Steem-Engine introduced Tribes and Tribe Tokens, and some Tribes have their main Token and a Miner Token. These Tokens are for Virtual Miners that once staked earn you Tribe Tokens. Thus these Miners are similar to cryptocurrency miners you build and operate, but they don’t actually mine blocks. They perform virtual mining. A term for a new way to earn cryptocurrency.
Vitual Mining
While the mining of cryptocurrency is as old as Bitcoin itself. There are now two types of cryptocurrency coin miners.
Physical miners: which are specialized computers, which are actual physical machines, using electricity, giving off heat and noise, with moving parts.
Virtual miners: which in contrast to physical miners, are not physical machines, but instead I call them “software constructs”, as they have no physical form which to me means they are the same conceptually as digital currency, like Steem, as in they exist only in the digital world.
These virtual miners are much different from the usual miners mining cryptocurrency, because with virtual mining and virtual miners there are no machines to consume electricity, give off heat or noise and they require no repairs!
So far I have encountered and own two types or versions of these virtual miners.
First Version
The first type of virtual miner I purchased earn rewards in a very similar fashion as real or physical miners; you compete for block awards, the awards are Cryptocurrency Tokens, which seem to be distributed according to your mining power. This is a complicated topic, but basically the amount of miners you have compared to the total amount of miners of that going determines your numerical odds of earning awards. For a more detailed explanation of what is called “Miner Math” I recommend you read this very good guide written by one of the staff at Steemleo, a investing community blog on Steem-Engine, which I found very useful. Steemleo Guide to understanding mining math
Second Version
The second type of “Virtual Miner” I have encountered and that I own, are what I call “fixed output miners” for lack of a name, as we are in new territory here, and these miners earn a fixed number of awards every day regardless of how many miners are purchased and there are a fixed number of miners, all earning from a preset number of Tokens available each day just for miners. So until all the miners are sold the daily mining reward pool will never be depleted each day. This type of miner may grow more popular over time as the first version doesn’t guarantee you any daily rewards, so you might not earn any Tokens. But this one starts earning Tokens the first day you buy it, and so far every day. An example is the Photo Token Miner. If you know of others please leave the name in the comments section.
Mining Math
If you going to buy miners to earn Tokens you should educate yourself about how rewards are calculated. A very good resource is “Miner Math” Steemleo Guide to understanding mining math
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“The Hustle Never Sleeps”
