Bitcoin Forum

Just for getting to know how mining works, I configured  guiminer for solo mining. In the status bar, it show some info like [Difficulty 1, Hashes 42-last at: time]

I know this is a noob/dumb question but please tell me.. when a block is discovered?
Is it when (1.) one of these "Hashes 42" meets the validation requirements OR  (2.)when a required number of hashes are produced? e.g after 1,000,000 hashes..

If it's (1.),  is it possible (in theory) for the first produced hash (Hashes 1) to be the solved block?

My second question: Why in guiminer it says "Difficulty 1"? Isn't it currently 112,628,549?

still no answer?

most of miners sleeping right now may be give ans but take time and newbies just have to wait cannot do any thing more on this forum like me

(1.)  Block can be found anytime. Every computed hash has
1/difficulty*2^32
likelihood to be winner  :)

if i was you id brush up on how bitcoin mining works .... if your solo mining then you need to have set the bitcoin wallet up for solo mining and keep it running otherwise your wasting time as your not mining anything

blocks are produced when a solution to a problem is solved,,, its hard to explain but basically bitcoin is an encryption and all miners are working to add to the encryption this means that no one not even god could predict when the next block is found or who finds it

if your solo mining then the odds are unless your sat on 1TH worth of hashing power you wont see a block with the next few years.... alot about bitcoin goes back to when it was GPUs since then the network has gone up about 10x in size...

And as vm said, if you are solo CPU mining, you'll be lucky to ever find a block.  GPU mining only a bit less so.  HOWEVER, you can mine as part of a pool and earn some bit coin.  If CPU mining, probably not much at all, if GPU, a little if you are consistent.

Welcome, by the way.

With difficulty as high as it is now, solo mining is pretty much impossible.

You'd be better off mining with a pool.  You can mine a P2Pool node without even setting up an account.  For example, you could easily just point your miner at nastyfans.org:9332 and use your Bitcoin address as your username.  Doesn't get much simpler and I think you'll have better luck that way.

Solo mining is a waste of time

Difficulties are essentially a measure of how likely you are of finding a block, its essentially a lotto.  Theoretically you'll earn the same as a pool would, but I've tried solo and I don't feel like thats entirely true.  I've heard of people going days without finding a solo block.   

I wouldn't say it is a waste of time.  It would be better said that solo mining is *very* unlikely to solve a block in a reasonable amount of time unless you are running a sizable amount of the total hashrate.  (And, yes, I know that is subjective.)

My answer: Don't bother solo mining unless you fully understand the likelihood of solving a block in the amount of time you're willing to wait for a return.

Solo mining is waste you should switch to p2pool mining there are websites which offers p2pool mining.

Impossible? nah, its still as easy as it ever was. Only the likelyhood of ever finding a block is probably on the scale of finding a large diamond by scooping up sand in the desert with a teaspoon.

Do P2Pool mining, it is the closest thing to Solomining with a much better constant income.

Guys I know what are chances in solo mining, and I do not plan to solo mine. I just asked something else! No one actually answered my question, all just say "forget solo mining". I know guys.. I know! Please just tell me, is the solution one of those Hashes which miner keeps to find and count? Or the solution is when a gazzillion of those hashes are calculated?

The correct answer is 1. IN theory the very first (double) hash you do could be below difficulty and thus earn you a block.
xephireusMMX already wrote that.

Depends on Hashrate AND Luck.

If you are extremely lucky, you find a block after 2 seconds with little hashrate.
If you are unlucky, you find a block after 8 months with big hashrate.

The more hashrate, the better.

Google: Bitcoin variance

Not likely to find, but not impossible.

In fact I like to solo mine with very small chance of success, it is like lottery with big jackpot if hit  :)

But I dont need mining to pay the electricity, thats true...

Thanks, I got my answer :)

Just about the worst lottery ever. Burn electricity $$ like mad for some stupid ridiculously low odds, all for a chance to win $3500.

You'd be better buying scratch off tickets.