What is Bitcoin Mining? (In Plain English)

Summary

Bitcoin mining is the process of updating the decentralized Bitcoin transaction ledger, known as the blockchain, and is incentivized by the creation and reward of new Bitcoins. The mining process involves solving complex mathematical problems using computational power, with the difficulty of mining self-adjusting to the total network power to maintain an average block addition time of 10 minutes. Initially, CPUs were used for mining, but as Bitcoin's popularity grew, so did the need for more powerful solutions like GPUs, FPGAs, and ultimately ASIC miners. Miners can join mining pools to combine their power and share in the rewards. However, profitability is dependent on various factors including hash rate, electricity costs, and mining difficulty. Despite the energy consumption concerns, Bitcoin mining is argued to be more resource-efficient than traditional banking systems and is driving optimization of power usage globally. Alternatives to Bitcoin mining, such as buying Bitcoins or mining other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Monero, or Zcash with GPUs, may offer better returns on investment.

Takeaways

• 🚀 **Decentralization**: Bitcoin operates without a central authority, unlike traditional banks, which control ledger updates.
• 💡 **Mining Mechanism**: Bitcoin mining involves guessing a random number to solve a system-generated equation, with the winner earning the right to add a new block of transactions to the blockchain.
• 💻 **Computational Power**: The more powerful the computer, the higher the chances of successfully mining a block, as it can make more guesses per second.
• 🔄 **Adjustable Difficulty**: Bitcoin mining difficulty self-adjusts based on the network's total mining power to maintain a steady issuance of new Bitcoins.
• ⚙️ **Mining Evolution**: Mining has evolved from using CPUs to GPUs, FPGAs, and now ASICs, which are specialized hardware for mining Bitcoin.
• 🤝 **Mining Pools**: Miners form pools to combine their power and increase the chances of earning rewards, sharing them based on their contribution.
• 💰 **Profitability Factors**: Profitability in mining depends on variables like hash rate, block reward, mining difficulty, electricity costs, and the pool's fee.
• ❓ **Profitability Today**: Mining Bitcoin may not be profitable for individuals due to high competition and costs, especially without joining a mining pool.
• ☁️ **Cloud Mining Risks**: While cloud mining seems convenient, many services are unprofitable or scams, and it's generally advised to avoid them.
• 📱 **Mobile and Web Mining**: Mobile apps and web mining are possible but not efficient; they often result in minimal earnings and potential device damage.
• ♻️ **Energy Consumption**: Despite criticism, Bitcoin mining may be more resource-efficient than traditional banking and can optimize global power usage by relocating to areas with excess electricity.

Q & A

What is the fundamental concept behind Bitcoin mining?

Bitcoin mining is the process of updating the ledger of Bitcoin transactions, known as the blockchain. It involves guessing a random number that solves an equation generated by the system, with the correct guesser earning the right to add the next block of transactions and receiving newly minted Bitcoins and transaction fees as a reward.

Why is Bitcoin mining considered a decentralized alternative to the banking system?

Bitcoin mining is decentralized because it allows anyone with the computational power to participate in updating the blockchain without a central authority. This contrasts with traditional banking systems where banks are the only entities allowed to update the ledger that holds account balances.

How does the mining difficulty adjust to the network's mining power?

The mining difficulty self-adjusts according to the accumulated mining power in the network. If more miners join, the difficulty increases, making it harder to solve the mining problem. Conversely, if miners leave, the difficulty decreases, making it easier to mine.

What is the role of a mining pool in Bitcoin mining?

A mining pool is a group of miners who combine their mining power to compete more effectively in the mining process. When the pool wins the right to add a block to the blockchain, the reward is distributed among the members based on their individual contributions to the pool's mining power.

Why might Bitcoin mining not be profitable for individuals today?

Individual Bitcoin mining might not be profitable due to several factors, including high electricity costs, the need for specialized and expensive hardware (like ASIC miners), and intense competition from larger mining operations and mining pools. Additionally, the mining difficulty is constantly increasing, reducing the chances of earning a reward.

How does the halving event affect the number of Bitcoins awarded per block?

The halving event is a protocol rule that reduces the number of Bitcoins awarded per block by half every 210,000 blocks, approximately every four years. This event helps to control the inflation rate of Bitcoin and ensures a steady flow of new Bitcoins into the system.

What are the different types of hardware used for Bitcoin mining over the years?

The types of hardware used for Bitcoin mining have evolved from CPUs, to GPUs, then to FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays), and finally to ASIC miners (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits), which are specialized hardware designed solely for mining Bitcoin.

