lesson·20 min·Chapter 3 of 3
Mining & Network Security
Bitcoin mining involves repeatedly hashing block headers with different nonces until finding a hash below the target difficulty. Miners collect transactions into blocks, compete to solve the puzzle, and the winner earns the block reward (currently 3.125 BTC after the 2024 halving) plus transaction fees. The difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks (~2 weeks) to maintain a 10-minute block time. Mining pools allow miners to combine hash power and share rewards proportionally, reducing variance in earnings.
💡 Key Takeaway
This lesson covers the fundamental concepts. Make sure you understand these before moving to the next chapter.