Imagine you’re digging for gold. You have your shovel, a lot of patience and the hope of striking it rich. Cryptocurrency mining is somewhat similar, but instead of using physical tools to dig in the ground, you’re using a computer to solve complex mathematical problems.
What is Cryptocurrency Mining?
Mining is the process through which new cryptocurrency coins are created and transactions are verified and added to a blockchain. The most well-known example of this process is Bitcoin mining. Just as gold miners invest time and resources to extract precious metals, cryptocurrency miners invest computing power and electricity to discover new coins.
How Does Cryptocurrency Mining Work?
The Basics
Cryptocurrency mining typically involves solving cryptographic puzzles. These puzzles are complex mathematical equations that require significant computational power to solve. When a miner successfully solves a puzzle, they can add a block of transactions to the blockchain and are rewarded with new coins. This process is known as “proof of work” (PoW). Once it can be proven that a miner has done the work, the tokens are effectively “mined.”
Transaction Verification: When someone sends a cryptocurrency transaction, it needs to be verified to ensure that the sender has enough funds and is authorized to send them.
Block Creation: Verified transactions are grouped together into a block.
Puzzle Solving: Miners compete to solve a cryptographic puzzle associated with the block. This puzzle is hard to solve but easy to verify once solved.
Block Addition: The first miner to solve the puzzle gets to add the block to the blockchain and is rewarded with new coins.
Reward Distribution: The miner receives a reward, typically in the form of newly minted cryptocurrency and transaction fees.
Why is Mining Important?
Mining plays a crucial role in maintaining and securing the blockchain network. It ensures that all transactions are legitimate and prevents double-spending. By requiring miners to solve complex puzzles, the network remains decentralized and resistant to attacks. This decentralized nature is a core principle of cryptocurrencies, promoting security and trust without relying on a central authority.
Different Methods of Cryptocurrency Mining
CPU Mining: This was the original method of mining Bitcoin, using a computer’s central processing unit (CPU). However, it’s no longer effective due to the high difficulty of mining puzzles.
GPU Mining: Graphics processing units (GPUs) offer more computational power than CPUs and are more effective for mining.
ASIC Mining: Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are specialized devices built specifically for mining cryptocurrencies. They are the most powerful and efficient miners but are also expensive.
Cloud Mining: This allows individuals to rent mining hardware from a provider. It’s a way to mine cryptocurrencies without having to buy and maintain mining equipment.
Energy Conversion: Turning Electricity into Digital Gold
Mining is essentially the conversion of energy into digital value. Miners use electricity to power their hardware, which performs the complex calculations needed to mine cryptocurrencies. This process consumes a significant amount of energy, leading to debates about the environmental impact of mining. However, the energy used also serves to secure the network and verify transactions, making it an integral part of the blockchain ecosystem.
Mining on GalaChain: Rewarding Founder’s Nodes
In the Gala ecosystem, the equivalent to mining is the operation of Founder’s Nodes. These nodes provide the computational power necessary to maintain the decentralized network and are rewarded with $GALA tokens. Founder’s Node operators play a crucial role in supporting GalaChain’s infrastructure, similar to how miners support the Bitcoin network.
How Founder’s Nodes Work
Computational Contribution: Node operators contribute their computing power to support the network.
Reward Mechanism: In return for their contribution, operators are rewarded with $GALA tokens.
Decentralization: This system helps maintain the decentralized nature of the Gala ecosystem, ensuring that no single entity has control over the network.
Interested in running a Gala Founder’s Node for daily $GALA rewards? LEARN MORE
Proof-of-Work (PoW) is a consensus mechanism used in blockchain networks to validate transactions and secure the network.
Proof-of-Work (PoW) was the pioneering consensus mechanism that laid the groundwork for blockchain technology. It has since been joined by several other alternatives, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Several of these alternatives will be explored below.
It is the method by which network participants, known as miners, solve complex mathematical problems to add new blocks of transactions to the blockchain. Think of it as a competitive puzzle-solving race where the first participant to solve the puzzle gets to add the next block to the blockchain and is rewarded for their effort.
Gold Fever
Bitcoin has often been referred to as “digital gold” for several reasons: First, it has a finite total supply, just like gold buried within the rocks of the earth. Next, it acts as a store of value in the same way as gold, providing an alternative way to hold wealth to the world’s Fiat* currencies.
