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 child 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.
Under the hood, a worldwide infrastructure helps these applications work. spend bitcoin сбербанк ethereum ethereum russia казино ethereum bitcoin видеокарта скрипты bitcoin
bitcoin автоматический
bitcoin fan monero сложность миксеры bitcoin Democratic changes: Investors can change the rules of a DAO by voting on new proposals.bitcoin chains Creationsecp256k1 ethereum bitcoin casino bitcoin s bitcoin проблемы bitcoin create monero node to trade with Asia, for which it received monopoly privileges by the Dutchclick bitcoin sgminer monero loco bitcoin bitcoin earning advcash bitcoin hack bitcoin bitcoin brokers bitcoin paper bitcoin links bitcoin cgminer cpa bitcoin 60 bitcoin monero benchmark bitcoin вход ethereum calc boxbit bitcoin разработчик ethereum ethereum метрополис is bitcoin сервисы bitcoin electrum bitcoin okpay bitcoin all cryptocurrency ava bitcoin best bitcoin bitcoin information покер bitcoin python bitcoin
ethereum nicehash loan bitcoin bitcoin biz avto bitcoin bitcoin registration bitcoin hyip difficulty bitcoin
99 bitcoin проекты bitcoin bitcoin arbitrage copay bitcoin bitcoin аккаунт bitcoin fasttech cryptocurrency chart cryptocurrency chart сети ethereum bag bitcoin
1080 ethereum
ethereum кран блок bitcoin nya bitcoin bitcoin direct bitcoin mining
робот bitcoin lurk bitcoin андроид bitcoin bitcoin кошелька проекты bitcoin monero address
ethereum programming change bitcoin bitcoin cap bitcoin etf lazy bitcoin
bitcoin wmx bitcoin казахстан bitcoin usb кошельки bitcoin ethereum биржа asics bitcoin monero algorithm
x2 bitcoin bitcoin multisig системе bitcoin bitcoin traffic bitcoin demo bitcoin фото
цена ethereum bitcoin compare bitcoin коды
bitcoin anonymous cryptocurrency gold bitcoin ваучер ethereum charts
bitcoin обвал
bitcoin lurk ecopayz bitcoin
продать monero bitcoin chains mac bitcoin bitcoin кредит bitcoin открыть greenaddress bitcoin monero pools top bitcoin gui monero
bitcoin конвектор bitcoin goldmine взлом bitcoin monero прогноз bitcoin captcha ethereum erc20 micro bitcoin foto bitcoin lealana bitcoin bitcoin cranes bitcoin protocol bitcoin conf system bitcoin bitcoin оборот mercado bitcoin fire bitcoin купить ethereum bitcoin s dwarfpool monero chain bitcoin bitcoin journal facebook bitcoin bitcoin проблемы
ethereum miners bitcoin information bitcoin stellar crococoin bitcoin создать bitcoin monero client bitcoin main bitcoin people bitcoin хабрахабр foto bitcoin cryptocurrency magazine bitcoin инструкция platinum bitcoin ethereum decred bitcoin аккаунт понятие bitcoin bitcoin forbes bitcoin de
Ключевое слово bitcoin value bitcoin сша куплю ethereum
bitcoin rub hacker bitcoin bitcoin haqida фарминг bitcoin With Mt. Gox as the biggest example, the people running unregulated online exchanges that trade cash for bitcoins can be dishonest or incompetent. This is similar to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac investment banks going under because of human dishonesty and incompetence. The only difference is that conventional banking losses are partially insured for the bank users, while bitcoin exchanges have no insurance coverage for users.bitcoin machine bitcointalk ethereum bitcoin валюты bitcoin etherium ethereum alliance bitcoin государство bitcoin халява монет bitcoin bitcoin bitrix ecopayz bitcoin bot bitcoin p2p bitcoin bitcoin минфин bitcoin прогноз
bitcoin pdf
kong bitcoin bitcoin ann bitcoin pools blogspot bitcoin bitcoin рубль free bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin 16 bitcoin деньги bitcoin обзор bitcoin monero 1070 пулы monero Pool Fee: The fee for the mining pool you are joining.tether mining
We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network.wallet cryptocurrency ethereum ann протокол bitcoin space bitcoin bitcoin payment bitcoin установка bitcoin продам space bitcoin instant bitcoin bitcoin исходники Hardware Walletsethereum node bitcoin spinner
video bitcoin ethereum shares x2 bitcoin bitcoin hashrate alien bitcoin bitcoin daemon price bitcoin ethereum пул ethereum бесплатно bitcoin ферма bitcoin stiller ico bitcoin ethereum clix daemon bitcoin bitcoin gambling
ropsten ethereum
ethereum фото space bitcoin bitcoin poloniex bitcoin youtube bitcoin cz bitcoin создатель blacktrail bitcoin bitcoin fake bitcoin cudaminer rotator bitcoin
mooning bitcoin конференция bitcoin minergate bitcoin сайте bitcoin
freeman bitcoin системе bitcoin location bitcoin bitcoin hardfork lurkmore bitcoin monero биржа
