How Bitcoin mining actually works - What is the "cryptographic puzzle"?

In this video I try to breakdown the "cryptographic problem" that people reference when they talk about bitcoin mining.

[@Shokukumi]

"just like my life", hahaha. Well, you made a good video. It's not wasted.

[@Malagent]

Well played.

[@bradvani]

Try repeating that today champ! 🚀

[@rainernaid4378]

@Ahmir Cayden no one cares

[@tamyhope5441]

I died

[@onerealmmapping9199]

Ikr 😂😂😂

[@ArlinMoore]

This is extremely helpful. More people need to see this.

[@looaxe6468]

I must be retarded because what he just said made absolutely no sence. Crypto makes no sense.

[@tomvickers324]

At the end I temporarily went beyond time and space. You explain things well!

[@KeiferKif]

Vishal Jadav those were my two goals, educate and transcend reality

[@tomvickers324]

What are your goals? Planning on doing any more videos? You are great at explaining things and your humor is up my street.

[@KeiferKif]

Kashivre Two thanks! I definitely want to make more videos, I just have to find the time to do all the research and editing

[@eobardthawne6903]

Oh my brother, you are teaching us all how bitcoin works, you can't just say "just like my life" like that, that's worth millions

[@finalsak]

Excellent video, you should make more. Your deadpan delivery is just great.

[@KeiferKif]

I too feel I should make more. I need to be less lazy

[@VIKASGHODE]

U know more than someone else. Please make videos for this reason. You explained it very well. Keep it on. You are simply original.

[@ehcasabianca]

Thanks so much! I had been trying so hard to find out about this mysterious 'puzzle' that the miners are trying to 'solve' to earn bitcoins. You have it so simple, clear, and fun! :)

[@autohmae]

"leading zeros, because they are before." I LOL'ed. :-)

[@pandoradespain3119]

THANK YOU I spent like a week trying to find an answer to this question!

[@JamesMyddelton]

Best explanation I can find on the Internet. Please keep making these videos Keifer !

[@JIANYM36]

8:10 loool love humor or truth disguised as humor. Good vid

[@graciellalee2477]

Just wonderful, I been tryin to find out about "bitcoins" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Ever heard of - Vaneath Crypto Cabotage - (do a google search ) ? Ive heard some interesting things about it and my colleague got amazing results with it.

[@KP-jx1wy]

Finally a vid that actually explains in detail what is happening. Thanks for the vid!

[@TheOtrama]

Thanks so much for this thorough explanation. So much better than all the videos that try to explain „Bitcoin in 5 min“. You really touch down on the details.

[@davidweiss5950]

Love your explainer videos. Just found this, I don't know if you've kept it up but hopefully you have! Or shall again. Thanks Keifer!

[@tjvdos]

The only video on blockchain that made sense to me. Thanks man!

[@sputniq2828]

You son of a gun. I’ve been reading about this for ages and I definitely understood it enough for convincing bar chat, but I never really got it front to back. I don’t know what it was, something about the way you laid it out it finally clicked. Thank you so much

[@MikeyKabatek]

Awesome video! I feel like this is great for people who have a good background understanding of Bitcoin, and maybe just not the specifics, and the trippy shit at the end is on point!

[@KeiferKif]

glad you liked it! I was definitely targeting people with a intermediate level of understanding.

[@nickbrown1315]

Man loved it! Keep doing more. The comedic timing caught me off guard 😄 🤣. I was legit trying to expand my knowledge and understanding. Like everyone else LOL, you throw in, like my life... awesome!. Looking forward to more. 💯

[@timt.3627]

Keifer, I do not understand how on earth such a great mind only has 552 subscribers on YT. You explain things so well. Your channel needs to be upvoted big time. Love your work! Keep it up. Cheers from Germany ;)

[@KeiferKif]

Thank you Tim! It's comments like this that keep me motivated

[@manuelguevara6486]

Good stuff man.. i would suggest you can include more materials, like pictures and stuff but you did a great job explaining it plus that joke was funny haha

[@Sinnerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr]

Very informative in simplest way......well done!!!

[@asstrix]

Finally I understood what's that puzzle people talk about. Thanks!

[@youtubecensorwrongthink5914]

I've seen a lot of videos on this subject and yours really helped a lot. Thank you

[@FortyTwoAnswerToEverything]

The missing WinAmp Visualization plug-in's at the end.

