mining [English]

InterPARES Definition

No definition in earlier IP projects. ITrust definition not yet developed.

Other Definitions

Citations

  • Bitcoin Wiki Vocabulary [2017] (†796 s.v. "Mining"): Mining is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin's public ledger of past transactions. This ledger of past transactions is called the block chain as it is a chain of blocks. The block chain serves to confirm transactions to the rest of the network as having taken place. Bitcoin nodes use the block chain to distinguish legitimate Bitcoin transactions from attempts to re-spend coins that have already been spent elsewhere. · Mining is intentionally designed to be resource-intensive and difficult so that the number of blocks found each day by miners remains steady. Individual blocks must contain a proof of work to be considered valid. This proof of work is verified by other Bitcoin nodes each time they receive a block. Bitcoin uses the hashcash proof-of-work function. · The primary purpose of mining is to allow Bitcoin nodes to reach a secure, tamper-resistant consensus. Mining is also the mechanism used to introduce Bitcoins into the system: Miners are paid any transaction fees as well as a "subsidy" of newly created coins. This both serves the purpose of disseminating new coins in a decentralized manner as well as motivating people to provide security for the system. · Bitcoin mining is so called because it resembles the mining of other commodities: it requires exertion and it slowly makes new currency available at a rate that resembles the rate at which commodities like gold are mined from the ground. (†2095)
  • BlockchainHub Glossary (†807 s.v. "Block (on the Bitcoin Blockchain)"): Each block memorializes what took place in the minutes before it was created. Each block contains a record of some or all recent transactions and a reference to the block that came immediately before it. It also contains an answer to a difficult-to-solve mathematical puzzle – the answer to which is unique to each block. New blocks cannot be submitted to the network without the correct answer – the process of “mining” is essentially the process of competing to be the next to find the answer that “solves” the current block. The mathematical problem in each block is extremely difficult to solve, but once a valid solution is found, it is very easy for the rest of the network to confirm that the solution is correct. There are multiple valid solutions for any given block – only one of the solutions needs to be found for the block to be solved. (†2290)
  • BlockchainHub Glossary (†807 s.v. "Mining (Bitcoin)"): Mining is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin’s public ledger of past transactions or blockchain. This ledger of past transactions is called the blockchain as it is a chain of blocks. The block chain serves to confirm transactions to the rest of the network as having taken place. Bitcoin nodes use the block chain to distinguish legitimate Bitcoin transactions from attempts to re-spend coins that have already been spent elsewhere. Mining is intentionally designed to be resource-intensive and challenging so that the number of blocks found each day by miners remains steady. Individual blocks must contain a proof of work to be considered valid. This proof of work is verified by other Bitcoin nodes each time they receive a block. Bitcoin uses the hashcash proof-of-work function. The primary purpose of mining is to allow Bitcoin nodes to reach a secure, tamper-resistant consensus. Mining is also the mechanism used to introduce Bitcoins into the system: Miners are paid any transaction fees as well as a “subsidy” of newly created coins. This both serves the purpose of disseminating new coins in a decentralized manner as well as motivating people to provide security for the system. (†2293)
  • Buterin [2017] (†818 s.v. "Mining"): In order to compensate miners for this computational work, the miner of every block is entitled to include a transaction giving themselves 25 BTC out of nowhere. Additionally, if any transaction has a higher total denomination in its inputs than in its outputs, the difference also goes to the miner as a "transaction fee". Incidentally, this is also the only mechanism by which BTC are issued; the genesis state contained no coins at all. (†2112)
  • Piasecki 2017 (†815 s.v. 2017-02-20 "Blockchain Terminology-a dev): · Mining is the process by which Miners create a Proof of Work Block in Blockchains such as Bitcoin. It is a process of iterating through many possible Blocks (often iterating using the Nonce) until the Block satisfied the PoW criteria. This involves the Hash of the Block being a number smaller than the Target for a given block.· The Miners are rewarded for creating a valid Block by the Block Reward and any Fees spent by Transactions included in the Block.· There are also a handful of minor activities similar to Block Mining that serve a different purpose. As Addresses are essentially random numbers, some people iterate over them in a process of Vanity Address Mining to create a desirable looking Address (similar to vanity plates for cars). One can also mine for different Transaction Hashes, but it's a fringe activity used only in special cases. (†2101)
  • Scaling Bitcoin [2017] (†845 s.v. "Block subsidy / Block reward"): The reward given to a miner which has successfully hashed a transaction block. Block rewards can be a mixture of coins and transaction fees, depending on the policy used by the cryptocurrency in question, and whether all of the coins have already been successfully mined. (†2251)
  • Scaling Bitcoin [2017] (†845 s.v. "Mining pool / pool"): In the context of cryptocurrency mining, a mining pool is the pooling of resources by miners, who share their processing power over a network, to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to solving a block. A "share" is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid proof of work that their miner solved. Mining in pools began when the difficulty for mining increased to the point where it could take years for slower miners to generate a block. The solution to this problem was for miners to pool their resources so they could generate blocks more quickly and therefore receive a portion of the block reward on a consistent basis, rather than randomly once every few years. (†2264)
  • Walport 2016 (†802 p.5): Anyone with access to the internet and the computing power to solve the cryptographic puzzles can add to the ledger and they are known as ‘Bitcoin miners’. The mining analogy is apt because the process of mining Bitcoin is energy intensive as it requires very large computing power. (†2125)
  • Wood 2014 (†803 p.7): In general, Ether used to purchase gas that is not refunded is delivered to the bene ficiary address, the address of an account typically under the control of the miner. (†2071)