What are the factors that one needs to consider when calculating the profitability of Bitcoin mining?

Factors to consider include the hash rate of the mining hardware, the current reward for mining a block, the mining difficulty, electricity costs, the power consumption of the mining equipment, the fees taken by mining pools, the future price of Bitcoin, and the expected increase in mining difficulty.

What are the potential issues with cloud mining services?

Cloud mining can be potentially unprofitable due to the costs associated with renting mining power. Additionally, there are risks of scams, as some cloud mining operations may not own any mining equipment and could be Ponzi schemes that eventually collapse.

How does web mining work and what are the ethical considerations?

Web mining allows website owners to use the computational power of their visitors' CPUs for mining cryptocurrencies without their explicit consent. While this can provide a new way for site owners to monetize their traffic, it raises ethical concerns about using users' resources without permission and the potential for causing harm due to overheating or excessive power usage.

What are some alternatives to Bitcoin mining that might offer a higher return on investment?

Instead of mining Bitcoin, one could consider directly purchasing Bitcoins, especially if the market conditions are favorable. Alternatively, mining other cryptocurrencies, or 'altcoins', such as Ethereum, Monero, or Zcash, which can still be mined profitably with GPUs, might offer better returns.

Why is Bitcoin mining sometimes considered a waste of electricity, and what are the counterarguments?

Critics argue that Bitcoin mining consumes a significant amount of electricity. However, proponents counter that the overall energy consumption of the traditional banking system, including the operation of banks, servers, ATMs, and credit card companies, is more wasteful. Additionally, Bitcoin mining is said to optimize power consumption by incentivizing mining operations to move to regions with excess electricity, thus improving the efficiency of global energy use.

Outlines

00:00

🔐 Introduction to Bitcoin Mining

This paragraph introduces the concept of Bitcoin mining, addressing common questions and explaining the decentralized nature of Bitcoin. It describes how Bitcoin operates without a central authority, the role of miners in updating the blockchain, and the process of earning Bitcoins by solving mathematical problems. The mining process is detailed, from guessing a random number to validating transactions and receiving rewards, including the creation of new Bitcoins and transaction fees. The self-adjusting difficulty of mining and its purpose in maintaining a decentralized ledger are also covered.

05:01

🛠️ Evolution of Mining Hardware

This section discusses the evolution of mining hardware, from the early days of CPU mining to the advent of GPU, FPGA, and ASIC miners. It explains the transition from using personal computers for mining to the development of specialized hardware designed solely for mining Bitcoin. The paragraph also touches on the formation of mining pools, which allow miners with less power to combine resources and compete more effectively. It concludes with a discussion on the profitability of mining, which depends on various factors such as hash rate, block reward, mining difficulty, electricity costs, and the fees associated with mining pools.

10:03

⚖️ Assessing Mining Profitability

This paragraph delves into the factors that affect the profitability of Bitcoin mining. It outlines the importance of understanding hash rates, block rewards, mining difficulty, electricity costs, and the impact of mining pool fees. The paragraph also addresses the unpredictability of Bitcoin's future price and the difficulty increase per year, which makes it challenging to predict long-term profitability. It cautions against cloud mining, which often turns out to be unprofitable or even fraudulent, and warns against the inefficiency of mobile mining due to the limited processing power of smartphones.

15:04

🏛️ The Impact and Ethics of Mining

The final paragraph addresses common concerns and questions about Bitcoin mining. It discusses the criticism of mining's energy consumption and presents arguments that Bitcoin mining may be more resource-efficient than traditional banking systems. The paragraph also explores the idea that mining operations are moving to areas with excess electricity, potentially improving global power efficiency. It responds to the hypothetical scenario of a large company like Google entering the mining space and explains why it would not be as beneficial as one might think. The video concludes with a suggestion that there may be more profitable alternatives to mining, such as buying Bitcoins or mining other cryptocurrencies, and invites viewers to ask questions in the comments section.

Keywords

💡Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin mining is the process of adding new transactions to the blockchain ledger. It involves solving complex mathematical problems that validate blocks of transactions. Miners are rewarded with Bitcoin for their efforts, which is why it's likened to 'mining' new coins. In the video, it's described as a decentralized way to update the Bitcoin ledger without a central authority, which is a key aspect of Bitcoin's appeal.

