With hashrate shooting up over the years, it would seem blocks would be found by miners ever more rapidly. Bitcoin is still new and it can take months to understand the true impact Bitcoin can have on the world. Bitcoin provides sound and predictable monetary policy that can be verified by anyone. By correctly hashing the current block, miners prove their investment of work and are rewarded with a certain number of newly-created bitcoins. This is due to the ever-changing nature of the Difficulty modifier and the BTC price, in particular. The bottom line is that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remain a high-risk, high-reward investment with little consensus about the economic roles they will play in the coming years. The home miner really has no chance to compete in such a challenging environment, unless they have access to free or extremely low-cost electricity….