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If you're mining Bitcoin, you do not need to calculate the entire value of that 64-digit number (the hash). I repeat: You do not need to calculate the total value of a hash.

Remember that ELI5 analogy, in which I composed the number 19 on a piece of paper and put it in a sealed envelope

In Bitcoin mining terms, that metaphorical undisclosed number in the envelope is known as the objective 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 you can, as quickly as possible. A nonce is short for"number only used once," and also the nonce is the secret to generating these 64-bit hexadecimal numbers I keep talking about.

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The first miner whose nonce generates a hash that is less than or equivalent to the target hash is awarded credit for completing that obstruct, and is awarded the spoils of 12.5 BTC. .

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

The screenshot below, taken from the site Blockchain.info, might help you put all of this information together in 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 goal hash is shown on the top.

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

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

Here are some examples of randomized hashes and also the standards for whether 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 who combine their computing ability and split the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are somewhat similar to people Powerball clubs whose members buy 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 only a numbers game.  You cannot imagine the pattern or make a prediction based on preceding goal hashes. The difficulty level of the most recent block at the time of writing is 2,874,674,234,416, i.e. the blog chance of any given nonce producing a hash beneath the goal is 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--less than 1 in 2 trillion. .

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The aforementioned website Cryptocompare offers a helpful calculator that permits you to plug in numbers like your hash rate, electricity costs etc. to estimate the costs and benefits.

Mining rewards are paid to the miner who discovers a solution to the puzzle first, and also the likelihood that a participant is going to be the one to find the solution is equal to the portion of the total mining energy on the network.  Participants which have a small percentage of their mining capability 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 bucks would represent less than 0.001percent of their network's mining energy.  With such a small chance at finding the next block, it could 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 recover their investment.  The answer to this predicament is mining pools.  Mining pools are run by third parties and coordinate groups of miners.  By working together in a swimming pool and sharing the payouts amongst participants, miners can find a steady stream of bitcoin starting the day they activate their miner.  Statistics on a few of the mining pools can be seen on Blockchain.info. .

Sure. As discussed, the easiest way to get Bitcoin is to purchase 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 smart investment was not to pan for gold, but rather to create the pickaxes used 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 which make ASICs miners or GPU miners. .