Learn
How the network stays honest, in plain language. You do not need to mine to be here.
The Short Version
Mining is how Bitcoin adds the next block of transactions, and how it makes that history expensive to fake. Computers all over the world compete to prove they did a specific kind of work. The first one to prove it publishes the block. Everyone else can check the proof without trusting a bank, a company, or a person in the middle.
That proof is called proof of work. It is easy to verify and hard to skip. Rewriting an old block means redoing the work, then redoing every block after it, while the rest of the network keeps moving. That is the security. Not a password. Not a permission slip.
Most people in this community never mine. They buy bitcoin and hold their own keys. Mining is a different project: machines, power, and patience. This page is the explanation, not a pitch to start tomorrow.
Miners take pending transactions and search for a result the network will accept. The search takes real computation. Checking a winner takes almost nothing. About every ten minutes, on average, somebody finds the next block. If more machines show up, the puzzle gets harder so the timing stays about the same.
The miner who finds a block is paid two ways. The protocol issues new bitcoin on a schedule that ends at 21 million coins, and the miner also collects the fees people attached so their transactions would be included. Nobody at a company sets that paycheck.
The machines draw power. That cost is part of why the work is hard to fake. A block that was cheap to produce would be cheap to replace. This is the mechanism, not an argument about power plants. If you want that conversation, bring it to a meetup.
If You Want To Take Part
Some people run a small miner at home. Some join a group so they can take part in hashrate together. Hashrate is just the work those machines are doing. Below are two projects our members can read for themselves. We do not run either one.
Rigly calls itself a Bitcoin mining block party. The line on their site is "We mine bitcoin together." It is a way for people to participate in mining hashrate as a group.
East Texas Bitcoin Community is linking Rigly as a resource. We do not operate it, and this page is not a promise about what participation pays. Read their site and decide for yourself.
Visit RiglyBitaxe is an open-source Bitcoin miner made to run at home. The project describes it as quiet and low-power: plug it in and let it run, or modify it if you want to. The design is open, so you are not stuck with a closed box.
We do not sell Bitaxe hardware, and there is no price or deal hiding behind this link. If a home miner sounds interesting, start at their site.
Visit BitaxeNew to Bitcoin itself? The mining details can wait. What is Bitcoin? is the plain starting point, and a meetup is still the easiest place to ask the question you think is too basic.
Hardware, power bills, pools, whether any of this is worth your Saturday. Somebody in the room has either tried it or is wondering the same thing. Come sit in.