What is Bitcoin Mining?
The role of Bitcoin mining is to verify that transactions on the network follow the rules. To do this, complex computer units are used to check the transactions and broadcast them to other computer systems around the world. The operators of these computer systems are rewarded for their efforts. This reward comes from both the fees that each transaction and a mining reward set by the network itself.
To stop people cheating the network, a system known as “proof-of-work” is used. Proof-of-work is needed before any group (block) of transactions is added to the blockchain. When the computers are performing their proof-of-work, what they’re doing is trying to guess a long string of numbers and letters. This string is known as a hash.
Only the computer that correctly guesses the hash can add the block to the chain. Proof-of-work requires computational power and the process is neither quick or cheap. To cheat the network would require so much of an investment that it is not financially viable for someone to try and amend the blockchain. This is the main security feature of the Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrency) networks.
Bitcoin mining used to be able to be performed by CPUs (central processing units) like those found in your computer system at home. However, as more units began to mine the network, the difficulty of the hashes they were trying to guess increased. This made people turn to higher-powered processors such as GPUs (graphical processing units). These GPUs are commonly found in high-end gaming PCs.
Today, the hashes are so hard to solve and there are so many miners trying to solve them that only specialist computer systems can solve them. These units use application-specific integrated circuit chips – or ASICs for short. That is what this article is all about!
Mining Hardware Depends on Your Circumstances
Although Bitcoin miners are now limited to choosing from a range of ASICs to mine Bitcoin, there are still plenty of options. Picking one will depend on each miner’s individual circumstances. Some miners will want a single unit that can work in their spare bedroom. Others will want a couple of affordable ASICs to get themselves started mining for the first time. Finally, there are some people who want to fill a warehouse with the absolute best Bitcoin mining hardware around.
There are lots of things to consider when picking Bitcoin mining hardware. It’s important to judge each unit based on their hashing power, their electricity consumption, their ambient temperature, and their initial cost to buy.
There are also some ideological reasons to choose one manufacturer over another. These relate to decentralization and I’ll touch upon some of the issues that surround this later in this article.
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