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Bitcoin Essentials
Bitcoin Essentials

Bitcoin Essentials: Gain insights into Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency and a powerful technology, to optimize your Bitcoin mining techniques

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Bitcoin Essentials

Chapter 2. CPU Mining

In this chapter, we will take a look at some actual mining. We will examine mining as it first started when Bitcoin was released. In those early days, the only way to mine was using the Central Processing Unit (CPU) on your computer and the Bitcoin Core wallet. We will explore mining with a Bitcoin wallet. Once you start mining, you can't help but feel as if you've been transported back to 2009 when Bitcoin was known to only a small group of enthusiasts. As time went by, multi-threaded software was written to take advantage of multiple cores of a CPU.

We will delve into the following topics in this chapter:

  • CPU mining with Bitcoin Core
  • CPU mining software
  • Pros and cons of CPU mining
  • Best practices when mining with CPUs
  • Profitability of CPU mining

Note

In this chapter, we are using Ubuntu Linux and all the examples are for that OS.

Mining with Bitcoin Core

The Bitcoin Core wallet has built-in capabilities for mining; therefore, it is really easy to use the wallet to mine on your machine. The wallet will use your CPU to mine. As you might recall, mining is basically hashing of a candidate block over and over again until the result is smaller than the current difficulty threshold.

To mine with your CPU and Bitcoin Core, open up the wallet software:

  1. Now click on the Help menu and select Debug Window.
  2. Then click on the Console tab—the console will appear. Remember, to see a list of all available commands, type help and press Enter.

The command to mine with your wallet is setgenerate. The syntax of the command is as follows:

setgenerate <true|false> <number of cores to be used>

To start mining with only 1 core, type setgenerate true 1:

Mining with Bitcoin Core

Fig. 2.1: Starting mining in Bitcoin Core

To make sure that your wallet is mining, you can go to your Task Manager in Windows, Activity Monitor in Mac OS, or System Monitor...

Pros and cons of mining

Mining with a CPU has its advantages and disadvantages. Let's examine these in order to understand better if and when it is appropriate to use your CPUs to mine Bitcoin. As you may recall in the beginning, everyone used a CPU to mine for bitcoins. Those days are long gone, but you can still mine on your CPU.

Pros of mining

CPU mining is very useful in the process of understanding mining. We strongly believe that's where every miner should start. You do not need any specialized hardware other than your computer. In the process of setting up the software, you will learn all the little tricks that are applicable to your hardware. You will also learn how the CPU will compare to more advanced hardware, such as GPUs and ASICs.

To summarize, we encourage you to try CPU mining for the following reasons:

  • No specialized hardware required
  • Very good starting point to enter mining
  • Invaluable educational experience
  • It is fun to mine

Cons of mining

CPU mining for Bitcoin is unfortunately...

Best practices when mining with CPUs

Let's look into the recommended things to do, when mining with CPUs. Although mining Bitcoin is no longer profitable with a CPU, mining other coins may bring in some profits. If you are going to use your CPU for mining, you might as well observe the practices that are going to make it easier and safer for you.

First, make sure that your computer has adequate cooling and the CPU fan is working along with all the other fans in your computer. Make sure your computer has adequate airflow around it. There should not be anything directly around or on top of your computer. Basically, you need good airflow. The reason is that, while mining, your CPU's cores will be running at 100%, which will generate a good amount of heat. If that heat is not dissipated by the fans, it may cause damage to your hardware.

Secondly, to get the most hashes out of your CPU, close all other programs running on your computer. If you are mining with a pool, have only the mining...

Profitability of mining

As we have mentioned earlier, the Bitcoin network hash rate is really high now. Mining with a CPU is no longer guaranteed to bring in profits. This is due to the fact that, during the mining process, you are competing with other miners to try to solve a block. You will be at a disadvantage if those other miners are running faster hardware, as your hardware can only make a certain amount of guesses (hashes) in a given time frame.

