Forum Time Machine - Mining bitcoin with Pentium processor

[dkbit98]

This is small 10th 12 anniversary of Bitcoin Pentium day.
Exactly ten twelve years ago theymos was mining Bitcoin with his computer Pentium processor and he mined five blocks on this day.
You can do the math and calculate how much that is worth today, but it's a shame he had a habit of turning off his computer each night when we was going to sleep  

Here is original post made by theymos back than:

I generated 5 blocks today on my Pentium processor. Two of them were within 3 minutes of each other.

I have noticed some slowdown since the adjustment, but I still generate a lot of coins. My computer is off while I'm sleeping, and BitCoin bootstraps quickly when I turn it back on. Do you guys-who-are-having-trouble have the BitCoin port open?

Fast forward ten years, and now we need to have special asic miners for mining Bitcoin that are working non-stop 24/7.
Times change, but Bitcoin is still the same.

[1713485113]

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[cygan]

i now imagine how many more blocks he would have mined if theymos had not switched off his computer again and again.
furthermore, it is a very nice anecdote from the past and you can see how the times and the requirements change

btw, i mine for fun with my usb antminer u2

[twiki]

i now imagine how many more blocks he would have mined if theymos had not switched off his computer again and again.
furthermore, it is a very nice anecdote from the past and you can see how the times and the requirements change

btw, i mine for fun with my usb antminer u2

What faculty did theymos study at?

Could it be that during his time in high school and his freshman year, he received such a cool education that he would become technically advanced?

[merekamo]

based on today's data

1 BTC = $43.594

5 BLOCK = 0.01233 BTC  = 0.01233 BTC = $537

5 BTC = 81.09245 BLOCK


Feb 16, 2016 - Feb 16, 2022

6 Years , 0 Months , 0 Days
72 Months , 0 Days
313 Weeks, 1 Day
2192 Days
52608 Hours
3156480 Minutes
189388800 Seconds

I not a mathematician my guess could be wrong but if calculate the value today, the number is infinite   

[SFR10]

This is small 10th anniversary of Bitcoin Pentium day.
Exactly ten years ago

12
Not sure what's the best way to celebrate it other than altering the personal text field on my profile.

Fast forward ten years, and now we need to have special asic miners for mining Bitcoin that are working non-stop 24/7.

It's crazy how in a decade or two, it could suffer the same fate as the previous techs ^{[e.g. FPGA, GPU and etc...]}.

btw, i mine for fun with my usb antminer u2

Update:

It looks like I am still time traveling as we speak so mistakes are possible, but I couldn't reach 2010 and speak to my old self with instructions to mine (or buy) Bitcoin
Thanks for correction.

You're very welcome.

[dkbit98]

Not sure what's the best way to celebrate it other than altering the personal text field on my profile.

It looks like I am still time traveling as we speak so mistakes are possible, but I couldn't reach 2010 and speak to my old self with instructions to mine (or buy) Bitcoin
Thanks for correction.

[decodx]

Not sure what's the best way to celebrate it other than altering the personal text field on my profile.

It looks like I am still time traveling as we speak so mistakes are possible, but I couldn't reach 2010 and speak to my old self with instructions to mine (or buy) Bitcoin
Thanks for correction.

I think we need to think the other way around. Instead of regretting not being able to send a message to our young self from ten years ago, we should consider what our old self would want to share with us ten years into the future. We might hear our messages from the future if we concentrate enough. Are you guys hearing anything?

[PX-Z]

Could it be that during his time in high school and his freshman year, he received such a cool education that he would become technically advanced?

Probably yes, mentioning that time around 2010 owning a computer is a lot considering it's expensive, at least in my place when you have a computer and internet connection, mean you have the resources and money.

[decodx]

Could it be that during his time in high school and his freshman year, he received such a cool education that he would become technically advanced?

Probably yes, mentioning that time around 2010 owning a computer is a lot considering it's expensive, at least in my place when you have a computer and internet connection, mean you have the resources and money.

LOL, no! Owning a personal computer 12 years ago was actually much more common than you suggest. I don't have the exact source of the numbers, but I'm sure over 70% of households in developed countries owned a PC with a broadband internet connection. I mean, we're talking about a time where the iPhone was already in its fourth generation.

[PX-Z]

LOL, no! Owning a personal computer 12 years ago was actually much more common than you suggest. I don't have the exact source of the numbers, but I'm sure over 70% of households in developed countries owned a PC with a broadband internet connection. I mean, we're talking about a time where the iPhone was already in its fourth generation.

Stating source facts is more reasonable than Lol'ing someone's statement without fully understanding it.

that he would become technically advanced?

By the fact that most household in US have computers and internet plus a good education doesn't mean they would become technically literate, it just few including theymos have different taste for such stuffs.

