Commodore 64 Bitcoin miner

[dkbit98]

I don't know how many of you know anything about Commodore 64, but I still remember the days of playing Great Giana Sisters, International Karate and making simple programs back in the days.

Now back to the Future, one Polish develop and Commodore fan Maciej Witkowiak, made Bitcoin miner for Commodore 64 that is obviously not nearly as fast as modern computers and asic miners, and has speed of only 0.2 hashes per seconds (1MHz PAL).
That is nothing compared with 80 terahashes per second that some asic miners, it's highly unlikely that Commodore 64 miner will ever mine a full block, and it's obviously made for fun and has no real use case, but it is still interesting to see.


Github page: https://github.com/ytmytm/c64-bitcoin-miner

BONUS for everyone who never heard the sound of game loading on C64 (hint: it is similar to sound of dial-up modems)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62_nr9GzW3I

[NotATether]

I don't think people can get this to run on a real C64, because the build tools need a desktop OS and even the result file can really only be ran trivially with an emulator. Then again, I grew up during the time floppies and serial ports were becoming obsolete.

It baffles me how people manage to hack together a decent SHA2 digest function in C. Assuming he didn't just copy it from some other project, that tells me there are still some brains in this community.

[BrewMaster]

has speed of only 0.2 hashes per seconds (1MHz PAL).

very interesting but i don't think it is all because of the 1MHz speed that it is only computing 0.2 hashes per second or 1 hash every 5 seconds. it is probably partly because it is computing SHA256 hashes instead of SHA256 hash of a block header that could be slightly optimized and also about 40% of the computation of the second round can be skipped.
i don't know how much memory can be used but part of the hashes could be cashed and reused.
also every round is not just computing hashes, it is printing a lot of stuff for user and when we are talking about 1 hash every 5 second that should also take a significant percentage of the time.

anyway it is a fun project that is forked from another fun project to mine bitcoin using a game-boy

[NeuroticFish]

it's highly unlikely that Commodore 64 miner will ever mine a full block, and it's obviously made for fun and has no real use case, but it is still interesting to see.

I wished for so many years a C64... the games were much prettier than on my (clone of) ZX Spectrum.
But Bitcoin miner on C64,... while it can be educational material for a very limited number of people, I unfortunately see it as such a waste of time...; I guess that the developer has his fun though.

[dkbit98]

I wished for so many years a C64... the games were much prettier than on my (clone of) ZX Spectrum.
But Bitcoin miner on C64,... while it can be educational material for a very limited number of people, I unfortunately see it as such a waste of time...; I guess that the developer has his fun though.

If you look at his github profile you will see that this guy is just a big commodore geek, and only people who played with C64 can understand him maybe, it's something like first love for BTC64

I do however wonder what would happen if this C64 miner was released in the time of Satoshi, back in 2009 and 2010 and without asic miners.

[NeuroticFish]

If you look at his github profile you will see that this guy is just a big commodore geek, and only people who played with C64 can understand him maybe, it's something like first love for BTC64

That's why I said that he probably had his fun 

I do however wonder what would happen if this C64 miner was released in the time of Satoshi, back in 2009 and 2010 and without asic miners.

At 0.2 hash / second, it cannot compete even with the computers from 2009.
Keep in mind that at that time there were already available the first generation of i7 processors.

[Kakmakr]

OP, now you are really digging into the past with this one. 

I was on the other side with the ZX Spectrum fanclub, so I was the Commodore 64 enemy. Do you still remember the rivalry between the Commodore fans and the ZX Spectrum fans?

I still have a working ZX Spectrum here, so it would be crazy to see if I could do something with it.... even mining some obscure Alt coin.. would put a smile on my face. 

Thanks for the blast to the past. 

[famososMuertos]

Actually here how important this peculiar leaves me "enchulada" of CBM 64 Bitcoin miner is how technologies are developed in its adoption, as this model is still the best-selling in history.

But beyond that we can have a new measure to determine which technologies contemporaries that are debated in which model was better at a certain time, since more sales It does not always mean that it was the best and in the 80s it may be that item that finally defines which model was better.

If someone adopts that project, don't forget the consoles: they may be the defining characteristic of what was the best console of the 80s.  

_______
^{Edit:
"enchulada" making a reference "Pimp my ride" / Sometimes repairing certain cars that were already junk or obsolete seems to make no sense, but some do, a simile can be made here with the subject.}