Principle of virtual currency graphics card
In short, mining is the use of chips for a random number related calculation, get the answer in exchange for a virtual currency. Virtual currency can be exchanged for the currency of each country through some way. The stronger the computing power, the faster the chip can find this random answer. Theoretically, the more virtual coins can be proced per unit time. Because it's about random numbers, you can only get rewards if you happen to find the answer
In his paper, Nakamoto stated:"in the absence of central authority, it not only encourages miners to support bitcoin network, but also enables bitcoin's currency circulation system to have the initial source of money injection."
Nakamoto compares the generation of bitcoin by consuming CPU power and time to the consumption of resources by gold mines to inject gold into the economy. Bitcoin mining and node software mainly initiates zero knowledge proof and verification transactions through peer-to-peer network, digital signature and interactive proof system
each network node concts broadcast transactions to the network. After these broadcast transactions are verified by miners (computers on the network), miners can use their own work proof results to express their confirmation. The confirmed transactions will be packaged into data blocks, and the data blocks will form a continuous data block chain
Nakamoto himself designed the first version of bitcoin mining program, which was later developed into the first generation of widely used mining software bitcoin, which was popular from 2009 to mid-2010
each bitcoin node will collect all the unconfirmed transactions and gather them into a data block. The miner node will add a random adjustment number and calculate the SHA-256 hash value of the previous data block. The mining node tries again and again until it finds the random adjustment number so that the hash value is lower than a specific target
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at the earliest, bitcoin miners were mining through Intel or AMD CPU procts. But because mining is a computing intensive application, and with the continuous improvement of mining number and equipment performance, the difficulty graally increases, now using CPU mining has no profit or even loss
as of 2012, since the first quarter of 2013, miners graally began to use GPU or FPGA and other mining equipment [5]. At the same time, a large number of ASIC devices were launched in mid 2013
since July 2013, the computing power of the whole network has shown a straight-line rise e to the large number of ASIC equipment put into operation. Based on the average computing power in July 2013, all CPU mining equipment has been unable to generate positive revenue, and FPGA equipment is close to no revenue
according to the estimation of average computing power in September 2013, the existing small ASIC mining equipment developed for indivials will also be close to no positive revenue in the next 1-2 months. A large amount of computing power is monopolized by cluster ASIC mining equipment with 5 th ash / s or more. Because of no profit, indivial mining is almost squeezed out of mining groups. Some bitcoin miners have raised funds to build machine rooms and install a large number of mining equipment in places where low-cost electricity can be obtained
in order to save the cost of mining, some bitcoin miners make mining programs into malicious programs to infect other people's computers on the network to mine for themselves
Why use graphics card to mine
compared with CPU, GPU is used for general purpose calculation. So it can stack hundreds of stream processors awesome. Each stream processor is like a small CPU. Although its ability to run complex programs is far from the power of CPU, it can not support many processors, so the actual performance, especially the single precision floating point performance is much stronger than that of CPU. p> However, as we have mentioned before, a card is very suitable for general computing such as virtual currency because it has many stream processors, and the speed of obtaining specific solutions is much higher than that of N card. Therefore, many miners rush to buy a card to calculate virtual currency for profit
of course, with NVIDIA's Pascal graphics card, n card's ability in mining virtual currency is not as different as a card before. So in the current situation that a card is generally out of stock, those mid-range N cards have become the second choice for miners
What are the disadvantages of mine cardfinally, I want to talk about why we can't choose mine card when we are shopping for second-hand cards. Because the miners are mining bitcoin, the most important thing is to seek profits. Therefore, the graphics card they use is running and calculating all the time, and its strength is far greater than that of daily game applications. In other words, running such a calculation for one day is equivalent to running a graphics card for one month
in addition, the places where virtual currency is mined are mostly the places where multiple graphics cards gather. Thousands of graphics cards are constantly calculating in a room, and their heat is also quite huge. Miners can not choose the chassis with good heat dissipation conditions like ordinary consumers, so that the heat can be released smoothly. In this way, the graphics cards can still operate for 7 * 24 hours under high temperature conditions, It also deepens its aging degree
the result of doing so is that the graphics cards used for mining are lost prematurely. If you buy these graphics cards, the result will be unstable operation, restart and other things will continue to happen
moreover, at present, manufacturers also have strict requirements on mine cards, such as banning second-hand sales and shortening the shelf life. If users buy these mine card graphics cards, future maintenance will also be a big challenge
1. Unlike most currencies, bitcoin is not issued by a specific monetary institution. It is generated by a large number of calculations based on a specific algorithm and is a virtual currency
2. In order to get bitcoin, you have to use computing machines, many of which are provided by AMD graphics card with high computing power. When bitcoin was hot, AMD's graphics cards were always in short supply, such as HD 7850, HD 7870, HD 5850, HD 5870, R7 270, R 280x, which are the best helpers of bitcoin
3. Later, when someone invented a mining machine that could get bitcoin more quickly, these graphics cards slowly withdrew from the mining stage
in other words, the computer made up of AMD high-speed graphics card was once the main platform for acquiring bitcoin. This is the relationship between them.
