Introduction to Bitcoin Mining: History, Mining Mechanics, Evolution and Future Forecast
Tags: bitcoin, programming, blockchain, python
Published: 2024-02-27 15:21:01




**Introduction to Bitcoin Mining: History, Mining Mechanics, Evolution and Future Forecast**

In our ever-changing world, change is one thing that always constant. One change that has impacted our lives, the way we see and use money over the last 10 years is Bitcoin. From a place where physical cash was king and banks acted as middlemen to another where transactions are been decentralized, encrypted and done without the banks.

Bitcoin, the chief cryptocurrency was birth and developed in the year of 2009,  it holds the record for been the most expensive digital currency since it creation. Selling at price of $ 57,012 today. The creation of this digital gold comes from a series of process called Bitcoin Mining. Have you ever wondered what this process entails? Sit down and hold on tight to this article because we will be exploring them.


The table of contents is as follows:

•	What is Bitcoin?
•	Dissection of its mechanics
•	The Role of NFTs and Liquid Bitcoin Hashrate (LBH) in 
        Bitcoin Mining (GoMining)
•	What does Bitcoin Halving mean
•	Exploring the social and economic impacts of Bitcoin 
        Mining on Communities
•	Emerging Trends and the future of Bitcoin Mining

                           
**What is Bitcoin?..**

Bitcoin is a digital currency, that was developed in 2009 by an unidentified person or group of persons under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto making possible for people to send and receive money without the control of a central bank or authority while using the currency decentralized network. 


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/3zk4t1leehaakhjenc3d.png)


**Dissecting its mechanics**

When Bitcoin is to created and mined, it goes through different processes. Blocks are first created by miners on the blockchain network and it is broadcasted into new transactions that is then verified. But before it gets accepted, miners need to show their Proof of Work(PoW).The rate at which blocks are generated and verified heavily depends on the mining power of the blockchain network. This also depends significantly on the processing power of the mining equipment.

The difficulty goal is changed every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks, to maintain an average interval of 10 minutes between new blocks. 


**Evolution of its Mining Hardware**

Since the birth of Bitcoin, mining it has been profitable through different ways. Let's check out the evolution of bitcoin mining hardware.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/dr7yzr1a0jnno0vs2jd4.png)


***Bitcoin mining using the CPU***
When Bitcoin came out orginally, mining for it was an easy task that could be using the central processing unit (CPU) of a standard computer. Because of the network's tiny size then and the cryptographic easy mining daily goal, atypical user could use a computer system CPU to mine.

***GPUs Replace  CPUs***
When more miners joined the network, the difficulty goal increased and the competition got fiercer. Miners had to move from CPUs to GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) because of its PoW (Proof of Work) algorithm's parallel processing power, which increased mining efficiency. With this change, bitcoin miners mined more bitcoins in less time also it improved the network security.


***THE INTRODUCTION OF FPGAs AND ASICs***
Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) was introduced in the year of 2013.These are special hardware devices made for the sole purpose of mining bitcoin. They are more effective than GPUs. They don't require much time to perform PoW calculations and they do it at a faster speed
But these equipments are quite expensive and they have high power consumption

***Mining made possible through the cloud***
Large mining companies began to join and dominate the mining space for this reason some service providers decided to provide cloud-based mining services allowing customers to mine without buying the expensive equipment. The service offers a variety of items, each with a distinct rate of return and varying durations and electrical power costs. Service providers provide customer support and mining is done remotely.  Some examples of cloud-based mining service providers are Hashing24 and ECOS.

***Artificial Intelligence (AI) Added Advantage***
Many miners of cryptocurrencies may be able to maximize their mining output through AI features and capability. Quantum Blockchain Technologies (QBT), a UK-based company, has created AI algorithms to boost the productivity of ASIC bitcoin miners. 



**The Role of NFT's and Liquid Bitcoin Hashrate (LBH) in Bitcoin Mining**

As the difficulty of bitcoin mining increased, mining companies had to look at other alternatives to reduce the energy they consumed when mining bitcoin and in other to make it easier for other miners to mine, NFTs were considered to be another means of mining Bitcoin without consumption of much power energy .

