Is it possible to mine bitcoins on a bulky 1960’s IBM computer?

[Light]

According to Shirriff, the historical computer is fully capable of mining the cryptocurrency, ‘but so slowly it would take more than the lifetime of the universe to successfully mine a block’.

Technically anything (including you and I by hand) that is capable of hashing in a given amount of time would be able to solve a block and earn a reward. It's just that statistically it's so unlikely to occur that you wouldn't even bother with such a thing.

That being said, it is amusing to see a relative relic of technology used to demonstrate how far computing power has actually come in the short space of 50 years.

[solitude]

which won't change too much, because cellphone can already mine, with their quadcore, and there isn't the problem of electricity

I see you posting in nearly every thread.

Your english sucks

Your opinions are always the same bullshit

Your bullshit signature campaign is the only reason you spam this forum day and night for your extra dollar in BTC

Why don't you get the fuck out of here, your posts are worthless.

[louise123]

about 500.000.000.000.000 years, or about 40.000 times of the current age of our universe to solve just 1 Bitcoin block

yeah if the diff remain the same, not to mention that those old computers are everything but efficient in electricity terms

Well, he could create his own Bitcoin clone and try and mine that 
Then he might be able to mine for "Bitcoin" or whatever it will be.

[fryarminer]

Possible? Yes. Practical? No. Amusing? Most definitely.

Thinking of it.. What else can be done with a museum ancient computer? You're not gonna use it to write a letter..! You'd use it for these kinds of experiments.

[fryarminer]

which won't change too much, because cellphone can already mine, with their quadcore, and there isn't the problem of electricity

I see you posting in nearly every thread.

Your english sucks

Your opinions are always the same bullshit

Your bullshit signature campaign is the only reason you spam this forum day and night for your extra dollar in BTC

Why don't you get the fuck out of here, your posts are worthless.

Sorry bud, you ain't getting me to click on your clickbait bullshit link

Just be happy a man of my intelligence decided to reply to this bullshit thread.

You having a bad day bro? Btw the link was not bullshit - it was the full article.

[tvbcof]

I would be highly impressed by (the uselessness of) a mechanical sha256 hashing engine along the lines of Babbage's work.  Perhaps if Bitcoin reaches $10,000,000.00 per I'll commission such a thing.  2015 dollars of course.

[XCASH]

According to Shirriff, the historical computer is fully capable of mining the cryptocurrency, ‘but so slowly it would take more than the lifetime of the universe to successfully mine a block’.

Technically anything (including you and I by hand) that is capable of hashing in a given amount of time would be able to solve a block and earn a reward. It's just that statistically it's so unlikely to occur that you wouldn't even bother with such a thing.

That being said, it is amusing to see a relative relic of technology used to demonstrate how far computing power has actually come in the short space of 50 years.

Somebody posted a tutorial on how to use a raspberry pi to run a full Bitcoin node. I would wager the raspberry would be capable of mining a block before that antique. Probably only half the lifetime of the universe. I wonder how many of those antique computers you would need to match the processing power of a raspberry.