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For example, the SHA-256 of the term BUTTERFLY (source) is 8c62ace4f9ef8ccd08ca6fb992a8524bb7dbdc0530654bd254c9da07a660949a (HASH). This seemingly random string of letters and numbers has three important properties:

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

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

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For our example, lets say that we have a mining difficulty of simply two, ie, our HASH should begin with two zeros. .

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The problem: BUTTERFLY will return the exact same HASH, and it doesnt start with two zeros. Thus what we need is your third factor, 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 because changing one small number changes the whole HASH outcome, there is no method to forecast the number well need to address this! .

We repeat this procedure 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 the solution to the block. Here are some attempts:

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

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

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CPU mining. In the first days of bitcoin, mining issue was low and not a lot of miners were competing for check out here cubes and rewards. This made it worthwhile to use your computers own central processing unit (CPU) to mine bitcoin. However, that strategy was soon replaced by GPU mining.

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

FPGA mining. Next came mining using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These significantly outperformed GPUs and CPUs in the mining process as FPGAs are processors that can be programmed to perform specific instructions and only those instructions (instead of being repurposed for mining, like GPUs were).

ASIC mining. Comparable to FPGAs, application-specific integrated circuits are processors designed for a specific function, in our case mining bitcoin, and nothing else. ASICs for bitcoin were introduced in 2013 and, as of November 2017, they're the best processors out there for mining bitcoin and they outperform FPGAs in electricity consumption. .

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Mining pools. To offset the problem of mining a block, miners started organising in pools or cloud mining networks. Whenever a miner in one of these pools simplifies a cube, the reward is shared with everyone in the swimming 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 provide potential miners the ability to buy mining rigs in a remote data centre location. There are many obvious advantages, the most obvious beingno energy costs, no excess heat and nothing to sell when you decide to hang up your digital pickaxe.

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

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Desktop wallets. Software such as Bitcoin Core allows you to send and store bitcoin addresses and connects to the network to monitor transactions.

Online wallets. Bitcoin keys are saved online by exchange platforms like Coinbase or Circle and can be retrieved from anywhere.

Mobile wallets. Programs like Blockchain store and encrypt your own bitcoin keys so you can make payments using your cellular device.

Paper wallets. Some sites provide paper wallet solutions, generating a bit of paper with just two QR codes on it. One code is your public address at which you get bitcoin and the other one is your private address you can use for spending.