Bitcoin mining counter

Neil Blake MLive. Jim Ananich, D-Flint, stirred up some of his supporters on Twitter this week after tweeting that he wanted to make Michigan the most pro-bitcoin state in the country. State Rep. Ananich said he fears digital currency will soon become something that only wealthy folks will have a way to benefit from. When asked how you regulate an unregulated currency, Ananich mentioned that there are officials across the country already attempting to do just that.

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Content:

• Bitcoin drops to $34,142 amid China mining crackdown; Ether declines 5.9%
• Bitcoin floats above $36,000 on strong US GDP performance
• Kazakhstan unrest takes down a fifth of global bitcoin mining network
• Here’s what could happen after Bitcoin runs out of supply
• The Cost of Bitcoin Mining Has Never Really Increased
• Bitcoin - Under the Hood

WATCH RELATED VIDEO: What is Bitcoin Mining? (In Plain English)

Bitcoin drops to $34,142 amid China mining crackdown; Ether declines 5.9%

Blockchain technology shows promise for sectors ranging from banking to logistics. In the world of sustainability , it's being considered for applications from energy trading schemes to supply chain transparency to food safety. However, as people envision hope-filled plans for how it could change the world, they often overlook blockchain's non-sustainable energy consumption.

Discussions of that downside typically center on the electricity consumption used for cryptocurrency mining — which uses almost as much energy per year as Ireland. It also doesn't help that cryptocurrency miners invest in more powerful and resource-dependent computer equipment to succeed compared to their peers.

Proof of work is a validation method that prizes computing power and resource usage. As cryptocurrency miners' computer power goes up, so does their mining power. When people solve the mathematical challenges that allow them to validate blockchain transactions through proof of work, they get rewarded with more cryptocurrency.

However, some people in the cryptocurrency sector want to instead use proof of stake or authority to validate entries on the blockchain. Bitcoin researcher Alex de Vries is a supporter of the proof-of-stake method.

It involves giving a person validation or mining privileges that relate to how many cryptocurrency coins they have. People taking part in the proof-of-stake validation method have to surrender cryptocurrency to do so, similarly to holding them in an escrow account.

If people fraudulently validate a transaction on the blockchain, they lose their staked coins — as well as the ability to approve future blockchain entries. Then, proof of authority only allows a selected number of people — usually 25 or less — to validate blockchain transactions.

These individuals are people viewed as trustworthy, according to the consensus of everyone able to access the blockchain. This consensus method is most common on private blockchains, such as the sort that would be built to handle specific energy trading schemes or verification of sustainable business measures being taken across a supply chain. Here, people put their reputations on the line. Those who maliciously validate a transaction lose their status within that group and forfeit the chance to perform any further validations.

The proof-of-stake and proof-of-authority methods are significantly less energy-intensive than proof-of-work validation. If those building blockchain applications move toward less energy-intensive methods of verification, there should be a resultant decrease in blockchain energy consumption. The Energy Web Foundation EWF , for example, is designing a proof-of-authority consensus method of confirming blockchain content. It wants to use the blockchain to support distributed and renewable energy sources.

Using blockchain in the energy sector handles both the regulatory and technical needs in that industry. EWF wants to have at least 1, energy authorities participating in this blockchain. It's devising a governing plan to eliminate bad actors, too. The possibilities above relate to how a blockchain operates.

However, some efforts to reduce blockchain energy consumption take a different approach. They aim to use blockchain to promote energy-efficient ways of getting around , such as electric vehicles. Then, the blockchain spurs people to adopt eco-friendly, environmentally conscious behaviors that help offset the energy used.

However, the lack of infrastructure is one of the main barriers that makes people hesitate to invest in electric cars. They may live in cities that don't have many or any electric charging stations.

If people take frequent road trips, they may worry about running out of power in an isolated and unfamiliar place. Blockchain-based, peer-to-peer platforms exist to help people find private charging stations for their electric cars. It leverages the Ethereum blockchain to connect drivers with charging points. There's also a blockchain project called DRIFE that brings on-demand transportation to the blockchain.

