2025-02-01 15:14:03 +01:00
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<!DOCTYPE HTML>
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Pablo here</title>
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<meta charset="utf-8">
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<meta viewport="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="../styles.css">
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</head>
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<body>
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<main>
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<h1>
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Hi, Pablo here
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</h1>
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<p><a href="../index.html">back to home</a></p>
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<hr>
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<section>
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<h2>Bitcoin mining is like adding the final piece to a puzzle</h2>
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<p>
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Bitcoin mining is one of those terribly explained topics that everyone and their mother has kind of
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heard about at some point, but no one really feels comfortable explaining.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img width="75%" src="../static/feynman-quote.jpg" alt="">
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</figure>
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<p>
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Truth is, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4">there are great explanations out
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there</a> for those who really want to dive into it (<a
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href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A0YjbLGLXo">there are also terrible ones</a>).
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</p>
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<p>
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2025-02-01 17:19:50 +01:00
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But I understand people are busy and would rather do other stuff than dive into it. For the busy ones,
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this is the usual metaphor I give away. I'm sharing it here (1) in case it helps other fellow orange
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pillers in doing the Lord's work, and (2) to make sure I say something completely opposite to that
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terrible "miners solve highly complex mathematical problems" that sloppy journalists from big media gift
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to us so we can confirm they don't understand jackshit about what they are reporting.
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2025-02-01 15:14:03 +01:00
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</p>
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<p>
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So, what is mining then?
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</p>
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<p>
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Imagine I give you a puzzle to finish. One of those beautiful, 3,000 pieces ones. I'm going to give you
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the puzzle almost complete: it is actually only missing one piece. Should we be playing with only the
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pieces that came in the puzzle's box, your job would be easy: you would look for the missing gap, get
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the only unplaced piece, and put it there.
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</p>
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<p>
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But instead, along with the 2,999 pieces stitched together, I come with a 40ft truck container<a
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href="#footnote-1">[1]</a> full of puzzle pieces. They are all different, and only one fits in
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the last hole of the puzzle.
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</p>
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<p>
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2025-02-01 17:19:50 +01:00
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What could you do to finish the puzzle? Oh well, the only obvious and tedious thing: you need to go
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check the pieces one by one. Pull piece, check hole. Fits? Bingo. Doesn't? Move on to the next. It would
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be boring and tedious, but it would surely work. You might get lucky and pull the right piece early, or
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you might have to work a lot more. </p>
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2025-02-01 15:14:03 +01:00
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<p>
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2025-02-01 17:19:50 +01:00
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Eventually, you would find the missing piece, and the puzzle will be complete. Anyone could see that the
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2025-02-01 15:14:03 +01:00
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piece is the right one (verifying is easy), even if finding it was a nightmare of work (mining is hard).
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</p>
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<p>
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Alright, Bitcoin mining, as an activity, is roughly like the work I just described. Only instead of
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looking for a fitting puzzle piece, we're looking for a random number. This number is searched at
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random, with no intelligence, by brute force. Hence why I (and anyone who knows a thing or two) gets
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disappointed when the journalists and snake oil salesmen talk about the "complex mathematical problems"
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that miners solve.
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</p>
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2025-02-01 17:19:50 +01:00
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<p>
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So, those impressive Bitcoin miners you might see on TV news and documentaries: they are just dumb
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"ima-try-this-number-out" machines. They are specialized equipment, for a very simple and mundane task.
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</p>
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2025-02-01 15:14:03 +01:00
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<p>
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In case you're curious, and in order to help you further understand, here are some corresponding
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2025-02-01 17:19:50 +01:00
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analogues between real mining and the puzzle metaphor. If you don't understand things, don't worry, just
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remember the puzzle story:
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2025-02-01 15:14:03 +01:00
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</p>
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<table>
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<col width="50%">
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<col width="50%">
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<tr>
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<th>Puzzle metaphor</th>
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<th>Real mining</th>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>The almost complete puzzle.</td>
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<td>A candidate block, which is a bunch of Bitcoin transactions, along with some other metadata.
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>The container full of pieces.</td>
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<td>All the numbers between 0 and ~One hundred fifteen quintillion (2^256).</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>Getting a piece, checking if it fits</td>
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<td>Generating a random number, hashing it with the candidate block and checking if its hash is
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correct</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>Checking that the puzzle is complete</td>
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<td>Checking that the block hash is below the difficulty threshold</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<p id="footnote-1" class="footnote"><em>[1] The container is a simplification. It would actually be 10^65
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containers.</em></p>
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<hr>
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<p><a href="../index.html">back to home</a></p>
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</section>
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</main>
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</body>
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</html>
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