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January 13, 2018, 08:18:03 AM |
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Now that you know "How Ethereum Mining Works", you may want to know how to compete in the race to mine ether yourself.
To recap, mining is the glue that holds ethereum's 'decentralized app store' together by ensuring that it comes to consensus on each change to any of the applications (dapps) running on the network.
Take the online notebook described in "What is Ethereum?". The network would not come to consensus about the 'state' of the notebook (say, if a note is added or deleted) without the computational power to process the changes.
Miners set computers loose to solve cryptographic puzzles in an attempt to win ether, and they need to try a huge number of computational problems until one unlocks a new batch of the asset.
One of the interesting things about open blockchains is that, in theory, anyone can set their computers to focus on these cryptographic puzzles as a way to win rewards.
The catch is that mining on major public blockchains tends to require more and more power over time, as more people invest in more powerful hardware.
In this day and age, those mining with low-powered setups are unlikely to win, but it's still a viable past-time for hobbyists and enthusiasts alike.
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