Print Page - Help getting started with Mining and Pools

Hey all,
I've been lurking here for two weeks or so, and lately I started working on a project similar to http://bitp.it/ (http://bitp.it/), but I seem to miss some very basic ideas in bitcoin mining, and I would love some help if you could.

My idea is to create a simple PHP work distribution app, I am able to connect to bitcoind and poll some data from it, but I don't understand how do I offload data to other clients.

Like so:

Code:

<?

require_once 'jsonrpcphp/includes/jsonRPCClient.php';

$bitcoin = new jsonRPCClient('http://eli:isthemaster@127.0.0.1:8332/');
var_dump($bitcoin->getinfo());

?>

My understanding of bitcoin mining goes something like this:

Connect to bitcoin network
Get the latest target
Calculate some numbers and hash the result using SHA256 function
Compare my result with current target
If my result smaller or equal to target, I got the winning hash
Send something to bitcoin saying "I have found the somethig"
Network then verifies that I did found the correct something and rewards me with some bitcoins

From what I've gathered by reading and re-reading the wiki, this is the process that takes place when mining for bitcoins.

But the problem is that I completelly miss what it is that is being calculated and how it is being calculated.

From playing around with bitp.it I understand that what it basically does is sending "clients" a starting point and an end point, and those are simply calculating the data, and if their hash is correct, they reply with the correct hash back to bitp.it and I'm rewarded for the effort.

To my question:
Can you please show a very basic function that does the mining from start to finish? I prefer it to be in PHP, but I'll understand other languages (I hope).

Thanks a bunch!

Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Mining => Topic started by: Eli on June 10, 2011, 11:40:52 AM