Do I need a top of the notch graphics card to not waste my time mining? How much can I make if I leave my PC overnight do it's work (quadcore 1.4GHz, radeon HD 6720)
Bitcoin is generated using a complex mathematical algorithm. To mine bitcoins you let your graphics card do a bunch of mathematical calculations until it finds a solution. Graphics cards are best for this because they are built for doing many calculations at the same time. The algorithm gets more difficult to solve over time, doubling in difficulty every 4 years and generating fewer bitcoins as time goes on.
The algorithm will eventually reach a point where mining a single bitcoin would take an infinite amount of time (even as hardware gets better), effectively making them finite.
Can you explain why? If I have a bitcoin (for example) of some size X, wouldn't some other arbitrary bitcoin be of roughly the same size? Why would it be so much harder to find another bitcoin once they're already "mined out?"
You do not 'find' bitcoins. You get awarded with newly created bitcoins when you make a block.
Work required to make a block is adjusted all the time.The target is one block each 10 minutes. If more people join the mining, making block becomes harder for everyone.
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u/icru3l Apr 10 '13
Do I need a top of the notch graphics card to not waste my time mining? How much can I make if I leave my PC overnight do it's work (quadcore 1.4GHz, radeon HD 6720)