Since the inception of bitcoin, the process of mining the leading cryptocurrency has changed drastically. Initially, miners were able to use their home computers to mine bitcoins and even make a tidy profit. But now bitcoin mining requires a substantial investment and dedicated equipment to make profits via mining bitcoin.
A new bitcoin is mined every 10 minutes, and the amount of time it takes a miner to mine a bitcoin depends on how much mining power he has. The process of bitcoin mining has become quite challenging, and there is fierce competition among bitcoin miners.
Mining involves solving complex mathematical equations.
Mining a bitcoin block adds a new block to the blockchain, and as a reward for creating and validating the block, the miners get a reward in bitcoins. Mining a new block involves solving complex mathematical problems, and the first one to solve the problem gets rewarded with bitcoins. Bitcoin mining requires substantial computing power, and that is why special machines are used to mine bitcoins.
Note: There are only 21 million bitcoins that can be mined, and there are less than 3 million bitcoins left to be mined.
The speed of bitcoin mining.
A bitcoin on average is mined every 10 minutes, and the rigs involved in creating a new block split the reward amongst themselves. As of now, miners are rewarded 12.5 bitcoin for mining a block, but the reward gets reduced by half every four years because of the halvening event. The speed of bitcoin mining depends very much on the equipment that is used for mining. If you decide to use a home computer to mine a bitcoin, it will take you years to create a block, and the power consumption would outweigh the revenue you generated.
Note: The next bitcoin halvening is scheduled to take place in May 2020.
China is responsible for the majority of bitcoin mining.
China is responsible for more than 65% of the total bitcoin mining. And the rest of the 35% of bitcoin mining happens in different countries, including the USA, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Currently, Bitcoin mining is dominated by giant mining pools such as Bitmain. Bitmain’s market share by hash rate is over 66%.
Note: The market hash rate of Bitmain dropped from 70% in June 2019 to 666% in November 2019.
How does bitcoin mining pool work?
Joining a mining pool is relatively a safer way to earn profits when mining bitcoins. It allows a miner to utilize his equipment and collaborate instead of competing with other miners for rewards. A mining pool works collectively towards creating new blocks and normally requires you to contribute a minimum of 4% of the overall processing power to join in.
Note: Mining pools allow members to compete with ledger private mining organizations such as AntPool and BTC.com.
Conclusion
Bitcoin mining has changed a lot since its inception. In order to make profits by mining bitcoins is a tough job in 2020, and after the halvening, the reward will get even smaller. In 2020 ASICs are commonly used to mine bitcoin. The time it takes to mine a bitcoin depends on very much on the equipment, but on average, a new bitcoin is mined every 10 minutes.
