The term crypto mining means solving cryptographic equations using computers to generate new cryptocurrencies. This process involves validating data blocks and adding transaction ledgers to a public roster, a blockchain. It entails creating new cryptos by solving complex computational puzzles.
The whole system is decentralized and distributed, which means you can send and receive money without involving banks. Additionally, the ledger reports are updated and made publicly and can be accessed through various computers.
Despite being not regarded as legal tender, in Canada, cryptocurrency can still be used in making an online purchase of goods and services. However, the Canada Cryptocurrency mining industry is under certain tax obligations. This means digital currencies are subjected to the income Tax Act.
How Crypto Mining Work
Crypto-currency mining is necessary for maintaining the transactional ledgers and keep the cryptos in circulation. Most critical, the cryptocurrency mining process prevents the risk of double-spending and counterfeiting.
When a person spends cryptocurrency, like physical currency, the digital ledger must be kept up to date by debiting and crediting respective accounts. However, the digital arena can be easily manipulated, which poses a significant challenge to this type of transaction.
Therefore, only verified miners could carry out digital ledger transaction updates, hence an extra task of securing the network from double-spending.
Miners’ Rewarding Process
In the recent past, miners have become very sophisticated with machinery that can speed up mining operations. This advancement helps the miners who carry out both ledger updating and network securing tasks to perform at ease.
In return, new cryptos are generated as their reward. Therefore, there is a chance of winning newly minted cryptos in the process.
In addition, a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus protocol has to be in place to ensure that only verified miners secure the network and update transactions. PoW also protects the network from possible hacks and external attacks.
Proof-of-Work
While precious metal miners will dig out diamonds, gold, or silver, on other hand, Crypto miners will bring about new cryptos (coins) into circulation. For miners to be rewarded with new coins, they need to deploy machines, such as Graphical Processing Units (GPU). GPUs are more sophisticated than the typical Central Processing Units, CPUs.
These machines perform complex mathematical operations in the form of cryptographic hashes.
Hash
A hash is a shortened virtual signature representing a section of information. The purpose of hashes is to protect data relayed on a public network.
A miner who emerges the fir in cracking the code adds the block to the chain and receives the reward. Miners always compete to zero in on a hash value generated by every crypto coin transaction.
Blocks
Each block uses a hash property to refer to the previous block, creating a continuous chain of blocks that goes back to the first block.
Peers on the network can verify the validity of certain blocks is valid. The peers can also verify if miners validating the blocks correctly solve the hash and receive their reward.
Over time, as miners deploy more sophisticated machines to solve PoW, the difficulty of equations on the network increases. This also results in increased competition among miners, which results in the scarcity of cryptocurrency.
Bottom Line
Cryptocurrency mining is a process that requires special tech and software designed specifically to solve complex cryptographic mathematical equations.
Typically, the Central Processing Unit chips have been used in the process of crypto mining. But with the increase in difficulty level, the specialized GPU, and application-specific integrated circuit, ASIC has been employed as more sophisticated methods.
In addition, the GPUs are power-intensive and must have a reliable and constant internet connection. However, crypto miners are required to be part and members of the online crypto mining pool.