Glossary
The words of mining, defined in one or two sentences.
Step 12 of 144 min readUpdated October 5, 2026
Block#
A batch of transactions added to the ledger in one go, with an 80-byte header that links it to the previous block. More →
Blockchain#
The ledger itself: every block since 2009, each pointing to the previous one by its hash. More →
Coinbase#
The first transaction of a block, written by the miner to pay themselves the subsidy and the fees. Not to be confused with the company of the same name. More →
Difficulty#
The target expressed as a readable number: how many times harder than the easiest target ever allowed. Adjusted every 2,016 blocks. More →
Fees#
What a transaction pays to be included in a block. The miner of the block collects them, in addition to the subsidy. More →
Halving#
The halving of the block subsidy, every 210,000 blocks (about four years). The last one, in April 2024, brought it to 3.125 BTC. More →
Hash#
The output of a hash function: a fixed-size fingerprint (64 hexadecimal characters for SHA-256) that changes completely if the input changes. More →
Hashrate#
The number of hashes computed per second: about 1 MH/s for a browser, 200 TH/s for a mining machine, hundreds of EH/s for the whole network. More →
Ledger#
The record of all transactions. In Bitcoin it is public, and thousands of nodes keep an identical copy. More →
Mempool#
The waiting room of each node: valid transactions not yet included in a block. More →
Merkle root#
A single hash that summarizes all the transactions of a block. Stored in the header, it changes if any transaction changes. More →
Node#
A computer that keeps a copy of the blockchain and checks every rule for itself, rejecting anything invalid. More →
Nonce#
A 32-bit field of the header (0 to 4,294,967,295) that miners change at each attempt to get a new hash. More →
Pool#
A group of miners coordinated by a server. In a solo pool, as used by Mini Miner, whoever finds a block keeps the reward, minus the pool’s fee. More →
Proof of work#
Evidence, carried by the block itself, that a large number of hashes was computed: hard to produce, verifiable with one hash. More →
Block subsidy#
The new bitcoins a block may create, on a fixed schedule: 3.125 BTC since April 2024. More →
Target#
The number a block hash must not exceed for the block to be valid. Encoded in the header’s nbits field. More →