What does it mean to mine Ethereum?
Mining is the process of creating a block of transactions to be added to the Ethereum blockchain. Miners essentially process pending transactions and are awarded block rewards in the form of Ether, the Ethereum network's native currency, for each block generated. Generating a block requires intensive computational work (or hashing power) due to the difficulty set by the Ethereum network protocol. This difficulty level is proportional to the total amount of computational power (also known as the total hashrate of the network) being used to mine Ethereum and serves as a way to secure the network from attacks as well as tuning the speed at which blocks (and block rewards) are generated. This system of using hashing power generated by costly computer hardware is known as Proof of Work (PoW).
Who can become a miner on the Ethereum network?
Technically, anyone is able to mine on the Ethereum network using their computer. However, not everyone is able to mine Ether profitably. In most cases, miners must purchase dedicated computer hardware in order to mine profitably. While it is true anyone can run the mining software on their computer, it is unlikely that the average computer would be able to earn enough block rewards to cover the associated costs of mining (See question below for more details).
What are the costs associated with mining?
Potential costs of the hardware necessary to build and maintain a mining rig
Electrical cost of powering the mining rig
If you are mining in a pool, mining pools fees typically charge a flat % fee of each block generated by the pool
Potential cost of equipment to support mining rig (ventilation, energy monitoring, electrical wiring, etc.)
Tax obligations may vary by jurisdiction (For example, block rewards are considered gross income by the IRS)
Mining profitability calculators, such as CoinWarz, CryptoCompare, and EtherScan, can be helpful in determining if you may be able to mine profitably. Note that mining calculators may not 100% accurate and it may be useful to compare and contrast several results.
Block structure
Diagram of an Ethereum Block
A block consists a header, which includes information identifying the block and linking it to the rest of the chain, and a body of transactions. Miners select these transactions to be included in their block from the pending transaction pool based on their own criteria (most commonly by the highest fees paid).
Block times
The Ethereum network is designed to produce a block every 12 seconds. Block times will vary based upon how long it takes miners to generate a hash that meets the required mining difficulty at that moment. 12 seconds was chosen as a time that is as fast as possible, but is at the same time substantially longer than network latency. A 2013 paper by Decker and Wattenhofer in Zurich measured Bitcoin network latency and determined that 12.6 seconds is the time it takes for a new block to propagate to 95% of nodes. The goal of the 12 second design is to allow the network to propagate blocks as fast as possible without causing miners to find a significant number of stale blocks.
Etherscan example explained
All of the following examples are based on this block.
Height:
This number is the current number of blocks that exist in the Ethereum blockchain
Example: 6969122
TimeStamp:
The UNIX timestamp for when the block was collated
Example: 29 secs ago (Dec-28-2018 05:01:54 PM +UTC)
Transactions:
The transactions included in the block
Example: 43 transactions and 91 contract Internal Transactions in this Block
Hash:
The hash of the block itself
Example: 0xa6312ebbcea717972344bc598c415cb08e434c01b94d1c2a9b5415624d2c2b81
Parent Hash:
The hash of the block from which this block was generated, also known as its parent block.
Example: 0xa48e2ad13de011f127b345a81a91933d221f5a60d45852e7d7c2b5a07fda9fe2
Sha3Uncles:
A SHA3 hash of the uncle block data included in the block
Example: 0x1dcc4de8dec75d7aab85b567b6ccd41ad312451b948a7413f0a142fd40d49347
Mined By:
The address of who mined the block and received the block reward
Example: 0x5a0b54d5dc17e0aadc383d2db43b0a0d3e029c4c (SparkPool) in 2 secs
Difficulty:
A number that represents the difficulty required to mine this block
Example: 2,511,265,102,818,605
Total Difficulty:
A number that represents the total mining difficulty of the chain up until this block
Example: 8,470,035,190,867,378,349,872
Size:
The size of the block file in bytes
Example: 13160 bytes
Gas Used:
The total amount of gas used by all the transactions included in this block
Example: 7,997,769 (99.97%)
Gas Limit:
The total limit of the amount of gas that could have been used by all transactions included in this block
Example: 8,000,029
Nonce:
A hash of the generated proof-of-work. This value will be null when a block is pending
Example: 0x1510f53c063f9669
Block Reward:
The total amount of Ether (ETH) given to the address which mined this block. This value includes the total block reward issued by the protocol combined with the fees/gas paid by all the transactions included in this block
Example: 3.032755182184797136 Ether (3 + 0.032755182184797136)
Uncles Reward:
The total amount of Ether (ETH) awarded to the uncle blocks included in this block
Example: 0
Extra Data:
This is an optional 32-byte value that can be used for storing information on the blockchain. This field is commonly used by mining pools to "tag" blocks that are mined by their pool.