To compare the mining speed of a few CPU's, look at the following table:

CPU

Mining speed (KH/s)

Power used (Watts)

# of cores

Athlon 64 X2 5600+

6.07

89

2

Athlon II X3 425

9.5

125

4

Phenom II X4 955

22

125

4

FX-8120

46

125

8

FX-8350

65

125

8

Core 2 Quad Q6600

9.68

100

4

Core 2 Quad Q9550

32.2

125

4

Core i3-2130

23

65

4

Core i5-2500K

48

90

4

Core i5-3570K

55

90

4

Core i7-3930K

98

200

12

Table. 2.1: Comparison of mining speed of CPUs

As you can see, CPU's do not hash very fast. The fastest...

Summary

In this chapter, we have looked at CPU mining. We looked at the easiest way to start mining—the built-in setgenerate function in the Bitcoin Core wallet. We delved into the most popular CPU mining software—CPUMiner. We showed you how to set it up and run it so that you can start mining.

We also touched upon the advantages and disadvantages of CPU mining. Consider those when deciding to mine. We also presented a set of good practices to keep in mind while running your mining process. They are common sense to most, but sometimes the most obvious things are forgotten. If you adhere to these practices, you should not encounter any problems while mining.

We also examined the profitability of CPU mining. We showed you a simple way of calculating, on average, your expected earnings. Even though CPU mining is no longer profitable, it is nevertheless a good educational experience.

In the next chapter, we will look at mining with your graphics card, commonly referred to as a Graphics...

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Key benefits

  • Learn how to use the advanced features of Bitcoin wallets
  • Set up your Bitcoin mining operations to mine with efficiency
  • Explore what the future holds for mining and blockchains in this pragmatic guide

Description

Blockchain is being billed as the technology of the future. Bitcoin is the first application of that technology. Mining is what makes it all possible. Exploring mining from a practical perspective will help you make informed decisions about your mining setup. Understanding what the future may hold for blockchains, and therefore for mining, will help you position yourself to take advantage of the impending changes. This practical guide starts with an introduction to Bitcoin wallets, as well as mining hardware and software. You will move on to learn about different mining techniques using the CPU, GPU, FPGA, and ultimately the ASIC as an example. After this, you will gain an insight into solo mining and pool mining, and see the differences between the two. The book will then walk you through large-scale mining and the challenges faced during such operations. Finally, you will take a look into the future to see a world where blockchain-based applications are commonplace and mining is ubiquitous.

Who is this book for?

If you have never mined before, this book will ensure that you know what mining is all about. If you are familiar with Bitcoin mining, then it will help you to optimize your mining operations at a deeper level. A basic understanding of computers and operating systems is assumed, and some familiarity with cryptocurrency basics would be an added advantage.

What you will learn

  • Get introduced to Bitcoin mining from the ground up
  • Find out about mining software and the different types of mining hardware
  • Master setup techniques to enable efficient mining
  • Examine the pros and cons of the different types of mining hardware
  • Deduce the differences between solo and pool mining
  • Take a peek into professional mining farms
  • Explore the future of mining and blockchain-based applications
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Length: 130 pages
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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
1. Bitcoin Wallets and Mining Software Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. CPU Mining Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. GPU Mining Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. FPGA Mining Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. ASIC Mining Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Solo Versus Pool Mining Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Large Scale Mining Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. The Future of Bitcoin Mining Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
(2 Ratings)
5 star 0%
4 star 0%
3 star 50%
2 star 0%
1 star 50%
David Jameson Apr 07, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
Whenever I look at a new book and the first thing I see is the phrase "a software", I know the book has not had a decent competent editor involved. I'm sure I'm going to see things like "its" used when "it's" was expected and vice versa.Please! "Software" is an uncountable noun. It can't be prefixed by the indefinite article.Some of us still like English to be written properly. Don't skimp on quality.I kinda gave up, I have no time for poor writing/editing.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Eth Jun 26, 2017
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
very basic and not well explained.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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