What the world never imagined was now a reality. 2009 marked a year of revolution in the history of currencies. Where no means or currency existed which was not under a central guidance a mysterious identity in the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym for the person for the person or people who designed the original Bitcoin protocol in the year 2008. A majority of what existed back then as Bitcoin software, their modifications and posting technical information was done by him. Investigations were made as to understand the actual mastermind behind the creation of the most successful currency that will be witnessed by generations to come. People like Michael Clear were thought to be the actual face when investigated by The Newyorker and other teams too which sadly turned out to not be the case. The only suspicious thing found about the bitcoin concept was about the filing of its patent which was registered 72 hours later. It contained encryption technologies similar to that of bitcoins. The phrase "computationally impractical to reverse….." was included in both the cases. Anyways no outcome was even close to finding the actual identity.
Now that we have a brief idea of what and how the ideology of bitcoin came up it's time to understand things that actually matter to our readers and most importantly you!
Bitcoin is something that changed the way people can handle money and its transactions. When this statement is made a lot of you must be thinking that you never see bitcoin transaction in your daily life. The major reason being its availability. What one needs to understand is the availability of bitcoin is not at the level of paper cash. This is what makes it less in availability and at the same time high in demand and amazing is what makes it less in availability and at the same time high in demand and highly liquid. Liquidity here means how easily it can be converted into cash. When you read that it's highly liquid you understand that bitcoin is an asset to have because of its value in the market which keeps fluctuating at both heavenly and drastic rates. The good news to anyone who is looking to invest or start mining for bitcoins is that it has never seen a drastic market value in the last decade. The profit rate of bitcoins has created millionaires overnight and it won't be much to say that if you invest right now it might make you a millionaire too.
AVAILABILITY:
Availability is one of the major reasons behind the steady rise in the price of bitcoin. Just like the price of gold is influenced by the cost of mining, bitcoins prices are affected by their mining techniques and feasibility too. Everything has a target audience and similarly, bitcoins have their own crypto community that is easily targeted. These are the people who understand the future value of cryptocurrency. Research says that more than 80% of these have already been mined with an online mining war already in the picture for the rest of them. It is something that caught media attention and got famous like a wildfire. The generation of new bitcoins and the understanding of how many are left is based on pure maths. It is highly influenced by the time taken, blocks created, this has seen a steady reduction of 50% every four years and it is known that the number of bitcoins will never exceed 21 million.
This is what makes it a rare asset to have. This availability factor has given rise to tremendous changes in the prices of bitcoins. Well, this has also brought a huge difference with which people mined these bitcoins. We will now see what the word ‘mining' used in cryptocurrency is.
MINING:
In a very important article that we have come across until now, this is the most vital part. Mining is something that has created very limited high-skilled employability, introduced high-end systems and methods. When we say cryptocurrency or bitcoins mining it is very similar to what mining of gold or any other precious material is and very different in the way it is done. In the very beginning when there were tens of millions of bitcoins to mine it was possible on a simple yet powerful computer to mine these precious coins. But the scenario changed with more people getting involved the number of coins left decreasing and that is how mining became a very competitive task. Due to ASIC miners, it is almost impossible today to mine a bitcoin even with a very powerful laptop. Today, mining of bitcoins require a great understanding of computational math and solving them really quick. ASIC are devices designed to do a single task but astonishingly well. The S9 miner is the best ASIC miner that costs around 3 thousand USD. The miner can produce a hash rate of 13.5 TH/S that is 13.5 trillion hashes every second. This is unachievable by a normal graphics card. The GTX-1070, one of the strongest GPUs in the PC market cannot produce more than 27 MH/S. This is again something that can't be overlooked as just another comparison. You can buy 8 1070s at the same price but that would still not be a fraction of hashes produces by S9 every second. To be more specific towards the solution of mining a bitcoin involves solving of complex equations and puzzles. Whenever these puzzles are solved it is broadcasted all over the platform which is like a defeat to rival miners. But they can't do anything other than accepting the solution and moving to the next target (bitcoin) otherwise it will just delay the mining resulting in no profit but prolonged loss. These ASICs and other such huge miners help to get a bitcoin is a much easier way when compared to a normal device. This obviously makes the one with the better miner to reach his/her target first. As bitcoins are designed to be heavy graphical cryptocurrencies they require such strong miners to solve the math behind them and surpass the heavy competition in mining. In fact, there are groups that have a dedicated area with many mining hardware to get the job done. This suggests that mining bitcoins require good skill and investment which has tremendous returns. This setup is called ‘mining farm' which looks something like this.
