Book Image

Bitcoin Essentials

By : Albert Szmigielski
Book Image

Bitcoin Essentials

By: Albert 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 (15 chapters)
Bitcoin Essentials
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Chapter 3. GPU Mining

In this chapter, we will take a look at mining with Graphic Processing Units or GPUs. They are simply known as Video Cards. GPUs have a high degree of parallel processing built in and as such they are perfect for the repeated hashing of candidate blocks. That process is of course known as Bitcoin mining. GPUs can mine much faster than CPUs and hence are more desirable to a potential miner. In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Setting up your wallet, mining software to allow GPU mining

  • What happens when mining on the GPU?

  • Benchmarks of mining speeds with different GPUs

  • Pros and cons of GPU mining

  • CPU versus GPU mining

  • Best practices when mining with GPUs

  • Discussion of profitability