Crypto Mining Question (???)

[FCD]

Question regarding crypto mining.  This, as part of my continuing quest to wrap my head around crypto in general.

I understand the "why?" of crypto mining at a philosophical and Economics level (I don't agree with some of this, but I understand it).

I understand the hardware side of crypto (i.e. processors, compute capacity, etc.)

I 'sort of' understand the networking side of crypto (although I'm still unclear on why it's related to cyber security, but not my question today).

I am also rock solid in my understanding of technology (it's what I do for a living).

So, with all that, here's my question...

Okay, ,so you're sitting there with a basement full of compute gear.  You've got the power to run it all, the cooling to keep it cool, and the network connectivity to do whatever it is you have to do across the network (but again, still some questions on the networking which I'll get to here in a moment.).  Now you're ready to pick up your cyber shovel and start mining.  ...

So, there must be an application or something which gives you these "complex mathematical problems" which are the essence of mining.  The fastest ones to solve these equations are the most likely to get a tiny bit of a cyber token.  But how do you know what application to use, and where does the latest 'complex mathematical problem' come from?  I mean, I assume whatever the current problem to be solved must come from the Internet somehow, or there must be a place to look it up.  But...

1. How do you know you are using the correct application and version?

2. How are you guaranteed to be solving an equation which hasn't already been solved yet?

3. Once you solve one (or five, or five thousand) of these 'complex mathematical problems' what happens, do you get some certificate or proof you solved it before anyone else?  How do you validate your efforts?

4. (This question is hard to frame properly, but I'll try).  There are mathematical 'problems' which don't have a solution.  In order to know there is a solution to a problem, someone must know the answer.  If someone knows the answer, then the "work" being performed is all for not.  Conversely, if a problem does not have a solution, then no one can ever solve it.  For example, if the question is...resolve all the digits in Pi, or how many segments can you divide an inch into?  Neither of those two questions have a finite and discrete answer.  What happens then?  And how do the people issuing the problem know they haven't asked a question like this without knowing the answer ahead of time?

There are several more follow on questions, but I'll stop here for now in order to avoid complicating the answer.

I would love to hear anyone's insight into these questions.  Then, depending on the answer, I will add in some follow-on questions which will build on the answers.

Thanks!

[Ksihkehe]

So, there must be an application or something which gives you these "complex mathematical problems" which are the essence of mining.  The fastest ones to solve these equations are the most likely to get a tiny bit of a cyber token.  But how do you know what application to use, and where does the latest 'complex mathematical problem' come from?  I mean, I assume whatever the current problem to be solved must come from the Internet somehow, or there must be a place to look it up.  But...

1. How do you know you are using the correct application and version?

It depends on what you're mining. Some networks simply won't do anything if you aren't running the right application and version, presumably most. Some of the consensus networks will give grace periods and then the node will be blacklisted or removed from service until it's updated. Those networks you simply stop accumulating for that time.

Your computer is constantly doing these same kinds of functions across networks, but most people don't see or know much about it. BTC is just another network. It's just another application really. Now it takes a whole server farm to do it, but it used to run in the background without any trouble.

The BTC blocks pay quite a bit, but it's on a decreasing scale over time. Some other networks holders get a small bit of transaction fees for proving liquidity or other services, some are set to pay nodes which are sort of like miners, and others are just absolute garbage that have no mining and no utility.

2. How are you guaranteed to be solving an equation which hasn't already been solved yet?

In BTC once the block is finished, it's finished. I presume the network then moves on to the next block. Some networks it's not Proof of Work though. BTC has a double-spend exploit, but I believe it's damn near impossible to pull off now because of the network share you need to have to do it.

3. Once you solve one (or five, or five thousand) of these 'complex mathematical problems' what happens, do you get some certificate or proof you solved it before anyone else?  How do you validate your efforts?

