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But the huge upfront cost is also a way to discourage dishonest players. The completion of this puzzle is the "work" in proof of work.įor lucky miners, the Bitcoin rewards are more than enough to offset the costs involved. To decide who gets the reward, Bitcoin requires users to solve a difficult puzzle, which uses a huge amount of energy and computing power. There is stiff competition for these rewards, so many users try to submit blocks, but only one can be selected for each new block of transactions. Blockchains rely on users to collate and submit blocks of recent transactions for inclusion in the ledger, and Bitcoin's protocol rewards them for doing so successfully. Bitcoin uses proof of work, which makes this method an important part of the crypto conversation. Proof of work is one way of incentivizing users to help maintain an accurate historical record of who owns what on a blockchain network. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. This may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on the site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. So how do we make money? Our partners compensate us. And while our site doesn’t feature every company or financial product available on the market, we’re proud that the guidance we offer, the information we provide and the tools we create are objective, independent, straightforward - and free. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. Our estimates are based on past market performance, and past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. Examples are hypothetical, and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific investment issues. NerdWallet does not and cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information in regard to your individual circumstances.
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