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

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

In Bitcoin mining conditions, that metaphorical undisclosed number in the envelope is known as the objective hash.

What miners are doing with those tremendous computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing at the target hash. Miners create these guesses by randomly generating as many"nonces" as possible, as quickly as possible. A nonce is short for"number only used once," and also the nonce is the key to generating these 64-bit hexadecimal numbers I keep talking about.

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

In theory you could Attain the Exact Same aim by rolling a 16-sided die 64 times to Reach random numbers, but why on earth would you want to do that

The screenshot below, taken by the website Blockchain.info, might enable you to put all of this information together at 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 top.

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

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

Here are some examples of randomized hashes and the standards for if they will lead to achievement for the miner:

You'd have to find a fast mining rig or, more realistically, join a mining pool--a bunch of miners who combine their computing power and split the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are somewhat comparable to those Powerball clubs whose members buy lottery tickets en masse and agree to discuss any winnings. A disproportionately high number of blocks are mined by pools rather than by individual miners. .

In other words, it is literally only a website link numbers game.  You cannot imagine the pattern or make a prediction based on preceding target hashes. The difficulty level of the most recent block at the time of writing is 2,874,674,234,416, i.e. the chance of any given nonce producing a hash beneath the goal is 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--significantly less than 1 in 2 trillion. .

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The aforementioned site Cryptocompare delivers a very helpful calculator which allows you to plug in numbers like your hash speed, electricity costs etc. to gauge the costs and benefits.

Mining benefits are paid into the miner who finds a solution to the puzzle first, and also the probability that a participant is going to be the one to discover the solution is equivalent to the portion of the entire mining energy on the network.  Participants with a small percentage of their mining power stand a very small chance of discovering the next block on their own.  For instance, a mining card that one could buy for a couple thousand bucks would represent less than 0.001percent of their network's mining power.  With such a tiny chance at finding the next block, it could be a long time before that miner finds out a block, and the difficulty going up makes things even worse.  The miner may never recover their investment.  The answer to this problem 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 flow of bitcoin starting the afternoon that they activate their miner.  Statistics on a few of the mining pools can be seen on Blockchain.info. .

Sure. As discussed, the simplest way to acquire Bitcoin is to buy it on an exchange such as Coinbase.com. Alternately, you can always leverage the"pickaxe plan". This is based on the old saw that during the 1848 California gold rush, the smart investment was not to pan for gold, but instead to make the pickaxes used for mining.

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In a crypto context, the pickaxe equivalent would be a company that manufactures equpiment utilized for Bitcoin mining. You can look into companies that make ASICs miners or GPU miners. .