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If you are 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 calculate the total value of a hash.

Remember that ELI5 analogy, where I composed 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 these tremendous computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing at the target hash. Miners create these guesses by randomly generating as many"nonces" as you can, 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 first miner whose nonce generates a hash that is less than or equivalent to the target hash is given credit for completing that obstruct, and is awarded the spoils of 12.5 BTC. .

In theory you can achieve the same aim by rolling a 16-sided die 64 times to Reach random numbers, but why on earth do you want to do that

The screenshot below, taken from the website Blockchain.info, might help you put all of this information together at a glance. You're looking at a list 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 that they confirmed 1768 transactions for this block. If you truly want to find all 1768 of these transactions for this block, then go to this webpage and scroll down to the heading"Transactions." .

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

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

You would need to find a speedy mining rig or, more realistically, join a mining pool--a group of miners that combine their computing power and split the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are somewhat comparable to those Powerball clubs whose members purchase lottery tickets en masse and consent 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 numbers game.  You cannot guess 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 click for more info producing a hash beneath the goal is just 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--less than 1 in 2 trillion. .

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

Mining rewards are paid to 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 total mining energy on the network.  Participants which have a small percentage of their mining power stand a tiny chance of discovering the next block on their own.  For instance, a mining card that one could purchase to get a couple thousand bucks would represent less than 0.001percent of the network's mining energy.  With such a small chance at finding the next block, it might be a long time before that miner finds a block, and also 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 pool and sharing the payouts amongst participants, click this miners can get a steady stream of bitcoin starting the day 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 purchase 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 goldbut rather to create the pickaxes taken 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 start looking into companies which make ASICs miners Bitcoin Mining Efficiency or GPU miners. .