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If you're mining Bitcoin, you do not need to calculate the entire value of the 64-digit number (the hash). I repeat: You do not need to calculate the entire value of a hash.

Remember that ELI5 analogy, in which 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 target hash.

What miners are doing with these huge computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing at the hash. Miners make 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 primary miner whose nonce generates a hash that is less than or equal to the target hash is given credit for completing that block, and is given the spoils of 12.5 BTC. .

In theory you could achieve the same goal by rolling a 16-sided expire 64 days to arrive at random numbers, but why on earth would you want to do that

The screenshot below, taken from the site Blockchain.info, might enable you to put all of this information together at a glance. You are looking at a summary of everything which 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 into the Bitcoin community is that they confirmed 1768 transactions for this block. If you really want to see all 1768 of these transactions for this block, then go to this page and scroll down to the heading"Transactions." .

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

Here are some examples of More Info randomized hashes and also the standards for whether they will lead to achievement for your miner:

You would need to find a speedy mining rig , more realistically, join a mining pool--a bunch of miners that combine their computing power and divide the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are somewhat comparable to people Powerball clubs whose members purchase lottery tickets en masse and agree to discuss any winnings. A disproportionately large number of cubes are mined by pools rather than by individual miners. . site

In other words, it's literally only a numbers game.  You cannot guess the pattern or make a prediction based on previous goal 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 producing a hash beneath the target is just 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--less than 1 in 2 trillion. .

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The aforementioned website Cryptocompare offers a helpful calculator that permits 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 discovers a solution to the puzzle first, and also the probability that a participant will be the one to find the solution is equal to the portion of the entire mining energy on the network.  Participants which have a small percentage of the mining power stand a tiny chance of discovering the next block on their own.  For instance, a mining card that one could purchase for a few thousand bucks would represent less than 0.001% of the network's mining power.  With such a small chance at finding the next block, it might be a long time before that miner finds out a block, and the problem going up makes things even worse.  The miner may never recoup their investment.  The answer to this predicament 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, 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 mentioned, the easiest way to get Bitcoin is to buy it on an exchange like Coinbase.com. Alternately, you can always leverage the"pickaxe strategy". This is based on the old saw that during the 1848 California gold rush, the smart investment was not to pan for gold, but instead to make the pickaxes used 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 that make ASICs miners or GPU miners. .