[theymos]

I actually measured the energy usage with a Kill-A-Watt with and without mining a few months after that post, and I was getting 160 BTC/kWh. Because the cost of mining 1 BTC was less than a tenth of what 1 BTC was actually priced at at the time, I thought that BTC was substantially overpriced, and so I also have the honor of selling BTC at the lowest prices ever recorded, $0.003/BTC.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I'm not sure I've ever consciously thought of Theymos as an OG bitcoiner (perhaps because I know so little about him).  Yes, I am aware of the history of his association with bitcointalk and if you'd asked me if he was a super-early adopter of bitcoin I would have answered "yes" with no hesitation, but that knowledge has apparently just lurked in my subconscious because seeing that post about him mining BTC with an Intel CPU sort of made me say wow....

Probably yes, mentioning that time around 2010 owning a computer is a lot considering it's expensive, at least in my place when you have a computer and internet connection, mean you have the resources and money.

LOL, no! Owning a personal computer 12 years ago was actually much more common than you suggest. I don't have the exact source of the numbers, but I'm sure over 70% of households in developed countries owned a PC with a broadband internet connection. I mean, we're talking about a time where the iPhone was already in its fourth generation.

Kids these days, eh?  Twelve years ago to me seems like yesterday when I'm thinking back on what I was doing at the time--but oddly, when I think about it in the context of bitcoin it seems like an eternity.  But by the year 2002-02 it seemed like a lot of people I knew owned at least a desktop PC, and I live in the US.  I definitely knew quite a few folks who didn't.  By 2010?  Yeah, if you didn't own a PC or laptop, you still had some type of mobile device to connect to the internet with.

By the way, how powerful was that Pentium for its time?  Was it considered a high-end CPU?  I plead ignorance as to Intel's offerings, especially for processors that old.  And how long was it until faucets started popping up?  I remember seeing one archived from 2011 or so that gave away what would be a massive amount of bitcoin today.  That's how a lot of people got their start with bitcoin, and it's too bad that they've all but disappeared.

[dkbit98]

I think we need to think the other way around. Instead of regretting not being able to send a message to our young self from ten years ago, we should consider what our old self would want to share with us ten years into the future. We might hear our messages from the future if we concentrate enough. Are you guys hearing anything?

I don't have any regrets about this and I would probably sold most of mined bitcoins back than and buy some stupid new gadget, or spend it on some vacation trip.
Than years later I would tell stories around camp fire to my friends how I had a bunch of bitcoins that I spent without thinking.
I just love Back to the future movies... what can I say.

Probably yes, mentioning that time around 2010 owning a computer is a lot considering it's expensive, at least in my place when you have a computer and internet connection, mean you have the resources and money.

Many people could afford computer in 2010 without a problem, maybe not exact Pentium model owned by theymos , but perfectly working computer that could mine bitcoin with good internet connection.
I still remember the days of dial-up connection, so anything faster than this was a blessing.

I actually measured the energy usage with a Kill-A-Watt with and without mining a few months after that post, and I was getting 160 BTC/kWh. Because the cost of mining 1 BTC was less than a tenth of what 1 BTC was actually priced at at the time, I thought that BTC was substantially overpriced, and so I also have the honor of selling BTC at the lowest prices ever recorded, $0.003/BTC.

I think we can all agree that nobody should trust your Bitcoin price predictions 
btw what happened with that Pentium processor? Is it collecting dust in you old basement or you sold that as well?

[theymos]

I think we can all agree that nobody should trust your Bitcoin price predictions 
btw what happened with that Pentium processor? Is it collecting dust in you old basement or you sold that as well?

I have a history of being long-term bullish but short-term bearish. I guess my outlook on the world is optimistic, but very cautiously optimistic. Even though I was selling at $0.003, I believed at the same time that BTC would almost certainly go above $1 at some point, and could get into the hundreds. (This was insanely bullish at the time.) I just thought that the price had gotten ahead of its proper trajectory, considering how cheap it was to produce BTC.

Even many years later, it's funny that I happen to have a similar view now: I could easily see BTC above $100k in a few years, but I think we'll probably drop well below $30k for at least part of this year.

I probably still have the CPU somewhere. Taken out of context, my 2010 post makes it sound like I barely had any idea of what a CPU was since I just used the over-broad "Pentium" label, but in fact this was a gaming machine I'd built around 2008, and I chose the specific CPU carefully. It was far from the best CPU available in 2010, but it was probably in the top 5% of retail-oriented CPUs.

[dkbit98]

Even many years later, it's funny that I happen to have a similar view now: I could easily see BTC above $100k in a few years, but I think we'll probably drop well below $30k for at least part of this year.

