How I Am Solo Mining Bitcoin on a Mac Using Bitcoin QT, cgminer & Antminer U2

[TheDundalkMiner]

Sorta Complete Nube’s Guide to Solo Mining Bitcoin on a Macbook Pro running Mavericks with an Antminer U2

Wooo hoo! I just got my Mac solo mining Bitcoin for me. It didn’t come easy, but now at least I know I’m in the lottery for around $12k every 10 minutes or so. That’s what I’m in it for - the lottery aspect. I get the math and that it’s likely to take years for me to find a block, but it’s that likely word that gets me. Maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll be next Tuesday as I’m working I’ll get that magical hit that’ll get me 25 Bitcoins!

To get to this stage, I had to do some research about Bitcoins, pools, tools, software, hardware - all that. It wasn’t easy and the bits and pieces that I needed are out there, but seemed to be spread about in various spots.

The purpose of this post is to give back to everyone that helped everyone else — which in turn got me here. I’m going to provide a step-by-step guide for someone with a similar setup to the one I’m using to get started.

So let’s go -

Assuming you have a Bitmain Antminer U2 (probably a U1 as well), that’s all the hardware you need. I tried the GPU with my fancy Retina video card and it heated-up quick, so I bailed on that. Plus it wasn’t very fast. The Antminer runs about 1.6GH/s which seems decent. I picked this one up for $36 w/ free Prime shipping. I get a small cut if you use my link. Sweet! Retirement here I come.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ITD5NV6/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00ITD5NV6&linkCode=as2&tag=greenbean-20

Once you have your hardware, let’s get your software in order.

1. Download Bitcoin Core - Wallet
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

Choose Bitcoin Core and be part of the network.

Get this running on your Mac. It took a solid 1.5 days for my system to download the data to make it come alive. Be patient. Let it run. One thing I didn’t do, but ran across a tip in my travels here, was to Command+I click (get info) on the Bitcoin app in the app folder and select the option to “prevent app nap” under General. Apparently this would have sped thing up for me. Let us know if that helps.

Once you get your Bitcoin Wallet setup, you’ll need a target Bitcoin address to have your blocks sent to. To get this, act like you’re asking for money by clicking the receive button and then [Request Payment] button. There you’ll find a long string of characters — get that and save it for later.

2. Download CGminer
http://spaceman.ca/cgminer/

Download the full package and install it.

3. Add a bitcoin.conf that your Bitcoin QT app will reference upon opening to tell it how to act. This file needs to be a plain text file with the .conf extension — not a .txt extension. Hugely important.

I’m using a super simple file with just these lines, nothing else.

—————————

server=1
rpcuser=youmakethisuserup
rpcpassword=youmakethispasswordup
rpctimeout=30
rpcallowip=127.0.0.1
rpcport=8332

—————————

About those “youmakethisup” — seriously, make it up and remember it. You’re telling Bitcoin QT what the userID and password is for the connection you’re going to make using CGminer. Make them up and use them in a few minutes.

Now, create that text file and put it in the appropriate folder. For me, I alt/option clicked the Go option in Finder and went to

Library/Application Support/Bitcoin and dropped it in there. Double check to make sure your Mac didn’t add .txt to the end. Command + I click on that to change it if you have to.

4. Plug-in your Antminer.

5. Now start your Bitcoin QT Wallet app. Hopefully everything goes fine.

6. Once that is running (important), now start your CGminer app. When the app loads, you’ll be prompted with a startup dialog that says:

cgminer for Mac OS X.
Enter any command-line options here:

I added this and hit enter.

-o http://127.0.0.1:8332 -u youmakethisuserup -p youmakethispasswordup --btc-address youaddyourbitcoinaddressfromstep1above

That’s it! Hopefully it works for you like it worked for me.

If you feeling like buying me a beer ‘cause I helped out, please do. I haven’t received even a fraction of a Bitcoin yet, so that’d help me test my system. That’s how new I am to all of this.

This address ‘should’ be ready to receive    14Y9FKNVJCUgvpQpmx2CNT35nYk3xqZq2z

Hopefully this helps someone and good luck solo mining! Sounds like we need all the luck we can get!

