Blockchain Protocol - An Overview

For instance, the SHA-256 of this term BUTTERFLY (origin ) is 8c62ace4f9ef8ccd08ca6fb992a8524bb7dbdc0530654bd254c9da07a660949a (HASH). This seemingly random string of letters and numbers contains three important properties:

Bitcoin mining involves three factors: the block, the mining difficulty and a random number. Heres how it all comes together:

Imagine our block consists of the term BUTTERFLY discussed previously. In fact, the block would contain a list of recent, unverified transactions, but lets keep it simple. In order for the block to be solved, bitcoin uses a deceptively simple test: If the HASH result of the block begins with a certain number of zeros, then the cube is considered verified.

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For our example, lets say that we've a mining problem of just two, ie, our HASH should start with two zeros. .

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The problem: BUTTERFLY will always return the same HASH, and it doesnt start with two zeros. Thus what we need is the next variable, a random number (known as a NONCE). We carry this number, combine it with BUTTERFLY, and HASH again. If it doesnt start with two zeros, we change the number and try again, and since changing one little number changes the entire HASH outcome, there's absolutely no way to predict the number well need to address this! .

We repeat this process over and over until we find a number that, when combined with BUTTERFLY, gives us a HASH that begins with two zeros. That number is your solution to the block. Here are some tries:

This arduous process of randomly trying to find a number that supplies the solution is the thing that makes bitcoin mining such a computationally expensive process, and as more miners join the network, the tougher it gets. At November 2017, a regular home computer working alone, ie, not an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and not a part of a cloud mining network, would require 2.7 million years to mine one block. .

This has led to the growth of ASIC computers constructed particularly for mining and also to an increase in cloud mining.

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CPU mining. In the early days of bitcoin, mining difficulty was reduced and not a great deal of miners were competing for blocks and rewards. This made it rewarding to use your computers own central processing unit (CPU) to mine bitcoin. However, that approach was soon replaced by GPU mining.

GPU mining. A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a potent processor whose sole objective is to assist your own computers graphics card in rendering 3D graphics. GPUs are not constructed for executive decisions (such as CPUs) but to be somewhat good labourers, hence GPUs are able to execute over 800 times more instructions in the exact same amount of time as a CPU.

FPGA mining. Next came mining with field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These greatly outperformed GPUs and CPUs in the mining procedure as FPGAs are chips that can be programmed to perform read the article specific instructions and only those instructions (instead of being repurposed for mining, such as GPUs were).

ASIC mining. Similar to FPGAs, application-specific integrated circuits are chips designed for a particular purpose, in our situation mining bitcoin, and nothing else. ASICs for bitcoin were introduced in 2013 and, as of November 2017, they are the best processors next out there for mining bitcoin and they outperform FPGAs in power consumption. .

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Mining pools. To cancel the difficulty of mining a block, miners started organising in pools or cloud mining networks. Whenever a miner in one of those pools simplifies a cube, the payoff is shared with everyone in the pool in a ratio representative of how much work you put into the pool (even though you personally never solved the mystery ). .

Cloud mining. Clouds offer prospective miners the capability to buy mining rigs in a remote data centre location. There are many obvious advantages, the most obvious beingno electricity costs, no excess heat and nothing to market when you opt to hang your virtual pickaxe.

Once miners receive bitcoin, they are given a digital key to the bitcoin addresses. You can use this digital key to access and confirm or approve transactions.

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Desktop wallets. Software like Bitcoin Core lets you send and store bitcoin addresses and also connects to the network to monitor transactions.

Online wallets. Bitcoin keys are stored online by exchange platforms such as Coinbase or Circle and can be accessed from anywhere.

Mobile wallets. Apps like Blockchain shop and encrypt your own bitcoin keys so that you can make payments using your mobile device.

Paper wallets. Some websites offer paper wallet services, generating a piece of paper with just two QR codes on it. One code is your public address at which you receive bitcoin and the other one is the personal address you can use for spending.