Quote:
Originally Posted by rowan
Ok, one thing I'm trying to understand... the math problem that CPUs must solve is solely to decide (in a fair-ish way) who receives their "free" coins as more virtual currency gets released? It's not actually doing any useful work that a third party is paying real-world $ for?
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Not really. The nodes are essentially trying to crack the cryptographic hash of the next block in the blockchain. The node which wins is allowed (by all of the other nodes) to pay itself 50 Bitcoins. If the node didn't actually solve the puzzle, the other nodes ignore its claim to the block.
It's completely decentralized.
Decentralized minting, spending, double-spend checking, and clock synchronization.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rowan
Very interesting if this is the case, since it would initially have zero tangible value, this would only grow due to speculators exchanging it with a real-world currency... seems like a chicken and egg situation, but I guess if there's $4m worth floating around it must have worked.  |
Yup.
I hope that thumbs up isn't for me. I didn't invent it. I'm just trying to adapt it to include the adult industry.