It's recorded on the blockchain itself with BTC as far as I know. Some blockchains provide periodic payment for services, some are immediate, some are based on specific contract lengths, but all are recorded as part of the records or should be. There's a whole emerging field of blockchain forensics... not only do you know who mined one, you can track where every single subdivision of that went so long as it remains in the BTC network.

4. (This question is hard to frame properly, but I'll try).  There are mathematical 'problems' which don't have a solution.  In order to know there is a solution to a problem, someone must know the answer.  If someone knows the answer, then the "work" being performed is all for not.  Conversely, if a problem does not have a solution, then no one can ever solve it.  For example, if the question is...resolve all the digits in Pi, or how many segments can you divide an inch into?  Neither of those two questions have a finite and discrete answer.  What happens then?  And how do the people issuing the problem know they haven't asked a question like this without knowing the answer ahead of time?

It's an encryption protocol. Unless I'm mistaken there is no way to digitally encrypt something with a non-Turing key, unless you believe they have functioning quantum computers. It's a little more complicated because of the networking parts and the transactions, but effectively it's just an encryption protocol with a ledger and totally fungible sub-units.

As far as Pi, it works here as an analogy. If BTC were pie... each progressive block would be another digit in the string. You get your reward when you calculate that next number. It gets progressively harder, computationally, but the function performed is fundamentally the same. Each digit is then cemented into the chain and will be included in the whole string of Pi as it proceeds. BTC has a programmed limit to the duration of these additional blocks paying the miners.

Transactions can continue after the mining rewards stop, but I don't know who will be maintaining the network for free. Unless it becomes yet another controlled market and banks/hedges maintain the network to profit off the derivatives and market manipulation I don't know the end game. In that case it will become like commodities I would imagine, with banks and hedges holding vast ownership stakes and charging people to shuffle them around into subaccounts that don't require any actual changes to the blockchain ledgers. That's the only way for them to make money on it aside from speculation and dollar devaluation.

BTC isn't practical for transactions and never will be without a layer 2 network or changes to the code. The current layer 2 Lightning Network is just a credit card processor by another name. Most of crypto adoption will be invisible stuff on the backend of banking and commerce.

[FCD]

That is VERY helpful!  Especially the response to #4.  Thank you!

I had to run to an appointment earlier so I didn't get a chance to add that my suspicion was that the 'problem" (to solve) was likely some sort of a hash or cypher.  So, your answer makes perfect sense.  I just had to run before I cold type all that out.  I wanted to include that just to illustrate how I was simplifying the problem in order to ask my question, not predisposing the 'problem' or solution.

The one part I was really surprised to read was your statement that you don't have to solve the entire 'problem', only a portion of it.  This fills in some of my blank spots, but it also raises some additional questions.  Continuing to use 'Pi' as an example (as it seems to be a decent analogy), solving the 985,647,355th digit in Pi is considerably more difficult than solving the 3rd digit after the "3" (i.e. 3.141 (5927...)), but if I understand what you wrote correctly, you get paid less for that 985,xxx,xxx digit after the "3" than you do for the 3rd digit after the "3".  That doesn't seem "fair" (in a machine logic sense, not an emotional one).  There's a lot more energy expended getting to the 985m digit, and the digit after that (and so on), than there is to solve Pi out to only 3 digits after the decimal.  Seems like the reward for 'work' should be higher the deeper you get into it.

My other question is (and I think I have an idea of the answer, but I'll ask it anyway), how, or maybe more precisely 'who' validates that each successive digit (in our Pi example) is in fact the correct digit?  If the problem is to solve a cypher or a hash, then someone must have either the correct 'answer' to the entire cypher/hash, or they must have the cypher/hash itself which they can use to verify.  When I say "they", I am hoping to mean 'computer' or automated process (and not some human "sneaker-net" validation).  Otherwise, what stops someone from throwing out a random digit?  Yes, some 'computer' knows, but how/who programs this computer, or how does anyone error-check the results to ensure it's not some big charade?

