How to mine a Bitcoin

[Yomose 3704]

On 6/4/2020 at 6:21 PM, Sentry said:

Nice thread, I don't even need to research about mining Bitcoins. You also included some terminologies that a newbie might encounter along the way. I'm really planning on mining Bitcoin and I don't know how to start. But this thread shred some light on me.

If you have not mined bitcoin before, it may not be profitable again like before, make sure you do calculation of the expenses to know if you will gain profits. Knowing how much mining hardwares are, to know if there I need for air conditioner or cool in machines, how cost will be electricity bill for it. You need to know all this and calculate it with the gain you will see.

[Zaino34 0]

This is an informative topic that bitcoin mining is the process by which bitcoin is obtained through special devices with a specific energy to extract mining and use it in trading and investment

[magd 5231]

Bitcoin mining is very similar to extracting gold from mines and resolving algorithms through miners is the main principle and despite the high costs that this process needs, it is still profitable and some are moving after the half-term to mining alternative currencies to raise the percentage of profits

[BitcryptoHan 2557]

6 hours ago, JeraldM said:

if it ever comes to fruition as a substitute for the fiat.

Bitcoin and the whole cryptocurrencies can not be a substitute for the fiats, if the connection between cryptocurrencies and fiat is disabled, that will be the end of cryptocurrencies. So, the just have to be together. So, cryptocurrencies will just be an alternative not a substitute. 

[Honny143 13612]

Mining bitcoin in not profitable in PC are other ways,  because bitcoin mining need special equipment  expensive graphic cards and electricity, in this process we invest huge money then we mine bitcoin, that's why so many small miners leave this mining field.

[Yomose 3704]

18 hours ago, Honny143 said:

Mining bitcoin in not profitable in PC are other ways,  because bitcoin mining need special equipment  expensive graphic cards and electricity, in this process we invest huge money then we mine bitcoin, that's why so many small miners leave this mining field.

Now, if you want to mine with profitably, you need at least 8 to 10 cards, or instead, getting asics will be good and having more than one will be better for more productivity. 

[TheRaed 1247]

On 2/9/2020 at 3:29 AM, ammarfares said:

I really like your post as I gain alot of information from it , but we should know that mining may be very bad to the miners if the bitcoin price doesn't increase after halving. 

Mining in general is not difficult with the software itself, but with the huge hardware cost and the large material cost.

[Dark_Sky 8489]

You can mine bitcoin in some legit mining sites which really gives free satoshis to those who are using their sites. 

But it's really hard to earn 1 bitcoin in mining sites and it will takes you many years before you can earn. 

[Yomose 3704]

On 7/9/2020 at 8:18 AM, TheRaed said:

Mining in general is not difficult with the software itself, but with the huge hardware cost and the large material cost.

There are many other things that makes mining difficult, one example is the mini difficulty, the other are electricity cost, hot environment and the coin reward that is constantly decreasing. 

[Yoanny 232]

I don't think it's a good option for mining today, I mean after halving, the rewards aren't really very attractive.

[jhonsu777 63]

Someday the last bitcoin will be mined, maybe many of this forum will no longer be there to see that event or maybe yes, we do not know that, what intrigues me is to know what will happen after everything is mined, it will be that they can receive Some reward the nodes or there will be some internal code in the blockchain that generates some change to the entire network, if someone knows what will happen next I would like to know

[adidas21rus 37]

But I still remember the time when it was possible to mine bitcoin on my old GeForce GTX 550 Ti. If only I knew how much the crypt will rise in price…

[Mohamed777 44]

Mining - is a record-keeping process that takes place through the use of computer processing power. Buy the customized electronic hardware required to do the bitcoin mining process. With the start of Bitcoin, the mining process could have been done using regular desktop computers that had a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU), a process that is still theoretically possible but the cost in exchange for the benefits makes it impractical because you will You spend more money on electricity than you earn as mining. Alternatively, you can rely on a suite of Bitcoin mining hardware, which enables you to mine larger amounts with the same amount of energy that consumes.

 

 These additions come in the form of cards that are added to the regular computer, which are installed as happens with the installation of a graphics card inside the computer operating unit.

