The reason that I am having problems understanding this is because when I imagine crypto mining, I imagine basically an infinite command prompt constantly running. In my uneducated mind I don’t seeing this as a graphics drain I see it as taxing the gpu and ram. I am below beginner in my knowledge of computers. Thanks in advance!
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The math used to solve the cryptography number puzzle used to verify transactions is based in linear algebra, which is the same kind of math needed to render a 3d scene. Graphics cards are specifically designed to do a massive number of linear algebra calculations at once as fast as posible. They can do this much faster than a CPU, but are much worse at handling the branch heavy kind of operations that a CPU is good at.
The key insight as to why people do this isn’t in the computer side, but in the crypto side. Most blockchains use a competitive “proof of work” verification scheme. The computers in the mining pools compete with each other to be the first to correctly solve a cryptography number puzzle that is dependent on the data in the block in order to verify it. The first miner to solve the problem gets paid for their work with new bitcoins, while everyone else gets nothing. These creates a financial incentive to get as many computers with the fastest graphic cards as possible to try to solve the problem in order to increase your chances of being the person who gets the new bitcoins.
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