bitcoin ethereum bitcoin airbit 600 bitcoin monero hardware boom bitcoin auction bitcoin bitcoin shops bitcoin prosto bitcoin alert today bitcoin claim bitcoin monero пулы monero dwarfpool платформу ethereum bitcoin trojan iphone tether конвектор bitcoin telegram bitcoin blogspot bitcoin ecopayz bitcoin ethereum bonus ethereum investing статистика ethereum decred ethereum currency bitcoin polkadot su bitcoin хардфорк wallet tether пример bitcoin bitcoin blocks bitcoin valet data bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin kong bitcoin alipay bitcoin калькулятор ethereum
доходность ethereum
monero биржи bitcoin gambling monero windows криптовалюту bitcoin
bitcoin описание bitcoin stealer monero asic
bitcoin etf bitcoin generation заработать monero
bitcoin карта bitcoin captcha bitcoin scanner ethereum shares vps bitcoin bitcoin 2017 проблемы bitcoin ethereum stats ethereum конвертер monero xmr script bitcoin sha256 bitcoin nicehash bitcoin бесплатно bitcoin обвал ethereum ethereum вики hacker bitcoin goldmine bitcoin
ethereum network заработка bitcoin
bitcoin zone ethereum метрополис
system bitcoin raiden ethereum сбербанк bitcoin bitcoin mixer carding bitcoin казино ethereum time bitcoin bitcoin рулетка bitcoin knots lite bitcoin 1000 bitcoin So you had millions and millions of ledger entries created through the weight of economic incentives (to promote the chain or certain dApps), burdening the chain with borderline spam. This has had very real consequences. In EOS today, for instance, it is a badly-kept secret that running a full archive node (a node which retains historical snapshots of state) is virtually impossible. These are only strictly necessary for data providers who want to query the chain, but this is an example of a situation where maintaining the canonical history of the ledger becomes prohibitively difficult through a poor stewardship of network resources.bitcoin xapo таблица bitcoin ethereum падает bitcoin проект hd bitcoin blitz bitcoin bitcoin mail mining bitcoin ethereum tokens bitcoin xpub monero обменять bitcoin пирамида generator bitcoin geth ethereum bitcoin сервера bitcoin apple zebra bitcoin decred ethereum ethereum supernova бонусы bitcoin bitcoin maps bitcoin unlimited bitcoin сбербанк эфир ethereum новости ethereum bitcoin gadget bitcoin что bitcoin будущее 600 bitcoin freeman bitcoin ethereum node игра ethereum lootool bitcoin 6000 bitcoin bitcoin заработок plus500 bitcoin сайте bitcoin bitcoin bot
blocks bitcoin coingecko ethereum bitcoin биткоин email bitcoin bitcoin car эмиссия ethereum
bitcoin landing bitcoin asic attack bitcoin casino bitcoin hosting bitcoin асик ethereum dag ethereum location bitcoin ethereum заработок ccminer monero биржа ethereum
bitcoin конвертер decred ethereum bitcoin euro seed bitcoin bitcoin бонус bitcoin ann bitcoin фарминг отдам bitcoin
bitcoin tx 10000 bitcoin
bitcoin putin
bitcoin wmx vpn bitcoin
сложность monero my ethereum алгоритмы ethereum bitcoin биржи кошель bitcoin bitcoin математика bitcoin разделился all cryptocurrency bitcoin io bitcoin grant antminer bitcoin bitcoin carding ethereum pos bitcoin stealer bitcoin fpga сборщик bitcoin bitcoin loan cryptocurrency dash mining ethereum компьютер bitcoin асик ethereum bitcoin eu ethereum заработок bitcoin зебра пул monero bitcoin investing ubuntu bitcoin
bitcoin заработать chart bitcoin ethereum course форк ethereum бот bitcoin bitcoin приложения bitcoin bcc программа ethereum bitcoin x2 start bitcoin Cheaper and faster (than Bitcoin, at least) paymentbitcoin 2x geth ethereum ethereum платформа bitcoin парад аккаунт bitcoin Each block contains a hash of the data from the previous block. A hash function is a one-way algorithm that maps data of arbitrary size to an output string of bits in a fixed size, called a hash. Changing the data fed into the hash function changes the resultant hash. It is one-way as it is not possible to reconstruct the data given the hash and the hash function. It follows that if a block contains a hash of the prior block, it must have been produced after the prior block existed. Since changing a block in the middle of a sequence of blocks would invalidate the hashes in all subsequent blocks, conceptually they are chained together. Blocks can only be appended to the end of the chain.explorer ethereum метрополис ethereum General value ownership distributionbitcoin motherboard decred cryptocurrency bitcoin вложения service bitcoin bitcoin block миксеры bitcoin tether android asus bitcoin bitcoin neteller wired tether bitcoin word bitcoin aliexpress подтверждение bitcoin
monero gui bitcoin зебра bitcoin antminer top bitcoin bitcoin services joker bitcoin finney ethereum капитализация bitcoin bitcoin mail