 

 Some of the popular commercial companies that manufacture hardware components for bitcoin mining computers: Butterfly Labs, Bitcoin Ultra, CoinTerra, and many more.

 

 You can buy a separate Bitcoin miner, which can cost you anywhere from hundreds of dollars (or the equivalent in local currency) to tens of thousands, depending on the machine’s ability to run and the number of operations it can perform per second.

[mohamedmden 31]

Bitcoin mining is the best way to get money very quickly, but mining needs a lot of money to buy the appropriate mining hardware so that you can decipher the algorithms to get the coins

[oscarandres36 44]

3 minutes ago, mohamedmden said:

Bitcoin mining is the best way to get money very quickly, but mining needs a lot of money to buy the appropriate mining hardware so that you can decipher the algorithms to get the coins

those equipments are easy to obtain in any region of the world and can be undermined from anywhere in the world

On 10/1/2020 at 11:57 PM, jhonsu777 said:

Someday the last bitcoin will be mined, maybe many of this forum will no longer be there to see that event or maybe yes, we do not know that, what intrigues me is to know what will happen after everything is mined, it will be that they can receive Some reward the nodes or there will be some internal code in the blockchain that generates some change to the entire network, if someone knows what will happen next I would like to know

because if that were to happen I think btc would be worth up to a million dollars

[rocki 319]

On 2/5/2020 at 3:34 PM, Mizan said:

Your post very informative brother.you are explain everything about bitcoin mining.but honestly I don't understand your post. I think its helpful  for others people.

You can find a lot of useful information in this guide. Although I have been interested in the subject of cryptocurrencies for a long time, I didn't know about many of the things you write about in this topic. A really comprehensive tutorial that is not only useful for beginners. At the beginning of my journey with bitcoin cryptocurrencies, I was able to mine on my own computer, a day I could mined about 0.30 $, now it is completely unprofitable, you need a solid hardware, dedicated bitcoin antminer.

[Ferrkokrom07 11]

probabaly everyone want to know this question of mean ?

[LenelM 33]

Mining an entire btc is extremely hard. The vast majority of people groups are dont realize how to mine bitcoin.
In fact it would take a lot of cpu power to mine a bitcoin. Now a days mining bitcoin is very tuff and not beneficial.There are many sites that you can mine from, but it is damaging to your pc. 

[Arelov00 201]

The article is really well done, you can't get to the bottom of it.Everything is briefly and succinctly laid out on the shelves.Thank you to the author for this opportunity to learn more.Can you answer a few questions?

[Yakup49 12]

Yobit'te Bitcoin madenciliği nasıl yapılır. Bu konuyu detaylı olarak öğrenmek istiyorum.I m looking
 

[saeedbeeles 86]

There are two types of mining, the first is cloud mining and Hoa through websites, and the other mining is through graphics cards and you can mine through your device or through the vps and RDB, but in the end mining is not very profitable this period

[oneronur 5]

First of all I congratulate you for opening up a complete and beautifully prepared subject. Bitcoin mining is no longer a profitable business for people digging individually like before but Always a gold mine for big investors 

 

[joseraul 28]

Thanks now I know how to mine bitcoin in my free time because before I didn't know how to mine the beautiful bitcoin

[crypto1ife 55]

On 02.01.2020 at 19:15, sandybay said:

Newly minted Bitcoin are rewards for a mathematical race that maintains the ledger of transactions. Rules for the race and rewards are fixed and inherent in the protocol. It is the decentralised incentive structure to keep the ledger honest and the value scarce that sets Bitcoin apart from other currencies and assets. Herein I provide a detailed explanation and code of how Bitcoins are mined.
 

Blocks

Bitcoin transactions are grouped by timeframe (roughly 10 minutes) and ordered in blocks with meta data that meet protocol requirements. Each block is sequential and agreed by consensus. The first miner to reach meta data requirements for the current block and reach approval through network consensus is awarded the block reward in addition to all transaction fees in that block. See the two figures below to understand the incentive structure for mining.



