Grasping the entire concept of Bitcoin in one go is all but impossible for anyone. Even the people who have been involved in Bitcoin for several years will still find it difficult to relay the message in layman’s terms. Bitcoin mining, for example, is one of the processes that is hard to grasp, as people do not see the correlation between a Bitcoin miner, generating new coins, and confirming transactions. But in the end, it is rather easy to explain, albeit rather technical.
Also read: What Gives Bitcoin Value? What Is Bitcoin Mining Exactly?
In this day and age of technology, the concept of “mining” has taken on a vastly different form compared to a century ago. In the past, miners users to wear helmets and wing pickaxes in tunnels below the surface to extract resources and precious metals. Bitcoin mining is something entirely different, as it is not just about generating new resources.
To understand what Bitcoin mining really is, look at it as a way of using efforts – computer hardware, electricity, and software – for a chance to create something valuable in return – new bitcoins, confirming network transactions, and securing the protocol. This is also why people refer to Bitcoin as a proof of work digital currency, as the work put in results in proof of new coins and confirmed transactions.
Speaking of the generation of new bitcoins, this process is done entirely by computers. Every computer in the world can run software to start mining Bitcoin, and depending on how powerful the machine is, the results will either be great, or not so great. One thing to keep in mind is how there are thousands of people around the world involved in Bitcoin mining. Through this vast combination of computational power on a global […]
