My main concern is with mining, specifically with how long it takes to mine a block and why we use mining.
The answer on how long it takes to mine a block has already been answered. It's an average time of the minutes kept at that range by a regular difficulty adjustment.
Mining has three distinct purposes:
- it is used to confirm transactions,
- to ensure steady supply of Bitcoin,
- to keep the network secure through the hasrates required to mine, preventing any possibility of double spending.
- What does the term "difficulty" in mining mean, and why is there difficulty in mining?
How difficult it is to solve the computational puzzle and find the next block. This is the most basic explanation for it.
It exists to keep the time to confirm a block at an average of 10 minutes.
-Jay -