A Biased View of X11 Cryptocurrency
Instead, they went with Solution 2. The resulting currency, known as bitcoin cash, increased the blocksize to 8 Mb in order to accelerate the verification process to allow a performance of around 2 million transactions per day. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash is valued at $545.00 to Bitcoins $6,328.11.
When you hear about bitcoin mining, you envisage coins being dug out of the ground. But bitcoin isnt bodily, so why do we call it mining
Since its like gold mining in the bitcoins exist in the protocols design (like the gold is underground), but they havent been introduced into the light yet (like the gold hasnt been dug up). The bitcoin protocol stipulates that 21 million bitcoins will exist at some point.
They get to do so as a reward for creating cubes of confirmed transactions and including them in the blockchain.
Backtracking a bit, lets talk about nodes. A node is a powerful computer which runs the bitcoin applications and assists to keep bitcoin running by participating in the relay of information. Anyone can run a node, you simply download the bitcoin software (totally free ) and also leave a certain port open (the drawback is the fact that it consumes energy and storage space the network at time of writing carries up about 145GB).
One node will send information to a few nodes which it knows, who will relay the information to nodes that they know, etc.. This way it ends up getting around the entire network pretty fast. .
Some nodes are mining nodes (usually known as miners). These group outstanding transactions into cubes and add them to the blockchain. How can they do so by solving a complex mathematical puzzle that is part of this bitcoin program, and including the answer in the block. The puzzle that needs solving is to find a number that, when combined with the data in the cube and passed via a hash function, produces a result that is within a certain range. go to my blog
How can they find this number By guessing at random. The hash function which makes it impossible to predict what the output will be. So, miners guess the puzzle number and apply the hash function to the combination of that guessed number and the information in the block. The resulting hash has to begin reference with a pre-established number of zeroes.
Whats more, there might be several nonces that make the desired result, or there may be none (in which case the miners keep trying, but with a different block configuration). .
The first miner to get a resulting hash within the desired range announces its success to the remainder of the network. All the other miners immediately stop work on that block and begin trying to figure out the mystery number for your next one. As a reward for its own work, the victorious miner gets some new bitcoin. .
In the time of writing, the payoff is 12.5 bitcoins, which at time of writing is worth nearly $200,000.
Additionally, the expenses of being a mining node are considerable, not only because of the effective hardware needed (in case you have a faster processor than your competitors, you have a better chance of finding the right number before they do), but also because of the large amounts of power that running these processors consumes. .
And, the number of all bitcoins given as a reward for solving the puzzle will decrease. Its 12.5 now, however, it halves every four decades or so (the next one is expected in 2020-21). The worth of bitcoin relative to cost of power and hardware could go up during the next few years to partly compensate this reduction, but its not certain. .
The difficulty of the calculation (the required number of zeroes at the beginning of the hash string) is corrected frequently, so that it requires on average about 10 minutes to process a block.
Why 10 minutes that's the amount of time the bitcoin programmers think is necessary for a continuous and diminishing flow of new coins until the highest number of 21 million is attained (expected some time in 2140).