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I don't know anything about BitCoin mining, but is there a way to get lucky mining BitCoins where you stumble upon some BitCoins using less computing resources
by ssharp 13y ago
I don't know anything about BitCoin mining, but is there a way to get lucky mining BitCoins where you stumble upon some BitCoins using less computing resources than you should have? In other words, is mining a process open to probabilities or is it a process where you churn through a finite and predictable number of calculations before you dig up a coin?
I'd have to think one of the things that would lead someone to buy a shovel is that they could get lucky and dig up some gold. If luck isn't a factor in BitCoin mining, then you're not even giving yourself a chance to overcome a negative expected value situation. It's like better a dollar on BlackJack and instead of dealing cards, they just give you back 99 cents. Nobody would play that game.
- tlrobinson 13y agoYes, mining is probabilistic. The more hashing power you have the more quickly you're likely to mine a block, but it could take more or less time depending on luck. Most miners now participate in pools, which smooths out your returns by working together to mine blocks more regularly, which are then distributed based on the amount of work each miner contributed. If you "solo mine" it might take, say, 1000 days to mine a block, but if you pool mine with 1000 other miners it might only take 1 day, giving you 1/1000 of a block reward each day (minus pool fees), vs 1 whole block reward every 1000 days (on average).
- wmf 13y agoThere is luck involved, but it's pretty small. http://bitcoinchain.com/pools http://bitcoinchain.com/pools