Bitcoin Forum

Would a solo rig connected at 1G/s have a mining advantage over a rig with 1M/s?

Or how about a dial up (14.4K/s)?

Why or why not?

I'm calling shenanigans

It doesn't matters for solo mining, at least if you can receive information about new blocks.
You don't need fast connection even for pool mining :)

Yeah Tycho is right. You do not need a lot of bandwidth to mine. An acoustic coupler or a shoe string communications device is enough :p

Where you would indeed need more bandwidth is if you wanted to operate a "bitcoin supernode" (ie a bitcoin client hacked to accept a ridiculously large number of incoming connections and hence be so called "very well connected").

But since you're solo mining bandwidth isn't important.

Why might one want to become a supernode? To help the bitcoin network? Or to increase your mining efficiency? Or both?

deadlizard, what shenanigans?!  :-\

Thanks for your insight tycho!

One might want to become a supernode merely to be as connected as possible to the network. This is especially useful if you're running a mining pool. Also you can help the bitcoin network out if you are behind a very stable and fast internet connection (ie 100 mbit and up) but there is of course a point of diminishing return where one can be "too connected." Being better connected has no bearing on mining efficiency.

shenanigans:

1. Secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering.
2. Silly or high-spirited behavior; mischief.

Heh, I know what it meant - I just don't know why he called it!?

Despite my higher post count, I am still relatively new to bitcoin!

Thanks for your input allinvain!

The difference between 1Gb/s and 1Mb/s will be virtually nil but I'm pretty sure a 14.4 kb modem will sooner or later show it's impact. If you mine, you need to have the current chain. If you are slow on update, you will work on stale blocks for some of the time. Some of the blocks are large, a 100 kB block will need a minute to download and during this time, you are doing nothing useful (but I'm not sure if the correct block header is enough to update the previous block hash and the mining can start on the current block even without full block download so the impact will be much smaller). And if you find a block, you may not be the first to broadcast it to the world. With slow upload, there will be many miners with faster connection who find the block with the same root and broadcast it to the world faster. And then you'll lose the race. It's hard to say without some more rigorous calculations but I wouldn't be surprised if miner with 14.4kb lost 5% of it's hashrate on stales and lost races.

Would a car with 100Km/h on the dial have an advantage over a car with 10Km/h?

Conceptual answer:

It depends on how quickly puzzles are being solved versus your network speed. You need to make sure that the amount of time it takes you to upload your answer is small compared to the amount of time you have to come up with the first solution to win 99% of puzzles (or whatever percent you are happy with).

Bitcoin mining works as thus:

-everyone is distributed a block. the block basically represents basically a "guess-the-number" game that has VERY large bounds.
-the complete game is stored in the block and the block itself can tell you whether or not your guess is correct, so you don't need any bandwidth to guess solutions. your computer basically says "hey, block sitting on my computer, this is my guess. am i right?" the block can then answer directly yes or no.
-if you get it wrong, you guess again.
-if you get it right, you submit and uploaded your answer, which can be verified, because everyone has the block and can ask the question.
-if you are the first one to submit your answer, you win the block and bitcoins


SO:

the parameters of the system define how much of a problem this is. Specifically, we need to know in general- how fast are blocks designed to be solved by someone on the network? We can take the example where you have extremely large computational capacity and can solve 99% of blocks in 1 second, but it always takes you 10 seconds to upload your solution. Let's compare that to someone who can solve only .01% of blocks in 1 second, but can upload the solution in .01 seconds. If the game were just about how many hashes you could check each second, then more computational power is all that matters and person 1 with the slow network would be better off. However, the game is a RACE to the correct answer for each particular block. If every block ever released has been solved by the network in 5 seconds, then the first player will have NEVER won a block, and player 2 will probably have won some blocks.

To make sure your network is not influencing you, you need to know about the time distribution that blocks are solved (how quickly do I expect to need to solve and upload a particular puzzle to win that race), and then make sure the amount of time it takes you upload your answer is small compared to that distribution.

What connection does a bitcoin miner have with a car?

And the ratio you are looking for is 1000 to 1 ;) Just being cheeky!

Seriously though: I was asking if the speed of your network had anything to do with your mining capability, not the speed of hashing or the speed or anything really... And apparently it does not!

When I first saw the title my first thought was because you hadn't mentioned units you were asking if 1Ghash/s had an advantage over 1Mhash/s :D. It probably would have made it clearer to say 1Gb/s versus 1Mb/s, maybe the other poster didn't notice either, I only realised what you were talking about when I read down further about a modem etc.

Lol.... quite true!

I would have placed 1GHps if the title length would have allowed for it!? Apparently there is a maximum title length.