I'll cut to the foundation of my question(s).  If there's any possible way for a person to know the "final answer", in any way, then there is exactly zero security across the board.  At some point, the final security barrier will boil down to human trust.  And, as we both know, from a machine perspective, human trust can never be a security measure, it is worth exactly zero, because sooner or later that trust will be broken, no matter who it is.  Dangle a mountain of untraceable cash in front of even Mr. "I chopped down the Cherry tree", George Washington, long enough and sooner or later he's gonna' grab that cash and bolt to the Bahamas.  I still don't feel like I'm asking this question clearly enough, but hopefully you will understand my meaning here.

Lastly, your responses to questions #1 through #3 were also very insightful.  I just wonder how you trust that your computer is handshaking (with a valid app and version), and not infected or hijacked in some way?  I mean, this is quite a bit different than logging into ESPN or something, a person's life savings could be on the line.  (not mine of course)

[Ksihkehe]

The one part I was really surprised to read was your statement that you don't have to solve the entire 'problem', only a portion of it.  This fills in some of my blank spots, but it also raises some additional questions.  Continuing to use 'Pi' as an example (as it seems to be a decent analogy), solving the 985,647,355th digit in Pi is considerably more difficult than solving the 3rd digit after the "3" (i.e. 3.141 (5927...)), but if I understand what you wrote correctly, you get paid less for that 985,xxx,xxx digit after the "3" than you do for the 3rd digit after the "3".  That doesn't seem "fair" (in a machine logic sense, not an emotional one).  There's a lot more energy expended getting to the 985m digit, and the digit after that (and so on), than there is to solve Pi out to only 3 digits after the decimal.  Seems like the reward for 'work' should be higher the deeper you get into it.

The mining rate was originally established back when BTC was worth nothing. The mining rewards were meant to reward early adopters with more and to also scale well as the price inflated. It's sort of worked as far as price versus reward so far, but when it gets to marginal returns dealing with economies of scale and data centers... we'll see if it can maintain that balance it needs to survive. The energy use is stupid, particularly in a world where they're telling us we're going to eat bugs and own nothing because we use too much energy. BTC maxis will talk about using industrial slack energy or off hours grid power to help maintain the grid... but it's jut marketing.

I wouldn't say that the problem isn't solved for each block. That's why doing an analogy on the fly is risky, because I didn't have time to poke it with a stick. It is solved, but for that specific block. Each digit of Pi would be a calculation (calculate Pi to the Nth digit, with the next encryption always being Pi to the Nth=1 digit). In this case, with Pi, you always have a simple solution to guess, but you can't guess ahead because you don't have the numbers that lead up to it. It's either 0-9, one digit at a time. BTC is much more complicated and gets more complicated over time. Each one would be a completed block though, each digit. The ledger is completed and recorded after the solution gets consensus.

I also think that I have been incautious with throwing around "encryption". The real work they're doing is guessing solutions. They have to guess the solution and then the network confirms the solution. Decrypting, semantically, would perhaps be using a key to complete the transaction rather than guessing. All the optimization is entirely in processing speed/power, not in any sort of technique for modifying the search methodology.

I have not mined BTC or really looked into it much in a couple years, so I'm going to pull from here. I don't know the site or if they're reliable, but as far as this part it's close enough for our purposes.

"Here’s how it goes: Transactions trigger the opening of a block. The transaction information is entered then the block closes and creates a hash number that includes the encoded details from the transaction. Each new block contains information from the previous block to create a chain that cannot be manipulated or altered, which ensures that no one can spend the same unit of the currency twice. In Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) system, mining computers need to prove that they have expended energy in the mining process, which is how they prove that everything is correct.


Only one miner can be the first to find the correct solution to the mathematical puzzle. The winning solution is then broadcast to the entire network and the other nodes check to see if the solution is correct. If everything is in order, the new block is added to the blockchain. This process then starts again from the beginning."

