# Mining

**Published by:** [Sergei](https://paragraph.com/@sergei-2/)
**Published on:** 2022-09-08
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@sergei-2/mining

## Content

What is mining To put it simplistically, but not quite correctly, mining is the mining of cryptocurrencies, most often bitcoins, which is due to their most serious demand and popularity on the market at the moment. Essentially, the owner of a computer, using its resources to operate a virtual payment system, collects and processes information about the cryptocurrency transactions currently taking place. This activity is necessary for the transactions to take place, to ensure a high degree of security, as well as the smooth functioning of the entire peer-to-peer decentralized system. The greater the number of miners and, consequently, computer resources involved in the process, the more reliable and stable the system is. Working Principle The owner of a computer resource receives remuneration for processing information in the form of a commission assigned by the virtual money owner, or remuneration in the form of a part of the cryptocurrency emitted in the process of mining. This is the basis of one of the main principles of payment systems, involving the use of bitcoins and some other virtual money. The transactions where the highest commission is set are processed and conducted first. Therefore, transactions with zero fees can take a very long time. Why does bitcoin need miners? It is important to understand that the common belief that the need for mining and, consequently, miners will disappear after the last bitcoin is released is extremely far from the truth. As already mentioned, the functions of mining are no less important than processing information, conducting transactions and securing the functioning of the payment system. Obviously, this kind of work will always be required. Bitcoin mining Undoubtedly, the most popular cryptocurrency today is bitcoin, created in 2008-2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. That is why, more often than not, the decision is made to mine this particular type of virtual money. However, it should be understood that the flip side of the popularity is a huge amount of resources involved in processing the information. Therefore, today, in order to really make money mining bitcoins requires the presence of extremely large computing power. Mining schemes The simplest mining scheme involves the installation of special software on the computer, after which the connection of its resources to the payment system is carried out. What is a mining farm? A mining farm is a number of computers or servers combined into one system. At the same time, at different times and for different cryptocurrencies, different equipment is used. For example, for bitcoin "mining" some years ago there were mainly video cards used, then they were replaced by specially developed processors (ASIC). At the same time, some cryptocurrencies, such as the second most popular Ethereum, are still most effective when using high performance video cards.

## Publication Information

- [Sergei](https://paragraph.com/@sergei-2/): Publication homepage
- [All Posts](https://paragraph.com/@sergei-2/): More posts from this publication
- [RSS Feed](https://api.paragraph.com/blogs/rss/@sergei-2): Subscribe to updates