Mining Bitcoin: Solving the Puzzle

[@EmpireBuilding]

This explanation was sooo much better than "They solve complex problems." I learned something new about Bitcoin today. Thank you.

[@DiscoverCrypto1]

There's so much knowledge that Andreas offers. EVERYONE who cares about financial freedom needs to watch his videos.

[@onlymoney526]

Perfectly explained thank you!

[@ricsike7842]

So how and why is this keep on being explained as "solving a puzzle"??!! It's not, it's simply what he described here. Seems very few actually know this part, so each person just repeats what they've heard from another..."solving a puzzle". In a wider topic already so complex to fully understand, yet so many interested in studying it, why is this small aspect of hashing being isolated like this and explained like the audience are babies that won't be able to grasp this simple construct!! Finally, thanks for the clear and "honest" explanation! (And here I was thinking we've got 1000s of miners trying to solve massive Rubik's cubes or something lol)

[@dannywayne311]

The hero we don’t deserve, thank you good sir

[@davearthur8656]

Thanks for the technical breakdown.....you the best at it.

[@christianleetrager4605]

Finally someone has explained it! Thanks!

[@majiddehbi9186]

hello , sir thanks for u expl but what about byzantine generals problem here in the hashing algo thx anyway

[@aromax504]

We have to protect this man at all cost

[@ricardosoares2706]

Thanks for explanations again!

[@vt3330]

Well explained 👏

[@jabibgalt5551]

Thank you!

[@levivandenboogart8388]

What if there's a block, where there is no nonce that gives the required # of 0's? Is it possible? Can we prove it's impossible? I need more brain-power on this theoretical question.

[@leslieschamberg]

Brilliant as always. 🤩

[@НовыйШекель]

Andreas, how do you count the number of full nodes in Bitcoin? I'm wondering how many full nodes does Dash have? Information is only available on Dash masternodes, but there are many volunteer running full Dash nodes like in Bitcoin

[@Reizermo]

The more I hear about how complicated Bitcoin is, the more I think....there's no way one person created it. It seems so complicated and smart.

[@Happytruth]

If the SHA number can be more difficult to find from time to time how then do blocks on the Ledger guarantee they’ll be solved every 10 mins give or take? What happens if they can’t find the number needed to verify the block with the 10 minute time? BTW stellar knowledge and one of the best people in this space period thanks Andreas.

[@SAL-fs1mr]

If, over a period of about 2000 blocks, the average time between blocks is greater than 10 minutes, then the Bitcoin difficulty adjustment algorithm kicks in to make the mining easier to target an average of 10 minutes per block.

[@pomme4moi]

What is the incentive for non-mining nodes to do the tasks they do?

[@jonathanlivingston7358]

Amazing explanation

[@mentalist417]

How do we know which hash is suitable for the solution? the one which has more zeroes in the beginning? If yes, what is the reason for that?

[@EmaMazzi76]

…there’s an aspect that keeps baffling my mind (even if I followed your lessons and read your book): all the header’s data are fixed except for 1. the nonce and 2. the time stamp; if we both start mining at the same time (say 8 pm - 20.00 and zero seconds) then the one of us with more computing power will likely be the first to find the required nonce…but if one of us add extra time (say 1 second - 20.00.01) then the whole hash would be different as the nonces to produce the leading zeros required…if the average time (roughly 10 minutes) to find the nonce is encoded in the protocol and it’s auto-adjusted according to the speed of network, do miners explore all the possibilities of the next 10 minutes (plus the seconds) all at once? It would be great if you could make a video targeting and expanding this specific topic in depth. Thank you for the knowledge you have shared, no one else has done so much as you, both technically and conceptually

[@DerekF-u7e]

Miners "pick" a timestamp automatically and start mining so long as it's within the constraints of the protocol (a valid timestamp must be greater than the median timestamp of the previous 11 blocks.). The actual value of the specific timestamp is largely irrelevant as the difficulty already takes all of the components into account and, as you say, the generated hashes will be completely different with even a single bit changed. The likelihood of "winning" is the same for any given timestamp.

[@EmaMazzi76]

@@DerekF-u7e Thank you for your reply Adam, have a great day 👍

[@Freddan0]

lel you forgot it contains tx as well

[@hosamtayyeb6001]

I have a qestion pls: For indiviual miners who mine through the pools, are they (the indiviuals) literaly do the mining process? OR they just provide the hash power to the pool in which the pool it self accumulates the hash powers and do the prosses of mining ?

[@hosamtayyeb6001]

@@__Brandon__ thanks dear

[@marty590]

Mr. A How does a Trezor generate a random private key? In my experience as a programmer you would use a random number generator based on a seed but how does a Trezor do it? Also, although highly unlikely, what happens if the private key generated is not unique so that the public key wallet contains someone elses btc? Thks.