So the computational side is really just busywork. The next bit is also partially answered by the above link.

My other question is (and I think I have an idea of the answer, but I'll ask it anyway), how, or maybe more precisely 'who' validates that each successive digit (in our Pi example) is in fact the correct digit?  If the problem is to solve a cypher or a hash, then someone must have either the correct 'answer' to the entire cypher/hash, or they must have the cypher/hash itself which they can use to verify.  When I say "they", I am hoping to mean 'computer' or automated process (and not some human "sneaker-net" validation).  Otherwise, what stops someone from throwing out a random digit?  Yes, some 'computer' knows, but how/who programs this computer, or how does anyone error-check the results to ensure it's not some big charade?

I'll cut to the foundation of my question(s).  If there's any possible way for a person to know the "final answer", in any way, then there is exactly zero security across the board.  At some point, the final security barrier will boil down to human trust.  And, as we both know, from a machine perspective, human trust can never be a security measure, it is worth exactly zero, because sooner or later that trust will be broken, no matter who it is.  Dangle a mountain of untraceable cash in front of even Mr. "I chopped down the Cherry tree", George Washington, long enough and sooner or later he's gonna' grab that cash and bolt to the Bahamas.  I still don't feel like I'm asking this question clearly enough, but hopefully you will understand my meaning here.

Lastly, your responses to questions #1 through #3 were also very insightful.  I just wonder how you trust that your computer is handshaking (with a valid app and version), and not infected or hijacked in some way?  I mean, this is quite a bit different than logging into ESPN or something, a person's life savings could be on the line.  (not mine of course)

I'll also throw in this link covering the process a little closer. Again, not a site I know. It's close enough though.

BTC uses SHA-256. The work done is guessing the solution. It's calculating, but not solving a problem conventionally. The next part of BTC is solving the Byzantine General's problem of consensus when you have the potential for malicious agents within a network. It allows for certifying transactions without a central authority. BTC solves that through the Proof of Work, but it's not exactly solved.

There is a double spend exploit that can be done when 51% of the network is controlled by a single bad actor or group. Another link here. This is MIT, so I don't know the site but they do have blockchain chops.

It's not really possible to know the answer, but the answer is the strongest point in a weak system. As you mentioned there is the human element. Crypto is rife with scams because it's a target rich environment. People that have been doing it for years fairly routinely get taken for a ride using social engineering. Lots of phishing attempts, constantly. Any time the crypto is moved there's a chance to exploit, unless you're doing your own private transactions. Decentralized exchanges and swap protocols can have exploits written in.

I think the likelihood of signing into a false BTC network would mostly be related to other scams. Somebody might advertise a "mining" application for BTC or some other crypto, but then the program just hijacks the resources for some other purpose like distributed DDoS or whatever nefarious stuff. If not for BTC mining being at industrial scales, this same kind of mining application could be used to hijack the network by maliciously controlling that 51% via computers running your mining app. With a mostly worthless token you can run this scam for a while as people run the application and build toward whatever minimum withdrawal there is or whatever. Of course there are also scams that target wallets and keys too. Those are usually through hot wallet exploits, exchange breaches, or bulk phishing efforts with spam, from what I've seen.

SHA-256 isn't broken entirely, but I don't trust it. It's hard to break quickly, but it just boils down to brute forcing a SHA-256 IMHO. I've seen it done with a small group of people networking their rigs, though it wasn't related to BTC. Whoever brute forces first gets the block reward. If you gain control of the network with 51% you can exploit it, but getting the right hash is still just about guessing and work. If somebody indeed broke the encryption they would be wise to only submit correct blocks at a rate that doesn't catch the eye of forensics folks. That would collapse the network in short order, assuming it was clear evidence. If you want to make the most money off the secret, you'd have to ensure other people spending large amounts on hash rate continued to make enough to stay afloat.