It's a decentralized system that lets people rate their drivers and see payment details for their trips entered into the blockchain as ledger transactions. Uber and Lyft helped people get comfortable with the idea of using on-demand drivers to take them to their destinations.

The blockchain solution proposed by DRIFE hopes to eliminate some problems associated with using the gig economy for transportation and emphasize transparency. If it becomes a readily available option, more people may decide they don't need to own cars.

Some researchers are building blockchains that work differently from the ones that use so much energy. Going that route is akin to the first possibility described on this list because it changes a fundamental characteristic to cut blockchain energy use. One example is the Red Belly Blockchain.

It's a speedy solution capable of performing tens of thousands of transactions per second. Most blockchains currently handle 20 or fewer transactions in that time. Even better for the blockchain energy problem, researchers developed this blockchain with a unique algorithm that allows performance scalability without ramping up energy consumption levels. The Red Belly Blockchain also does not use the proof-of-work method for transaction validation. If projects like this one have long-term success, more people will realize it's possible to use blockchain as a secure method of verifying transactions or behaviors while keeping sustainability in mind.

It'll likely be a while before these new blockchains become the norm — if they ever do. Nevertheless, it's fantastic that researchers recognize how crucial it is to conquer blockchain's energy problem.

The fact that they have developed something that works so well in lab tests also helps other teams investigate ways to make progress. As mentioned earlier, the computing setups used by cryptocurrency miners are primarily responsible for the exceptionally high energy demands of the blockchain. Fortunately, efforts are underway, such as an initiative by Cryptosolartech in Spain, to mine bitcoin with solar or wind energy.

These solutions strive to reduce the associated carbon footprint and prove that methods exist to allow bitcoin mining to continue sustainably — even when validating with energy-intensive, proof-of-work methods. People in the corporate world who are considering systems that rely on blockchain or cryptocurrency should ask plenty of questions about how transactions are resolved or the currency is mined.

The next step is to prioritize the companies or miners that use sustainable methods. One example of what's possible is a company called Northern Bitcoin. The organization is among the enterprises leading the way in sustainable mining. It uses percent renewable energy. Blockchain has understandably earned a poor reputation due to concerns about its energy requirements. The options mentioned above mean the blockchain could develop a better reputation among people who appreciate its technological potential but have problems with the energy aspect.

People at the corporate level must not get dazzled by outstanding blockchain projects. The most responsible approach to take is to thoroughly research blockchain solutions — and their energy implications — before pursuing them.

After gathering information, they should take care to align themselves with the ones that show the most potential for genuine operational sustainability. However, analysts suggest several ways to solve the blockchain energy problem. Here are four: 1. Move away from the proof-of-work validation method Proof of work is a validation method that prizes computing power and resource usage.

Use blockchain to spur energy-efficient transportation methods The possibilities above relate to how a blockchain operates. Show comments for this story. View the discussion thread. Share this article Twitter Facebook Linkedin. Kayla Matthews Contributor. More by This Author. Many businesses at sea when it comes to water stewardship.

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Bitcoin floats above $36,000 on strong US GDP performance

Bitcoin mining uses the hashcash proof of work function; the hashcash algorithm requires the following parameters: a service string, a nonce, and a counter. In bitcoin the service string is encoded in the block header data structure, and includes a version field, the hash of the previous block, the root hash of the merkle tree of all transactions in the block, the current time, and the difficulty. Bitcoin stores the nonce in the extraNonce field which is part of the coinbase transaction, which is stored as the left most leaf node in the merkle tree the coinbase is the special first transaction in the block. The counter parameter is small at bits so each time it wraps the extraNonce field must be incremented or otherwise changed to avoid repeating work.

