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I'm looking to understand how minting new bitcoins and processing transactions relate on the bitcoin network.

It seems that the term "miner" may refer to machines looking to mint new coins and machines processing transactions.

I can't find any information on whether submitting transactions is directly tied to minting coins.

I'm interested in processing pending transactions. What does the process of finding unconfirmed transactions and submitting them into the blockchain look like? Is confirming transactions just as expensive as minting new coins?

Does bitcoin core's bitcoind expose unconfirmed transactions?

How do unconfirmed transactions get submitted into the blockchain?

Thank you!

berto
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I'm fairly certain that learning more about mining and proof-of-work in general will help answer most of your questions, but I thought I'd get you started.

What does the process of finding unconfirmed transactions and submitting them into the blockchain look like?

This is mining. It means taking unconfirmed transactions, checking if they are valid, grouping them into a block, and performing a proof-of-work on that block. Miners don't have to "find" unconfirmed transactions; the transactions come to them. Anyone who is listening on the Bitcoin network will see new transactions as they are broadcast.

Is confirming transactions just as expensive as minting new coins?

Confirming transactions is mining. A confirmation is the inclusion of a transaction into a block. You may have meant validating transactions, meaning checking if a transaction is valid. In this case, no, validating a transaction is not an expensive operations. It's simply checking that the transaction conforms to a standard and is not attempting to spend money that has already been spent.

Does bitcoin core's bitcoind expose unconfirmed transactions?

Yes. You can use getrawmempool to see the transactions still in the mempool.

How do unconfirmed transactions get submitted into the blockchain?

The user who creates the transaction broadcasts it to the network, and then miners include it in a block.

Jestin
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  • Thanks for the info; I will definitely read up some more on mining and proof-of-work. Additional questions your response prompted are: How is a new block created? Who is allowed to create a new block? How is the block -- not just a transaction -- broadcast to the network? Thanks! – berto Dec 15 '17 at 21:11
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    I marked your question as a duplicate. Read the duplicate question and It's answers. That should tell you what you want. – Jestin Dec 15 '17 at 21:13
  • Yep, I just read it, and the pieces are coming together. As I understand it now "mining" is finding the block, or the box that a bunch of transactions go in. And, in order to incentivize, finding a block currently carries a reward. – berto Dec 15 '17 at 21:37
  • Thank you for the getrawmempool command! – berto Dec 16 '17 at 12:58