In the early days of Bitcoin ...

[UsernameCrypto]

... how many coins could be mined in a day on a standard home PC?

I saw a guy being interviewed on a news channel the other day about Bitcoin.  Assuming he's telling the truth, he said he stumbled across Bitcoin in the very early days when it could easily be mined with a basic computer.  He said he was easily mining up to 50 coins a day but, given these were very early days for crypto, he didn't really know what he was mining (as in what they could be used for, potential value etc) so he placed no importance on it whatsoever.  So much so, he didn't retain the keys for many of his earlier coins

He said he got back into it a few years back and is now a lot more careful about the crypto he has.  The guy could very likely have been a multi-millionaire by now.  Not sure if he's mining these days (doubt it) or buying/trading.

I find it surreal in a way that you can be sitting today deciding 'do I buy 1 coin for $50k?' whilst only a decade ago you could have been mining dozens of them, essentially for free, on your home PC!  Yeah I know that's all with the benefit of hindsight, however it makes me smile nevertheless.

I wish I'd stumbled across it 10 years ago!

[passwordnow]

That's the same thought as a few years ago when bitcoin hits three digits. But past is past and those were just the good old days for bitcoin. Many weren't serious of what they're mining and the difficulty isn't that much until it had gained traction. Just like this guy[1] when he was mining through his laptop. You'll get an idea how plenty they can mine during the early days.
[1] Man accidentally threw away $127 million in bitcoin and officials won’t allow a search

[UsernameCrypto]

That's the same thought as a few years ago when bitcoin hits three digits. But past is past and those were just the good old days for bitcoin. Many weren't serious of what they're mining and the difficulty isn't that much until it had gained traction. Just like this guy[1] when he was mining through his laptop. You'll get an idea how plenty they can mine during the early days.
[1] m/2017/12/20/man-lost-127-million-worth-of-bitcoins-and-city-wont-let-him-look.html]Man accidentally threw away $127 million in bitcoin and officials won’t allow a search

OMG, worth $375 million if he still had them today!

I hope he's managed to come to terms with it, I'd struggle!!

[hatshepsut93]

At the first days of Bitcoin, there was only Satoshi's computer on the network, so he was mining 50 BTC every 10 minutes. Then more people joined, so assuming they had roughly equal CPU's, this rate decreased proportionally to the number of active miners. Then, after a year or more, someone wrote code for using FPGA and GPU for mining, so it was already not worth it to mine on CPU.

[elisabetheva]

but let it be an old story to remember, when bitcoin was first unknown what it was used for, so the possibility of mining could be easy. the story is hard to do at this time, and everyone is racing to mine with renewable methods, so to do it with a PC is just a dream that will no longer be valid.
forget stories like this, let's welcome new things that change all the time.
now bitcoin has passed the price of $ 52K, and obviously it's getting harder to get.

[palle11]

In the beginning as like mining, there were also more calls for hodl. Many predictions was on hodling your bitcoin when price was below $10 but many sold and today we are seeing more stories of statements of regrets. People in the past never had the courage to invest in bitcoin but today expressing how they missed the chance.

[Fesatmas]

I saw a guy being interviewed on a news channel the other day about Bitcoin.  Assuming he's telling the truth, he said he stumbled across Bitcoin in the very early days when it could easily be mined with a basic computer.  He said he was easily mining up to 50 coins a day but, given these were very early days for crypto, he didn't really know what he was mining (as in what they could be used for, potential value etc) so he placed no importance on it whatsoever.  So much so, he didn't retain the keys for many of his earlier coins

that is a mistake that will be a lesson for him at this time, sometimes what he deems worthless and insignificant, will now be more valuable than anything else. This is almost the same where we never thought that bitcoin would be as crazy as we see now. we used to have 10 bitcoins in a day with a fauncet which is very easy and even much easier than now with very strict rules on some current fauncet sites. but what makes me salute is the freebitcoin site, to be honest they have contributed well and have never disappointed its users until now, and by far the freebitcoin site is the oldest site in producing bitcoin. for branching, it is true that it is not easy when bitcoin's position is not friendly anymore, so I am very disappointed that we have been careless in storing and trading bitcoin at low prices in 2014.

