<p>Nothing is being "decrypted" (regardless of the fact that "decrypting hashes" is nonsense by itself). In fact, nothing about Bitcoin is encrypted whatsoever. Cryptography, yes (involving hashes and digital signatures). Encryption, no.</p>

<p>And who is taking advantage of all this mining effort? All Bitcoin users, that's who! Because the more mining power in the network, the safer Bitcoin becomes. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-14T22:47:59.280Z
2014-10-14T22:47:59.280Z
Maǳi Koǌo
<p>It is useful to the currency itself.</p>

<p>Bitcoin tries to be a democratic currency rather than being controlled by a central authority. Democracy means that the majority of people rule by their vote. This is a concept that <strong>might</strong> work in real life (all irony intended), but it's hard to pull off on the Internet since we can't simply prevent one real person from creating thousands of virtual identities and using them to make his vote louder (so called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack" rel="nofollow">Sybil attack</a>).</p>

<p>Bitcoin solves this via a concept known as <strong>proof-of-work</strong>, which requires some non-trivial work to be done for every vote to be registered. While it is not a perfect solution (surely one can manage to do twice as much work as somebody less capable), it has an ambition to prevent all serious scams, making it infeasible for a single entity to overpower (outvote) the crowd.</p>

<p>Mining is the process of voting, and miners are the voters. Every voter has to find a reverse hash according to some very specific rules, which is considered a hard work. All the others can verify his solution easily.</p>

<p>I know this does not describe the problem entirely (and it was not my goal), but it should give you the idea. If interested in the technical details, please see the <a href="https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf" rel="nofollow">original paper</a> or read some articles explaining Bitcoin in-depth. There's plenty of them out there, but be prepared to spend a few hours going through the stuff.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-14T22:13:34.110Z
2014-10-14T22:13:34.110Z
knaperek
<p>I searched the internet to find out who (or what) was taking advantage of the result of mining but I couldn't find a clear and complete answer (and sources). </p>

<p>I know Bitcoin miners decrypt hashes, but what is that useful for? I guess there is something behind that, otherwise why should we need to decrypt hashes, why should we need a huge power 24/7? Is that really ethical to mine Bitcoins ?</p>

<p>I'm not very familiar with virtual money, I may have missed something!</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-14T22:18:17.367Z
possible duplicate: [What is the rationale behind Bitcoin mining?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/3174/5406)
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-15T19:07:37.903Z
I read this post but it didn't brought me every information i wanted to have, even if it wasn't uninteresting to read
Olivier
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-15T19:36:57.833Z
Perhaps this will provide the other information: [What exactly is Mining?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/148/5406)
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-15T19:42:23.533Z
All the power used to mine Bitcoins is only necessary for the money itself ? [This article](http://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-most-powerful-computer-network-is-being-was-504503726) says the Bitcoin power and energy is just wasted, is that really the case ? I mean if some people want to mine just for "pleasure" (and i saw some people that), there is much more interesting stuff to do with your computer (it's mention in the article above).
Olivier
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-15T19:54:12.713Z
This is more about the technical side but it helps me helps to understand better
Olivier
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-15T20:52:05.177Z
Hey Olivier, you are only supposed to add an answer, to give an answer to the question. If you want to add more information to the question, you can edit it, or add comments on an answer or your question. Check out **->[tour]<-** for a quick overview how Stackexchange works.
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-15T20:53:17.753Z
I think by now, you are looking for this question: [Is there a way to set up proof-of-work systems so they would be even more useful?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/331/5406)
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-15T21:05:29.450Z
Ok, thank you on both my question and StackExchange
Olivier
<mining-theory>
What / Who is the Bitcoin mining-power useful to?
Olivier
# What / Who is the Bitcoin mining-power useful to?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-10-14)

I searched the internet to find out who (or what) was taking advantage of the result of mining but I couldn't find a clear and complete answer (and sources).

I know Bitcoin miners decrypt hashes, but what is that useful for? I guess there is something behind that, otherwise why should we need to decrypt hashes, why should we need a huge power 24/7? Is that really ethical to mine Bitcoins ?

I'm not very familiar with virtual money, I may have missed something!

**Tags:** mining-theory

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: possible duplicate: [What is the rationale behind Bitcoin mining?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/3174/5406)  
> **username_0**: I read this post but it didn't brought me every information i wanted to have, even if it wasn't uninteresting to read  
> **username_1**: Perhaps this will provide the other information: [What exactly is Mining?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/148/5406)  
> **username_0**: All the power used to mine Bitcoins is only necessary for the money itself ? [This article](http://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-most-powerful-computer-network-is-being-was-504503726) says the Bitcoin power and energy is just wasted, is that really the case ? I mean if some people want to mine just for "pleasure" (and i saw some people that), there is much more interesting stuff to do with your computer (it's mention in the article above).  
> **username_0**: This is more about the technical side but it helps me helps to understand better  
> **username_1**: Hey username_0, you are only supposed to add an answer, to give an answer to the question. If you want to add more information to the question, you can edit it, or add comments on an answer or your question. Check out **->[tour]<-** for a quick overview how Stackexchange works.  
> **username_1**: I think by now, you are looking for this question: [Is there a way to set up proof-of-work systems so they would be even more useful?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/331/5406)  
> **username_0**: Ok, thank you on both my question and StackExchange  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-10-14. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

It is useful to the currency itself.

Bitcoin tries to be a democratic currency rather than being controlled by a central authority. Democracy means that the majority of people rule by their vote. This is a concept that **might** work in real life (all irony intended), but it's hard to pull off on the Internet since we can't simply prevent one real person from creating thousands of virtual identities and using them to make his vote louder (so called [Sybil attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack)).

Bitcoin solves this via a concept known as **proof-of-work**, which requires some non-trivial work to be done for every vote to be registered. While it is not a perfect solution (surely one can manage to do twice as much work as somebody less capable), it has an ambition to prevent all serious scams, making it infeasible for a single entity to overpower (outvote) the crowd.

Mining is the process of voting, and miners are the voters. Every voter has to find a reverse hash according to some very specific rules, which is considered a hard work. All the others can verify his solution easily.

I know this does not describe the problem entirely (and it was not my goal), but it should give you the idea. If interested in the technical details, please see the [original paper](https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf) or read some articles explaining Bitcoin in-depth. There's plenty of them out there, but be prepared to spend a few hours going through the stuff.


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-10-14. Score: 4

Nothing is being "decrypted" (regardless of the fact that "decrypting hashes" is nonsense by itself). In fact, nothing about Bitcoin is encrypted whatsoever. Cryptography, yes (involving hashes and digital signatures). Encryption, no.

And who is taking advantage of all this mining effort? All Bitcoin users, that's who! Because the more mining power in the network, the safer Bitcoin becomes.


---