💡Decentralization

Decentralization in the context of Bitcoin refers to the absence of a central authority that governs transactions. Instead, transactions are verified by a network of computers (miners). This concept is fundamental to the video's theme, as it distinguishes Bitcoin from traditional banking systems and is the reason why mining is necessary to maintain the integrity of the Bitcoin network.

💡Blockchain

The blockchain is a public ledger that contains a record of all Bitcoin transactions. It's a core concept in the video, as it's the 'book' that miners update. Each 'block' in the blockchain contains a group of transactions, and miners compete to add the next block by solving a complex mathematical problem.

💡Hash Rate

Hash rate refers to the speed at which a miner's computer can perform calculations for Bitcoin mining. It's measured in megahashes, gigahashes, terahashes, or petahashes per second. In the video, hash rate is used to illustrate the power and efficiency of mining hardware and its impact on a miner's ability to successfully add a block to the blockchain.

💡Mining Difficulty

Mining difficulty is a measure of how hard it is to mine a new block compared to the easiest it can ever be. It's a key concept in the video, as it adjusts automatically to maintain a steady rate of block creation. The higher the mining difficulty, the more powerful the hardware needed to mine successfully.

💡ASIC Miners

ASIC stands for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit. ASIC miners are hardware devices designed specifically for mining Bitcoin. They are much more efficient than general-purpose computers. The video explains that ASIC miners are the current standard for Bitcoin mining, highlighting the evolution from CPU and GPU mining to the specialized hardware of today.

💡Mining Pools

Mining pools are groups of miners who combine their resources to increase their chances of earning rewards. This concept is important in the video because it addresses the reality that individual miners, especially those with less powerful hardware, can still participate in mining by pooling their efforts.

💡Transaction Fees

Transaction fees are the fees paid by users to include their transactions in the blockchain. In the video, it's mentioned that miners are rewarded not only with newly minted Bitcoins but also with any transaction fees attached to the transactions they include in a block, providing additional incentive for mining.

💡Profitability

Profitability in the context of the video refers to whether or not mining Bitcoin is financially worthwhile. It's a complex calculation that depends on various factors, including the cost of electricity, the efficiency of mining hardware, and the current price of Bitcoin. The video emphasizes that profitability is not guaranteed and requires careful consideration of these factors.

💡Halving

The Bitcoin halving is an event that occurs approximately every four years, reducing the reward for mining a new block by half. It's a significant concept in the video as it affects the incentive for miners and the rate at which new Bitcoins are created. The video mentions that the current reward per block is 12.5 Bitcoins, which will be halved in the next halving event.

💡Cloud Mining

Cloud mining is a method of mining where individuals rent mining hardware rather than buying and managing their own. The video discusses this as an alternative to traditional mining, but it cautions that many cloud mining operations are not profitable and could potentially be scams, advising viewers to approach this method with skepticism.

Highlights

Bitcoin mining is the process of participating in updating the Bitcoin transaction ledger, known as the blockchain.

Miners compete to solve a mathematical equation generated by the system, with more powerful computers making more guesses per second.

Successfully guessing the equation allows a miner to earn Bitcoins and write the next block of transactions on the blockchain.

The mining process is self-adjusting, becoming harder as more mining power is added to the network, ensuring a steady flow of new Bitcoins.

The mining difficulty is designed to add a new block to the blockchain every 10 minutes on average.

Early Bitcoin mining used CPUs, but the advent of GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs has led to more powerful and specialized mining hardware.

Mining pools allow miners to combine their power to increase their chances of successfully mining a block and earning rewards.

The profitability of Bitcoin mining depends on various factors including hash rate, block reward, mining difficulty, electricity costs, and equipment efficiency.

Cloud mining, where users rent computing power from a company, is often not profitable and can be risky due to potential scams.

Mobile mining apps claim to allow Bitcoin mining on phones, but due to low processing power, they are not efficient and can drain batteries quickly.

Web mining enables website owners to use visitors' CPUs for mining, which is controversial and can lead to CPU damage from overheating.

Bitcoin mining has been criticized for its energy consumption, but it may require fewer resources than the traditional banking system when considering all its components.

Large companies like Google wouldn't find it profitable to mine Bitcoin due to the specialized nature of ASIC mining hardware.

Investing in Bitcoin directly or mining alternative cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Monero, or Zcash might offer better returns than Bitcoin mining.

The decision to mine Bitcoins should be based on a thorough understanding of the process, costs, and current market conditions.

Bitcoin mining calculators can estimate potential earnings based on input variables like hash rate and electricity costs.