There are probably people that would argue the NSA or CIA has a carveout doing just that. Perhaps not directly, but they frequently use their outside minions for proxies.

NFTs and their use in commerce/finance/data storage will not be run on the same kind of idea. There will be central authorities and there won't be any chance of forking the networks by votes. They'll still be recorded on blockchain, but they'll be running through independent centralized ledger networks with executive authority existing somewhere.

My focus has been on utility crypto. It's stuff that has real world applications. BTC, not so much. On the back end of finance there's a lot of room for these products to streamline derivatives and overall processes. You can program smart contracts to do everything from hold things in escrow, complete secure transactions based on external events so they require no human prompts, and even do more complicated things like secure margin loans etc. These can all be programmed into one contract, handled across chains and the banking/credit systems, and the fees for using these contracts goes back to those providing the liquidity or utility from the underlying cryptocurrency. Once you integrate property titles into the process, along with digital ID, you can automate a lot of things. Properly set up this could make things that currently take weeks or months into a brief process that completes itself in an afternoon.

First will be the digital ledger tech. Within the next decade that will probably be in place. That's the rails for everything else to run on and through. It just replaces the old banking system back end. It will bridge all the central banks and BIS with everything else more directly and also allow for interoperability between networks at nearly instant speeds. Currency exchange will also be nearly instant and NOSTRO accounts will only be needed in special circumstances. They (banking cartels and finance titans) need more of the money more liquid and the current system is breaking down under the stress of their greed, because that's where they generate income. They'll lose out on some fees and have a smaller workforce to do the work behind the scenes, but overall the speed of money movement will provide them far more long term profits.

I see the utility in crypto, but the utility and my interest don't really paint my opinion of where it's going. I think that it will become integrated in banking and finance because it benefits those with the most power. Digital ID will be part of it because people will need to have ID security to be signing all these digital transactions. They want the digital ID, they want more central control micromanaging money flow, and they have the power to ensure these things happen. It seems inevitable, assuming nothing changes to significantly alter the current trajectory of society.

[FCD]

This is beyond excellent for explanation(s)!!  I am learning volumes.  And, it's not that I haven't tried to research this, I very much have.  It's just that there is SOOOOoooo much bullshit information out there, and misleading stuff, I don't know what to even take seriously let alone formulate some understanding upon.  I'm convinced that about 90% of the people writing about crypto are talking completely out their backside's (i.e. typical MSM, screwing up the facts, and just outlets searching for cool sounding buzz words and jargon to get clicks with.  Even the financial rags are full of this).  Anyway, back to the discussion.

Okay, you've provided some fantastic well thought out answers to my technical questions (and explained them in a way I understand completely) (and I even 'get' NFTs and such).  So, moving on...

Well, just to summarize for a minute first; there is some human security risk, but as I suspected this is heavily cloaked to appear otherwise.  This absolutely explains why once or twice a year we see some shifty crypto blow up and some guy bolt off to the Bahamas (or other non-extraditable country).  That's the human weakness, and as long as it is even possible, it will always exist.  So, thank you for confirming that.

Next subject is "administrative".  I'm glad I saved some of these questions and didn't put them in the OP, because the answers you've provided so far have helped me refine my question and not ask a needlessly stupid question.

So, we talked about the app, and validating its legitimacy, but that only goes so far.  Now we've got the (correct, theoretically bulletproof) app, and we've got all of our compute hardware up and operational.  Presumably we now also need a network connection.  Now, I'm not just talking about a "dial-up" connection to Compuserve (heh, remember them?  I do. Wife used to work for them on the commercial side.)  No, there must be a requirement for a much more robust "tether" to the outside world.  Again, if there wasn't, then that means there are people who know not only the question but also the answer.  (and yes, I understand, as I suspect you know, about hashes, cypher's and all the brute force things you described, I'm just using easier terms to ask my questions).  So, now we're down in the basement, ready to turn this monster "on" (all of our chillers are running outside, megawatts of power ready to go to work, breakers all closed, fans blowing air across all the fan coils, or in-row cooling our server racks (whatever)).  Then we press the virtual "Start" button.