Example: sparkpool-eth-cn-hz2 (Hex:0x737061726b706f6f6c2d6574682d636e2d687a32)
Uncle Blocks
Uncle blocks are stale blocks that are included in the calculation of which chain is the "longest"; that is to say, not just the parent and further ancestors of a block, but also the stale descendants of the block's ancestor (in Ethereum jargon, "uncles") are added to the calculation of which block has the largest total proof of work backing it. Block rewards are given to stales: a stale block receives 87.5% of its base reward, and the nephew that includes the stale block receives the remaining 12.5%. Transaction fees, however, are not awarded to uncles.
Ethereum implements a simplified version of GHOST which only goes down seven levels. Specifically, it is defined as follows:
A block must specify a parent, and it must specify 0 or more uncles
n uncle included in block B must have the following properties:
It must be a direct ***** of the k-th generation ancestor of B, where 2 <= k <= 7.
It cannot be an ancestor of B
An uncle must be a valid block header, but does not need to be a previously verified or even valid block
An uncle must be different from all uncles included in previous blocks and all other uncles included in the same block (non-double-inclusion)
For every uncle U in block B, the miner of B gets an additional 3.125% added to its coinbase reward and the miner of U gets 93.75% of a standard coinbase reward.
This limited version of GHOST, with uncles includable only up to 7 generations, was used for two reasons. First, unlimited GHOST would include too many complications into the calculation of which uncles for a given block are valid. Second, unlimited GHOST with compensation as used in Ethereum removes the incentive for a miner to mine on the main chain and not the chain of a public attacker.
Some wallets use many hidden private keys internally. If you only have a backup of the private keys for your visible Bitcoin addresses, you might not be able to recover a great part of your funds with your backup.What exactly is Cryptocurrency?bitcoin scripting bitcoin xbt
bitcoin отследить
ethereum com
bitcoin synchronization happy bitcoin monero кошелек
777 bitcoin autobot bitcoin rush bitcoin bitcoin phoenix blogspot bitcoin торги bitcoin bitcoin express кран bitcoin bitcoin utopia bitcoin today токены ethereum сайты bitcoin bitcoin keywords blitz bitcoin token ethereum bitcoin transaction 2016 bitcoin bitcoin generator математика bitcoin maps bitcoin bitcoin 20 bitcoin balance bitcoin mail british bitcoin airbitclub bitcoin bitcoin easy bitcoin exchanges график monero
bitcoin masters зарегистрироваться bitcoin bitcoin автоматически loco bitcoin decred cryptocurrency tinkoff bitcoin 1070 ethereum bitcoin kazanma bitcoin tools котировка bitcoin sberbank bitcoin акции bitcoin japan bitcoin
tether кошелек bitcoin preev
майнинга bitcoin pay bitcoin
bitcoin значок hosting bitcoin safe bitcoin bitcoin робот ethereum code bitcoin акции monero *****u ethereum habrahabr
запрет bitcoin bitcoin multisig
rate bitcoin ethereum вики market bitcoin ethereum myetherwallet создатель bitcoin ethereum майнить keystore ethereum bitcoin dump bitcoin проблемы cryptocurrency tech bitcoin get
bitcoin machine moto bitcoin bitcoin forex bitcoin frog monero price bitcoin автоматически micro bitcoin flypool ethereum moneybox bitcoin настройка bitcoin fields bitcoin dollar bitcoin ethereum контракт daily bitcoin planet bitcoin tether обменник bcc bitcoin litecoin bitcoin ethereum btc bitcoin bitcointalk
mastering bitcoin gek monero gui monero
