Bitcoin Mining Glossary

A high-voltage outlet providing enough power for full-size miners. Standard in homes for dryers and ranges.

A theoretical attack requiring over 50% of network hashrate to double-spend or censor transactions.

Standard miner cooling using fans and heatsinks. Simple and effective but can be noisy for home use.

Mining in an apartment requires quiet hardware and low power. Open-source miners like Bitaxe are ideal.

A specialized chip designed exclusively for Bitcoin mining, far faster and more efficient than general-purpose hardware.

An individual mining chip that performs SHA-256 hashing. Modern miners contain dozens to hundreds of these.

Open-source firmware for Bitaxe miners. Web interface for pool setup, tuning, and monitoring.

An open-source solo Bitcoin miner. D-Central is a pioneer manufacturer with the original Mesh Stand.

A compact encoding of the mining difficulty target stored in each block header.

A bundle of Bitcoin transactions added to the blockchain. Miners compete to create each new block.

The odds of your miner finding a block based on your share of network hashrate. Low for small miners but…

The 80-byte section of a block that miners hash. Contains version, previous hash, Merkle root, time, target, and nonce.

The position number of a block in the blockchain, starting from zero at the genesis block.

The Bitcoin earned by mining a block. Currently 3.125 BTC, it halves roughly every four years.

The newly created Bitcoin in each block, currently 3.125 BTC. Halves every four years until supply reaches 21M.

A candidate block that miners hash. Contains selected transactions and metadata ready for mining.

The average time between blocks, targeted at 10 minutes. Individual blocks vary randomly around this average.

A Bitmain mining chip powering the Antminer S19 XP and Bitaxe Supra. Efficient at around 21.5 J/TH.

A Bitmain chip used in Antminer S21 variants and the Bitaxe Gamma open-source miner.

Bitmain's latest mining chip in the Antminer S21. Industry-leading efficiency at approximately 15 J/TH.

The electricity rate where mining revenue equals power costs. Below this rate, mining is profitable.

Heat output in BTU/hr, calculated as watts times 3.412. Helps compare miners to traditional heaters.

The special first transaction in each block that creates new Bitcoin and pays the miner.

The number of blocks mined after a transaction, indicating how secure and irreversible it is.

The management board in an ASIC miner that runs firmware, coordinates hashboards, and connects to the network.

Third-party firmware replacing stock software for better efficiency, autotuning, and monitoring features.

Identifying faults in mining hardware using test equipment and systematic testing before repair.

A value that controls how hard it is to mine a Bitcoin block, adjusted every two weeks to maintain 10-minute…

The automatic recalculation of mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks to maintain 10-minute block times.

Continuously mining to accumulate Bitcoin steadily over time, regardless of price movements.

Applying SHA-256 twice in sequence, the specific hashing method Bitcoin uses for block mining.

Mining Bitcoin while using the heat productively for heating spaces, water, or other applications.

A connector between a miner's exhaust and standard HVAC ducting for directing hot air where needed.

Energy efficiency of a miner in Joules per Terahash. Lower is better as it means less electricity per unit of…

The cost of power for mining, measured in $/kWh. The biggest ongoing expense, varying greatly by location.

A 2,016-block period between difficulty adjustments. Each epoch lasts roughly two weeks.

A low-cost microcontroller powering open-source miners like Bitaxe. Handles WiFi, firmware, and chip control.

The software running on a miner that manages hashing, pool connections, and hardware monitoring.

A split in the blockchain into two paths. Can be temporary from competing blocks or permanent from rule changes.

A pool payout method paying miners a fixed rate per share including estimated transaction fees.

Running miners in a home garage for noise isolation and easy access. A popular choice for residential mining.

An older, less efficient mining protocol replaced by Stratum. Required frequent polling for new work.

The event that cuts Bitcoin's block reward in half every four years, enforcing digital scarcity.

A non-backward-compatible protocol change requiring all nodes to upgrade. Can permanently split the chain.

The output of a cryptographic function. Miners search for block hashes below the difficulty target.

The cost to produce one terahash of mining power. Mining is profitable when hash price exceeds hash cost.

Revenue per terahash per day. A key metric showing the economic value of mining power at any given time.

The main mining board inside an ASIC containing rows of mining chips. Most miners have 3-4 hashboards.

Fixing malfunctioning hashboards by replacing failed chips and components to restore full mining performance.

The speed at which a mining device performs calculations. More hashrate equals more mining power.

Capturing miner heat for productive use like home heating. Makes mining economics much more favorable in cold climates.

A metal component that absorbs and dissipates heat from mining chips, critical for performance.

Mining Bitcoin at home. Requires managing noise, heat, and power while potentially heating your space.