The long-term profitability of mining is uncertain due to the unpredictable increase in mining difficulty and Bitcoin's price fluctuations.

Transcripts

What is Bitcoin mining?

Does it mean I can generate free Bitcoin from my computer?

Is it still profitable to mine Bitcoin these days?

Well, stick around...

Here on Bitcoin Whiteboard Tuesday,

we’ll answer these questions and more.

Bitcoin was created as a decentralized alternative

to the banking system.

This means that the system can operate and transfer funds

from one account to the other

without any central authority.

With a central authority,

transfering money is easy:

Just tell the bank you want to remove $50 from your account

and add it to someone else’s account.

In this case,

the bank has all the power,

since the bank is the only one who is allowed to update the ledger

that holds the balances of everyone in the system.

But how do you create a system that has a decentralized ledger?

How do you give someone the ability to update the ledger

without giving them so much power

that they will become corrupt or negligent in their work?

Well the rules of the Bitcoin system, known as the protocol

solves this in a very creative way I like to call

“Who Wants to Be a Banker?”

In short,

anyone who wants to participate in updating the ledger of Bitcoin transactions,

known as the blockchain, can do so.

All you need to do is

guess a random number that solves an equation generated by the system.

Sounds simple, right?

Of course this guessing is all done by your computer.

The more powerful of a computer you have,

the more guesses you can make per second,

thus increasing your chances of winning this game.

If you managed to guess right -

you earn Bitcoins and get to write the “next page” of Bitcoin transactions

on the blockchain.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the mining process:

Once your mining computer comes up with the right guess,

your mining program determines which of the currently pending transactions

will be grouped together into the next block of transactions.

Compiling this block represents your moment of glory

as you have now become the temporary banker of Bitcoin

who gets to update the Bitcoin transaction ledger

known as the blockchain.

The block you’ve created, along with your solution

is sent to the whole network so other computers can validate it.

Each computer that validates your solution

updates its copy of the Bitcoin transaction ledger

with the transactions that you chose to include in the next block.

As you can imagine,

since mining is based on a form of guessing;

for each block, a different miner will guess the number

and be granted the right to update the blockchain.

Of course the miners with more computing power

will succeed more often,

but due to the laws of statistical probability,

it is highly unlikely that the same miner will do so every time.

After this stage is complete,

the system generates a fixed amount of Bitcoins

and rewards them to you

as a compensation for the time and energy you spent in solving the math problem.

Additionally, you get paid any transaction fees

that were attached to the transactions you inserted into this block.

So that’s Bitcoin mining in a nutshell.

It’s called mining because of the fact

that this process helps “mine” new Bitcoins from the system.

But if you think about it, the mining part is just a by product of

the transaction verification process.

So the name is a bit misleading,

since the main goal of mining is to maintain the ledger

in a decentralized manner.

Now that you know what Bitcoin mining is

you might be thinking “cool! Free money!

So where do I sign up?” Well, not so fast….

Satoshi Nakamoto, who invented Bitcoin,

crafted the rules for mining in a way that the more mining power the network has,

the harder it is to guess the answer to the mining math problem.

So the difficulty of the mining process

is actually self adjusting to the accumulated mining power

the network possesses.

If more miners join, it will get harder to solve the problem;

If many of them drop off, it will get easier.

And this is known as the mining difficulty.

So why on earth did Satoshi do this?

Well, he wanted to create a steady flow of new Bitcoins

to the system.

In a sense, this was done to keep inflation in check.

The mining difficulty is set so that on average

a new block will be added every 10 minutes.

Now remember, this is on average.

We can have two blocks being added minute after minute

and then wait an hour for the next block.

In the long run this will even out to 10 minutes on average.

As you can imagine,

this type of self adjusting mechanism created some sort of an “arms race”

to get the most efficient and powerful miners

as soon as possible.

When Bitcoin first started out there weren’t a lot of miners out there.

In fact, Satoshi, the inventor of Bitcoin,

and his friend Hal Finney were some of the few people

mining Bitcoin back at the time with their own personal computer.

Using your CPU,

meaning your Central Processing Unit or your computer’s brain,

was enough for mining Bitcoin back in 2009 since the mining difficulty was low.

As Bitcoin started to catch on

people looked for more powerful mining solutions.

Gradually people moved to GPU mining.

A GPU or Graphics Processing Unit

is a special component added to computers to carry out more complex calculations.

GPUs were originally intended to

allow gamers to run computer games with intense graphics requirements.