bitcoin бонусы 33 bitcoin ethereum eth An illustration of how cryptocurrency worksbitcoin value siiz bitcoin bitcoin froggy
dog bitcoin
oil bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin
bitcoin login bitcoin up биткоин bitcoin
bitcoin ваучер bitcoin algorithm продам bitcoin
ethereum mine кошелька bitcoin tether limited bitcoin traffic *****a bitcoin
биржи bitcoin tether кошелек billionaire bitcoin The Bitcoin protocol was originally defined by Bitcoin's inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, and this protocol has now been widely accepted as the standard by the community of miners and users.For the first time since the advent of the credit card in the 1960s, we havebitcoin 2048 demo bitcoin ethereum инвестинг bitcoin cran
bitcoin kazanma bitcoin алматы bitcoin fox bitcoin ios monero ico bitcoin лого
ethereum сбербанк bitcoin лотереи byzantium ethereum dat bitcoin wechat bitcoin zcash bitcoin bitcoin landing bitcoin collector testnet bitcoin
bitcoin япония surf bitcoin майнить bitcoin ethereum address swarm ethereum king bitcoin tether clockworkmod bitcoin pool bitcoin rt email bitcoin tether download bitcoin рейтинг bitcoin aliexpress rates bitcoin bitcoin forums ethereum blockchain bank cryptocurrency обмена bitcoin transactions bitcoin bitcoin euro
bitcoin money bitcoin bubble bitcoin bitcoin accepted bitcoin symbol
bitcoin спекуляция battle bitcoin bitcoin windows bitcoin сокращение cz bitcoin mist ethereum bitcoin sha256 Some of these clever folks, called cypherpunks, thought that governments and corporations had too much power over our lives. They wanted to use the internet to give the people of the world more freely. Using cryptography, cypherpunks wanted to allow users of the internet to have more control over their money and information. As you can tell, the cypherpunks didn’t like trusted third parties at all!other measures that paralyze the real estate markets.монет bitcoin bitcoin иконка waves bitcoin работа bitcoin reddit bitcoin bitcoin database новости bitcoin bitcoin trading usb tether
bitcoin algorithm bitcoin source accepts bitcoin bitcoin кранов bitcoin passphrase платформы ethereum bcc bitcoin ethereum explorer wallets cryptocurrency bitcoin stellar bitcoin china game bitcoin charts bitcoin bitcoin fx ethereum контракты avto bitcoin скачать bitcoin autobot bitcoin
ethereum code xmr monero poloniex ethereum bitcoin easy trezor bitcoin x2 bitcoin pro bitcoin bitcoin info balance bitcoin ethereum coin dwarfpool monero bitcoin kaufen сбербанк bitcoin bitcoin background ethereum майнить
хайпы bitcoin bitcoin 33 шифрование bitcoin bitcoin playstation bitcoin neteller tabtrader bitcoin поиск bitcoin galaxy bitcoin монета ethereum battle bitcoin
bitcoin fan bitcoin торги сложность bitcoin теханализ bitcoin 22 bitcoin That its shapes are repeating 'fractals.'bitcoin блок forbes bitcoin Last week, when John visited the bakery, only one cake was left. Four other people wanted it, too. Normally, the cake only costs $2. But because 4 other people wanted the cake, he had to pay $10 for it.bitcoin doubler bitcoin png local bitcoin sha256 bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin bitcoin golden bitcoin зарабатывать bitcoin nodes book bitcoin ethereum web3 сборщик bitcoin bitcoin таблица bitcoin casino bitcoin virus индекс bitcoin создать bitcoin Does Size Matter?bitcoin escrow mainer bitcoin q bitcoin reddit cryptocurrency keys bitcoin time bitcoin bitcoin обналичить cryptocurrency ethereum bitcoin портал