Anything is possible with Bitcoin in this crazy times we live now, but when in doubt I always like to zoom out and get better perspective.
Hal Finney early price calculation for BTC was $10,000,000 per one coin, so I guess we are all a bit bearish compared with that

I probably still have the CPU somewhere. Taken out of context, my 2010 post makes it sound like I barely had any idea of what a CPU was since I just used the over-broad "Pentium" label, but in fact this was a gaming machine I'd built around 2008, and I chose the specific CPU carefully. It was far from the best CPU available in 2010, but it was probably in the top 5% of retail-oriented CPUs.

That means your processor was made by Intel, and I did some time travelling again about best processors from 2010.
Some say it was Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition or one of the Intel Xeon models, and they were fastest according to benchmark testing but also most expensive with prices around $1000  
Intel Pentium G6950 was the best budget CPU from 2010 that could be overclocked, and AMD Phenom was very good option price/performance wise back than, but I am not sure what CPU was better for Bitcoin mining.
Fast forward again to 2022 and Intel is now making new energy-efficient dedicated chips for Bitcoin mining, that should be much faster than anything we have so far.


https://cpu-benchmarks.com/benchmarks/2010-cpu-benchmarks/

[hugeblack]

I actually measured the energy usage with a Kill-A-Watt with and without mining a few months after that post, and I was getting 160 BTC/kWh. Because the cost of mining 1 BTC was less than a tenth of what 1 BTC was actually priced at at the time, I thought that BTC was substantially overpriced, and so I also have the honor of selling BTC at the lowest prices ever recorded, $0.003/BTC.

I don't like to talk about other people's privacy, but what happened to those 5 250 bitcoins? Did you sell it or do you still keep it?

[decodx]

<...>

Stating source facts is more reasonable than Lol'ing someone's statement without fully understanding it.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/184685/percentage-of-households-with-computer-in-the-united-states-since-1984/

Does that answer your question?

Kids these days, eh?  Twelve years ago to me seems like yesterday when I'm thinking back on what I was doing at the time--but oddly, when I think about it in the context of bitcoin it seems like an eternity.  But by the year 2002-02 it seemed like a lot of people I knew owned at least a desktop PC, and I live in the US.  I definitely knew quite a few folks who didn't.  By 2010?  Yeah, if you didn't own a PC or laptop, you still had some type of mobile device to connect to the internet with.

Exactly. As I already mentioned, the iPhone was in its fourth generation at the time, and to claim that owning a computer "is a lot" is absurd. If memory serves me well, you could have bought a solid budget PC for just over $500 back then.

[fillippone]

I don't like to talk about other people's privacy, but what happened to those 5 bitcoins? Did you sell it or do you still keep it?

Sorry, what is 5 bitcoins?
That was 250 bitcoins.

based on today's data

1 BTC = $43.594

5 BLOCK = 0.01233 BTC  = 0.01233 BTC = $537

5 BTC = 81.09245 BLOCK
<....>

I not a mathematician my guess could be wrong but if calculate the value today, the number is infinite   

I am totally lost also here.
Too much Barolo this evening for Fillippone?

[Welsh]

It's quite mad how this forum is going to be absolutely covered in history when people look back at it in the years to come. Its already a place that is what I believe an integral part to Bitcoin's success over the years, and to be part of that is quite special if you think about it.

It's crazy how in a decade or two, it could suffer the same fate as the previous techs ^{[e.g. FPGA, GPU and etc...]}

I think generally, computers have stopped or at the very least lessened their following of Moore's law in recent years, but quite potentially Bitcoin specific mining machines skipped that stepping up period of traditional computers even more so. Who knows, Bitcoin has definitely grown exponentially over its small history, but I'm not sure if we've already hit the ceiling to that.

I probably still have the CPU somewhere. Taken out of context, my 2010 post makes it sound like I barely had any idea of what a CPU was since I just used the over-broad "Pentium" label, but in fact this was a gaming machine I'd built around 2008, and I chose the specific CPU carefully. It was far from the best CPU available in 2010, but it was probably in the top 5% of retail-oriented CPUs.

Which probably still struggled to play Command & Conquer .

I don't like to talk about other people's privacy, but what happened to those 5 bitcoins? Did you sell it or do you still keep it?

My inner child hopes that it was spent on a better gaming rig in the following years after that.

[libert19]

Not sure what's the best way to celebrate it other than altering the personal text field on my profile.

It looks like I am still time traveling as we speak so mistakes are possible, but I couldn't reach 2010 and speak to my old self with instructions to mine (or buy) Bitcoin
Thanks for correction.

Don't have pc to mine nor money to purchase but have Nokia n70 with gprs connection, probably could use some faucets but doubt if there were web wallets then