Bitcoin Essentials电子书

Bitcoin Essentials

Table of Contents

Bitcoin Essentials

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Bitcoin Wallets and Mining Software

Bitcoin wallets

What is a Bitcoin wallet?

Why do we need Bitcoin wallets?

Types of wallets

Software wallets

Hardware wallets

Full wallet versus thin client

Hosted wallets

Wallet security

Mining software

The need for mining software

What does mining software do?

Which mining software to choose?

Summary

2. CPU Mining

Mining with Bitcoin Core

Mining software

Let's start mining

Pros and cons of mining

Pros of mining

Cons of mining

Best practices when mining with CPUs

Profitability of mining

Summary

3. GPU Mining

Setting up a GPU for mining

Drivers

Mining software

Windows installation instructions

Linux installation instructions

Let's start mining

Multiple GPU setup

Mining on a GPU

Pros and cons of GPU mining

Pros of GPU mining

Cons of GPU mining

Best practices when mining with GPUs

Benchmarks of mining speeds with different GPUs

GPU versus CPU mining

Profitability of GPU mining

Summary

4. FPGA Mining

Setup and installation of the required software

Mining software

Linux installation instructions

Windows installation instructions

Let's start mining

What happens when mining on a FPGA

Pros and cons of FPGA mining

Pros of FPGA mining

Cons of FPGA mining

Best practices when mining with FPGAs

Benchmarks of mining speeds with different FPGAs

FPGA versus GPU and CPU mining

Profitability of FPGA mining

Summary

5. ASIC Mining

Setting up mining software

Drivers

Mining software

Installing cgminer on Linux

Installing cgminer on Windows

Let's start mining

What happens when mining on a ASIC

Pros and cons of ASIC mining

Pros of ASIC mining

Cons of ASIC mining

Best practices when mining with ASICs

Benchmarks of mining speeds with different ASICs

ASIC versus FPGA, GPU, and CPU mining

Profitability of ASIC mining

Summary

6. Solo Versus Pool Mining

Solo mining

Setting up a wallet for solo mining

Setting up mining software for solo mining

Setting up mining software for pool mining

Pool mining discussion

Mining pools

Choosing a pool

Solo versus pool mining

Profitability

Majority attack on Bitcoin

51% attack

Summary

7. Large Scale Mining

Large Scale Mining overview

Large Scale Mining challenges

Inexpensive and reliable electricity

Good network connectivity

Access to latest hardware

Stable political climate

Bitcoin exchange rate

Cooling of mining hardware

Large Scale Mining operations

BitFury

KnC Miner

21 INC

Mega Big Power

Genesis Mining

Other mine operators

Summary

8. The Future of Bitcoin Mining

Overview of the current state of mining

Further centralization of mining

Hardware arms race

Halving of the reward

Consolidation, mergers, and acquisitions

Bitcoin exchange rate

Quantum computing and mining

Cracking the security of SHA-256

Centralization by region

Governments adopting cryptocurrencies

Decentralization of mining

Mining chips everywhere

21 INC and the Bitcoin Computer

Mining devices as a source of heat

The end of the ASIC arms race is near

Decentralized mining is key

Elimination of PoW

Inefficiency of PoW

Replacement of PoW

Can we do without mining?

Replacing or eliminating mining

Efficiency of mining

Possible ways in which mining may change

Summary

Index