***What are non-fungible tokens (NFTs)?*** These are digital assets that have been converted to tokens. Tokens on the other hand are distinct symbols or identifiers  generated from metadata using an algorithm that has been encrypted. Depending on their market and owner worth, NFTs can be traded and exchanged for cash, cryptocurrencies, or other NFTs.  


Meanwhile, ***hashrate*** is the measure of security of a blockchain network mining difficulty.  The computing power of a proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency network, collective, or person is measured by their hash rate. 

Still on the purpose of simplifying mining processes With the usage of NFTs, a platform named **GoMining** was developed to make the process of mining Bitcoin easier. Miners can buy NFTs with the mining power of a bitcoin mining machine. Therefore, an NFT that symbolizes a greater mining capability has  more power. 

GoMining platform provides a range of NFTs at different prices and hash rates. You can mine Bitcoin by buying an NFT that fits your budget.


**Steps to start mining BTC with GoMining NFTs**

You can use NFTs to mine BTC on the GoMining platform by following these steps.

Step 1: ***Create a Gomining account***
To register for a GoMining account, do the following:

i. Go to https://gmt.io/, the official GoMining website, and click the Get Started button.

ii. A link to the NFT marketplace will appear. Select the "Get Started" option to register for an account.

III. To register, use your email address or a web 3 wallet.

IV. You will then need to confirm your email address. To validate your account, click the verification link that was sent to your email address.

Step 2: ***Register for the NFT trial at no cost.***

Once your account has been created, you must register for the NFT free trial. You may mine Bitcoin for free for seven days with this. Go to the NFT Game section and adhere to the instructions provided.

Step 3: ***Keep an eye on your NFT.***
You may view your NFT in your GoMining wallet as soon as your trial period starts. 

Go to the Dashboard tab under the My NFT section to see the total rewards you have received from your NFT.

Here are links to Youtube tutorials on how to use and get the most out of the GoMining platform

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GphH5-3OoNg
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb154wuJOHr3vFW9J6w7W0nPEORkkXd2L


**What does Bitcoin Halving Mean?**
After  4 years or after 210,000 blocks have been mined successfully by the network, Bitcoin miners receive a block reward that is halved. This reduces the amount of fresh bitcoins issued into circulation by half, this event is known as the "halving." 


**Addressing Environmental Impacts of Bitcoin Mining on Communities**
The huge amount of energy that is consumed and used during the bitcoin mining has drawn much concern and critics. Some miners have opted to using renewable energy sources to reduce their carbon output footprint. In reaction to the concerns gotten from the global community, major mining companies and individuals are moving towards utilizing energy-efficient mining equipments and investing in renewable energy. Progressively, the industry has evolved from lone hobby miners to large-scale enterprises and increased competition mostly due to the introduction of new technologies. Since its beginning, bitcoin mining has advanced dramatically, and today whole server farms and data centers are devoted solely to mining activities. The mining of Bitcoin uses much energy power and large-scale miners are responsible for a large amount of it that is used for mining. One of the major reasons for this is that bitcoin and other cryptocurriencs are widely accepted in the society.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1vqb6qgozwfzjwj36zjh.png)



**Latest Trends in the Bitcoin Mining**
The influence of Bitcoin investments on our lives has increased and it calls for us readjust some of the ways and polices that we mine it . Here are some growing trends in Bitcoin Mining.

***Resurgence and expansions in NFTs use cases***
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are seeing a rise in popularity and an expansion of their applications. NFTs are distinct digital assets that can stand in for ownership of virtual real estate, music, or artwork. More people are becoming interested in using NFTs for different reasons lately. 
	
***Multiple-stage filtration and self-cleaning systems***
Emerging developments in Bitcoin investing include multi-stage filtration and self-cleaning systems. The efficiency and security of bitcoin transactions are intended to be enhanced by these technologies.
Self-cleaning systems guard investors' money against cyberattacks by automatically identifying and eliminating any dangerous software or threats. In contrast, multi-stage filtration makes use of several levels of verification to guarantee that the blockchain network processes only authentic transactions.

***In Conclusion***
I hope that this article has shed more light on understanding Bitcoin mining and how much electricity and processing power it takes. Additionally, you now understand the role of NFTs in representing digital assets.

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