Hey Cryptonauts !  Thanks for joining me :D 

Today we are going to be talking about Bitcoin mining. What is it? And how does it work?

We are all familiar with mining for gold. Over 150 years ago people were rushing to California for the Gold Rush. people had made false claims before that they had discovered gold, so it wasn't until December of 1848, when President James Polk backed up the discovery, that the Gold Rush began. And then in 1849 prospectors came from all over to the region to test their luck at finding gold and the real Gold Rush began. With time this led to entire industries being created, from massive mining operations which still exist today, to diamond and jewelry retailers. 

So what does all this have to do with bitcoin? 

Well bitcoin mining is similar to mining for gold, except it’s digital. In cryptocurrency mining you dedicate hashing power towards solving very complex math problems. The more power you dedicate toward finding the answer, the greater your reward. 

A Hash Rate is the speed at which a worker is completing an operation in the code. 
Mining is the “work” that powers the blockchain. You see, in order for information to be securely sent from Alice to Bob the miners securely verify each and every transaction. 

You need special kinds of equipment to mine cryptocurrency. 

This is an ASIC ant miner. ASIC means application specific integrated circuit. 

This type of miner is made specifically for mining bitcoin. It’s pretty loud and requires lots of power. 
Back in 2011 you could mine an entire bitcoin block reward with a regular laptop, and the reward was 50 bitcoins. But over time the difficulty to solve the math problem increases requiring more hashing power, and, the code specifies that every 210,000 blocks mined that reward would be cut inhalf. 

And now there are massive mining farms where people have set up hundreds, even thousands of ASIC miners all working together to mine bitcoin. Seeing who can get the most hashing power and the most reward. 

Another very popular way to mine cryptocurrency is with modern day GPU’s, which a large percentage of people likely have in their home gaming computer. At minimum a GTX 1050ti can make you a dollar a day renting your GPU power out with Nice Hash. 

Depending on what cryptocurrency you want to mine and your configuration GPU mining is extremely scalable, but can be a little difficult to set up and manage, but rigs with 6-12 GPU’s aren’t uncommon. 

There are even some people who heat their homes with the extra heat output from the miners. 
Mining is “Proof of Work” since it requires start up costs, and lots of energy, miners will always be required for certain blockchains. 

There are blockchains which don’t require proof of work, but we’ll save that for another video. 
Alright everyone thanks for joining me and if you have any questions about cryptocurrency, bitcoin, or mining cryptocurrency please leave me a comment below.

I will do my best to answer each and every one of you.

Thanks for listening, hope you learned something. And stay cryptic!

![14266642578_a469f21d3b_b.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmP7XvBBbUekG4Djbze3Aw4fWuxGnERWbVFqxJbQVQGLsP/14266642578_a469f21d3b_b.jpg)