[@KeiferKif]

My greatest regret is being born too late to design MP3 player visualization screens

[@oroxlaw1534]

Thanks for explaining it so well, I finally feel like I understand it, good job!

[@Nacalal]

This was like having your amps wear off half way through a lecture after being up for two days straight. Shit was transcendent.

[@hsharma3933]

That small change resulting in a massive difference in the hash, is referred to as the avalanche effect.

[@GabeHiggins]

WHY... has it taken me this long to find this channel? YES MAKE MORE VIDEOS ON BITCOIN.

[@nodehead9475]

For a dev this thing is very easy to understand but hard to find on yt

[@onerealmmapping9199]

This is prob the most comprehensive video ever. Well done 👍👍

[@omsachdev]

Hello Keifer, Thank you for making this video. I, however, still do not understand it quite clearly. Who/what provides that difficult target? is that in a hash format? Where do we get the block header to generate hash value of it? Is it already existing block header or a new one? if it is new one then is it just randomly generated? If you put this whole process in a flow chart then it will make much more sense. My 2 cents

[@nithingkoshy]

Watched many videos on the same topics ! Every video had the jargons .. Very well explained !!!

[@ThickPeep]

I just found your video and really liked the content! You should consider posting explanation videos on r/bitcoin and r/cryptocurrency I think your content would go great! It's exactly the type of stuff I'd actually like to see and it's the things that can bring more people into the world of crypto because they can actually understand it

[@ShyMplsMale]

"They love hash...ing". That was the best lol! Awesome video. Thank you for the hashtastic explanation :)

[@humanrightsadvocate]

Finally an actual explanation of Bitcoin mining!! I knew what a hash function was but I didn't know about the NONCE! That was the thing that cleared everything up! Thank you!

[@nikolaiexplains1771]

Thanks so much. I was looking for a video like that forever.

[@hristaki99]

I was high af watching this and you really tripped me out at the end. LOL

[@TheMrAxe0r]

8:00 haha... On the contrary.... you are not wasting your life good sir.. you just learned me something new.. ;]

[@KeiferKif]

Very true! I now have something to live for!

[@Martin-ux8rr]

This... has it all. Thank you for this masterpiece, the randomness I just loved it.

[@qaislababneh4121]

This is the best description of blockchain I have ever heard

[@DijVids]

This is a great vid. My question (sorry if been asked before) is: If what changes the HASH is changing the inputs within the header (made up of the 6 inputs), you speak about changing the nounce, but nothing else (ie the nounce drives the changes in the HASH) but there is a variable called Time Stamp. Surely that is changing constantly, and therefore you have two variables changing in the HASH Function making it impossible to eliminate / methodically control iterations of HASH calculations? What am I missing? Or does the time stamp just never move?

[@vikram237]

WOW.....faboulously explained !!! great job....

[@donmon6293]

the best explanation of mining, thank you!

[@GMinihisht]

Great video, thaaaaank you, i miss these old tv b the way

[@50hzphotography66]

I love the outro. Great video. I wonder, what determinate how many transactions is included in the mined block? Are those blocks made in the front by the bitcoin software and mining is just making a hash for them so they can be added to the chain?

[@mischa2903]

Thank you for helping me understand the process.

[@tanzterminator]

Nice explained. Thank you!

[@road-x]

very helpful, with a sprinkle of good humor.

[@pdcullippdcullip1892]

Finally a vid that answered the question....thanks Keifer

[@traildataanalytics407]

Superb ! Nice and easy to understand!

[@cjax235]

Excellent. Thank you. A rare gift of turning the complex into basic

[@ricardoshane4401]

*Yeah! *Contact mattobrown on telegram for your pipes and plugs*

[@JK-de1oy]

"They loved hash"

[@jakedevries1455]

i thought I knew all about extracting 'hash' but it turns out I don't..... 😂

[@KLM2020]

thank you for ur effort and time very useful

[@haydermaha]

This is an excellent video. Thank you very much. Please make more. 👍👍👏👏

[@tejaswiniyella3543]

Very informative and elaborated one

[@rootzero6518]

Thanks a lot for explaining. 🙏

[@dbukeric]

