Bitcoin Forum

The first KnC Jupiter that has been earned through the reseller link at Bitminter will be the prize for the november mint race! Note that we don't know when these reseller units will be shipping. More information on that when the information is available from KnC. You can read more about the Jupiter device at https://www.kncminer.com/?resellerid=299 (also use that link to buy!)

Got 5% of the pool hashrate? That's a 5% chance to win 1st place. Even for smaller miners the chances should be better than most lotteries.

The race is open for everyone. All you have to do is mine at the Bitminter (https://bitminter.com) mining pool.

Start: friday 2013.11.01 at 00:00 UTC
Finish: saturday 2013.11.30 at 23:59 UTC

The prizes are:

1st place: KnCMiner Jupiter 550 GH/s ASIC device (currently selling for $4995)
2nd place: BTC Trinkets bitcoin miner lapel pin
3rd place: BTC Trinkets bitcoin miner lapel pin


http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/10575769446_0fa069c7d7_m.jpg
 (http://btctrinkets.com/presta2/index.php?id_product=26&controller=product)

Update: added bitcoin miner pins. Thanks, BTC Trinkets! More details on the pins at http://btctrinkets.com/presta2/index.php?id_product=26&controller=product

Rules:

• Just like your hash must beat the difficulty to produce a block, it must beat the other miners to win. The best (lowest) hashes during the race will win.
• As long as your work is accepted by the server it is valid for the race, even if it ends up "stale" or "orphaned" in the block list.
• Each person can only compete with one (their best) hash.
• If a winner cannot be reached within 1 week, the prize will go to the next on the list. You may want to make sure that the "account details" page at bitminter.com has an email address listed for you so that you are easy to reach.
• Any block by DrHaribo will not count in the race.

Verifiability:
Hopefully your mining software will show if you have created a block (BitMinter client does). Your block will show with your user name in the block list at http://bitminter.com/blocks. You can click the height number for the block (leftmost column) to see details. There is a link there to blockchain.info where you can see the hash value of the block both on the page and in the URL. The lowest hash value wins. Hash values are shown in hexadecimal. 0-9 is lower than A-F. A is lower than B. Pretty simple.

CURRENT STANDINGS: see https://bitminter.com/mintrace

Haven't found a single block during the last year of mining. My luck for a block find is long overdue, maybe I'll manage to grab the race prize in the same go, but that'll be stretching it. :)

Wow! 

With only 20 GH/s, I think I will also never find a block.  :'(

that goes for me too, i had all my set-up stolen and only just got back online with what little iv managed to buy. good luck to those who are in the running for 1st though  ;)

How is this fair for the smaller miners? I have never gotten my name on a block.

It's like lottery, the more tickets you hold the greater are the odds of winning. Holding more tickets means you paid more for them. So it's fair that your chances are greater. You can solve a block even CPU-mining, if you are very very lucky.

I see you're point.

wow, how did you get it stolen?

Woohoo, my chances are wayyyyyyyy better this time....


Got about 0.8% vs the 0.001% or something I had at the tail end of the GPUs

So, let's see, if I'm currently ~0.058%, yeah likely to never win but what the heck it's nice to know that at least I have a shot :)

*Any plans on updating bitminter java client to support MrTeal's BFL-based Chilis?

I've got a 0.01% chance of winning, so bring-it-on!

Btctrinkets.com is throwing in two lapel pins for the runner up spots:

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/10575769446_0fa069c7d7.jpg

Thanks, BTC Trinkets! I've added the lapel pins in the first post.


If it takes a while for a fully BFL-compatible firmware to become available, then maybe I should add a workaround for them.

Is this the opposite of finding a block? Lowest vs highest share?
Is there a list of all the shares I submitted?

I found a block today :)

No, the smallest hashes are always best.

To find a block you must find a hash that is below the current target. As the difficulty goes up, the target goes down, making it more difficult to find a hash that is below the target.

To win the race you must find a hash that is below the hashes of the other miners in the race.

I believe this dance was inspired by Bitcoin mining: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbo_%28dance%29

Then why does CGMiner shows the highest share as the best one?

cgminer is calculating the difficulty equivalent of the hash value. A small hash or target value yields a high difficulty.

Try the links to prior mint races, you can see the hash values that won.

Thanks for the explanation :)

Also is there a list of all the shares I submit? A place to follow the lowest share so far?

We'll just look at the BTC blocks that are generated. That cuts it down to just a few of the lowest hashes, so we don't have to look at each and every one.

Awesome news. I just hope I can find the block.  :)

And the race is on!

Good luck and may the best minter win :)

The first 3 blocks are in. Maze305 takes pole position. :)

THERE was a time when I  stood a better chance but with 33gh not much.   I think my biggest share was .4  which meant I was 1 out of 250 .  I was about number 25-35 on the list.

 I am now 33 gh out of   230th  whats is that 1 out of 7000.     Still waiting to order some blue furies hopefully the next batch has bitminter support on java. well a month long race is interesting.

