I just posted a new guide that doesn't require an ASIC. It only uses the CPU and/or the GPU of a normal computer, so you should be able to test it.

Following my previous guide about how to solo mine testnet bitcoins with an ASIC and cgminer I'm now presenting a guide on how to do the same but without the need of an ASIC. That means that you'll be able to mine testnet bitcoins with any computer that has a CPU and/or a GPU.

This should work on pretty much any laptop or desktop, even those with the new M1 chips from Apple. Of course the faster the CPU/GPU, the better chances you'll have to hit some blocks.

You might be wondering how is this even possible. The answer is that the difficulty in testnet3 reverts to 1 after 20 minutes have passed with no one finding a block. A difficulty of 1 is so low that any CPU or GPU is capable of hitting a block. Note that this was the difficulty of Bitcoin in the beginning(2009). More details about this can be read here: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/18554/how-can-i-find-the-real-difficulty-on-testnet

OK, so let's make it happen. First, you need to setup Bitcoin Core in the same way as with the other guide. Here's a copy of it for simplicity:

Step 1: Install and run Bitcoin Core

We're going to use the folder ~/bitcoin_testnet to save everything so that it's easy to remove once you're done and to keep things simple. You can of course use a different path if you want.

Inside ~/bitcoin_testnet create a folder called data:


Download the Bitcoin Core for your platform into ~/bitcoin_testnet/ and extract it there.

Now let's prepare the configuration file. Create a text file named bitcoin_testnet.conf in ~/bitcoin_testnet/ and put these content in it:


The thing that you need to understand here is that you're setting up the Bitcoin node to run in testnet, and you're defining an RPC port(5000 in this case, can be anything), user and password, and whitelisting a specific IP to connect to your node(YOUR_MINER_IP). You'll need these details and your Bitcoin node IP later when connecting from bfgminer.

You can now start running your Bitcoin node by doing the following(make sure to change user to your actual user):


If you want, you can keep this running in the background with screen:


You can then see what's happening with:


To detach the screen, simply press Ctrl-A and then Ctrl-D. You'll be back in the console, and the command will continue running in the background.

Step 2: Install and run bfgminer

Since cgminer removed the CPU/GPU functionality a long time ago, we're going to use bfgminer. You need to compile it from source code to activate these features, so that's what we're going to do. First let's install some dependencies:


Now we're ready to get, configure, and make bfgminer with support for CPU and GPU mining. Also note that we need to update the git: sources to https: in the .gitmodules file, otherwise it won't work. I'm using sed here to do this, but you can of course do it manually if you prefer.


After it finished the build, you can now simply start mining your testnet bitcoins:


And that's it. Your computer should now be mining with the CPU and the GPU using OpenCL. Leave it overnight and you'll probably see some testnet bitcoins in your address.

Some questions you might have:

Q: Can I use only the GPU?

A: You can use one or the other instead of both by simply not adding it to the command (i.e. just use -S opencl:auto for GPU only or just use -S cpu:auto for CPU only).

Q: Why are there two(or more) pools in the dashboard?

A: If you are running another instance of Bitcoin Core in the local machine bfgminer will try to mine there as well. If you don't want that to happen, simply add --no-local-bitcoin to the command.

Q: Can I use a Raspberry Pi?

A: Actually yes, it should work with CPU mining, but extremely slow. You might get lucky though.

The entire gambling industry creates games, machines, systems, etc, that create an illusion that the gambler might win big next time, and try to be as addictive as possible.

On the other side you have the cold, boring math that tells the gambler that it will lose all the money in the long term. There's also no money in pushing this side, so the message rarely gets to the gambler, other than "Gamble Responsibly" or similar.

It's hard for some people to just rationalize this, and act accordingly. Many people will just follow the fantasy because it's designed to be more attractive than reality, which is quite boring in comparison.

Right, yes. The World Cup should have the highest priority.

I'm surprised that UEFA didn't schedule those matches correctly though. It's pretty obvious that all the teams will be preferring to play the World Cup than the Nations League.

DCA for the long term seems to be the best strategy if you just want to live your life and not worry about the price of Bitcoin 24/7.

Sure, maybe in some cases it won't be better than lump sum at a specific time, but in many cases it will be better as well, with the added benefit of not having to pay attention to the price swings.

The bad thing about the League of Nations is that it removes a lot of friendly matches between South America and Europe.

It would be interesting to have a world wide version of it.

It's hard to say because the idea of holding Bitcoin was very different in the beginning.

Many wallets were lost because there were many issues with the early software, for example there was no seed phrase backup.

Also, many people sold their coin when it was a bit valuable.

But sure, if someone managed to mine early or simply buy later, and still has those coins, then yeah, they're absolutely rich right now. It's just not as obvious though.

That's quite interesting.

My guess is that Google has a prediction for each of these matches, and there was a mistake in the UI and the prediction was displayed instead of the real teams which are still TBD.

I think events like this might even change the betting sites odds.

Yeah, the expected value of pretty much any gambling site is basically negative.

That means that in the long term the gambler will lose money and the house will end up winning.

Of course there will be times were the gambler wins, but over the long term the gambler will lose it all. It's just math.

Well that's why I added the link, it already started. It was a woman traveling for the preparations of the world cup and she was raped there, she told the police about it and she is now facing jail for having sex outside of marriage.

I'm not sure, specially after reading this case:

Every time is the perfect time to invest in Bitcoin if you're looking at the long term, say 10 years or more.

If you look at the price graph, over the long term it doesn't really matter too much when you entered, you're most likely to have a better purchasing power now.

The thing is that the earlier you start saving in Bitcoin, the more Bitcoin you'll have. And that's the key.

Although I would like to see The Netherlands lift the trophy, the League of Nations is not really representative of how teams will play in the World Cup.

With a bit of luck, there is a good chance that The Netherlands wins the tournament though...

We'll have to wait and see how many foreign people get arrested for drinking beer or simply kissing a girl in public.

There are many strict rules in Qatar about those things, and many foreigners will probably end up doing all the "wrong things".

Yeah, that's why it's usually a better idea to not bet on "nice" numbers, like "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6", because they have the same probability of happening, but more people will be playing those types of numbers so your prize will be divided.

Also it's better to play numbers higher than 31 because people usually play birthdays

Bitcoin solo mining can be seen as a provable fair draw system in a way.

It's always a bit of a gamble for the hosting country, sometimes they spend way too much preparing and building stadiums, etc, and then the money they collected is just not enough to cover those costs.

An interesting point is that in Qatar there's a ban on alcohol, which is one of the areas in which hosts make the most money from.

We'll have to wait and see how it goes.

From all the weather reports that I've seen, the temperatures in Qatar for the World Cup will be up to 25-30 degrees C, not too hot. Also in terms of minimum temperatures, something like 15-20 degrees C, so overall it seems that the weather conditions are not going to be too bad.

Specially considering that many European countries have been having extreme heat waves now at 40+ degs.

Of course it's statistically possible. It has the same probability as any other 6 numbers.

Even if you see the result "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6", that would still be fine. It has the same chances as any other random result.

The thing is that in some people's mind they put together all the "nice" results like the one you posted and the one I shared against any "random" result, like "23, 11, 46, 1, 5, 31", but they all have the same probability to appear.

We already started to see these issues and the world cup hasn't even started yet:


I think we'll be hearing a lot of these things when thousands of foreign people arrive there.