Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of curiouswebster
curiouswebsterFlag for United States of America

asked on

Understanding "Mining", "Energy" and BitCoin?

I am new to reading up on BitCoin but was fascinated to be reminded that in the early days of BitCoin, people "mined" additional BitCoin on their PC's. As far as I recall, this was in exchange to turning over part of the processing power of their PC's to BitCoin for background processing.

I assume this amounted to a massive amount of additional processing power available to BitCoin.

Does anyone recall the primary uses of that kind of processing horsepower?

Why do they not need this today?

Can computers today perform at such a higher rates, this "mining" is no longer needed?

Could the addition of a BlockChain database have removed the need for this kind of processing?

Thanks
SOLUTION
Avatar of d-glitch
d-glitch
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of curiouswebster

ASKER

Wow! I really had no understanding of Mining nor how that related to managing the BlockChain's accuracy.

It sounds to me like BitCoin is facing trouble ahead because of this direct relationship between more success and more electricity to maintain the ledger.

I hear it's open sourced. Are there parts of the software model that are hidden away from public view?
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
So, Moore's Law will bring more transistors to bear to solve these algorithms faster than BitCoin will demand these algorithms are solved?

Does this approximate what you are saying?

Conversely, it looks like the the need "for mining" grows at some form of exponential rate. And the deeper BitCoin penetrates global commerce, the faster that demand for mining grows?

What if that need can not be maintained fast enough? Are transactions delayed? Or, is there some confidence limit (like 6 sigma) degraded to a lower level?

I am sorry for asking these questions, I am just very new to this entire topic...and I appreciate hearing from everyone.
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
thanks
You are very welcome and I was happy to help
So, Moore's Law will bring more transistors to bear to solve these algorithms faster than BitCoin will demand these algorithms are solved?
No, the difficulty increases exponentially and is by design

Conversely, it looks like the the need "for mining" grows at some form of exponential rate. And the deeper BitCoin penetrates global commerce, the faster that demand for mining grows?
No, the demand for Bitcoin and the perceived value. Mining is just one way of getting BTC. Much cheaper to simply buy BTC on the low end of its value. In fact all cloud mining will sell you a package that will not be able to mine back the value in BTC that you paid

What if that need can not be maintained fast enough? Are transactions delayed? Or, is there some confidence limit (like 6 sigma) degraded to a lower level?
There's some transactional issues already but they are addressing it but it is not due to lack of mining.