Now we are starting to see some decent blocks.

Hawk moves into 1st place. His hash should be possible to beat though. It's still very early in the race.

In the top hashrate list we saw Fefox increasing his hashrate quite a bit just in time for the race. After that the top 10 has been pretty stable, while the top 50 is seeing some new names and some old ones climbing. At the moment it takes 825 GH/s just to get on the top 50 list at all. This should make for a very interesting mint race.

Whoa!

Hawk only holds first place for 1 hour 40 minutes before jassem snatches it.

Actually Aggrophobia snatched it.

Nope only 470M, Haribo can you write the real difficulty of the hashes behind them, i want to see if i had won with several >10G-shares

Better chance than me - great fun, anyway. :)

Shit's getting serious....

time to fire up...

The 9600GT

bom bom bommmmm

20 Mighty Megahashes of Block Busting Ball Breaking Bravado in a nifty single slot wide package.... and you can play the Sims on it.

You're all DOOMED

Muhuhahahahaaaaaaa

I'm confused. Aren't we all looking at the lowest number in the Work column here: https://bitminter.com/blocks

No - if I'm understanding correctly, we're looking at the hash of the block, and competing for the lowest hash.  Click on the block number under the "height" column, then there's a link to click to blockchain.info and you can see the hash.

(BTW, DrHaribo, the label for the link says "block explorer," but the link goes to blockchain.info.)

Thanks.

So if this is the hash: 0000000000000009a5145f3e47831fbe645f72bb921e940a7a0a26466482fd2a

How do I compare this to another one to establish which is the lower? Do I convert it to some other thing?

It's a hex value.
In Windows calculator, switch to Programmer mode and select Hex.
Paste in one value, hit (-) and paste in the other value. Hit (=)
Switch to Dec mode to check if the result is negative, or see if the most significant bit (left) is one, which will also mean the result is negative.
If the result is negative, then the first value was smaller than the second value.

Just compare the hexadecimal numbers. For each digit 0-9 is lower than A-F.

I'm updating the first post in this thread to show a sorted list of the hashes so far in the race.

Today we see bibene take the lead and heretik move into third place.

In the lead now we have bibene, jassem and heretik. Incredibly none of the three are in the top 50 list (https://bitminter.com/livestats/big)! It looks like smaller miners are taking over the race. Or are the big guns just getting ready?

highest I've ever gotten was ~350m  :(

well, after I started using cgminer, anyway

didn't pay attention to blocks solved before that

Maybe I actually have a chance!

Nah.

Thanks for the update, DrH.

It was getting tiresome updating the mint race results manually.

Automatically updated current standings can be viewed here: https://bitminter.com/mintrace

mralbi has taken over the lead with a hash that is considerably better than the one by bibene who is now at second place. Will we see an even better one?

The third page is showing positions 12-21 rather than the expected 21-30.

I'm nowhere in the list  :(

Whoa! Ayrat is suddenly pushing over 10 TH/s. Not many can keep up with that kind of hashrate.

Things are getting interesting.


The last page just shows the last 10 blocks, even if some of them were already shown on the previous page.


Needs more Jiggawatts!

Ayrat, now running with 11 TH/s, got a block shortly after increasing the hashrate. It's only 12th place (15th now) but I think we will see more blocks from Ayrat.

bitmeme on the other hand finds a second block and moves into first place. The best hash by far.

But we are not even 10% into the race yet. Anything can happen.

fix poolluck -.-

Just to be clear, the mint race is open to anyone. The bit about the KnC reseller deal was just to explain where the Jupiter is coming from. I don't even know who bought through the reseller link. But it's because of them that we have a pretty awesome prize. :)


Super mario goes BLING! suxxer and stimbo appears to have fixed the problem.

not long enough :/

Aggrophobia, are you mining with 2 Jupiters?

Not a bad idea, quite a few of these puppies out there that I suspect will be getting dumped into the hands of people that would find your client far simpler to get up and running than say bfgminer

True enough. I will have a look at it tomorrow.

my home was raided while i was at work, came home and my pc, all my set up, plus aload of other things GONE! so having to start and build it all back up again.

Fuggers.

Protip, don't put the boxes of all the new stuff on the curb when you replace it. i) it lets them know you've now got new stuff ii) they can pick up the boxes and sell it "new in box" for double the money.

The blocks are just rolling in this morning.

bitmeme's first place was beginning to look secure - that hash had been sitting first for some time. But from out of nowhere comes KPR120, a miner with 30 GH/s hashrate, taking over the lead.

Is it the revenge of the small miners? Can a Butterfly Labs Little Single beat piles of the fastest ASIC devices in the world? Is mining just one big lottery? What's happening!?!?

Good one KPR!!!