Hi Kiefer, thanks for creating this great video. I'm determined to cut through the jargon and waffle contained within most of the material available on Bitcoin, and this video has helped me a lot. I do still have many questions though, some of which may be very trivial to you, so apologies in advance! Firstly, when you say it produces a hash "below the difficulty target", how do you define "below". I have no programming background, and so I'm not particularly familiar with different numerical systems (binary, hexadecimal etc.), but am I right in thinking that you mean to solve the puzzle you need to produce a hash which is a 64 digit hexadecimal number which is below the hexadecimally expressed difficulty target? The reason I ask is that to a layman it's not immediately obvious that it makes sense to say something can be "below" a string of charachters which contains letters. Am I also right in thinking that to increase the difficulty of the puzzle, you need to decrease the value of the difficulty target? And is that because the hash can only take a finite number of 64 digit values, and so the probability distribution of the time take to solve the puzzle (T), given computational power X, is well known? How does a miner prove that they were the first to find a solution? Also, is any solution acceptable, or does it have to be the solution with the lowest Nonce value? (Intuitively I guess it doesn't have to be, because for someone to verify that your solution is the one with the lowest Nonce value they would have to hash every header with Nonce value lower than your solution to prove that those aren't solutions, which wouldn't be computationally trivial). What determines which transactions are included and how many transactions are included in a block? I still don't understand how we get consensus over what transactions have occurred. Is it not possible for a miner to include a fake transaction that was never actually signed and then solve the puzzle relating to the block containing this fake transaction? What exists in the design to stop that from happening?

[@KeiferKif]

Yeah I had a tough time figuring out how to explain the "below" concept. the best I can do is to say it has more '0' at the start. I'm not great with Hex either. Yes, it's designed to be about 10 minutes they broadcast it first, it's conceivable that they discovered it second but broadcast it quicker. Nonce value is just there to give any easy way to change the resultant hash without changing any of the other data. The miner decides the transactions, which is why sometimes there are empty blocks. I'm not 100% sure but I think it's because the protocol / client would reject it, and it would cause a fork because other miners wouldn't recognize the block as valid

[@yemiolulana5746]

Awesome video man!!!!!!! keep it up.

[@vikassharma-lq4bi]

very well explained. Thanks.

[@RudraNeupane]

There is something mystical about you and your presentation. I liked them :)

[@mikefreed8439]

"Like my life" was so random and I literally lol'ed and now my coworkers think I am odd.

[@tahaniqadi8209]

Veeeeeery nice explanation.. Thank u so much

[@KeiferKif]

Thank you Tahani, glad you liked it

[@TheBeezleInc]

Good explanation. Is there anything in the protocols that say the nonce value must start with 1 and auto-increment? I guess my question is do all the mining computers all run through the exact same calculations?

[@freshstolencontents3600]

Hello, how can you tell if the block hash is lower than the target hash?

[@MaxGuides]

But how do you actually turn in your hash once you find it? Where do you get the previous block’s data from? How far behind does this data lag before getting confirmed? If there’s so many transactions how do they all fit on one chain?

[@user-fj4rt5bh6v]

I find it hard to believe there are still good people until I convinced by 😎 you're the best

[@johnoh5148]

where did you learn these things Keifer? Is there a book we can read to get more detail on the subject?

[@hsharma3933]

Good work. You explained it well.

[@thevendetta9726]

I love this dudes hidden humor hahaha. But he explained this concept really well. The way he is talking to the camera in person sometimes not sounding 100% sure himself lets you emphasize with ihm more which i kinda like. Other explanatory videos often sound like they understand the concept themselves so well and make you feel really stupid for not understanding it right away. What I also liked is that he immediately addresses the stuff you would ask yourself while listening to concepts like these. For example when he talked about performing the hash on the block header to sovle the problem, I asked myself how they can find a smaller number when the hash is always producing the same shit? He immediately refers to the Nonce at the end of the header which I liked. Other videos often forget these kinda stuff and you are left to research or google it yourself.

[@iamlove7096]

Thank You...its still difficult yet it helps a lot

[@acommonlocal]

The award on the wall 😂

[@khashy87]

when you solve the problem by mining do you just get a meaningless answer ( the input) is it random numbers and letters or characteristics?

