A Biased View of X11 Cryptocurrency
Insteadthey went with Solution 2. The resulting currency, known as bitcoin money, increased the blocksize to 8 Mb in order to accelerate the verification process to permit a performance of around 2 million transactions every 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
Because its like gold mining in that the bitcoins exist in the protocols design (just as the gold exists underground), but they havent been introduced into the mild yet (just as the gold hasnt yet been awakened ). The bitcoin protocol stipulates that 21 million bitcoins will exist at some point.
They get to perform this as a reward for creating blocks of confirmed transactions and including them in the blockchain.
Backtracking a bit, lets talk about nodes. A node is a powerful computer which runs the bitcoin applications and assists to keep bitcoin running by participating in the relay of information. Anyone can run a node, you just download the bitcoin software (totally free ) and leave a certain port open (the downside is that it consumes energy and storage space the network at time of writing takes 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 entire network fairly fast. .
Some nodes are mining nodes (usually known as miners). These set outstanding transactions into blocks and add them to the blockchain. How do they do this By solving a complex mathematical puzzle that is a portion of this bitcoin program, and including the answer in the cube. The mystery that needs solving is to find a number that, when combined with all the data in the cube and passed via a hash function, creates a result that's within a certain range.
How do they find this number By guessing at random. The hash function makes it impossible to predict what the output will be. So, miners guess the mystery number and apply the hash function to the combination of that guessed number and also the data in the cube. The resulting hash has to begin with a pre-established number of zeroes.
Whats more, there might be several nonces that produce the intended result, or there might be none (in the event the miners keep trying, but with a different block configuration). .
The first miner to get a resulting hash within the desired range announces its success to the remainder of the network. The rest of the miners immediately cease work on that block and begin trying to figure out the puzzle number for your next one. As a reward for the own work, the victorious miner gets some new bitcoin. .
At the time of writing, the payoff is 12.5 bitcoins, which at time of writing is worth nearly $200,000.
Also, the costs of being a mining node are considerable, not only because of more the effective hardware needed (in case you have a faster processor than your competitors, you have a better chance of finding the correct number before they do), but also due to the large amounts of electricity that running these processors consumes. .
And, the number of all bitcoins awarded as a reward for solving the puzzle will decrease. Its 12.5 now, but it halves every four years or so (the next one is expected in 2020-21). The worth of bitcoin relative to price of electricity and hardware could extend up over the next few years to partly compensate this reduction, but its not certain. .
The problem of the calculation (the necessary number of zeroes at the beginning of the hash string) is adjusted frequently, so it requires 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 continuous and diminishing flow of new coins until the highest number of 21 million has been reached (anticipated some time in 2140).