[dothebeats]

Back then, the promise of prestige and value was unavailable to bitcoiners. It was only their passion and curiosity that fuels their excitement on such things. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are like him who have tried to mine bitcoin, got a couple thousands on their hard drives, and later on got bored and moved on with life.. only to find years later that the curious project they took part in is actually booming and the internet money is valued at tens of thousands of dollars. At that point, no one really knew and bothered to care save for a few groups of people really dedicated at making it work.

It's a story of a distant past by now. One that will continue to marvel newcomers that, at some point, bitcoin is extremely easy to get.

[BrewMaster]

At the first days of Bitcoin, there was only Satoshi's computer on the network, so he was mining 50 BTC every 10 minutes.

there are people who believe that Satoshi was running more than one computer to mine bitcoin in first days to make sure blocks didn't take extremely long to be found. also the early blocks time difference was not 10 minutes, it was longer due to low hashrate and the fact that difficulty can not go below 1 and it was at one.

[undeadbitcoiner]

It is true that in early days we could have mined 50 BTC a day, Not only 50 a day 50 per hour if we were earlier "Together with Satoshi" I was not that lucky enough but when I started mining with my GPU I was mining somewhere 1 to 1.3 BTC per day. I get questioned from lots of my friends did you keep all of your Bitcoin till date? Of course not because back then Bitcoin literally had no Value and it was just a test Lucky me that because of my computer background I got into Bitcoin Mining if not I would have heard about Bitcoin in 2017 Boom.

There are so many stories about BTC Prices and 10K Bitcoin Pizza which I believe are legendary people and we should respect because that 10K Bitcoin Pizza made Bitcoin a valuable asset back then and test was complete that we can actually have Virtual Currency. For me They are equally respectable as much as I respect Satoshi.

Back to your topic
So many of those wallet who mined back in those days lost there coins and private keys because of its value, After we got some value we lost more coins in Exchanges like Mt Gox , Cryptsy and so onnnnnn. Now days even $100 investors think about Paper Wallet / Hardware wallet and so many options to save exchange account passwords but back in those days we didn't care much about that.   

I wish I'd stumbled across it 10 years ago! Sad

If you had you would have done the same thing others Did. You may not have those 50BTC block reward holding till now but yes you would have more than what you have today but its never late to start here.

[Rikafip]

I wish I'd stumbled across it 10 years ago!

Realistically, even if you stumbled across bitcoin 10 years ago, chances are you wouldn't be any different that many others who played a little bitc with bitcoin and simply forgot about it. Who expected 10 years ago that bitcoin will be what it is now, and with this price? Absolutely no one, and probably not even those heavily included into all this.

With that being said, I don't think tat you are late to this party  even if you just joined and bought your first bitcoin, as we are still in the early days of crypto adoption and don;t let this current price discourage you.

In the beginning as like mining, there were also more calls for hodl. Many predictions was on hodling your bitcoin when price was below $10 but many sold and today we are seeing more stories of statements of regrets.

Question is, would bitcoin be what it is now if early adopters didn't try to buy things with it and just decided to passively hodl it? I personally think that people like Laszlo Hanyecz who spent 10,000 BTC for 2 pizzas played an important part in bitcoin promotion as it showed people that bitcoin is not "monopoly money".

[pinggoki]

It's normal on the early days of bitcoin that people are mining easily coins but to be honest they don't know what they are mining or else they didn't know what to do on the coins that they are mining. They didn't know what would be the purpose of every coins that they are getting because on the early days it doesn't have any value but right now the value of each was very expensive. Even me, I will not go for mining with a no value coins but if they continue they might really be a multi millionaires now.

