Book Image

Bitcoin Essentials

By : Szmigielski
Book Image

Bitcoin Essentials

By: Szmigielski

Overview of this book

Blockchain is being billed as the technology of the future. Bitcoin is the first application of that technology. Mining is what makes it all possible. Exploring mining from a practical perspective will help you make informed decisions about your mining setup. Understanding what the future may hold for blockchains, and therefore for mining, will help you position yourself to take advantage of the impending changes. This practical guide starts with an introduction to Bitcoin wallets, as well as mining hardware and software. You will move on to learn about different mining techniques using the CPU, GPU, FPGA, and ultimately the ASIC as an example. After this, you will gain an insight into solo mining and pool mining, and see the differences between the two. The book will then walk you through large-scale mining and the challenges faced during such operations. Finally, you will take a look into the future to see a world where blockchain-based applications are commonplace and mining is ubiquitous.
Table of Contents (10 chapters)
9
Index

Summary

In this chapter, we explored what may be in store for Bitcoin Mining. Mining may become more centralized and there is evidence to support that argument. At the same time, it is also possible that mining will become more decentralized. We are already seeing steps being taken in that direction. PoW, while being a good algorithm for initial distribution of a digital currency, may not be the best way to secure the blockchain in the future. We will probably see PoW being replaced by a different algorithm.

We hope that you have enjoyed reading this book as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. Mining is an exciting topic to discuss and even more exciting to practice. We encourage you to put what you have learned in this book into practice by setting up a miner of your own. You can set up and configure the hardware and software required by following the instructions in previous chapters. You will gain some knowledge and you will be able to say that you were a part of Bitcoin mining...