Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency that allows a direct trading between entities all over the world. Transactions are executed over the Internet with so-called digital coins - bitcoins, which are created and issued simultaneously through the mining process. The miners with the proper bitcoin mining rigs compete at validating bitcoin transactions and expanding the public transaction ledger (blockchain) in order to earn the reward in bitcoins, thus protecting the Bitcoin network. Because the bitcoin mining is a very competitive activity, the miners merge into mining pools to increase their chances for earning and sharing the reward. The thesis covers the bitcoin mining process with the Maxeler dataflow computer, model MAX2336B. Even though this dataflow computer is considerably faster and more energy efficient in bitcoin mining than classic computers, it is no longer appropriate for bitcoin mining due to the supremacy of specialized ASIC circuits.
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