bitcoin mining, miners, blockchain, The whole Bitcoin network is pillared on mining. Bitcoin mining is the way bitcoins are minted and transactions are processed over the network. Bitcoin mining involves using computing power to solve complicated mathematical/cryptographic problems using complicated algorithm and specialized software. The processing power required to solve these problems is contributed by computing devices connected to the Bitcoin network and they are known as miners. Bitcoin mining ensures the security of the network and confirms each and every transaction taking place over the entire network. Fresh bitcoins are also introduced into the Bitcoin network in the process and miners receive them as a reward for their contribution to the network. Bitcoin mining guarantees that the blockchain is kept updated and prevents double spending. Initially, when the network was still small, the difficulty level of mining was set low. A normal computer could do a decent job in solving the problems. However, the expansion of Bitcoin network added more bitcoins, users and increased the number of transactions on the blockchain. The expansion of Bitcoin’s network has a direct correlation with the difficulty level of mathematical problems to be solved. This translates to increased requirement of processing power. Bitcoin mining slowly graduated from CPUs to GPUs, which have a higher hash rate and hence greater problem solving capability. Currently, Bitcoin mining is carried out by dedicated processing units known as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). These Bitcoin mining ASICs possess enormous processing power and at the same time are more energy efficient than other processing devices. ASIC miners are costly, and they are configured to do one and only task — Bitcoin mining. These miners are generally installed on enormous servers which house hundreds and thousands of such devices running continuously throughout the day. Does this mean tat […]