* “Fiat currency” is derived from the Latin “fiat,” which means a determination by an authority, or an arbitrary order. Basically, Fiat currencies are those decided upon and approved by governmental authorities… they have value because an authority told us they do.
Finally, Bitcoin resembles gold because it must be mined, converting time and energy into the retrieval of BTC for miners. In the same way, gold miners must commit financial resources, time and energy into their operations. A miner who only expects to find a few specks of gold can probably do so in a wise location with only simple panning equipment, but a large company with employees and equipment expenses needs to mine a great deal more gold to prove a profitable venture.
How Does Proof-of-Work Work?
Transaction Bundling: When users initiate transactions, these are grouped together into a block by miners.
Puzzle Solving: Miners compete to solve a cryptographic puzzle, which involves finding a hash (a fixed-length string of characters) that meets specific criteria. This process is computationally intensive and requires significant processing power. Most of these computations are executed by GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) because of their ability to quickly perform extremely complex calculations.
Block Validation: The first miner to solve the puzzle broadcasts their solution to the network, which is then verified by other miners. If the solution is correct, the block is added to the blockchain.
Reward: The miner who successfully adds the block is rewarded with newly created cryptocurrency and any transaction fees from the transactions included in the block.
Security: PoW secures the blockchain by making it computationally expensive to alter any part of the blockchain. To change a block, an attacker would need to redo the PoW for that block and all subsequent blocks, requiring immense computational power.
Decentralization: PoW allows a decentralized network of miners to compete to validate transactions, reducing the risk of central control.
Integrity: It ensures that all transactions are processed in a trustless manner, meaning participants do not need to trust a central authority but can trust the network’s consensus rules.
“Consensus” in web3 – An agreement between all participants in a blockchain network on the order and content of blockchain blocks.
Proof-of-Work Simplified
Imagine a large-scale Sudoku competition where participants race to solve the puzzle. The first one to complete it correctly gets a prize and publishes their solution, which others can quickly verify as correct or incorrect.
Think of the PoW puzzle as a lock and the solution as the key. Each miner tries different keys (hash values) until one fits (meets the criteria). The first one to unlock the lock (solve the puzzle) can add a new block to the blockchain and collect its associated rewards.
Energy Consumption: PoW requires significant computational power, which translates to high energy consumption, raising a plethora of environmental concerns. This concern has been the primary driver of development of alternative consensus mechanisms in web3.
Centralization Risks: Despite being a decentralized mechanism, PoW can lead to centralization of mining power in regions with cheap electricity or in the hands of entities that can afford specialized hardware. Some people worry that mining operations will become overly centralized with this approach, especially if reward value continues to increase at a level that will justify large scale operations and great expense.
Scalability Issues: PoW networks, like Bitcoin, face scalability challenges due to the time and resources required to solve the cryptographic puzzles and add new blocks.
Alternatives to Proof-of-Work
In response to these challenges, alternative consensus mechanisms have been developed, such as Proof-of-Stake (PoS), which relies on validators who stake their cryptocurrency to propose and validate blocks, requiring less computational power.
Proof-of-Stake (PoS)
The main alternative to Proo-of-Work is Proof-of-Stake, in which Validators stake their cryptocurrency to participate in the network. They are selected to create new blocks based on the amount of staked cryptocurrency.
Strengths
Energy-efficient: Significantly less energy consumption compared to PoW.
Faster transaction times: Can process transactions more quickly.
Weaknesses
Potential for centralization: Wealthier validators can have greater influence.
Security risks: Vulnerable to attacks like the “nothing-at-stake” problem (when the cost to create blocks becomes too low).
With this mechanism, token holders vote for delegates who validate blocks. With fast transaction times, this method closely resembles PoS but with increased scalability. However, decentralization is reduced because more staking power can be concentrated in the hands of fewer delegates. Plus, if delegates are compromised for any reason, things can go awry for the chain.
Other Consensus Mechanisms
Proof-of-Authority (PoA): Relies on a pre-selected group of validators to validate transactions.
Proof-of-Burn (PoB): Requires users to destroy cryptocurrency to become a validator.
Proof-of-Capacity (PoC): Uses hard drive space as a measure of stake.
Proof of Storage (PoS): Validators prove they are storing data to secure the network and earn rewards.