The Dundalk Miner

[fresca]

I get the message:

[2014-06-13 18:33:29] Probing for an alive pool
[2014-06-13 18:33:29] Pool 0 slow/down or URL or credentials invalid


does the bitcoin-qt have to be fully synched for this to work?  I have never had very much success getting core to sync.  It takes well over 1.5 days.  And I only get about 8 active connections to the bitcoin network.

[fresca]

I also get this as well

 [2014-06-13 18:38:29] Waiting for work to be available from pools.

[-ck]

Yes you have to have the full blockchain downloaded otherwise you can't mine against the current block.

[TheDundalkMiner]

Hi and thank you for the guide. Did you succeed to find any block yet?

thanx ;-)

I haven't found any block solo mining yet, but I'll keep trying.

I did find one on BTC Guild in the pooled environment though. Pretty cool conceptually, but finding the block in that pool doesn't reap any greater rewards.

All in all, I'm having a ball with this stuff!

[sorry2xs]

Yes you have to have the full blockchain downloaded otherwise you can't mine against the current block.

does anyone have anysugestion preventing osx from adding .rtf after creating bitcoin.conf and saving it

[Zich]

I get the message:

[2014-06-13 18:33:29] Probing for an alive pool
[2014-06-13 18:33:29] Pool 0 slow/down or URL or credentials invalid

......................

You probably using wrong setting on url. It's should be 127.0.0.1:8332

...................


does the bitcoin-qt have to be fully synched for this to work?  I have never had very much success getting core to sync.  It takes well over 1.5 days.  And I only get about 8 active connections to the bitcoin network.

Of course, that's why it's a waste to run bitcoin core only for solo mine. I am more prefer solo pool.
Easy setup, only 0.5% fee.

[jonnybravo0311]

Yes you have to have the full blockchain downloaded otherwise you can't mine against the current block.

does anyone have anysugestion preventing osx from adding .rtf after creating bitcoin.conf and saving it

Are you using TextEdit to create/edit the file?  If yes, that's your problem.  TextEdit only has a certain number of formats in which it can save a file... rtf being one of those formats.

You can either a) use a different editor or b) rename the file once you've created it.

[Zich]

Yes you have to have the full blockchain downloaded otherwise you can't mine against the current block.

does anyone have anysugestion preventing osx from adding .rtf after creating bitcoin.conf and saving it

I am not mac user, so i never had the experiences. But if you can save the conf file to .txt extension, then you can just rename .txt to .conf after saving.
But you can not rename .rtf to .conf

[ShanghaiTimes]

Absolutely brilliant. Even for 2014 - I don't care. You solved a LOT of stuff I was lurching about in the dark over.

If anyone is still reading this thread ever - create pure text files on a Mac by using Terminal, and then VI (vi) the unix text editor. Pure text, with a steep learning curve because it's command-line stuff. :-)

but hey. Thanks for the brilliant article.

are you still mining by the way ?

Robert

[jonnybravo0311]

Not sure who the question about still mining was directed to... but yes, I'm still mining - I have about 75TH of gear.  I run my own pool, too .

[TheDundalkMiner]

Absolutely brilliant. Even for 2014 - I don't care. You solved a LOT of stuff I was lurching about in the dark over.

If anyone is still reading this thread ever - create pure text files on a Mac by using Terminal, and then VI (vi) the unix text editor. Pure text, with a steep learning curve because it's command-line stuff. :-)

but hey. Thanks for the brilliant article.

are you still mining by the way ?

Robert

Thanks for the kind words Robert! I'm glad the article was helpful.

I'm out of the mining game for now, but might jump back in with an S9 or two. I have to figure out where to put 'em. I'm guessing they're pretty loud.

Before dropping out of the game, I worked my way up to some S5s and was going at it around 4TH. While the machines still held some value, I sold the whole rig to recoup some of the cash investment.

All in all, I am very happy with how much I put in, how many coins I mined and all of that. And this recent spike in BTC price doesn't hurt a bit

Have fun everyone. These are exciting times for sure!

And if you're reading this, quick question, would you buy awesome small-batch beef jerky for bitcoin? I'm thinking about accepting it on my new site at DundalkDan.com. Let me know.

Thanks, Dan