Presently, the block reward is 12.5 bitcoin. At the current price ( ~ $ 10,000 / btc ), that's more than $ 125,000 every 10 minutes! I hope that sparks your interest. It did for me. The first step in mining is to maintain a bitcoin node, which stores and validates the full ledger. This can be installed from Bitcoin.org. I will use KDB+ to interface with the node and mine Bitcoin as it is the most efficient way to handle data. Full code can be seen at: our Github page.
 

Block templates

A template for the current block can be attained from our local node. (for details, see: Bitcoin.org)

template: .bitcoind.getblocktemplate[template_request][`result]

Here are the details we need:

template[`height] : 605355 // block height to be mined
template[`curtime] : 1574689408 // unix epoch time 
template[`coinbasevalue] : 1274375042 // block reward in satoshis
template[`version] : 536870912 // indicates which validation rules to use
template[`bits] : "1715b23e" // encoded target
template[`target] : "00000000000000000015b23e0000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
template[`previousblockhash] : "000000000000000000042e1de089b9ee56a5aeab5f49dc534f090bfe022cbec8"            
first template[`transactions] : 
data   | "0200000002446b124c95e37465f0d8a229450f6f77cb031b188a7d2f7074b..."
txid   | "9995322b1aa0c4518e031efadc9a51da4831217631010662c36516e776594e17"
            

 

Block headers

Our job as the miner is to construct the required header with this information that hashes to a lower value than the target. The header itself is a concatenated hexadecimal string consisting of the following (from Bitcoin.org😞

Bytes	Name	Data Type	Description
4	version	int32_t	The block version number indicates which set of block validation rules to follow.
32	previous block header hash	char[32]	A SHA256(SHA256()) hash in internal byte order of the previous block’s header. This ensures no previous block can be changed without also changing this block’s header.
32	merkle root hash	char[32]	A SHA256(SHA256()) hash in internal byte order. The merkle root is derived from the hashes of all transactions included in this block, ensuring that none of those transactions can be modified without modifying the header.
4	time	uint32_t	The block time is a Unix epoch time when the miner started hashing the header (according to the miner). Must be strictly greater than the median time of the previous 11 blocks. Full nodes will not accept blocks with headers more than two hours in the future according to their clock.
4	nBits	uint32_t	An encoded version of the target threshold this block’s header hash must be less than or equal to.
4	nonce	uint32_t	An arbitrary number miners change to modify the header hash in order to produce a hash less than or equal to the target threshold. If all 32-bit values are tested, the time can be updated or the coinbase transaction can be changed and the merkle root updated.

 

Merkle root

"Merkle roots allow for efficient and secure verification of large data structures, and in the case of blockchains, potentially boundless data sets." (coinomi) 
Our Merkle root function:

buildmerkleroot:{[leafs] 
    leafcount:  count leafs;
    root:  $[1 = leafcount; first leafs;
        [if [0 < leafcount mod 2; leafs: leafs,enlist last leafs; leafcount: 1+leafcount;]; // if odd number, duplicate last record
        oddindicies: 1+2*til "i"$(leafcount%2);
        evenindicies: 2*til "i"$(leafcount%2);
        hashpairs: leafs[evenindicies] ,' leafs[oddindicies];
        branches:{  doubleSha256Byte x } peach hashpairs;  
        buildmerkleroot[branches] ]  ];
    root };

Order transaction hashes to build the merkle root.

hashlist: {x[`hash]} each transactions;
hashlist: (enlist coinbasetranshash), hashlist;
bytehashlist: hexstring_to_hex peach hashlist;
bytehashlistBigEndian:reverse peach bytehashlist;
Merkleroot: buildmerkleroot[bytehashlistBigEndian]; 
                        

If you are astute, you may have noticed the coinbase transaction hash creep in there.
 