GalaChain is a highly advanced blockchain, first built by our web3 experts to accommodate the rapidly expanding and evolving needs of gaming and entertainment.
It uses a special hybrid model of pluggable blockchain consensus. GalaChain was built on the Hyperledger Fabric protocol, which allows consensus to be highly customizable on individual channels. An Ordering Service works with predesignated peers on the network to sign transactions in a multi-step, asynchronous system.
Despite its criticisms, PoW remains a foundational technology in the blockchain space, particularly for major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Innovations and improvements in mining technology and energy efficiency are being explored to mitigate its environmental impact. Even as other consensus mechanisms are introduced, Proof-of-Work elements will still be used in a growing variety of hybrid consensus models.
Even if Proof-of-Work is gradually phased out of prominence as a consensus mechanism, it will continue to work well as an educational basis to help anyone understand the decentralized nature of blockchains and cryptocurrencies.
Proof-of-Work is a vital component of many blockchain networks, providing security, decentralization and integrity. Understanding PoW is essential for grasping how blockchain technology works and its implications for the future of digital transactions and decentralized systems.
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our GalaChain TestNet, a significant milestone in our journey towards becoming an open-source blockchain. This new public testing environment allows external developers to deploy, test and refine their chaincode without any real-world consequences.
With more freedom to experiment with chain code, developers will enjoy a GalaChain environment that helps them realize their full potential in the web3 world, whether or not they have blockchain development experience. We want to elevate the work of veteran blockchain developers while ensuring that the first-time experience for new devs from the traditional web2 world is a good one.
What is a TestNet?
For those unfamiliar with blockchain terminology, a TestNet is essentially a sandbox environment where developers can experiment with new features and applications. It operates just like the real blockchain (known as the MainNet) but uses test tokens instead of real cryptocurrency. This allows developers to test and debug their projects in a safe space, ensuring everything works perfectly before going live on the MainNet.
In a future blog from our web3 explainer series, we’ll delve more deeply into TestNets, exploring their importance and providing some examples of testnets in action in the web3 world.
Accessing the TestNet
Are you ready to start building using the GalaChain TestNet? Get started through Gala Creators, following the steps below:
Deployment Chaincode from Docker Containers: Developers can now deploy their chaincode from Docker containers to the TestNet environment, enabling seamless integration and testing of applications.
Comprehensive API Access: Users can call the REST API to interact with their chaincode, ensuring full functionality and integration with existing systems.
Redeployment Capabilities: If a deployment fails, users can redeploy their chaincode effortlessly by passing the chaincode name in the command line, streamlining the testing process.
Chaincode Approval and Verification: To ensure security and integrity, chaincode deployment requires approval from GalaChain support, including Docker Image Tag and public keys for both the developer and the chaincode admin.
Accessible Testing Environment: The TestNet environment is designed to be user-friendly, with step-by-step guides to assist developers through the deployment process.
This TestNet launch is a crucial step in preparing GalaChain for a broader influx of external developers. By providing a secure and isolated environment for testing, we are fostering an ecosystem of innovation, enabling developers to create and refine applications that will power the decentralized future.
Why This Matters
The launch of the TestNet is more than a technical milestone; it’s a demonstration of our commitment to building an open and collaborative blockchain ecosystem that goes beyond entertainment into multiple world industries. GalaChain will empower countless developers to experiment and innovate freely, laying the groundwork for the robust applications that will define the next era of decentralized technology.
Join the Revolution
As we continue to expand and refine GalaChain, we invite developers from around the world to join us in this exciting journey.
Whether you’re an experienced developer looking to explore the new possibilities that come with web3, an visionary with an idea ready to change the world when paired with the right technology or an entrepreneur sitting on the next big wave in tech business, we want you to build on GalaChain.
Your creativity and ingenuity are the keys to unlocking the full potential of blockchain technology. Together, we will shape the future of digital interactions to create a more inclusive and decentralized world.
We look forward to seeing the innovative projects that will emerge and thrive from the release of this TestNet. Thank you for being part of the Gala community and for your continued support.
We don’t often talk about the exclusive VIP community of Gala Games because we don’t want to overgrow it. If every audience member found their way backstage at the big show, would it still be a special and exclusive experience?