Submerging mining hardware in non-conductive liquid for silent, efficient cooling. Eliminates fans and dust.

A sealed container of cooling fluid for silent mining. Eliminates fans and enables overclocking.

A Layer 2 protocol enabling fast, cheap Bitcoin payments through off-chain payment channels.

Nodes accept the chain with the most proof of work as the valid blockchain. Resolves competing chains.

Solo mining with low odds but full block reward potential. The thrill of the possibility, every hash counts.

The waiting area for unconfirmed transactions. Miners pick transactions from here to include in blocks.

A hash summarizing all transactions in a block using a tree structure for efficient verification.

Using specialized hardware to validate Bitcoin transactions and earn block rewards by solving cryptographic puzzles.

A group of miners who combine computing power and share block rewards proportionally.

Net financial return from mining after subtracting electricity and other costs from Bitcoin earned.

The total computing power of all Bitcoin miners combined. Higher network hashrate means more competition.

Premium quiet fans used to replace loud stock miner fans, making home mining feasible.

Miner sound output in decibels. Stock ASICs are 75-85 dB but can be reduced to under 40 dB for home…

Techniques to quiet mining hardware for home use: fan swaps, enclosures, immersion, and acoustic insulation.

A number miners change to produce different hash results when searching for a valid block.

Publicly available mining firmware that can be audited, modified, and improved by the community.

Mining hardware with publicly available designs. Anyone can build, modify, and improve the hardware.

A valid block rejected by the network because a competing block at the same height was accepted first.

Running mining hardware faster than default to increase hashrate, at the cost of more power and heat.

The circuit board that supports and connects mining chips. The physical foundation of a hashboard.

A power distribution device for feeding multiple miners from one circuit with monitoring and protection.

The percentage a pool takes from rewards. Ranges from 0-4% depending on the pool and payout method.

The electrical wiring and breaker serving mining hardware. Full-size miners often need dedicated 240V circuits.

A pool payout distributing actual block rewards based on shares contributed. Lower fees but more variable income.

A pool payout paying a fixed rate per share based on the block subsidy only, not transaction fees.

Bitcoin's security mechanism requiring miners to expend energy to validate transactions and create blocks.

The time for a new block to spread across the network. Faster propagation reduces competing blocks.

The power supply that converts AC electricity to DC power for the miner. A critical component affecting efficiency.

A no-fee, no-registration solo mining pool popular with Bitaxe users. Full block reward goes to the finder.

Reheating solder joints to fix broken connections. A common repair for intermittent chip failures.

Mining in a home setting, balancing hashrate with noise, heat, and power constraints of residential life.

The time for mining profits to pay back the hardware cost. Shorter payback periods are better.

Mining revenue measured in satoshis per terahash per day. Shows BTC yield independent of price.

A 2017 upgrade that increased block capacity by separating signature data and enabled the Lightning Network.

A strategy of withholding mined blocks to gain advantage over honest miners. Theoretical but rarely observed.

The cryptographic algorithm Bitcoin uses for mining. ASIC chips are designed specifically to compute SHA-256 at high speed.

A partial proof of work submitted to a pool to prove your miner is working. Used to calculate your reward…

A duct attachment for directing miner airflow. Essential for home mining heat management and noise reduction.

A backward-compatible protocol upgrade. Old nodes still accept new blocks without upgrading.

A block found by a solo miner earning the full reward. Rare for small miners but hugely celebrated.

Mining on your own without a pool. Low odds but you keep the full block reward if you win.

Using miners as heaters that also earn Bitcoin. 100% of electricity becomes useful heat in cold weather.

A valid block not included in the main chain because a competing block was accepted first.

Energy that cannot reach consumers economically. Bitcoin mining can convert stranded energy into value on-site.

The protocol miners use to communicate with pools. Stratum v2 adds encryption and miner-selected transactions.

A 2021 upgrade adding Schnorr signatures for better privacy and efficiency in complex Bitcoin transactions.

The threshold a block hash must be below to be valid. Lower target means harder mining.

The maximum heat output of a miner in watts. Equal to power consumption since all electricity becomes heat.

Sensors monitoring chip and ambient temperatures to prevent overheating and control fan speeds.

A compound applied between chips and heatsinks for better heat transfer. Regular replacement improves miner performance.

The time recorded in a block header when the block was mined, used for difficulty adjustments.

Fees users pay for miners to process their transactions. Becomes more important as block rewards decrease.

Running mining hardware slower to reduce power, heat, and noise. Essential for home mining setups.

Lowering chip voltage to reduce power consumption and heat, improving efficiency for home mining.

A block header field that indicates the block format version and signals support for protocol upgrades.

Components that convert 12V power to the precise low voltage ASIC chips need. A common failure point in miners.