Cryptocurrency Mining Principles Flashcards

What metric measures the total computational power of a cryptocurrency network?

Answer: Hash rate

Hash rate (measured in TH/s, PH/s, or EH/s) represents the total number of hash computations performed per second across the network.

In a mining pool, what does 'PPS' (Pay Per Share) mean?

Answer: Miners receive a fixed payout for each valid share submitted

PPS pays miners a set amount for every share submitted, transferring block-finding risk to the pool operator.

What is the 'target' in Bitcoin's Proof of Work system?

Answer: A 256-bit number that a valid block hash must be less than or equal to

The target is a threshold value; a block is valid only if its SHA-256d hash is numerically below this target.

Which type of mining hardware offers the highest energy efficiency for Bitcoin mining today?

Answer: ASICs

ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) are custom chips built solely for mining, offering orders of magnitude better efficiency than general-purpose hardware.

What is 'merge mining' (Auxiliary Proof of Work)?

Answer: Simultaneously mining two compatible blockchains with the same work

Merge mining allows miners to mine a parent chain and one or more auxiliary chains simultaneously without extra computational effort.

What does 'difficulty retargeting' every 2016 blocks accomplish in Bitcoin?

Answer: Adjusts mining difficulty to maintain approximately 10-minute block intervals

Bitcoin adjusts difficulty every 2016 blocks (roughly 2 weeks) so that blocks continue to be found approximately every 10 minutes.

What is a 'share' in the context of pool mining?

Answer: A proof of work that meets a lower difficulty threshold submitted to the pool

Shares are partial proofs of work at reduced difficulty, allowing pools to measure each miner's contribution before a full block solution is found.