How can I solo mine Bitcoin?

[tinus42]

I want to solo mine Bitcoin to help strengthen the network. Not for gaining coins as my computer is quite old and lacks a compatible GPU. I don't care, I want to help Bitcoin.

My computer is powered on more than 12 hours per day, a lot of the time it does nothing but still uses power, the additional electricity usage is nothing. I read that mining through a pool doesn't help strengthening the network but solo mining does. So how can I solo mine?

[J35st3r]

What? You're proposing solo CPU mining to strengthen the network? You'll never mine a block (for all reasonable values of never this side of the extinction of mankind). And if you don't mine a block, you've done nothing for the network. I guess you could strengthen the network to some extent by running bitcoind or bitcoin-qt, but solo mining? No.

[Edit] Maybe that's a little harsh. By solo mining you'll be running bitcoind anyway (no other way), but save the electric and leave out the mining.

[ghostlander]

I want to solo mine Bitcoin to help strengthen the network. Not for gaining coins as my computer is quite old and lacks a compatible GPU. I don't care, I want to help Bitcoin.

My computer is powered on more than 12 hours per day, a lot of the time it does nothing but still uses power, the additional electricity usage is nothing. I read that mining through a pool doesn't help strengthening the network but solo mining does. So how can I solo mine?

Join a pool. Solo mining on your hardware is a total waste. It may take years to find a block if you're lucky enough.

[BitcoinBarrel]

It could possibly take over 1000+ years to solve a block, but it is fun nonetheless. CPU Mining does make your CPU run hot so you have to be careful and keep it well ventilated or propped up off the table if it's a laptop.

Search on Google for "Solo CPU Mine <Windows/Linux> <Version> Bitcoin Tutorial" and try different tutorials for your operating system.

Basically, you download Bitcoin-QT or Bitcoind and then add the line "server=1" to the bitcoin.conf with a username and password. On Linux it's home/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf and sometimes you have to create the file. Then you'll need a CPU miner software like minerd (cpuminer) or cgminer and then configure the software to mine CPU and not GPU.

bitcoin.conf:

rpcuser=username
rpcpassword=password
server=1
rcpallowip=127.0.0.1
rcpallowip=localhost
rpcport=8332

With minerd you just type into the Terminal/Command Prompt once Bitcoin-QT is running which acts as a server:

minerd --url http://localhost:8332 --userpass username:password

If you mine a block then the 25 BTC reward will automatically be sent to your wallet. Sometimes a new address may be generated in your wallet.

You'll get around 2-40 MHash per second if you're lucky and most likely will never solve a block. Once it's setup it's easy to start the miner. You can let it go every now and again and maybe you'll see 25 BTC in your wallet one day. Good luck

[serrveraside]

It's very pointless, you wouldn't be doing the network a favour.

The best way for you to support the network would be to participate in the community and run Bitcoin-Qt.

Other than that there isn't really any way to help the community, sorry.

Don't want to seem too harsh but that's the truth...

[ktttn]

I <3 tinus42.
I would be interested in the same thing if I had a computer.
How do fees factor into this situation? Would setting your fees to near zero help speed up low fee transactions?

[J35st3r]

I <3 tinus42.
I would be interested in the same thing if I had a computer.
How do fees factor into this situation? Would setting your fees to near zero help speed up low fee transactions?

Only if you solved a block.