at the beginning of the hash string) is corrected frequently, so it takes on average approximately 10 minutes to process a block.
Why 10 minutes that's the amount of time that the bitcoin developers think is necessary for a steady and diminishing flow of new coins until the highest number of 21 million is attained (anticipated some time in 2140).