Earlier having heard the word ‘mining’ one used to have a picture of strong workers getting into the dark hole performing the most dangerous work. The picture is quite different today and digital fans will certainly think of cryptocurrency mining than to the purpose of obtaining metals and minerals in the ground. The two processes are united under one name, and despite the fact that both do have similarities, there are essential differences to discover.
The pickaxe for crypto mining
To understand the process of crypto mining better, one should be familiar with special electronic devices that have high computing capacity. These are miners created to solve incredibly complex mathematical tasks, as Bitcoin requires it. In general, crypto fans have two ways of obtaining Bitcoins: purchasing them or mining. The second method also has two directions to choose from.
The most popular variant is to use special software. One needs to download the Bitcoin Miner program and wait slowly, but patiently for the appearance of the first little amounts. Another method has a high price and implies the purchase of the abovementioned miners. Having equipment that is 10 times more effective than a usual computer, a user gets a new ‘profession’. A collier can’t work without a pickaxe, and at the same time, a Bitcoin miner does the function of this instrument for mining digital money.
Mining hardware and its features
Speaking about mining hardware, the choice depends on the user’s circumstances. Hash rate is a means to show the number of times the network can attempt to solve the math puzzle every second. It is so complicated to solve that only special units can cope with it – application-specific integrated circuit chips (ASICs). There is a wide range of ASICs that provide different options. Depending on the user’s needs, there are single miners that can simply function in the spare room or the best mining hardware that requires a lot of space and financial investment. What’s important to take into account while buying mining equipment is the hash rate, efficiency, and cost.
Mining farms give the solution for the hash rate problem
More and more people get connected to the mining process creating high competition, and manufactures of powerful technical equipment are competing with each other to get their place in the sun. In addition, mining farms will allow increasing the productivity of computers and maximizing hash rates. In simple words, mining farms are rooms containing a large number of computers and ‘working hard’ on solving mining tasks.
One of the main resources to cover the process is electricity. The best places for mining farms should be the ones with free or cheap electricity. Moreover, they are to supply a permanent 24/7 power source and a huge number of processors with appropriate cooling and ventilation systems. China gets the leader place in mining and covers about 70% of all mining in the world. Thanks to cheap electricity, it has been the home of mining equipment being worth a fortune and mining an increasing number of digital money.
The main principles of mining
What Bitcoin mining process includes is securing the network and confirming Bitcoin transactions. Miners get rewards in the form of new coins. Traditional currencies are issued by central banks, but Bitcoin belongs to people with no ‘chief’. What’s more, minors can’t cheat the system by no means; creating Bitcoins from thin air is simply out of question.
The issuance rate is set in the code and miners are to use the computing power for generation. Another item to point is that miners secure the Bitcoin network, because the more miners, the more secure the network becomes. Distributed hash power keeps Bitcoin safe. For many people, it is the essence of the matter to know that the mining process is legal. The good news is that only some countries declare Bitcoin as illegal, but the majority gives a green light. Why not use it?