>>>Hmm. Didn't expect to find you arguing the capitalist line :-}
>>
>>Was I?
>>
>>>The true cost of producing a bitcoin is, to all intents and purposes, zero. Why cause people to waste a valuable resource when they could just give it away ?
>>
>>How do you conclude the cost is essentially zero?
>
>Isn't it basic AES-256 encryption with a private key stored in the wallet. Where's the cost in generating that ?


There's a few video tutorials about it. It relates to technology introduced in the 90s to reduce spam email. It was designed to force a mathematical burden on the task of sending an email. It would've taken a second or two to perform the computation necessary to sign the email.

The algorithm is searching for hash keys which have a certain number of leading binary 0 bits. As a result, it is a brute force method to locate the next key, which is mathematically built atop prior keys.

The mathematical burden was intentionally introduced to simulate real world efforts of strip mining for gold, for example. It costs money to find gold. It costs money to find bitcoins.

It's also capped. There are only so many bitcoins which will ever be produced. It is, therefore, a hedge against inflation.

It's rather ingenious.