Frequently Asked Questions About Bitcoin Mining

 Frequently Asked Questions 

Why Do Bitcoins Need to Be Mined?

Because they are entirely digital records, there is a risk of copying, counterfeiting, or double-spending the same coin more than once. Mining solves these problems by making it extremely expensive and resource-intensive to try to do one of these things or otherwise "hack" the network. Indeed, it is far more cost-effective to join the network as a miner than to try to undermine it.

How Does Mining Confirm Transactions?

In addition to introducing new BTC into circulation, mining serves the crucial role of confirming and validating new transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. This is important because there is no central authority such as a bank, court, government, or anything else determining which transactions are valid and which are not. Instead, the mining process achieves a decentralized consensus through proof of work (PoW).

Why Does Mining Use So Much Electricity?

In the early days of Bitcoin, anybody could simply run a mining program from their PC or laptop. But as the network got larger and more people became interested in mining, the mining algorithm became more difficult. This is because the code for Bitcoin targets finding a new block once every 10 minutes, on average.1 If more miners are involved, the chances that somebody will solve the right hash quicker increases, and so the difficulty increases to restore that 10-minute goal. Now imagine if thousands, or even millions more times that mining power joins the network. That's a lot of new machines consuming energy.

Is Bitcoin Mining Legal?

The legality of Bitcoin mining depends entirely on your geographic location. The concept of Bitcoin can threaten the dominance of fiat currencies and government control over the financial markets. For this reason, Bitcoin is completely illegal in certain places.

Bitcoin ownership and mining are legal in more countries than not. Some examples of places where it was illegal according to a 2018 report were Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nepal, and Pakistan.8 Since 2018, other countries have banned Bitcoin mining including Bangladesh, China, Dominican Republic, North Macedonia, Qatar, and Vietnam.9101112 Overall, Bitcoin use and mining remain legal across much of the globe.

Does Crypto Mining Damage Your GPU/Computer?

Because blockchain mining is very resource-intensive, it can put a large strain on your GPU or other mining hardware. In fact, it is not unheard of for GPUs to blow out, or for mining rigs to burst into flames.13 However, keeping your rigs running at a moderate pace and with sufficient power supplied, it is generally safe.

Can You Mine Bitcoin on Your iPhone?

No. Bitcoin mining today requires vast amounts of computing power and electricity to be competitive. Running a miner on a mobile device, even if it is part of a mining pool, will likely result in no earnings.

The Bottom Line

Bitcoin "mining" serves a crucial function to validate and confirm new transactions to the blockchain and to prevent double-spending by bad actors. It is also the way that new bitcoins are introduced into the system. Based on a complex puzzle, the task involves producing proof of work (PoW), which is inherently energy-intensive. This energy, however, is embodied in the value of bitcoins and the Bitcoin system and keeps this decentralized system stable, secure, and trustworthy.

Pickaxe Strategy for Bitcoin Mining

 Pickaxe Strategy for Bitcoin Mining

As mentioned above, the easiest way to acquire Bitcoin is to simply buy it on one of the many Bitcoin exchanges. Alternately, you can always leverage the "pickaxe strategy." This is based on the old saw that during the 1849 California Gold Rush, the smart investment was not to pan for gold, but rather to make the pickaxes used for mining.

To put it in modern terms, invest in the companies that manufacture those pickaxes. In a cryptocurrency context, the pickaxe equivalent would be a company that manufactures equipment used for Bitcoin mining. You may consider looking into companies that make ASIC equipment or GPUs instead, for example. 

Downsides of Mining 

The risks of mining are often financial and regulatory. As aforementioned, Bitcoin mining, and mining in general, is a financial risk because one could go through all the effort of purchasing hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of mining equipment only to have no return on their investment. That said, this risk can be mitigated by joining mining pools. If you are considering mining and live in an area where it is prohibited, you should reconsider. It may also be a good idea to research your country's regulation and overall sentiment toward cryptocurrency before investing in mining equipment.

One additional potential risk from the growth of Bitcoin mining (and other PoW systems as well) is the increasing energy usage required by the computer systems running the mining algorithms. Though microchip efficiency has increased dramatically for ASIC chips, the growth of the network itself is outpacing technological progress. As a result, there are concerns about Bitcoin mining's environmental impact and carbon footprint.

There are, however, efforts to mitigate this negative externality by seeking cleaner and green energy sources for mining operations (such as geothermal or solar sources), as well as utilizing carbon offset credits. Switching to less energy-intensive consensus mechanisms like proof-of-stake (PoS), which Ethereum has transitioned to, is another strategy; however, PoS comes with its own set of drawbacks and inefficiencies, such as incentivizing hoarding instead of using coins and a risk of centralization of consensus control.

•Mining is a metaphor for introducing new bitcoins into the system because it requires (computational) work just as mining for gold or silver requires (physical) effort. Of course, the tokens that miners find are virtual and exist only within the digital ledger of the Bitcoin blockchain. 

How Does Mining Bitcoin Work?

 How Does Mining Bitcoin Work?

What Is Bitcoin Mining?

Bitcoin mining is the process by which new bitcoins are entered into circulation. It is also the way the network confirms new transactions and is a critical component of the blockchain ledger's maintenance and development. "Mining" is performed using sophisticated hardware that solves an extremely complex computational math problem. The first computer to find the solution to the problem receives the next block of bitcoins and the process begins again.

Cryptocurrency mining is painstaking, costly, and only sporadically rewarding. Nonetheless, mining has a magnetic appeal for many investors who are interested in cryptocurrency because of the fact that miners receive rewards for their work with crypto tokens. This may be because entrepreneurial types see mining as pennies from heaven, like California gold prospectors in 1849. And if you are technologically inclined, why not do it?

The bitcoin reward that miners receive is an incentive that motivates people to assist in the primary purpose of mining: to legitimize and monitor Bitcoin transactions, ensuring their validity. Because many users all over the world share these responsibilities, Bitcoin is a "decentralized" cryptocurrency, or one that does not rely on any central authority like a central bank or government to oversee its regulation.

However, before you invest the time and equipment, read this explainer to see whether mining is really for you. By mining, you can earn cryptocurrency without having to put down money for it.

Bitcoin miners receive bitcoin as a reward for completing "blocks" of verified transactions, which are added to the blockchain.

Mining rewards are paid to the miner who discovers a solution to a complex hashing puzzle first, and the probability that a participant will be the one to discover the solution is related to the portion of the network's total mining power.

You need either a graphics processing unit (GPU) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in order to set up a mining rig. 

Tip: Throughout, we use "Bitcoin" with a capital "B" when referring to the network or the cryptocurrency as a concept, and "bitcoin" with a small "b" when we're referring to a quantity of individual tokens.