Bitcoin Mining is NOT Solving Complex Math Problems [Beginner's Guide]
A common misunderstanding about Bitcoin mining is that it involves solving complex math problems. Actually, what miners do isn't that complex at all. And that's a good thing. Let's explain 👇
Summary:
- Mining is analogous to an open dice game; winners are determined every 10 minutes
- Difficulty adjusts to keep Bitcoin issuance consistent making it’s supply schedule fixed
- ASICs are superior to supercomputers
Full article: https://braiins.com/blog/bitcoin-mining-analogy-beginners-guide
Dice game analogy:
If miners were solving complex math problems as many people think, supercomputers and quantum computers would pose a serious threat to the Bitcoin network. In reality, mining is more like a dice game than a math exercise.
Imagine you have a 1000-sided dice, and to win a game you just need to roll a number lower than 50. The more rolls you have, the higher your probability of winning. The amount of rolls is equivalent to "hashrate" for bitcoin miners.
The beauty of Bitcoin is the difficulty adjustment which maintains the steady block time and thus, issuance schedule. As more players join the game, the number that they have to roll to win the game gets lower and lower.
In this way, the average time it takes for somebody to roll a wining number on the dice will stay constant, even as the amount of dice rolls occurring each second goes up.
Bitcoin's hashrate has risen more than 10x since the 2017 bull market. Average block time? 10 minutes.
Final note. If you're interested in learning more about the future of the Bitcoin network as quantum computers progress, check out our non-technical explainer: https://braiins.com/blog/can-quantum-computers-51-attack-bitcoin
Submitted April 20, 2021 at 07:07PM by Braiins_mining https://ift.tt/3dyGO9H
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