[@howboutno2776]

In simple terms, Trezor generates 256bit number (number starting with 10 and 77 x 0 after) , then computer generates its own 256bit number, then it is hashed together by SHA-256. Then it does checksum to verify sequence integrity - hash by SHA-256 - then by adding first 8 numbers of Trezor-generated random number and adding them to the end of the number => producing 264bit number. This 264bit number is divided into 24 parts (each one 11bits long - 0 to 2047) and each part gets its english word according to the BIP-39 standard. Private keys are generated based on this seed + passphrase if you have set it. This is so enourmous entropy, that you can't even slightly imagine. So yeah, nobody's going to have the same seed as you do, if they use software which has correctly implemented random number generation. If by a greeeeeeeeat miracle you end up generating the same private key to the address (hash of a public key which is generated from private key), then you can spend those coins on that address.

[@wildride1641]

Dear Andreas. Sometimes I saw an empty block containing only the coinbase tx. Could you please explain this phenomenon. Thank you

[@daviddibacco5770]

thanks for explaining! is any of this done manually? or is it simply just a matter for plugging in and running the software?

[@DerekF-u7e]

It's done automatically using mining software but is technically possible to do on pen and paper as it's "just" math, although it would be so slow that the likelihood you could find the correct hash before somebody else is essentially 0.

[@shaneb315]

What is the origin of puzzles miners are trying to solve ? What are the results of solved puzzles - who uses that information and what is its purpose ? Are they solving scientific research problems for example ?

[@nechar-joshi]

Thank you for making me even more confused.

[@arunv6159]

miners are hashing to find a solution but solution for what exactly?

[@frednuernberger2136]

Why don´t the use just a lottery for all the miners who verified all transactions in the block correctly?

[@SAL-fs1mr]

Because anyone can do that, so you won't converge on consensus. You need a proof of work puzzle so that there is only one winner per block, not many, that would be chaos.

[@frednuernberger2136]

@@SAL-fs1mr I understand how pow works. The question remains why not via a lottery only ONE miner gets the reward per block. Finding the nonce just is a "nonsense" brute force race which costs enormous amount of energy.

[@SAL-fs1mr]

@@frednuernberger2136 without proof of work, what's to stop me from making tens of thousands of nodes to game the lottery in my favor?

[@EduVencovsky]

If only one person wins the prize when it solves the puzzle, how can anyone mine and still get some money? Wouldn't that go to only one person?

[@CarlosGarcia-bj2py]

There is a new block mined, on average, every ten minutes. Also, there are "mining pools" which allow miners to collaborate and share the rewards.

[@howboutno2776]

Basically what you can and should do is joining so-called mining "pool". Many people join their computers together and are working on solving it and if anyone of them finds it, the pool distributes bitcoins to the all miners that tried proportionally to the power they provided.

[@spectra7gaming471]

& honestly this is where I do have some doubts about the technology itself because it dosen't make sense to me that computers race to solve an algorithm and people/ miners are awarded with 12.5 btc

[@SAL-fs1mr]

Just because you have trouble understanding it doesn't mean the technology is flawed.

[@spectra7gaming471]

@@SAL-fs1mr I didn't say it was flawed just that part doesn't make sense to me.

[@holodeckdragon8876]

wow! look how different u looked a year ago. love u without the beard.

[@grildcheez1504]

Doesn't that mean if you don't have enough compute power you may not earn ANY bitcoin at all to even pay for the work you are doing since you never solved the puzzle.

[@dutch-man]

If you solo mine, sure. Join a pool and you fix this issue.

[@JavierSalcedoC]

Mining pools are older than the first exchanges. They are indispensable for the decentralization of the network. They also use open source protocols to connect with their peers and share rewards in a transparent way

[@narumango22]

If I understand correctly, yes

[@howboutno2776]

Basically what you can and should do is joining so-called mining "pool". Many people join their computers together and are working on solving it and if anyone of them finds it, the pool distributes bitcoins to the all miners that tried proportionally to the power they provided.

[@JayCo-]

Can you make new videos please Andreas

[@trisnrik2245]

Bitcoin is only growing in importance And...it the one thing that is politics neutral! Wait did his guy say there is a Merkel bloc? I don't like the sound of that blck

[@gamblingguru2235]

I’ve been a miner for 10 years and only solved 2 to annoying

[@poppyeva5787]

Crypto mining ⛏️ is never easy

[@ronfeltman8506]

BTC heading to 20k, perhaps lower... GL everybody

[@SAL-fs1mr]

I hope so, I want to stack more cheap satoshi's.

[@CryptoCurrentOfficial]

Great content! You can also come check out Crypto News & Information in our Channel!

[@writecopymakemoney6601]

I can;t understand all this nerd talk