Some Fast Facts About Bitcoin Mining

Some things you may not have known about bitcoin mining:

A new block of coins is “solved” about once every ten minutes. This means that there are about six new discoveries of bitcoins per hour, on the average.

The current reward for anyone who solves a block is 50 coins; however, very very soon that figure is going to be sliced in half, as per the plan that was established at Bitcoin’s inception, so future blocks will consist of 25 coins and you can use a bitcoin mining calculator.

The more people that are working on solving problems, or more specifically, the more computing power that is being used in that pursuit, the more difficult it is for each individual or entity to solve the bitcoin “puzzle.” In essence, this becomes a very competitive process.

Not everybody has to be a computer genius to engage in bitcoin mining. Groups of folks have become involved in bitcoin “pools” that combine resources to mine for coins, and they participate in a limited way in the whole process.

When people mine for bitcoins, they are really running very complicated mathematical problems on their computer. This takes up a lot of power and will take its toll on a system and run up a utility bill, if it is done with a certain amount of sophistication.

The process of bitcoin mining is about to become a lot more advanced with the introduction of the new BitForce SC line from Butterfly Labs. Based on ASIC technology, it will speed up the entire process exponentially and allow people who are serious to compete with the best.