If its only diagnosing, you can connect a pc directly to the miner or via an isolated router and scan.
If its using dhcp, check its log and immediately catch any assigned IP.

That is: Take a router with dhcp enabled, don't connect it to internet or anything, just a PC (or smarphone) to catch is web ui, and the miner and see if it gets an ip assigned. Else, do the port scan from the pc itself.

There is also a third option more advanced involving serial port console access via the lan port of the miner, I think the S9s can do it, perhaps the S15 can as well?

This is solid advice, and it might be what future miners will be anyway. When mining becomes unprofitable at any price, those large operations will have to shutdown anyway... And those who installed renewable can continue up to their generation capacity.

This is exactly what i did to mine, which had a firmware from 2016. First to the Update2UBI one, then the latest. The fan of the R4 is ridiculously silent at 100% (mine does 3240rpm, some models only do 3000rpm) and in all its life has had the fourth wire disconnected, I don't think i ever saw the option to force fan speeds or chip freqs like i remember seeing in S9s so the fan have always been running at 100%, and the chips on autofreq (600ish).

After the update the hashrate went from 8 to 8.5, and the temperatures went down. Also it reports both PCB and Chip temperatures far better than the weird two values the 2016 firmware used to give...

Logically it makes no sense to keep it running and incur in loses. But perhaps investing in solar/wind energy could later help reduce your power bills? All you need is a grid tie inverter and panels/wind turbine/etc, no batteries (the grid is your battery).

And then sell when it gets up there? Do you think Russia alone can pump & dump bitcoin? Mr Putin surely wouldn't even think of that, right?

Today is a good day to drop windows. There are plenty of nice alternatives, do not delay if you don't want nasty surprises, use Linux: https://distrowatch.com/

Of course, as I explained elsewhere, your leisure activities and your money should be separate. So if you insist in keeping a "windows gaming computer", at least install Linux in another one and keep your serious stuff there.

No. No matter how many or how few miners are out there, the diff will always adjust to produce the same amount (12.5₿) every 10 minutes.
In fact this is expected, mining will become unprofitable and the hashrate will plummet, but not go to zero. The only reason this has not happened, is because the market decided bitcoin is worth more over time. Still, its slowly getting more and more unprofitable, so rather than a sudden situation change, its been going gradually.

Think of this: If bitcoin suddenly drops to $500, maybe 99% of miners will leave. But those few who remain, will keep it alive and the same number of bitcoin will keep being produced: New block every 10 minutes, 12.5₿ until next year, where it will be 6.25₿, then in 2024 3.125₿, slowly reducing the production as intended by the original design. This should stimulate a price increase, but the market price in fiat can't be controlled.

As fun as mining has been, miners should not think it will remain always profitable. I clearly remember 2015 back when the prize was 25₿ where everyone was whining how unprofitable it had become, only big whales could keep going on, etc.

Those miners who spend everything and live on the edge, have to cease the moment a little price fluctuation comes. Smart people should have been saving part of the income, not use/invest all until the inevitable day comes where its unprofitable. But then its no wonder people keep using PPS pools that in the long run earn less bitcoin than PPLNS. Managing themselves seems to be a problem.

No. You need to get two 110v circuits (from different phases), power a socket from that (the two hots), and you get 208v. That would work. Its usually what you find for dryer or ac plugs.

You could in theory use two separate power supplies, and achieve about the same thing. Those could probably demand a separate circuit each... You see, if the T9 pulls 5A at 220v, its going to demand at least 10A at 110v, possibly more due to wire resistance.

Which is also why you cant just put a transformer, it would likely exceed your circuit capacity (if not the transformer itself).

Well, he wants the company doing the business of moving cargo and passengers to and from Mars. Perhaps an expanded version of what he is doing now to the ISS, and probably the moon and other places will add up as well (Lagrange point stations?). The basis of: Provide the means, and the customers will come. Similar to the west conquest by the train in America.

And it might happen that some governments could fund the colonies, just like they do today to Antarctica and the ISS.