Wait, damn it's all a big lottery? ... I'm out... j/k

But anyway, thanks for sticking a foot in the door for the little guy KPR, you just keep that wedged open for me now you hear? :D

500MH/s inc,

everyone should be quaking in their boots

Cheering for the small guys!!! GO GO GO

subseaguru has taken over the lead. An even smaller miner, with just 17 GH/s.

What are the odds?

None so far, Sir ! I'd like to thank you for the idea to start a mint-race on bitminter. It's a really thrilling game and makes my day. Chapeau Dr. Haribo ! and good luck ppl and miners

He's extremely lucky, too - that block came out only 1 minute after the previous block!

We need more blocks like that one  ;D

Working on it. Haven't had a single block find during the whole year, so I am long overdue for a really juicy one.  :P

subseaguru seems to be sitting fairly securely in first place. We've seen a couple changes in the top ten hashes, but nothing to threaten the first place.

In a couple hours one third of the race is behind us.

Will subseaguru win the race? Place your bets. :)

Nice contest you have going here. Would be nice to see a little guy win this.

Keep rooting for me, then! :D

Unfortunately I've had to turn most of my hashing power off for the rest of the day; hoping to bring it back online after a few hours.

I guess that makes me even more of an underdog!

Things are heating up on the top 50 fastest miners list. First mmt caught up with Ayrat at the top of the list. But now we see soniq push fast them into a solid first place hashrate-wise.

In the race rankings, though, we only see some changes among positions 7-8-9. subseaguru's hash is proving hard to beat. With only 16-17 GH/s he was very lucky to get a hash that good. But can the luck last another 17 days to the end of the race?

It's time for the mid-race analysis.

Early on we saw bitmeme take the lead with his tried and true strategy "mine fast". At first this seemed like a good strategy, and mining at 4+ TH/s got him quickly into first place.

The problems started for bitmeme when a duo of small miners arrived. KPR120 and subseaguru quickly deployed their strategy "be incredibly lucky". Mining at a sneaky 30 and 16 GH/s their strategy proved superior. We first saw KPR120 move into first place, and later subseaguru.

The luck strategy has proven resilient, although we did see nicetime get a good block yesterday. It was close but only got him fourth place. Other than that the last few days have been quiet, not even a single one of Fefox's rigs catching on fire.

On the top50 fastest users list we have seen a few users improve their hashrate and a couple new users arriving. But there are not that many changes. Rather than fast miners, we see big masses of slow miners joining up. We can only attribute this to the result of the recent duel between the "mine fast" and "be incredibly lucky" strategies. Miners are learning and adapting.

So, with half the race remaining, which of the many possible strategies should miners go for? Being lucky seems like the winning choice so far.

Definitely the most exciting race I've ever seen!  I'm certainly working on that "being lucky" strategy, but haven't got it right quite yet...

Talking about luck: I mined a block the 1st day, even hours of my miners started hashing at the pool and since then nothing  :P

Teach me your secrets, CYPER - I would be happy to get a block at all! :)

Woohoo, KNC upped the ante, apparently November units will hash at 650GH+ !! w00t. They do however have a production delay due to a component delivery issue, but probably won't affect the winner here much, since the contest won't be decided until the end of the month.

Whoa! subseaguru was looking so secure holding the lead for so long. But ScandyAndy jumps into first place with an even better hash.

Still, we have almost half the race left.

Will someone luck out and take over the lead?

kj nonchalantly tosses in an extremely low hash.

We have almost 11 days left of the race, but this will be a tough one to beat.

He can almost taste the KnC Jupiter. It tastes like metal.

Rankings at https://bitminter.com/mintrace

Y'all are in trouble now, this is actually hashing on the pool again... fer serious... mainly because I wanted to piss around with bfgminer in a "non-production" environment, but still.

tastes like metal, with a bit of some gritty paper tasting objects thrown in

can anyone tell me the difficulty of this hash

000000000000000001480bf37765db8beb84651395cc36e76e2c4e36fbb51026

I'm curious, too.  I figured there'd be a calculator/converter somewhere, but I couldn't find one.

About 858,000,000,000

Thanks, dat's a big number, in more familiar units to help grasp it, how many furlongs would that be if that many blue whales were laid end to end?

j/k

But scuse the n00b genuine question, is that the result of the share difficulty shown in cgminer multiplied by current difficulty?

Barely over a day left till the finish. Will noone challenge kj's block?

I'm trying Doc I'm trying, pressure gauge is on the stop for the last week and I bent my throttle valve from forcing it open...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTIcOmqH1Pg

That's some hard core mining. Keep the pressure up!

good luck to all..
As a recent newbie to this stuff   i could only dream of owning that monster 8)

This mint race is over!

Congratulations to the winners!

kj won the KnC Jupiter
ScandyAndy and subseaguru won BTC Trinkets Bitcoin miner lapel pins

Thanks to BTC Trinkets for providing the nice pins as prizes. :)

Thanks for the great race, DrH, and all my fellow bitminters.  Hopefully next time I'll have some more hashing power.

Although I'm sure the rest of you all will as well.  Sob!