![]() ![]() This streamlines the reward structure and makes your payments more reliable. In a mining pool, many users join forces to mine as a group, and all reward payments are split up among the group, according to how much computing power they’ve been contributing. If you’re not running a bunch of super-fast mining computers, it’s possible you’ll never be the one to hit the milestone and receive the payment. Instead, they’re given out in big chunks when particular milestones are hit, to whoever hits those milestones. When Bitcoin mining, payments aren’t received in a steady, gradual flow. The first is whether to mine solo or participate in a mining pool. To pool or not to pool, that is the question You can then spend the altcoins or swap them for bitcoins at a cryptocurrency exchange. Unlike most altcoins, bitcoins can be spent at a number of e-tailers like and Tiger Direct.īefore you start mining there are two important decisions to make. It’s still possible to be successful at altcoin mining using traditional PC graphics cards, like AMD’s Radeon R9-280.īecause altcoins are less popular, and because many altcoins use a different kind of mining algorithm called “scrypt” that can’t be solved by the ASIC boards, you can still feasibly earn these altcoins by running the mining program on your personal computer. Even the burliest desktop PC with huge gaming GPUs won’t be able to generate enough money mining bitcoin to cover the cost of the electricity used in the process. These chips, called ASICs, are so good at mining that it’s pretty much impossible for normal, general-purpose hardware to compete. As a result, companies have designed chips solely for running the cryptographic algorithms bitcoin uses for mining. Why mine altcoins?Īs bitcoin values have soared over the last couple of years, bitcoin mining has become a very lucrative business. In order to incentivize people to participate in this transaction-verifying network, bitcoins are periodically generated and awarded to the machines engaged in maintaining the public ledger. Bitcoin accomplishes this using cryptography (hence the “crypto” in “cryptocurrency”), in a process that requires many computers, all connected in a single peer-to-peer network. It has to be impossible for anyone to record a fraudulent transaction. If you try to send somebody else 5 bitcoins tomorrow, that transaction will be rejected because it’s a matter of public record that your wallet doesn’t have the coins.įor the system to work, the public ledger has to be completely trustworthy. ![]() For example, if you have 10 bitcoins in your wallet and send 7 to someone else, that transaction goes in the ledger, and everyone knows that your wallet only has 3 bitcoins now. ![]() The Bitcoin software works this way: Every time somebody spends a bitcoin, that transaction is recorded in a public ledger. What it means to mine a bitcoin or altcoin ![]()
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