[@colecramer2683]

Thanks bud, helpful and funny

[@bionic88]

Thanks for the explanation. That was very thorough... Not sure what the end of the video was about. Can you explain that??? Thanks!

[@sumukhasureban8249]

can anyone tell why difficulty target is set......pls

[@sammymuchane6486]

Thanks buddy. This is helpful in better explaining what's going on... B blessed

[@sujith6323]

Great video! . One questions from my side. 1. Once a user submit a transaction, which all data are broadcasting to the network, So that miners can validate and create the next block?

[@erezdasa0]

Thank you for this video!

[@finntiebout8613]

outstanding explanation!

[@amnsinha]

I am studing blockhain and i know that a block hash is linked to the next block in previous hash and it cant be changed for valid reason. Reason is : because if someone have changed hash then then he/she would have to change in hundreds or millions of nodes/system also otherwise it wont be valid. My question is : If nonce will be changed by some miner then the hash will also get changed and it should be changing the next block's previous hash. correct me if i am wrong. I mean if a miner can change the hash of a block then how he can replicate that hash in all the nodes or system for that block? this is confusing.

[@marrsattaxxx]

Awesome Video dude... That 'wasting your life' edit is gold... hahahah... such a funny cut... Nice work man, thanks for helping me understand it... Now I'm off to drop some acid and watch the last 4 Minutes of this video in VR...

[@KeiferKif]

good idea...I should start making my psychedelic videos in VR!

[@hunterkumarvlogs3124]

Good and informative to know about bitcoins

[@nodehead9475]

Loved it dude ❤️

[@YrejEq-gm2ew]

I love learning.

[@gerryodonnell321]

Well explained - at last someone who does understand Bitcoin

[@rr6620]

8:10 but won’t the time stamp in the header change each time you recompute the hash?

[@andrewhopkins1694]

Very good, thanks!

[@knochentrocken96]

This channel is gold

[@Yewbzee]

Great video thanks. However after being mesmerised by the psychedelic colour scope at the end I snapped out of the trance 6 hours later with no memory of any of it.

[@KeiferKif]

No conscious memory* you could have some subconscious memories I planted

[@random2059]

sir i have questions.... please reply ... if all minners are fighting for the #right #hash by possibility checking ...which one is right .... !!! then how is the mastermine who already decided the #ANSWER i.e a specific 64 character answer,who also decide the if the if that specific 64 is achieved by any one ... congrats he is the winner... who is the mastermine ...

[@Dnboyy]

THEY LOVED HASH

[@trueintellect]

Most of the people on KZbin discussing this topic, just seem to regurgitate what other people have written in books and papers. It's nice watch somebody that actually understands the subject matter they are talking about.

[@KeiferKif]

Thanks man! It take a lot of research but comments like this make it worth

[@Royorg-qf5jq]

How does them mining pool work with shares?

[@MJVelascoSalvador]

Hi, at 6:58 you said there are 6 things... but I only took note of 5 Version, Timestamp, Previous hash, Merkle root, Difficulty Target. Did I miss anything? Sincere question as I am researching on the topic. Thanks

[@MJVelascoSalvador]

I see, I think you mentioning this was preemptive for the Nonce. Am I correct?

[@harendip]

what hardware is best to mine bitcoin? and how much time will the best hardware take to mine one.

[@KeiferKif]

An ASIC miner is the only kind that's still useful at this point. How much time would it take for 1 miner to mine a block? a very long time.

[@movieclipz5034]

Thanks for the explanation. Do you mine any coins of your own?

[@KeiferKif]

never mined any coins! Electricity is very expensive up here in the great white north

[@matthewelliott5118]

Thank you. Bitcoin been out awhile. I been resistant to even investigate. You answered almost all my questions. But how does this activity generate something of value that earns a reward that's also valuable?

[@TheBestMixBeats]

great stuff!!

[@LouJunior]

Thanks for the vid!

[@WestCoastAce27]

Great job. Very clear. But a few questions if anyone is still watching the comments: 1) I heard that a typical ASIC miner has 43 separate chips each performing a hash. If this is true, obviously having each iterate the nonce 1,2,3… would be useless. So is there software that coordinates the chips’ nonces? 2) And then if 1 own 50 miners, how would the nonce coordination be done across all the mining rigs? Thx in adv.