[Ucy]

The coins will likely be dumped by lots of people who wished they mined it in its early days. People who understood the usefulness, potential and value of Bitcoin back then would likely be longterm holders, or they would stay long enough to build a future with Bitcoin/crypto if they couldn't afford to hold long enough

[MWesterweele]

It's normal on the early days of bitcoin that people are mining easily coins but to be honest they don't know what they are mining or else they didn't know what to do on the coins that they are mining. They didn't know what would be the purpose of every coins that they are getting because on the early days it doesn't have any value but right now the value of each was very expensive. Even me, I will not go for mining with a no value coins but if they continue they might really be a multi millionaires now.

I just remember the old early days of bitcoin were bitcoin were given for free but yet small amount but the mere fact that it is free were amazing compare today that you could only have your own kind of bitcoin if you will going to pay or buy it at an amount which is now currently amounting to $50 000. That is why there is no doubt that miners could mine a 50 bitcoin because at that early age of bitcoin no one knows that this coin will become a world trending crypto, that this coin will having such high value.

[scottsanderman12]

Stop suffering from what happened before and what may have been missed. It is important to live here and now and look to the future with a clear head!

[Garmo]

It's a good thing he got back on the saddle with crypto a few years ago.

Honestly, I think we are in the same situation here as we were 10 years ago. What seemingly little we mine today could equal a mansion's worth in the next decade, and that's what's really keeping me in the game. Bitcoin is on it's way to new paradigms, and I look forward to the day that 1 satoshi becomes equal to 1 dollar

[pawanjain]

I find it surreal in a way that you can be sitting today deciding 'do I buy 1 coin for $50k?' whilst only a decade ago you could have been mining dozens of them, essentially for free, on your home PC!  Yeah I know that's all with the benefit of hindsight, however it makes me smile nevertheless.

I wish I'd stumbled across it 10 years ago!

You are in the community and you have the chance right here right now to buy and own a portion of bitcoin. Would you ?

What if you say the same thing i.e. "I wish I'd stumbled across it 10 years ago! " after 10 years from now?
Bitcoin is at $50k now but what if it crosses $500k in the next 10 years and you might be screaming on this same forum about how stupid you were to not buy some bitcoins when you had the chance.

Life is all about opportunities mate. Grab it while you can !
But not with more than you can afford to lose.

[DarkIT]

... how many coins could be mined in a day on a standard home PC?

I saw a guy being interviewed on a news channel the other day about Bitcoin.  Assuming he's telling the truth, he said he stumbled across Bitcoin in the very early days when it could easily be mined with a basic computer.  He said he was easily mining up to 50 coins a day but, given these were very early days for crypto, he didn't really know what he was mining (as in what they could be used for, potential value etc) so he placed no importance on it whatsoever.  So much so, he didn't retain the keys for many of his earlier coins

He said he got back into it a few years back and is now a lot more careful about the crypto he has.  The guy could very likely have been a multi-millionaire by now.  Not sure if he's mining these days (doubt it) or buying/trading.

I find it surreal in a way that you can be sitting today deciding 'do I buy 1 coin for $50k?' whilst only a decade ago you could have been mining dozens of them, essentially for free, on your home PC!  Yeah I know that's all with the benefit of hindsight, however it makes me smile nevertheless.

I wish I'd stumbled across it 10 years ago!

Everyone like to go back to past to change something happened in their past. After this 50k$, mostly people will wish to go back 10 years and buy bitcoin at least price and back to future to sell at high price. Mining need a separate setup to mine bitcoin.

[ecnalubma]

How about if we’ve had used the first Bitcoin faucet that pays 5 BTC per claim? If people knew that it would have potential then they could have take it seriously, who could imagine that Bitcoin could reached this value. First heard of it in 2013 but didn’t pay attention to it because I was so serious playing online games, I believe its not too late to invest just need to hodl all the way.

[Dutchyyy]

If we knew what would happen in 5 or 10 years, things would be different. No man cannot assume that Bitcoin will reach such levels in the market unless he has had exclusive faith in it.

I think there are a lot of people who got Bitcoins easily a long time ago, but they didn't pay attention to them, which is normal.