When someone resorts to personal attacks, it means he or she is out of arguments, and resorts to this in desperation for having lost the debate.

That isn't going to happen, to bitcoin anyway. If you want to support decentralization, just don't mine in their pools.

The failure of Bitmain is not the failure of bitcoin. Quite the opposite, Jihan Wu pretended to dethrone bitcoin with his own altcoin, but failed miserably. That is why he put the company in trouble. Now this experience showed us bitcoin is just fine and alive, no matter what "attacks" are made by the wealthy.

Price of bitcoin does not make it a failure or success. Just the fact that it lives, and you can use it to pay and be paid with is success enough. In fact: "Mission accomplished".

I'm willing to guess their PSUs are optimal for chinese mains, which is 220v@50hz...

The central bank of Trinidad & Tobago doesn't like bitcoin, still the gov stance is neutral. Its gray at best, unregulated, but they have warned about scams going on etc. Mining is not a problem, electricity is cheap.

Venezuela has not adopted bitcoin. They showed a friendlier attitude in 2018, mostly to support their state centralized attempt at a crypto currency, which resulted in Petro, which has been completely changed at least three times. Its currently a Dash clone modified and absolutely centralized. You have to understand that the gov officials and authorities are very corrupt and there have been several cases of extortion and kidnapping, simply because those involved in mining operations tend to be wealthy. Mining is not supposed to be illegal and was even welcomed by the gov at some point. Buy and sale of bitcoins is mostly done to evade the gov draconian controls to foreign currency exchange. Mining is world's cheapest, but blackouts are common. There is also a hyperinflation crisis going on, the economy is very distorted. Somethings are very cheap, somethings cost triple the international price...

Oddly enough you might need some of the heat to control humidity, makes for a fun discovery after taking so much effort to isolate the hot air...
Still, very nice setup!

Depending on country, it wouldn't have been much different. But i can imagine the worldwide harassment... Some things are better left untouched.
Indeed many altcoin developers are widely know, some even live of it. A bit unfortunate side effect is that there are several wannabes that claim are the true one, because they want the fame and profit that would come from it...

Aside from angry banksters or gov officials, I can imagine the political toll of assuming leadership. Its annoying enough for prominent open source leaders such as Linux's Linus Torvalds (the recent code of conduct), or Python creator Guido Von Rossum (stepping down due to internal power struggles), among many others.

I respect his/her/their choice of remaining anonymous.

It is hard to say if bitcoin would have remained exactly the same, hopefully we will never know. Bitcoin is doing great 10 years later...

Have you considered starting with the beginning?

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
by Satoshi Nakamoto

Then you can go on, and on and on...

Mining is still profitable in many countries, or if you happen to have access to cheap electricity, so it should not be excluded. Of course you can't mine in Korea, that would be silly... Solo mining is unprofitable and akin to gambling or playing the lottery, every day your odds of finding a block reduces, but imagine if your usb stick miner could find one, just one!

Its not as profitable, but you can still lend, gamble, or work for satoshis. There is plenty of people offering various services in this very forum. Be sure to check the Marketplace.


Technical? If you can use a computer, you can mine. Buy an asic miner, plug it to power and internet, input your pool, done.
Using one of many online calculators, you can quickly find out if its profitable in your place or not. The newer models could possibly be.

A large scale mining operation is another matter, since you need to set up your electricity loads carefully, and control the flow of air, humidity, etc. Pretty much like building a data center.

Seems to me that your distro is getting in the way. Last i tried compiling, it wasn't much of a problem. I even compiled some altcoin wallets back when i was using Ubuntu. I'm on Artix now, and compiling things from AUR (such as bitcoin core) is one command away.

In ubuntu and debian derivatives it isn't rare for things like bitcoin-core to fall behind. Soon when v18 comes out many people will compile it so they don't have to wait a packager to do it for themselves. I have been too long away from RPM distros, but from the looks of it, things haven't improved much...