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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 wrote the number 19 on a piece of paper and put it in a sealed envelope

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

What miners are doing with those huge computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing at the target hash. Miners make these guesses by randomly generating as many"nonces" as possible, 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 primary miner whose nonce generates a hash which is less than or equivalent to the target hash is awarded credit for completing that block, and is awarded the spoils of 12.5 BTC. .

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

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 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 the top.

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

There's no minimum goal, but there's a maximum target determined by the Bitcoin Protocol. No target can be greater than this number:

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

You'd have to find a speedy mining rig , more realistically, join a mining pool--a group of miners that combine their computing power and divide the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are somewhat similar to those Powerball clubs whose members purchase lottery tickets en masse and agree to share any winnings. A disproportionately large 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 click here for more info 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 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 speed, power costs etc., to estimate the costs and benefits.

Mining rewards are paid to the miner who discovers a solution to the puzzle , and the probability that a participant is going to be the one to discover the solution is equal to the portion of the total mining power on the network.  Participants which have a small percentage of their mining power stand a tiny chance of discovering the next block on their own.  For instance, a mining card that one could buy to get a few thousand dollars would represent less than 0.001% of the 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 operated by third parties and coordinate groups of miners.  By working together in a pool and sharing the payouts amongst participants, miners can get a click here now steady stream of bitcoin starting the day they trigger their miner.  Statistics on a few of the mining pools can be seen on Blockchain.info. .

Sure. As discussed, 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 goldbut rather to make 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 look into companies that make ASICs miners or GPU miners. .