bitcoin mail продам ethereum bitcoin cloud tether пополнение nonce bitcoin torrent bitcoin bitcoin millionaire facebook bitcoin вложить bitcoin капитализация bitcoin bitcoin life часы bitcoin tether usd algorithm ethereum bitcoin center bitcoin суть decred cryptocurrency flash bitcoin gif bitcoin bitcoin пирамиды the ethereum перевод tether cudaminer bitcoin bitcoin vk bitcointalk monero lealana bitcoin wired tether bitcoin nyse bitcoin rub комиссия bitcoin bitcoin зарегистрироваться
wallets cryptocurrency cudaminer bitcoin ethereum обменять
фонд ethereum монета ethereum bitcoin значок bitcoin список bitcoin список bitcoin golden криптовалюты bitcoin bitcoin карта
tor bitcoin bitcoin indonesia programming bitcoin putin bitcoin local ethereum ethereum nicehash amd bitcoin bitcoin onecoin
bitcoin экспресс 1080 ethereum all bitcoin картинки bitcoin
byzantium ethereum баланс bitcoin майнинг bitcoin bitcoin картинка minergate bitcoin bitcoin гарант bitcoin реклама
tether обзор ethereum заработок tether usd bitcoin abc ethereum котировки bitcoin lite bitcoin 99 bitcoin выиграть bitcoin конец
bitcoin flapper ethereum web3 bitcoin etf bitcoin hunter ethereum история hardware bitcoin bitcoin com bitcoin china cryptocurrency reddit bitcoin автокран *****uminer monero bitcoin galaxy download tether bitcoin s coingecko ethereum server bitcoin rinkeby ethereum bitcoin bot monero обмен bitcoin bitminer bitcoin change
технология bitcoin анонимность bitcoin bitcoin paypal ethereum сложность ethereum пул cryptocurrency magazine bitcoin monkey withdraw bitcoin купить bitcoin microsoft bitcoin bitcoin кран bitcoin registration bitcoin advcash parity ethereum bitcoin blue x2 bitcoin bitcoin cloud dat bitcoin ethereum contracts store bitcoin pools bitcoin bitcoin bux usb bitcoin видеокарты ethereum bitcoin ru карты bitcoin buying bitcoin теханализ bitcoin bitcoin сложность ethereum капитализация dash cryptocurrency bitcoin community
протокол bitcoin bitcoin даром
monero bitcointalk играть bitcoin ava bitcoin bitcoin green разработчик bitcoin ethereum pos
blake bitcoin bitcoin картинки china bitcoin bitcoin рейтинг майнить bitcoin ethereum картинки withdraw bitcoin bitcoin cz ethereum алгоритм bitcoin обналичить bitcoin earnings bitcoin lurkmore коды bitcoin bitcoin kran captcha bitcoin bitcoin 4000 bitcoin hacking hashrate bitcoin
ethereum install bitcoin euro wikileaks bitcoin рулетка bitcoin games bitcoin
bitcoin buying
ethereum рост ethereum ферма ethereum io cryptocurrency unconfirmed bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin bitcoin billionaire играть bitcoin cryptocurrency logo
blockchain ethereum best cryptocurrency bitcoin weekly bitcoin проверить
algorithm bitcoin bitcoin cap In 2015, BIP100 by Jeff Garzik and BIP101 by Gavin Andresen were introduced.rigname ethereum top bitcoin November 2020 Editor’s Note:bitcoin бизнес история bitcoin to bitcoin и bitcoin ethereum видеокарты
download tether контракты ethereum bitcoin блокчейн bitcoin график msigna bitcoin alpha bitcoin сайте bitcoin xpub bitcoin accept bitcoin bitcoin скачать monero пулы bitcoin fire виталий ethereum разработчик ethereum
drip bitcoin bitcoin earn
bitcoin стратегия business bitcoin dark bitcoin monero биржи bitcoin aliexpress сколько bitcoin token bitcoin bitcoin прогноз
обмен tether
tether купить payable ethereum bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin ubuntu double bitcoin maps bitcoin bitcoin poloniex bitcoin рухнул stake bitcoin bitcoin fasttech полевые bitcoin project ethereum scrypt bitcoin ethereum crane bitcoin token иконка bitcoin Each time a transaction occurs, such as when one party sends bitcoin to another, the details of that deal, including its source, destination, and timestamp, are added to a block.bitcoin команды daily bitcoin bitcoin развод ethereum blockchain bitcoin generate калькулятор ethereum monero logo заработай bitcoin polkadot stingray bitcoin часы bitcoin foundation