Kazakhstan unrest takes down a fifth of global bitcoin mining network

The Bitcoin network is burning a large amount of energy for mining. In this paper, we estimate the lower bound for the global mining energy cost for a period of 10 years from to , taking into account changes in energy costs, improvements in hashing technologies and hashing activity. We estimate energy cost for Bitcoin mining using two methods: Brent Crude oil prices as a global standard and regional industrial electricity prices weighted by the share of hashing activity. Despite a billion-fold increase in hashing activity and a million-fold increase in total energy consumption, we find the cost relative to the volume of transactions has not increased nor decreased since This is consistent with the perspective that, in order to keep the Blockchain system secure from double spending attacks, the proof or work must cost a sizable fraction of the value that can be transferred through the network. Bitcoin is a digital currency launched in by an anonymous inventor or group of inventors under the alias of Satoshi Nakamoto Nakamoto, It is the largest cryptocurrency in market capitalization with over billion dollars Chan et al. As a decentralized currency, Bitcoin differs from government regulated fiat currencies in that there exists no central authority within the network to verify transactions and prevent frauds and attacks Sin and Wang, Instead, Bitcoin relies on a highly replicated public ledger, secured by means of a hash chain and validated through community consensus Akcora et al.

Here’s what could happen after Bitcoin runs out of supply

We recently discovered eight deceptive mobile apps that masquerade as cryptocurrency cloud mining applications where users can earn cryptocurrency by investing money into a cloud-mining operation. By: Cifer Fang August 18, Read time: words. We have reported our findings to Google Play, and the apps have been promptly removed from the Play Store. Some of these apps have even been downloaded more than , times. These apps, which do not have cryptocurrency mining capabilities and deceive users into watching in-app ads, have affected more than 4, users globally from July to July

The Cost of Bitcoin Mining Has Never Really Increased

The success of many companies through the assistance of bitcoin proves that technology continually dominates and transforms how economics operate. However, a deeper, more conceptual understanding of how these technologies work to identify innovation opportunities and how to successfully thrive in an increasingly competitive environment is needed for the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Transforming Businesses With Bitcoin Mining and Blockchain Applications provides innovative insights into IT infrastructure and emerging trends in the realm of digital business technologies. This publication analyzes and extracts information from Bitcoin networks and provides the necessary steps to designing open blockchain. Highlighting topics that include financial markets, risk management, and smart technologies, the research contained within the title is ideal for entrepreneurs, business professionals, managers, executives, academicians, researchers, and business students. Offer does not apply to e-Collections and exclusions of select titles may apply.

Bitcoin - Under the Hood

To really understand what is special about Bitcoin, we need to understand how it works at a technical level. What makes Bitcoin different? How secure are your Bitcoins? How anonymous are Bitcoin users? What determines the price of Bitcoins? Can cryptocurrencies be regulated?

They wanted new coins to be released gradually into the market — but at the same time, it was crucial for a generous supply of Bitcoin to start circulating sooner rather than later. New BTC are given to Bitcoin miners as their Bitcoin block reward when they verify blocks of transactions. To begin with, the reward stood at 50 BTC per block.

The new rules are not specifically targeted at crypto: They are intended to rein in all energy intensive industries Inner Mongolia was the only province to fail a central government review of energy consumption last year. Aside from crypto mining, they will also limit PVC, steel, coke, and methanol production. And miners need a lot of electricity: The bitcoin economy uses more electricity annually than the whole of Argentina, according to analysis by researchers at Cambridge University. Chinese crypto miners can still find cheap electricity, some of it from hydropower in Sichuan and Yunnan, but they face many other challenges, mostly from government regulation and an ill-defined legal status.

The latest move came Tuesday as the government acted against a company for allegedly providing cryptocurrency-related services. The company's business registration was cancelled by the authorities, and all the financial and payments institutions are warned not to provide virtual currency-related services directly or indirectly. Bitcoin is the most popular of numerous new cryptocurrencies, which are not backed by precious metals or government credit. Instead, its price reflects only speculation on its future value. As a young currency, it is considered a risky investment with highly volatile value. China first moved in to restrict its banks from using Bitcoin as currency, citing concerns its inherently speculative nature threatens the country's financial stability. Over the years, the government has become even more wary.

An obstacle to large-scale bitcoin mining is finding enough cheap energy to run the huge, power-gobbling computer arrays that create and transact cryptocurrency. One mining operation in central New York came up with a novel solution that has alarmed environment alists. It uses its own power plant.