Cryptocurrency Mining for Dummies - Peter Kent

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Résumé :

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Getting Started with Cryptocurrency Mining 5

Chapter 1: Cryptocurrency Explained 7

A Short History of Digital Dollars 8

First, take the Internet 8

Add credit card confusion 8

Add a dash of David Chaum 9

Result? DigiCash, E-Gold, Millicent, CyberCash, and More 10

The Bitcoin white paper 10

Bitcoin: The first blockchain app 11

Who (or what) is Satoshi Nakamoto? 12

What's the Blockchain? 13

Blockchain around the world - the blockchain network 13

Hashing: Fingerprinting blocks 14

Blockchain is immutable 15

Where's the Money? 16

What's the Crypto in Cryptocurrency? 18

Public Key Encryption Magic 20

Messages to the blockchain 21

Signing messages with the private key 22

The blockchain address - your money's home 22

Sending a transaction message 23

Unraveling the message 24

The Basic Components of Cryptocurrency 25

What's in a wallet? 25

Private keys create public keys 26

Public keys create blockchain addresses 26

The private key controls the address 26

Where Does Crypto Come From? The Crypto Mines (Sometimes) 27

Chapter 2: Understanding Cryptocurrency Mining 29

Understanding Decentralized Currencies 30

Exploring the Role of the Crypto Miner 31

Making Cryptocurrency Trustworthy 32

Reaching Agreement through Consensus Algorithms 34

Looking at the Cryptocurrency Miner 35

Making the Crypto World Go 'Round 37

Chapter 3: Building Blocks: The Transaction's Journey to the Blockchain 39

The Cryptocurrency Network 40

Submitting Transactions 44

Looking at transaction fees 44

Change address 46

Verifying the transaction 47

Competing for Bitcoin, the ten-minute contest 48

Winning the Bitcoin 50

Chapter 4: Exploring the Different Forms of Mining 53

Proof-of-Work Algorithms 53

Proof-of-work applications 55

Proof-of-work examples 56

Upsides 58

Downsides 59

Proof-of-Stake Algorithms 60

Proof of stake explained 60

Proof-of-stake selections 62

PoS example cryptocurrencies 63

Upsides 64

Downsides 64

Hybrid Proof of Stake/Proof of Work 65

Hybrids explained 66

Hybridized examples 68

Upsides 68

Downsides 69

Delegated Proof of Stake 69

Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance 69

Proof of Burn 70

And More 71

Part 2: the Evolution of Cryptocurrency Mining 73

Chapter 5: The Evolution of Mining 75

Proof of Work Mining Evolution 76

CPU mining 76

Adoption of GPUs 76

Rise of the FPGAs 77

Dominance and efficiency of ASICs 77

The Days of Solo Mining 79

Pool Mining 80

What is a mining pool? 80

Choosing a pool 81

Pros and cons of pool mining 82

Cloud Mining 83

Pool mining versus cloud mining 84

Pros and cons of cloud mining 84

Chapter 6: The Future of Cryptocurrency Mining 85

Incentivization of Energy Exploration 85

Underutilized hydroelectric dams 86

Oil and gas flaring 87

Continued Computational Efficiency Improvements 88

Doing more with less 88

Approaching the limits of physics 88

Corporate and Nation State Participation 89

Nation states 89

Corporations 91

Future speculation 91

The Mythical Miner Death Spiral 92

Blo...

Biographie:
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Sommaire:

Peter Kent and Tyler Bain are coauthors of Bitcoin For Dummies, 2nd Edition. Peter created the Crypto Clear video course to assist would-be investors in understanding cryptocurrency. He is also the author of SEO For Dummies. Tyler is a professional electrical engineer and an active crypto miner.