Because of their architecture

they became popular in the field of cryptography

and around 2011 people also started using them to mine Bitcoins.

For reference, the mining power of one GPU equals that of around 30 CPUs.

Another evolution came later on with FPGA mining.

FPGA is a piece of hardware that can be connected to a computer

in order to run a set of calculations.

They are just like a GPU, but 3 to 100 times faster.

The downside is that they are harder to configure,

which is why they weren’t as commonly used in mining as GPUs.

Finally, around 2013 a new breed of miner was introduced -

the ASIC miner.

ASIC stands for Application Specific Integrated Circuit,

and these were pieces of hardware

manufactured solely for the purpose of mining Bitcoin.

Unlike GPUs, CPUs and FPGAs they couldn’t be used to do anything else.

Their function was hardcoded into the machines.

ASIC miners are the current mining standard.

Some early ASIC miners even appeared in the form of a USB

but they became obsolete rather quickly.

Even though they started out in 2013

the technology quickly evolved

and new more powerful miners were coming out every 6 months.

After about 3 years of this crazy tech race

we’ve finally reach a technological barrier and things have cooled down a bit.

Since 2016 the pace at which new miners are released has slowed considerably.

Now that you know what miners are,

let’s talk a bit about mining pools.

Assuming you’re just entering the Bitcoin mining game,

you’re up against some heavy competition.

Even if you buy the best possible miner out there

you are still at a huge disadvantage

compared to professional Bitcoin mining farms.

That’s why mining pools came to existence.

The idea is simple -

miners group together to form a “pool”.

Meaning they combine their mining power to compete more effectively.

If the pool manages to win the competition,

the reward is spread out between the pool members

depending on how much mining power each of them contributed.

This way even small miners can join the mining game

and have a chance of earning Bitcoin,

even though they get only a part of the reward.

Today there are over a dozen large pools

that compete for the chance to mine Bitcoin and update the ledger.

I know you might be thinking,

“ok, all this theory stuff is very nice,

but is Bitcoin mining actually profitable today?”

Well, the short answer is “probably not”,

the correct (and long) answer is “it depends on a lot of factors”.

When calculating Bitcoin mining profitability

there are a lot of things you need to take into account.

Let’s go over them quickly

A Hash is the mathematical problem the miner's computer needs to solve.

The Hash Rate refers to your miner's performance

or how many guesses your computer can make per second.

Hash rate can be measured in Mega hash per second (MH/s),

Giga hash per second (GH/s),

Terra hash per second (TH/s)

and even Peta hash per second (PH/s).

This refers to the number of Bitcoins generated

when a miner finds the solution.

This number started at 50 Bitcoins back in 2009

and is halved every 210,000 blocks, about four years.

The current number of Bitcoins awarded per block is 12.5.

The last block halving occurred in July of 2016

and the next one will be in 2020.

This is a number that represents how hard it is to mine Bitcoins

at a certain moment

according to the amount of mining power currently active in the system.

How many dollars are you paying per KiloWatt.

You'll need to find out your electricity rate

in order to calculate profitability.

This can usually be found on your monthly electricity bill.

The reason this is important is because miners consume electricity -

whether for powering up the miner or for cooling it down

as these machines can get really hot.

Each miner consumes a different amount of energy.

You’ll need to find out the exact power consumption of your miner

before calculating profitability.

This can be found easily with a quick search on the Internet

or through this list.

Power consumption is measured in Watts.

If you’re mining through a mining pool, and you should,

then the pool will take a certain percentage of your earnings

for rendering their service.

Since no one knows what Bitcoin’s price will be in the future

it's hard to predict if Bitcoin mining will be profitable.

If you are planning to convert your mined Bitcoins in the future

to any other currency,

this variable will have significant impact on your profitability.

And finally #8 - The Difficulty increase per year -

This is probably the most important and elusive variable of them all.

The idea is that since no one can actually predict

the rate of miners joining the network,

neither can anyone predict how difficult it will be to mine

in 6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years from now.

In fact, in all the time Bitcoin has existed

profitability has dropped only a handful of times,

even at times when the price was relatively low.

The last two factors are the reason

that no one will ever be able to give a complete answer to the question

"is Bitcoin mining profitable?"

Once you have all of these variables at hand

you can insert them into a Bitcoin mining calculator

and get an estimate of how much Bitcoin you will earn each month.

If you can’t get a positive result on the calculator

it probably means you don’t have

the right conditions for mining to be profitable.

I assume by now you pretty much know if mining is for you or not.

