Very soon the bitcoin network may reach a milestone level in computing power. The "exahash" will be a world first and a game changer in network processing. No other entity could hope to achieve this. The theoretical 2nd place competition record less than 1% of this hashing power (in petaflop equivalent).
Achieving the exahash may be delayed. The approaching mining reward halving will act as a disincentive for new miners and may slow down what has been an incredible increase in computing power. If it is achieved this round however it will be something worth celebrating. It makes for a very strong security against external threats to the bitcoin network.
Visualising an exahash is difficult. A hash being one cycle of cryptography. Where any parcel of data can be turned into one of those stings of strange characters we have grown to love. Say like turning potatoes into hash browns, except it doesn't matter how many potatoes you put in, it always just looks like one tater patty. Sound hashy? Anyway, an exahash does what it does at 10 to the 18th that's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times per second!
In other words two million of these. A wall about two meters (6 units) high and 83 kilometers long.
Achieving the exahash may be delayed. The approaching mining reward halving will act as a disincentive for new miners and may slow down what has been an incredible increase in computing power. If it is achieved this round however it will be something worth celebrating. It makes for a very strong security against external threats to the bitcoin network.
Visualising an exahash is difficult. A hash being one cycle of cryptography. Where any parcel of data can be turned into one of those stings of strange characters we have grown to love. Say like turning potatoes into hash browns, except it doesn't matter how many potatoes you put in, it always just looks like one tater patty. Sound hashy? Anyway, an exahash does what it does at 10 to the 18th that's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times per second!
In other words two million of these. A wall about two meters (6 units) high and 83 kilometers long.
What was once almost impossible to get (the miner above from two years ago) is now almost insignificant and obsolete. We need to talk about the significance of what has been achieved and how to use it for good. Bitcoin has definitely come a long way.