Starting from the essence of bitcoin, the essence of bitcoin is actually a special solution generated by a bunch of complex algorithms. A special solution is one of the infinite (in fact, bitcoin is finite) solutions that can be obtained from the equations. Every particular solution can solve the equation and is unique
why use graphics card to mine
compared with the complex computing of CPU, GPU used by graphics card is used for general computing. So it can stack hundreds of stream processors awesome. Each stream processor is like a small CPU. Although its ability to run complex programs is far from the power of CPU, it can not support many processors, so the actual performance, especially the single precision floating point performance is much stronger than that of CPU. p>
the actions in bitcoin can be considered as the use of graphics card to do continuous general computing, and the computational complexity is relatively low and quite repetitive. The stream processor used by graphics card is just suitable for such an algorithm. It's like constantly solving equations. The graphics card is 2000 middle school students, while the CPU is 8 math doctors. Although the mathematical knowledge of the doctor of mathematics is far more than that of the middle school students, the speed of solving medium-sized equations such as virtual currency is certainly not as fast as that of 2000 middle school students
so we used graphics card to mine virtual currency at the beginning. After that, someone developed a specific algorithm to make the stream processor of the graphics card greatly strengthen the virtual currency solution, which is the origin of the mining machine
In recent weeks, the high-end GPUs of almost all major foreign retailers have been out of stock. The price of high-end graphics cards has been soaring, and the shortage does not seem to end soon. Behind the unprecedented shortage of GPU is the influx of miners who are engaged in the exploration boom of Ethereum, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It is difficult for game players to obtain one card. NVIDIA even implements "two cards for single user"
the main culprit for the shortage of graphics cards is that high-end graphics cards are the best way to tap Ethernet and other non bitcoin cryptocurrencies. With the popularity of blockchain concept in recent weeks, the price of these cryptocurrencies has risen to an unprecedented height. A powerful graphics card can dig up a few dollars in cryptocurrency every day. Therefore, more and more amateur miners began to compete for graphics cards, resulting in the shortage and high price of graphics cards for other non currency people
not only there is no high-end graphics card to buy, but also the manufacturer has informed customers that the return policy of graphics card is suspended
bitcoin has value because it is useful as a form of currency. Bitcoin has the mathematical characteristics of money (persistence, portability, interchangeability, scarcity, separability and identifiability) rather than relying on physical characteristics (such as gold and silver) or the trust of central power (such as fiat money). In short, bitcoin is backed by mathematics. With these characteristics, a form of money to have value requires trust and use. This can be reflected in the growing number of users, businesses and start-ups. Like all currencies, the value of bitcoin comes directly from people who are willing to accept it as a means of payment, which is the only source
some people with insight of digital currency in China are also beginning to explore application scenarios other than digital currency payment. Digital currency scholar Mr. Sha Qian mentioned the concept of currency business circle and planned many application scenarios of bitcoin. Perhaps inspired by the coin business circle, the jewelry instry has developed an applied digital currency, Fuyuan coin, which is similar to the traditional business integral.
GPU is used for general purpose computing. So it can stack hundreds of stream processors awesome. Each stream processor is like a small CPU. Although its ability to run complex programs is far from the power of CPU, it can not support many processors, so the actual performance, especially the single precision floating point performance, is much stronger than that of CPU. The actions in bitcoin can be regarded as the use of graphics card to do continuous general computing, and the computational complexity is relatively low and quite repetitive. The stream processor used by graphics card is just suitable for such an algorithm.
in the early days, it mainly used a card, such as hd7850, hd7870, hd7850, hd7870...... Later, n-card was optimized. Later, gtx1070 and gtx1060 joined the mining army. Now, even the price of Jingying gtx1060 3G is around 2000
that is to say, these virtual currencies raise the price of graphics cards to a virtual high, thus increasing the cost of upgrading the configuration for game players.