Exclusivity comes from curation and limitation. That’s why we’ve always gated Gala Gold membership behind a cost. At first when we were small, it was only $10 for lifetime membership in Gala Gold. Then for a time it was $50. Now the same lifetime membership will cost you $100. This is a carefully calculated cost to ensure that our VIP community of testers and early adopters remains small in comparison to the constantly growing Gala community at large.
Benefits to Gala Gold
Gala Gold was originally formed as a way to distinguish the most dedicated community members from the more casual ones. We understand that the majority of users in the GalaChain ecosystem might have no interest in spending much time in the Discord server, making online friends from around the world or even in testing games through various stages of development.
By gating the Gala Gold community behind a one-time fee, we were easily able to assemble a group of fully committed people, interested in providing feedback (good, bad or ugly), testing games and getting their hands on early collectibles.
Gala Gold is a Lifetime Membership
We won’t ask for a repeating subscription fee for a Gala Gold membership, but we can predict that the cost of joining Gala Gold will go up from time to time. This mechanism ensures that the earliest arrivals are appropriately rewarded for their loyalty and participation.
Gala Gold membership was first sold for $10, then updated to $50. Today, membership in this club will cost you $100. We cannot predict if or when the Gala Gold price will increase again.
Free NFTs from Time to Time
Oftentimes you’ll find Gala Gold the best place to receive special NFT items that relate to games in development or various stages of release. It could be that a certain game would like to start by distributing a certain in-game item to a select group, including thousands of people. Because of the limited-supply nature of NFTs, it rarely makes sense to distribute an item to all accounts. We prefer the approach where NFT item ownership has a degree of exclusivity attached to it.
All Gala Gold members receive the Common Ground World Express Depot, allowing them to make deliveries faster in-game, placing and replacing their Depot as they see fit. In the past, special characters, skins, weapons, avatars and more have been given to members of Gala Gold.
When Gala Gold NFT drops take place, they are based on a snapshot of everyone who is currently a member of Gala Gold, meaning that if you haven’t signed up and paid your fee by the time of the snapshot, you miss out on that drop.
Please note that there is no set schedule for regular NFT drops to members of Gala Gold. Instead, items are given at the discretion of individual game teams. Several months will often go by with no Gala Gold NFT drops, so joining with the expectation of regular free NFTs can lead to disappointment.
Discord Access
For the past couple years, most members would agree that the greatest benefit to Gala Gold is access to a special Gala Gold area of Discord.
Complete with an announcement channel, a special sneak peek channel, a place for suggestions, a bustling ongoing discussion hub and an exclusive stage for hosting events, Gala Gold is essentially a gated community within the greater Gala community.
Here you’ll find opportunities to bend the ears of team members in a more intimate setting, a place where we feel free to talk more openly about the ecosystem than in general channels. Company leaders are often directly involved in the conversations in Gala Gold, whether exchanging comments about the latest games and feature releases or accepting valued feedback from a trusted community.
Basically, Gala Gold Discord channels are a fantastic place to be heard, especially if you have constructive ideas (or criticisms) of the ecosystem. We have often been known to suddenly shift strategies based on important discussions that have taken place here.
In terms of leaks and alpha info, there is nothing better than Gala Gold. A company like Gala operates like a complex gear mechanism– When a company leader wants answers or responses quickly, they’re likely to take it straight to Gala Gold first. In many cases, you’ll have a chance to see something discussed here 1-2 days before it is mentioned on social media or in an official Gala blog. You may be surprised at the difference a couple days can make when it comes to the flow of information in the web3 era.
From the Gala Gold Suggestions channel
Testing Games
Testing is an incredibly important part of shipping games, whether it’s a first, second or third party title. For the community, testing is often seen as a special perk to paying attention. We take the testing of our games very seriously, and different stages of development require different sizes of test groups.
When testing a game with a community audience, we want to make sure that:
The size of the audience fits the game in its current state – Gala Gold is often called upon to test games in early stages, when the game is too far along for an “internal only” playtest” but not quite ready for a whole public platest.
Our testers are diligent and experienced – Being an early Tester of a game is super fun, but we also want to ensure that as many participants as possible take the responsibility seriously. We have found that in Gala Gold, our members are very committed to the overall success of individual games, so they will honestly seek out bugs and provide excellent feedback.