Coinbase transaction

The coinbase transaction is the record of the reward we pay ourselves for mining the block. As miners, we must place the coinbase transaction at the beginning of the transaction list. Format from Bitcoin.org

Bytes	Name	Data Type	Description
4	version	int32_t	Transaction version number (note, this is signed); currently version 1 or 2. Programs creating transactions using newer consensus rules may use higher version numbers. Version 2 means that BIP 68 applies.
Varies	tx_in count	compactSize uint	Number of inputs in this transaction.
32	hash (null)	char[32]	A 32-byte null, as a coinbase has no previous outpoint.
4	index (UINT32_MAX)	uint32_t	0xffffffff, as a coinbase has no previous outpoint.
Varies	script bytes	compactSize uint	The number of bytes in the coinbase script, up to a maximum of 100 bytes.
Varies (4)	height	script	The block height of this block as required by BIP34. Uses script language: starts with a data-pushing opcode that indicates how many bytes to push to the stack followed by the block height as a little-endian unsigned integer. This script must be as short as possible, otherwise it may be rejected. The data-pushing opcode will be 0x03 and the total size four bytes until block 16,777,216 about 300 years from now.
Varies	coinbase script	None	The coinbase field: Arbitrary data not exceeding 100 bytes minus the (4) height bytes. Miners commonly place an extra nonce in this field to update the block header merkle root during hashing.
4	sequence	uint32_t	Sequence number.
Varies	tx_out count	compactSize uint	Number of outputs in this transaction.
8	value	int64_t	Number of satoshis to spend. Coinbase transactions spend the block subsidy and collected transaction fees.
1+	pk_script bytes	compactSize uint	Number of bytes in the pubkey script. Maximum is 10,000 bytes.
Varies	pk_script	char[]	Defines the conditions which must be satisfied to spend this output.
4	lock_time	uint32_t	A time (Unix epoch time) or block number.

coinbaseversion : "01000000"
coinbasein : "01"
coinbaseprevtx : "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
coinbaseprevout : "ffffffff";
coinbaseseq  :"00000000";
coinbaseout : "01";
cbpubkey : "866b6c77fd236f9185bb11b4e176328d7f912a4b";
scriptPubKey : "76","A9","14" , cbpubkey, "88", "AC";
coinbasesl : "19";
coinbaselocktime : "00000000";
coinbasesats: littleEndian [ coinbasevalue; 16 ];
coinbasescript : "03" , ( littleEndian [ height; 6 ] ), texttohexstr [ "Reap what you sow." ];
coinbasescriptlen : littleEndian[ "i"$( count coinbasescript ) % 2;2];
coinbasetrans: coinbaseversion, coinbasein, coinbaseprevtx, coinbaseprevout, coinbasescriptlen, coinbasescript, coinbaseseq, coinbaseout, coinbasesats, coinbasesl, scriptPubKey, coinbaselocktime;
coinbasetransbytes : hexstring_to_hex coinbasetrans;
coinbasetranshash : raze string reverse doubleSha256Byte [ coinbasetransbytes ];
                            

Again, for the astute there are a couple of points to note here outside of the format to pay yourself. First is that there are hidden messages encoded in each mined block (see cryptograffiti for examples ). Second is that there is a pubkey script language, using op codes to spend the outputs. This is bitcoin's smart contracts (for details see pubkey scripts). We use a standard Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash opcodes:

1. OP_DUP ( 0x76 ) - Duplicates the top stack item.
2. OP_HASH160 ( 0xA9 ) - The input is hashed twice: first with SHA-256 and then with RIPEMD-160.
3. OP_EQUALVERIFY ( 0x88 ) - Returns 1 if the inputs are exactly equal, 0 otherwise, runs OP_VERIFY afterward.
4. OP_CHECKSIG ( 0xAC ) - The entire transaction's outputs, inputs, and script (from the most recently-executed OP_CODESEPARATOR to the end) are hashed. The signature used by OP_CHECKSIG must be a valid signature for this hash and public key. If it is, 1 is returned, 0 otherwise.

