Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies. Peter Kent

      BITCOIN PRESETS

      All of these preset rules and system guidelines are baked into the software that runs the Bitcoin blockchain. A block contains around 2,000 transactions (it varies slightly depending on how much information is in each transaction). One block is added every ten minutes, more or less. In order to maintain this block emission rate, the software has to adjust its difficulty rules every now and then — every 2,016 blocks, in fact. If it’s taking less than ten minutes for each block, on average — because more computing power is being used for mining, as more miners and mining rigs come online — then the target number will be proportionally reduced, to increase the difficulty. If it’s taking more than ten minutes, though (as the price of Bitcoin drops, fewer people mine), then the target number is increased, reducing the difficulty. Also, every 210,000 blocks — around every four years — the block subsidy is halved. At the time of writing, the subsidy is 6.25BTC, but sometime in 2024, it will drop to 3.125BTC.