Improvement is priority one – Finally, we want to ensure that our testers understand that anything can happen in a testing cycle for a game, no matter the genre or platform. Our Gala Gold members have repeatedly shown that they are mature and adaptable in these situations, never getting mad at us for doing what is necessary to improve a gaming experience.
Future Benefits Unknown
Gala Gold can be expected to evolve along with the Gala ecosystem. Existing perks can change as needed and new benefits will sometimes appear as new GalaChain functionalities allow.
Gala Gold is not for everyone, but we encourage anyone to join who considers themselves part of our most dedicated fanbase. If you’re spending a lot of time in the Discord community channels and are not yet a member, we think you would meet a lot of great people and find tremendous benefit in the Gala Gold channels.
As always, thanks for being part of the Gala community!
With the tokenization of in-game property becoming more popular all the time in the web3 world, Legacy is here to put a unique spin on NFT ownership.
Legacy is a game about entrepreneurial success, about building an enterprise from the ground up by designing and selling products. Through the game’s Design Competitions, you can compete against other players all over the world to design the most creative products around and sell them with the greatest efficiency.
Your “Land” in Legacy
When you get in the game, you’re joining the entrepreneurial elite who bet on themselves for success, whether you’re a Guild owning Legacy Tycoon sharing in the success of those you empower or an aspiring go-getter joining a Guild to chase your dreams on someone else’s dime.
Leading a Guild with a Deed
The only way to play Legacy on this level is to own a Legacy Deed, the equivalent to NFT land in Legacy. These Deeds are not currently available in the Gala Games store, but can often be found on the secondary market at OpenSea.
Each Legacy Deed unlocks your ability to organize and manage a Legacy Guild. Recruiting for your Guild is easy– In fact, the game will do it for you. As a Guild owner, you have a certain number of Legacy Keys with which players can join your Guild. The higher the rarity of your Legacy Deed, the more Legacy Keys you get, and the more members your Guild will have.
Legacy Deed NFTs exist in 5 different rarities. Click the heading links to view the items on OpenSea.
Please note that if you purchase a Legacy Deed from the secondary market, you will need to bridge it to GalaChain before configuring your Guild and recruiting players. This is done easily by connecting your Ethereum wallet to your Gala account. Learn more about connecting your web3 wallet here.
Joining a Guild with a Key
The best part about playing as a Legacy Keyholder is that you don’t need to go searching for a Guild to join. As long as Legacy Keys are available, you’ll be able to join a Guild as part of the initial game interface.
It’s tough in the world of business-building. If you want to make it big, you need to connect with a good leader– In Legacy, that means a good Guild.
When you first launch the game through the Gala Games launcher, you’ll be prompted to choose a Guild from the available options. When you select a Guild and get started, the Legacy Key and its access to the game will be yours.
The number of Legacy Keys for each Guild is determined by the Deed’s rarity:
Startup – 1 Legacy Key
Enterprise – 5 Legacy Keys
Firm – 15 Legacy Keys
Corporation – 50 Legacy Keys
Conglomerate – 125 Legacy Keys
Heart of London – 500 Legacy Keys
Qualities of an Effective Guild Leader
As a Legacy Deed NFT owner, you’re also the owner of the responsibility to run a Legacy Guild. Because you’re working with self-starting entrepreneurs, not much hand-holding is necessary, but as the boss, you get to call the shots.
In the same way that each Legacy player must keep a close eye on their town’s workers, ensuring they are rested and not overworked, each Guild leader must strike a proper balance for their Guildmates.
Setting an Effective Reward Split – The Guild leader can choose any percentage split they like for sharing Legacy Ticket rewards generated from Design Competitions in the game. With 50 active players for a Corporation Deed and 125 for a Conglomerate Deed, Guild leaders can benefit substantially from a meager reward share of even 1-2%, which will go virtually unnoticed by Keyholding players.
Sending Guild Messages – The Guild leader is called to rally the troops and coordinate strategies, building relationships with their Guildmates and preparing for the game’s expanded future features.
Kicking Inactive Players – While it is not a requirement, every Guild leader has the right to kick players from their Guild at any time and for any reason.
Start Playing Today
Your Legacy is waiting in this delightful free-to-play game created by 22cans. Become a titan of industry, competing for awesome prizes and unparalleled prestige!
