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

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

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

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For our example, lets say that we've a mining difficulty of simply two, ie, our HASH must start with two zeros. .

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The problem: BUTTERFLY will always 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 take 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 entire HASH outcome, there's absolutely no method to predict the number well need to solve this! .

We repeat this process over and over until we find a number that, when combined with BUTTERFLY, provides us a HASH that begins with two zeros. That number is your solution to the block. Here are some tries:

This arduous procedure of randomly trying to find a number that supplies the solution is what makes bitcoin mining such a computationally expensive procedure, and as more miners join the network, the tougher it gets. As of November 2017, a normal 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 caused the rise of ASIC computers constructed specifically for mining and also to an increase in cloud mining.

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CPU mining. In the early days of bitcoin, mining issue was reduced and not a lot of miners were competing for 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. An graphics processing unit (GPU) is a potent processor whose sole purpose is to assist your computers graphics card in rendering 3D graphics. GPUs are not constructed for executive decisions (such as CPUs) however to be somewhat good labourers, hence GPUs are able to execute over 800 times more instructions in the same amount of time as a CPU.

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

ASIC mining. Comparable to FPGAs, application-specific integrated circuits are chips designed for a specific purpose, in our situation 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 power consumption. .

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Mining pools. To offset the problem of mining a block, miners started organising in cloud or pools mining networks. Whenever a miner in one of these pools simplifies a cube, the payoff is shared with everyone in the pool in a ratio representative of just how much work you put into the pool (even though you personally never solved the puzzle). .

Cloud mining. Clouds offer potential miners the capability to purchase mining channels in a remote data centre location. There are many obvious advantages, the most obvious beingno electricity expenses, no excess heat and nothing to market when you opt to hang up your virtual pickaxe.

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

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

Online wallets. Bitcoin keys are saved online by exchange programs such as Coinbase or Circle and can be retrieved from anywhere.

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

Paper wallets. Some sites provide paper wallet services, generating a piece of paper using just two QR codes on it. One code is the public address where you get bitcoin and the other one is your personal address you can use for spending.