Immediately wheels start churning, but we really have no idea what they're doing, or 'where' they are inside this complex problem (i.e. are they 10% though, or 90%?).  So, something must be monitoring these devices to monitor progress.  I've read in numerous locations that it's the first person to the 'finish' line (be that incremental or otherwise) who gets the cookie, so monitoring must be pretty granular...almost down to the second (maybe even more).  'GAWD DAMMIT!!  How did Batman solve this before me (...again)???  Dammit!  The Caped Crusader foils the Villain once again!!!"  (I jest of course, otherwise it gets just tragically boring).  In other words, there must be some pretty tight administrative controls on this mining process, certainly from a mining perspective.  Is there a monitoring applet which monitors Batman's progress compared to the Riddler's?  Surely neither of them can just work offline in Momma' Wayne's basement...right?  Seems to me, this means two things.  One, a person must have a pretty robust interweb and networking presence (or five), and two, that the miner must have to dedicate some serious OP-EX to recurring costs for network, among all the other OP-EX expenditures.

And then there's the headroom requirements for all this monitoring.  At an application level, this means there must be other apps running all this monitoring, and these apps also take resources (from the total compute pie).  Regardless if you run an operation like this from Momma' Wayne's basement, or whether you lease time and storage (and bandwidth) on the Utah Data Center (UDC) supercomputers, there's still a online (network) bandwidth overhead requirement.  You don't have much control over this application either...because this is a HUGE vulnerability here, so this thing must be locked down tighter than a Trident nuke boat.  This would be the preferred entry point for virtually every hacker on Earth.  Establish some man-in the-middle attack here and you put George Soros outta' business.

So, I'm interested on hearing your thoughts on these questions as well.  As you can (hopefully) see, this isn't just endless questions about why YOU think something, or to justify why, but rather ascending questions around a topic of great interest with a stair stepped building approach.  I only mention this last part to fend off the notion that questions are bad.  They are not; only ones which the asker already knows the answer to are (or already has an opinion on), but I digress.

Excellent input!!  I've learned a lot here today.  More today probably than I've ever been able to find.  These are not elementary "How do I turn on my computer and login?" questions, and they are not (hopefully) unnecessarily complicated questions aimed at impressing others with how intellectual a person is, but rather seeking actual answers.  I say this only for the benefit of some 'other' users who may be looking on here.

Thus, I sincerely appreciate your input and answers!!!!!

edit - BTW, this same app must be responsible for handing out whatever "certificate" (or proof) of work accomplished. So, it must know your progress at any given moment (or second). Now, there are other ways to skin this same cat, but not in real-time. So, a lot of my question here revolves around monitoring and administrative function of these apps.

[Ksihkehe]

I'm not going to quote because you're rapidly exceeding my level of knowledge. I can't offer much specificity.

I would assume there are people that are now specialists at setting up this sort of mining operation for BTC and I would imagine they have a whole framework for optimizing everything at the hardware level. I don't know what more monitoring you need once you are monitoring the uptime of all the hardware, connections, and whatever else. I would guess it's not much different from any data processing farm with specific optimal parameters for the tasks it does.

Connection speeds are not always critical for mining to the best of my knowledge. The real data crunching is on-site with BTC, but for high volume consensus networks uptime is vital. On some networks you won't even be accepted as a node provider unless you have incredibly limited outage time. I'd have repurposed a box or two to provide some kind of residual from nodes if I had the uptime requirements met. My connection is insufficient. I couldn't do Proof of Work due to hardware and energy costs, but I'd have been happy to provide transaction verification or similar services on a different chain. I did some KYC/AML stuff for one project, but there are limited options for me.

