Where do bitcoins come from? With paper money, a government decides when to print and distribute money. Bitcoin doesn’t have a central government.
With Bitcoin, miners use special software to solve math problems and are issued a certain number of bitcoins in exchange. This provides a smart way to issue the currency and also creates an incentive for more people to mine.
Bitcoin is Secure
Bitcoin miners help keep the Bitcoin network secure by approving transactions. Mining is an important and integral part of Bitcoin that ensures fairness while keeping the Bitcoin network stable, safe and secure.
Links
- We Use Coins – Learn all about crypto-currency.
- Bitcoin News – Where the Bitcoin community gets news.
- Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast – Interviews with the top people in the Bitcoin world
Bitcoin Mining Hardware Comparison
Currently, based on (1) price per hash and (2) electrical efficiency the best Bitcoin miner options are:
AntMiner S7
- 4.73 Th/s
- 0.25 W/Gh
- 8.8 pounds
- Yes
- $595.99
- 0.3994
Avalon6
- 3.5 Th/s
- 0.29 W/Gh
- 9.5 pounds
- No
- $750.95
- 0.2955
SP20 Jackson
- 1.3-1.7 Th/s
- 0.65 W/Gh
- 20 pounds
- Yes
- $248.99
- 0.1593
Bitcoin mining is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin’s public ledger of past transactions or blockchain. This ledger of past transactions is called the block chain as it is a chain of blocks. The block chain serves to confirm transactions to the rest of the network as having taken place.
Bitcoin nodes use the block chain to distinguish legitimate Bitcoin transactions from attempts to re-spend coins that have already been spent elsewhere.