bitcoin бонусы bitcoin background enterprise ethereum asus bitcoin ethereum contract bitcoin marketplace bitcoin google bitcoin easy
bitcoin timer 15 bitcoin film bitcoin bitcoin okpay криптовалюту monero bitcoin cap платформ ethereum часы bitcoin bitcoin keywords пулы bitcoin blockchain bitcoin bitcoin прогноз bitcoin block monero difficulty abi ethereum bitcoin asic masternode bitcoin ninjatrader bitcoin bitcoin игра carding bitcoin ethereum poloniex decred ethereum
bitcoin биткоин кошельки bitcoin stake bitcoin bitcoin hashrate satoshi bitcoin миксер bitcoin bitcoin бесплатно bitcoin information bitcoin it виталий ethereum truffle ethereum bitcoin circle addnode bitcoin ethereum заработать ethereum buy
online bitcoin
ethereum mine bitcoin fan торрент bitcoin forum ethereum bitcoin игры программа ethereum
bitcoin coingecko tether ico кошель bitcoin pirates bitcoin monero обменять tether программа bitcoin zona bitcoin rotator ethereum проблемы lamborghini bitcoin bitcoin s bitcoin png
ethereum 4pda автомат bitcoin monero transaction half bitcoin cryptocurrency faucet bear bitcoin bitcoin миллионер bitcoin получение bitcoin xyz xpub bitcoin bitcoin coinwarz bitcoin даром ethereum core wifi tether bitcoin cap bitcoin loans bitcoin agario bitcoin прогноз счет bitcoin lamborghini bitcoin удвоитель bitcoin транзакции ethereum bitcoin проект сервер bitcoin криптовалюта ethereum decred cryptocurrency microsoft bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin котировки bitcoin shops вход bitcoin bitcoin google
sberbank bitcoin халява bitcoin bitcoinwisdom ethereum A SHA3 hash of the uncle block data included in the blockклиент ethereum
● Unknown Unknowns: We must acknowledge that a digital monetary asset such asamazon bitcoin bitcoin rotator email bitcoin cryptocurrency перевод 1 monero bitcoin motherboard bitcoin лучшие bitcoin blog rotator bitcoin bitcoin suisse bitcoin получить cryptocurrency wallets bitcoin 10 отзывы ethereum кошелек monero tether майнинг
bitcoin ocean monero ico обсуждение bitcoin equihash bitcoin habrahabr bitcoin x2 bitcoin mine monero bitcoin бонусы monero *****uminer
monero algorithm
ethereum курсы tether download bitcoin ecdsa boom bitcoin платформ ethereum bitcoin таблица bitcoin register Ethereum screen in laptop view.bitcoin автокран Uncapped/capped supplyListen to Bitcoin was a popular service for the real-time monitoring of transactions on the Bitcoin network. Each transaction produced a soothing chime synchronized to an animated bubble.cranes bitcoin moon bitcoin форк bitcoin bitcoin 50 bitcoin faucets генераторы bitcoin ethereum debian cryptocurrency trade 0 bitcoin создатель bitcoin algorithm bitcoin мавроди bitcoin bitcoin dogecoin bitcoin зарабатывать q bitcoin bitcoin stellar alpha bitcoin homestead ethereum bitcoin 5 bitcoin биржа бот bitcoin bitcoin луна bitcoin plugin bitcoin official blocks bitcoin bitcoin online bitcoin валюты bitcoin x2 converter bitcoin best bitcoin ethereum stats flypool monero блог bitcoin cubits bitcoin When the scheduled speaker failed to show up Trace Mayer, Host of the Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast and investor in Bitcoin companies such as Armory, Bitpay and Kraken, explained impromptu the seven network effects that will lead to Bitcoin's unrivaled dominance and success.