 

Hash race

Now we have the constructs to find a live solution and submit it to the blockchain for reward. The block is now simple to put together:

Block : Version , hashPrevBlock , Merkleroot , Time , Bits, 4#reverse 0x0 vs Nonce, transcounter , raze trans

Except that the header hash value must be less than the extremely improbable target value. To achieve this, miners can vary the Nonce from 0 to 4,294,967,295. They can also update the transaction pool or message text to attain a different merkle root. Miner software and hardware optimisations are geared towards looping through different Nonce value hashes at faster rates, often at great expense ( with setup, electricity and security ). Our script is a portable, energy efficient parallel CPU solution; competitve with pooled resources or a high performance cpu cluster. One run through the entire Nonce range looks like this:

curBlock: 0N! computeData`height;
latBlock: 0N! blockcount[];
i :4200000000;
while[11b ~  (curBlock > latBlock) , i > 0; // check if block is still current 
    .Q.gc[]; // clean memory
    computehash peach i + til 100000000; // process in batches, typically takes 1-2 minutes on a normal modern computer
    i : 0N! i - 100000000;
    latBlock: 0N! blockcount[]; ];

One run through of 4.3 billion Nonces would meet the base rate difficulty of the genesis block a decade ago. The difficulty is self adjusting to average 10 minutes a block and now requires more iterations. In our code, we update the transaction list to create a new merkle root after exhausting the Nonce range. In cases of reward conflict, the longest transaction list wins. Here is the code and functions we use for the continous mining effort:

submit:{[headerHex]headstr:raze string headerHex; blk: headstr ,raze string computeData`trans; h (`.bitcoind.submitblock;blk);0N! "SUCCESS: ", headstr;};
hashcheck:{[finalHash;headerHex]
  if [finalHash[til 7] ~ 0x00000000000000;
  targ: computeData`target;
  if [finalHash[7] <= targ[7];
    finalHashstr: raze string finalHash;
    lz:first where finalHashstr <> "0";
    $[leadingzeros < lz; 
      [ submit[headerHex]; ];
      [ simpletarget: hex_to_int targ[8 9 10 11]
      simplehash: hex_to_int finalHash[8 9 10 11]
      if[ simplehash < simpletarget; submit[headerHex];]
      if [simplehash = simpletarget;
        simpletarget: hex_to_int targ[12 13 14 15]
        simplehash: hex_to_int finalHash[12 13 14 15]
        if[ simplehash < simpletarget; submit[headerHex];]
        if [simplehash = simpletarget;
          simpletarget: hex_to_int targ[16 17 18 19]
          simplehash: hex_to_int finalHash[16 17 18 19]
          if[simplehash < simpletarget; submit[headerHex];]
          if [simplehash = simpletarget;
            simpletarget: hex_to_int targ[20 21 22 23]
            simplehash: hex_to_int finalHash[20 21 22 23]
            if[ simplehash < simpletarget; submit[ headerHex ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] }
              
computehash:{[Nonce]    
    hashcheck[reverse sha2561[ endMerkle , 4#reverse 0x0 vs Nonce; H0; target32 ]; computeData`partialHeader , 4#reverse 0x0 vs Nonce];        
    };    

cycleAttempts: { [ ]
    computeData:: h"loadUpdates[];computeData";
    H0::  sha2560 64#computeData`partialHeader;
    target32:: -4#8#computeData`target;
    leadingzeros::  first where (raze string computeData`target) <> "0";
    endMerkle::  -12#computeData`partialHeader;
    //process 100,000,000 at a time ~ 1 min on a normal modern computer
    // check if block has already been mined between efforts
    curBlock: 0N! computeData`height;
    latBlock: 0N! blockcount[];
    i :4200000000;
    while[11b ~  (curBlock > latBlock) , i > 0;
        .Q.gc[];
        computehash peach i + til 100000000;
        i : 0N! i - 100000000;
        latBlock: 0N! blockcount[];
    ];
    cycleAttempts[];
    };  

cycleAttempts[];    

Perhaps you can see the rabbit hole. I refer the interested to the bitcoin white paper. Please visit our github page for full code. Feedback is welcome at the email below.

Great manual! But today it's not financially reasonable to mine Bitcoin on CPU or even GPU. Those days are gone...If you want to mine BTC now you have to use ASICs only and your initial investments (if you want any profit) would start from a few millions dollars. Otherwise the venture won't pay off ever.

[Arsenyo 12]

А это до сих пор рентабельно в 2020? просто интересно узнать. Давное не слышал что кто то майнит. И насколько меньший выхлоп в наше время