But you may have also heard about other types of mining

like cloud mining, mobile mining or even web mining.

Cloud mining means that you do not buy a physical mining rig

but rather rent computing power from a mining company

and get paid according to how much mining power you own.

At first this sounds like a really good idea,

since you don't have to go through all of the hassle of

buying expensive equipment, storing it, cooling it, and monitoring it.

However, when you do the math

it seems that none of these cloud mining sites are profitable.

Those that do seem profitable

are usually scams that don't even own any mining equipment,

they are just elaborate Ponzi schemes

that will end up running away with your money.

As a general rule of thumb

I would suggest to avoid cloud mining altogether.

If you still want to pursue this path

make sure to make the right calculations before handing over any funds.

Some mobile apps claim to mine Bitcoin on your phone.

While in theory this is possible,

due to the low processing power phones have compared to ASIC miners

you will probably end up draining your phone’s battery much faster

and make a very small fraction of a Bitcoin in return.

The apps that allow this, act as mining pools for mobile phones

and distribute earnings according to how much work was done by each phone.

Remember, mining is possible with any old computer,

it’s just not worth the electricity wasted on it

since the slower the computer,

the smaller the chances of actually getting some kind of reward.

Finally, somewhere around 2017 the concept of web mining came to life.

Simply put, web mining allows website owners to hijack,

so to speak, their visitors’ CPU and use them to mine Bitcoin.

This means that a website owner can make use of thousands of “innocent” CPUs

in order to gain profits.

However, since mining Bitcoins isn’t really profitable with a CPU,

most of the sites that utilize web mining mine other coins instead.

As of the release of this video

over 20 thousand sites have been known to utilize web mining.

The concept of web mining is very controversial.

From the site’s visitors’ perspective,

someone is using their computer without consent to mine Bitcoins.

In extreme cases this can also harm the CPU due to overheating.

From the site owner’s perspective,

web mining has become a new way to monetize websites

without the need for placing annoying ads.

Also, the site owner can control how much of the visitor’s CPU

he wants to control

in order to make sure he’s not abusing his hardware.

To conclude this episode of Bitcoin whiteboard Tuesday,

here are 3 Questions I get asked a lot:

The first is “Isn’t mining a waste of electricity?”

While there’s been a lot of criticism regarding the energy consumption

that Bitcoin mining employs worldwide

there are various arguments against this claim as well.

For starters, you could say that

Bitcoin mining ultimately requires less resources

than the current banking system.

If you take into account banks, servers, ATMs, credit card companies

and all other components of the current monetary system,

you’ll find out that it is much more wasteful

than Bitcoin mining.

Especially if you think about all of the paper used for printing money

and pollution caused by these institutions.

Also, you could say Bitcoin mining

is actually optimizing power consumption around the world.

Many companies are moving their mining operations

to countries that have an excess of electricity.

This means that the use of electricity worldwide

is actually becoming more efficient.

There are a lot of additional arguments in favour of mining

but I’ll leave you with these two for now.

The second question I usually get is

“Can’t Google start mining Bitcoin and blow out the competition?”

Yes it can, but it won’t do it much good.

The reason is that Google’s servers

aren’t fit for solving the Bitcoin mining problem

the same way that ASICs are.

For reference,

if Google harnesses all of its servers to the sole purpose of mining Bitcoin,

and abandons all other business operations,

it will account for around one one-thousandth of a percent

of the total mining power that the Bitcoin network currently has.

And finally, Should I mine Bitcoins?

Well now that you’ve about finished watching this video

you should be able to answer this question yourself.

Keep in mind that sometimes there might be better alternatives to Bitcoin mining

in order to produce a higher return on your investment.

For example, depending on Bitcoin’s price

it might be more profitable to just buy Bitcoins instead of mining them.

Another option would be to perhaps mine altcoins

which can still be mined with GPUs like Ethereum, Monero or Zcash.

This concludes this week’s episode of Bitcoin Whiteboard Tuesday.

Hopefully now you have a better understanding of what Bitcoin mining is -

the process of updating the ledger of Bitcoin transactions

incentivized with the rewarding of new Bitcoins

to those who participate.

You may still have some questions.

If so, just leave them in the comment section below.

And if you’re watching this video on YouTube,

and enjoy what you’ve seen,

don’t forget to hit the like button.

Then make sure to subscribe for notifications about new episodes.

Thanks for joining me here at the Whiteboard.

For 99Bitcoins.com, I’m Nate Martin,

and I’ll see you… in a bit.