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Bitcoin mining is the process by which new bitcoins are created and transactions are sent across the network. Both the people who engage in it and the devices that are used for mining are called "miners". In the process of mining, the miners' computers perform the so-called "hashing", producing proof-of-work - they take a series of randomly generated input data strings and apply a specific cryptographic function to it (SHA-256 in Bitcoin's case). The result of each calculation will always be the same "hash", unique to any particular input, but its exact value cannot be predicted until the actual calculation is performed. The network has an overall "target" value, and as soon as any miner gets a hash which is equal to or lower than the target, they get to register all the transactions which took place on the network since the last "hit", package them into a block, add it to the end of the Blockchain, and credit a specific amount of bitcoins to their own account (these bitcoins are created "out of nothing" to reward the miner for the time and electricity they spent on cracking hashes). Initially, any person could use their PC to download a Bitcoin client and start mining bitcoins. They still can, but by now it is economically infeasible, as the mining industry is dominated by ASICs - highly efficient machines developed specifically for the purpose of mining Bitcoin.
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Regulations
A few months ago, Russia was looking to subsidize mining costs. However, that seems to have been a ploy to gain control over miners and get them to register wit...
SegWit2x appears to have made an enemy of South Korea’s Seoul Bitcoin Meetup, which has confirmed its “staunch opposition”.
Breaking
SegWit2x fork receives a huge blow as New York Agreement signatory F2Pool ceases signalling for the fork.
A lack of passwords has come back to haunt businesses, as Bitcoin mining malware finds its way into Aviva and Gemalto.
Two officials of the Crimean Council of Ministers were terminated after they were caught mining Bitcoin using government computers.
Adoption
The tiny unrecognized republic of Transnistria is looking to use its cheap electricity to support Bitcoin mining via a government-backed farm.
Bitcoin mining, a huge business in China, is unsure about its future as the government cracks down.
The market is full of FUD about China mining bans and the like. Perhaps we’ve forgotten that the good news this year has far outweighed the bad.
The cryptocurrency space is continuing to grow. Here’s how cryptocurrency mining might change in the next years
Mining
The governor of a region near St Petersburg, Russia offers old nuclear power plant site to miners.
Bitcoin’s scaling crisis was one of several things Satoshi and earlier Bitcoiners never anticipated. Here’s how that 1 MB blocksize limit got put there.
Cambridge University has put out a study on cryptocurrency that provides information on exchanges, wallets and mining.
Security
Well-known illegal piracy site, The Pirate Bay has been “borrowing” its visitors CPU processing power in order to mine digital currencies.
Hype
JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon has said Bitcoin is only for North Koreans, Venezuelans and drug dealers.
Nvidia could continue its close relationship with Bitcoin despite price changes by shifting to mining, analysts say.
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