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1. Beginner Course

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  1. 1. What are these cryptocurrencies?
  2. 2. Bitcoin - the story of a technological revolution
  3. 3. Satoshi Nakamoto, who is the creator of Bitcoin?
  4. 4. Vitaly Buterin – the creator of Ethereum
  5. 5. What is Blockchain, and how does it work?
  6. 6. What is an NFT token?
  7. 7. What is money?
  8. 8. Cryptocurrencies vs fiat money, which will win?
  9. 9. What is DeFi (Decentralized Finance)?
  10. 10. DeFi: opportunities, advantages and disadvantages of decentralized finance
  11. 11. What is an altcoin
  12. 12. Stablecoins - What they are?
  13. 13. Cryptocurrency wallet - what is it?
  14. 14. Why do we talk about bull and bear markets?
  15. 15. Security in the crypto market - what rules are worth following?
  16. 16. What is the seed phrase in cryptocurrencies?
  17. 17. Dogecoin and memecoin - what are they?
  18. 18. What is a Ponzi scheme?
  19. 19. What is Ethereum? 
  20. 20. What is a soft and hard fork?
  21. 21. Blockchain - examples of use
  22. 22. Is blockchain safe?
  23. 23. Smart Contracts - what are they?
  24. 24. Liquidity pools in the cryptocurrency market
  25. 25. What is cryptocurrency mining?
  26. 26. What is the mining difficulty?
  27. 27. Inflation and its effects on financial markets
  28. 28. What is compound interest, and how does it work?
  29. 29. Cryptocurrency portfolio diversification
  30. 30. Blockchain and NFT games - how to make money on them?
  31. 31. Decentralized dApps - what are they?
  32. 32. What is Proof of Work (PoW) and what is Proof of Stake (PoS)?
  33. 33. What is Proof of Burn (PoB)?
  34. 34. What is the Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism?
  35. 35. What is CBDC - central bank digital money?
  36. 36. What is Cryptocurrency Airdrop all about?
  37. 37. What are the types of blockchain networks?
  38. 38. Key differences between ICO, IEO and STO
  39. 39. What is IoT - the Internet of Things?
  40. 40. What is the difference between Circulating Supply and Total Supply?
  41. 41. Everything you need to know about gas fees in Ethereum!
  42. 42. The most important cryptocurrency acronyms/slang you need to know!
  43. 43. Halving Bitcoin - what is it, and how does it affect the price?
  44. 44. What is the Fear and Greed index for cryptocurrencies?
  45. 45. APR versus APY: what is the difference?
Lesson 26 of 45
In Progress

26. What is the mining difficulty?

In the previous lesson, we discussed in detail the process of mining cryptocurrencies. An indispensable topic that is directly related to this process is the difficulty of extracting them. What does it actually mean”mining difficulty”? What does mining cryptocurrencies have to do with the term? We invite you to read.

Mining difficulty – definition

The difficulty of mining cryptocurrencies is a measurement unit that tells us how difficult it is to solve a given cryptographic puzzle. More industry-specific – how long does it take miners to find the right hash for a given block. Depending on the number of miners, the level of mining difficulty increases or decreases over time.

In the case of BTC, a new block is added every 10 minutes. The network is equipped with an appropriate algorithm that constantly adjusts the difficulty of the mining process to the current number of miners the network works. This ensures that blocks are discovered at a constant rate.

How is it working?

In the previous section, we mentioned that the mining difficulty is a variable parameter. It varies according to the quantity of miners on the network and hash rate. The main goal of mining is to keep the mining time between blocks constant. If the hash rate of the network is high, blocks will be generated quickly. In effect, the network will increase the difficulty level of mining. And vice versa – if the hash rate is low, blocks will be generated too slowly – the difficulty of mining will decrease.

Hash rate (hash power) – definition

It is a measure of a miner’s performance. The speed at which the computer creates output hashes from a given input. In progress mining cryptocurrencies, the miner passes the data through the “hash” function to create this output. This calculation is performed many times per second until the output hash meets the criteria. A miner whose hash meets the requirements can add his block to the chain and collect a well-deserved reward.

Difficulty of mining on the example of Bitcoin

With the increase in popularity of Bitcoin, the number of computers participating in its peer-to-peer network is also increasing. Engaged in mining, miners compete for a block reward. The greater the number of participants and computing power, the greater the hash power of the entire network. You already know that Bitcoin transactions are stored in blocks that are added to the blockchain every 10 minutes. To maintain this time, the block mining difficulty must be adjusted accordingly. In the case of BTC, it changes automatically after 2,016 blocks have been mined in the network. It increases or decreases depending on the number of miners and the hash power of the entire network.

Mining Pool

Currently, most cryptocurrencies are extracted using the mining pool (mining pools). Miners prefer to join forces and solve complicated mathematical puzzles together.

Thanks to this procedure, they have a higher hash rate and have more computing power, which increases their probability of solving the puzzle. When a new block is discovered, each miner receives a reward proportionally to his share of the computing power in the pool. No one is harmed and everyone gets their share of the reward.

Summary

You already know what the mining difficulty is. You already noticed that it depends on many factors. Are you considering the difficulty of mining cryptocurrencies? Is their mining profitable? We can argue. We understand it is often like looking for a needle in a haystack.