BLOCKCHAIN:
A blockchain is digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. It maintains a chronological track of transactions made by every individual or group. It allows every active market participant to keep a track of digital currency transactions without any hidden record keeping. Blockchain can be called as the accounting method for the virtual currency, Bitcoin. It uses DLT-Distributed technology Ledger. This verifies all the transactions in the cryptocurrency market though inserting any document in the blockchain is practically possible. The reason why this check for authenticity is transparent is that it can be verified by the whole community instead of one centralized authority. A block is like the currently active part where you can find all the recent transactions recorded in a very sophisticated manner. These blocks are generated each time one is completed. This is evident that countless blocks are connected like a chain in a chronological manner forming blockchains. These transactions recorded by blockchains are immutable and hence cannot be deleted. It is very reliable because the stored data can be distributed but not copied. Although the ever-increasing size of blockchains creates certain solvable issues related to synchronization. Based on the bitcoin protocol the blockchain database is shared by all nodes participating in a system. What one has to understand is that blockchain is the technology that makes cryptocurrency so feasible. Bitcoins wouldn't have a market this huge without these as it is the primary way to understand transactions.
GPU FOR MINING:
The bitcoin algorithm has got tougher exponentially with time. Even the most popular graphics cards by NVIDIA like GTX 1080i have failed or rarely able to mine a bitcoin. GPUs which are pretty expensive and work dedicatedly for a single assigned task are the ones to look for. ASICs integrated circuits that work towards handling these intense graphical technologies are very good if used with proper skills and patience. NVIDIA GTX 1070 and 1080i are recommended to small miners who just stepped in and are not willing to spend much on this.
ASIC stands for application specific integrated circuit, these are designed for a special application in this case mining bitcoins. Always remember that mining is competitive at a very high level. The crypto community though not visible has grown steadily. ASICs are specialized hardware that helps you stand on shoulders of more than 50% miners who don't use any specific mining hardware which implies that you have doubled your chances of mining bitcoins. In the beginning, it was possible to get bitcoins with CPUs but miners evolved their way of mining and today ASICs have surpassed any GPU in the market in this business. These are to be used in thermally-regulated data-centers with access to low-cost electricity.
One thing that most of the freshmen get confused about is ‘bitcoin mining hardware' and ‘bitcoin hardware wallets'. The functionality of both these things is completely different. One is used to mine bitcoins as the name suggests and wallets are to store cryptocurrency in a much-secured way, one such wallet is Ledger Nano S which is very popular in the market which doesn't have any technical difference but is from a very trusted source which obviously makes it the way it is.
OTHER CRYPTOCURRENCIES:
With increased demand and huge market value, it is nothing short of a nightmare to sit patiently for a bitcoin to be mined. Although it is worth the wait at times I suggest every newbie think of alternatives to see profits and learn so that they don't just lose hope in the process. This strategy is something most of the people miss and that is to pay attention towards other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin value increased from 1000$ to 20000$ in a couple of years back and this increased the competition level. Simultaneously it grew demand for few other cryptocurrencies which also have an estimated return if 12000%. Yes, you heard that right and that is why you should look for mining these also. It is only comparatively easier to mine but still would require great equipment and skills. In fact, an ASIC is still suggested. Here is a list of some of the alternatives alongside bitcoins.
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Ethereum
- Zcash
- Ripple
- IOTA
DARKNET MARKET:
Darknet market works like a commercial website otherwise called cryptomarket. It operates through darknets such as TOR or 12P. A study at the University of Portsmouth suggested the second most popular sites on Tor were darknet markets. E-Commerce is not very old on the darknet, started only in 2006 it has grown rapidly and evolved in every sector of it. The markets available on deep web accept bitcoins but only a few of them accept other cryptocurrencies which are enough for their market size. To get access to these markets you first need a platform which crawls to the deep web, preferably Tor. You should have a clear picture about VPN before using the dark web. You also need to find a DNM from a reliable source to begin. Even to buy these on the dark web you will need cryptocurrency. The Darknet economy has a vast set of stats which are not easily available until old. There is obviously a transaction fee which is under 300$ at times even 50$ but it is then essential because anyone who knows to navigate through the dark web is way ahead in the race. It is pure knowledge and no math in this particular area of bitcoins. Hence, it is advisable to always ensure the security of oneself and not to navigate like normal web surfing.
This was how we divided the cryptocurrency segment into broad headings to give our readers a great understanding of what they need, how to get them and that too in the most efficient way.