I'm only assuming that within the BTC code is the mechanism that delivers the block reward to the first node that reports it correctly, but after the consensus completes. I'm also only guessing, but would assume that miners have to use their own wallet address for the hash process and failing to do so would perhaps means the block reward is lost or improperly credited. It may be integral to the mining set-up itself. As in, without the wallet ID the network doesn't even recognize the hash contribution or send it to be verified.

The vast majority of crypto people have no idea what they're talking about once they get past their marketing propaganda. They're often exclusionary specialists in one thing, like BTC (or whatever they happen to have bags of at the time). It's no different than the rest of finance though. Most of the finance people in the press are just propagandists for banks and hedges. A few of them provide decent insight or relay accurate information, but they're not often doing it before it happens. They're just explaining what has happened and the short term consequences (and they get some of it right for the wrong reasons). The tariffs are really making a mockery of these clowns because every other day they're reporting on shit that hasn't happened and making market assessment based on puffs of smoke. They're all looking like clowns changing their reasoning and excuses from day to day, on both sides of the arguments.

That's sort of the case for all mainstream journalism and editorials, in my opinion. If you look at reporting and punditry about any topics you have expert level knowledge in, can you think of many times that you thought they really nailed it on the head? Not on opinions because even a dog's ass gets some time in the sunshine, even blind pig sometimes find the acorn, yada yada. On topics that are about the reality of how things work they constantly get it really wrong. I expect it from the public on social media, but the press seems to hold themselves to no standard either these days. So much content is getting backdoor funding that it probably has a lot to do with the lack of standards we see today.

I tried to find a bare bones BTC mining tutorial, but it looks like pages and pages of mining rig infomercials and mining pool recruitment type stuff. I think the best place for easy tutorials may be an old BTC forum post circa 2014. Not sure if they're still around. They were zealots back then, but it was different. It wasn't this crazy gonzo capitalist movement behind it and all the marketing propaganda it brought with the social media side-hustles, so there may be some easy written instructions somewhere. The network has changed a bit and I'm sure it would be out of date for the specifics, but it would give the general idea.

This blog covers the details of the process as far as what the blocks look like in the "How to Mine Bitcoin" section and has a little on this history of mining, but it doesn't have a tutorial on setting it up as far as running. I tried to find a bare bones tutorial for just what setting up the network part looks like, but it's just pages and pages of mining rig ads and mining pool recruitment. It's probably not that difficult, but also not that useful anymore. These lottery miners claim to hit blocks on small units, but I don't know if anybody is following the blockchain records to see if it's true or how often. For the person at home I'd say BTC mining is sort of like gold mining. It's as much a hobby as a revenue generator. You get to mess around with tech and maybe it pays for itself, but nobody should be counting on it for steady revenue.

For the most part I think you're as deep into the network side of BTC as I am now. You knew all the terms and tech surrounding it already so it was pretty much just a flow chart you were missing on what, where, and why. That's about as deep as I got in my prior research with it.

I enjoy answering questions when I'm able, so don't sweat asking them. I just might not have many more on this aspect of BTC.

Edit to add: when I was proofing this for like the 10th time it occurred to me that it makes the most sense for the blockchain reward to be written into the block when it's submitted by the miner, so their wallet would be included for that purpose and integral to the process. Then once it reaches consensus the BTC appear in the miner's wallet along with all the other transactions from that block in their respective locations. I didn't verify that, but it's seems the only way anonymous nodes can be certain they get the reward for what they submit without depending on a central authority for distribution.

[FCD]

I tried to find a bare bones BTC mining tutorial, but it looks like pages and pages of mining rig infomercials and mining pool recruitment type stuff.

Yeah, that was pretty much my experience also.  I could find all sorts of promotional stuff and adverts, people selling stuff, but it was difficult to see through all that crap to real and tangible info on the subject.  I imagine those are hard questions the industry doesn't want people being too curious about.  It might give away some of the many ruses which are out there.

Great info though (from you)!