Bitcoin CPU

[Keawe]

Is it possible to mine BTC with a regular computer?  How much computer power is necessary to contribute to the BTC network?  I purchased this one used off of the ol' used book website.  LOL
I know it is supposed to be fairly difficult, that's not the question I am asking.  Simply, can it be done?

[Charles-Tim]

No, you can not mine bitcoin with CPU. Even you can not mine bitcoin with GPU, not to talk of CPU. To mine bitcoin, you will need ASIC. You can visit Bitmain website that are creating Antminers to see some of their products. I will recommend at least S19 Pro that is generating at least 100 Th/s or other ASICs with higher hashrates generation.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Or for a lower cost "lottery chances" solo mining route you can use a USB stick miner from Sidehack or his higher THs pod miner the R909
Both require Kano's latest cgminer for the drivers running on a PC or Pi.

Minuscule chance of finding a block but it *does* happen.

[blckhawk]

Or for a lower cost "lottery chances" solo mining route you can use a USB stick miner from Sidehack or his higher THs pod miner the R909
Both require Kano's latest cgminer for the drivers running on a PC or Pi.

Minuscule chance of finding a block but it *does* happen.

Can I use it on a company computer? I don't think I'll be caught dead using it though and how low are these chance of finding a block though? I've having some thoughts about building a mining rig or at least saving up to have one but this seems like a viable option for starters.

[Cerobug]

Or for a lower cost "lottery chances" solo mining route you can use a USB stick miner from Sidehack or his higher THs pod miner the R909
Both require Kano's latest cgminer for the drivers running on a PC or Pi.

Minuscule chance of finding a block but it *does* happen.

Can I use it on a company computer? I don't think I'll be caught dead using it though and how low are these chance of finding a block though? I've having some thoughts about building a mining rig or at least saving up to have one but this seems like a viable option for starters.

The chances are dependent on how many TH/s you are getting. For example if you used 1 R909 at 2 TH/s your chances are 1 in 295,479,206. If you buy 1 S19 XP which is around 140 TH/s then the odds drop to 1 in 4,221,132.
 

[ABCbits]

Or for a lower cost "lottery chances" solo mining route you can use a USB stick miner from Sidehack or his higher THs pod miner the R909
Both require Kano's latest cgminer for the drivers running on a PC or Pi.

Minuscule chance of finding a block but it *does* happen.

Can I use it on a company computer?

Ask your company.

I don't think I'll be caught dead using it though and how low are these chance of finding a block though?

The chance is extremely low, you can use Bitcoin mining calculator to know the exact chance. Anyway, you may be caught if someone monitor the network and found out there's network connection to Bitcoin mining pool.

[BitMaxz]

The chances are dependent on how many TH/s you are getting. For example if you used 1 R909 at 2 TH/s your chances are 1 in 295,479,206. If you buy 1 S19 XP which is around 140 TH/s then the odds drop to 1 in 4,221,132.
 

I don't think it's a good idea to mine solo with S19 XP to find a block and mine the chances are pretty slim and it is currently earning $10 a day minus power cost daily on a shared pool if you are living in the country with cheap power cost it should be profitable.
USB ASIC sticks would be the best option for solo mining for lottery purposes than solo mining with s19 unit. There are many here still mining solo with Compac F and you will just be wasting or losing the money and opportunity to earn $10 a day if you mine solo with s19 XP.

[blckhawk]

~

Ask your company.

~

The chance is extremely low, you can use Bitcoin mining calculator to know the exact chance. Anyway, you may be caught if someone monitor the network and found out there's network connection to Bitcoin mining pool.

I've done my research about this thing and yes, I don't think that it's a good idea to be buying this unless you've got your own computer, I didn't ask my company since I don't think they'll even be able to do it with the Internet here being so slow.

[mocacinno]

To give you guys a "real" idear about the odd and timing, it might be a good idear to read the wiki

time = difficulty * 2**32 / hashrate
where difficulty is the current difficulty, hashrate is the number of hashes your miner calculates per second, and time is the average in seconds between the blocks you find.

source:https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty

the current difficulty is 75,5 T, that's 75.500.000.000.000

You can get to run your sidehack R909 @ 2,1 Th/second
when you're talking about a cpu or a gpu, you can look here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Non-specialized_hardware_comparison, but the fasted cpu hashes @140Hh/s and the fasted GPU @2568 Mh/s (those numbers are acutally quite old, but i would be supprised if new cpu's and gpu's have a SIGNIFICANT difference in the outcome of the calculation)

So, a lottominer, the R909:
time = (75.500.000.000.000 * 2**32)/ 2.100.000.000.000 = 1.544.143.004.038 seconds = 25.735.716.733 minutes = 428.928.612 hours = 17.872.025 days = 48.964 years
So, on average, at current difficulty, it would take you about 50 thousand years to hit a block with an R909

So, a gpu:
time = (75.500.000.000.000 * 2**32)/ 2.568.000.000 = 126.273.376.498.442 seconds = 2.104.556.274.974 minutes = 35.075.937.916 hours = 1.461.497.413 days = 4.004.102 years
So, on average, at current difficulty, it would take you about 4 million years to hit a block with the "best" gpu in the benchmark

So, a cpu:
time = (75.500.000.000.000 * 2**32)/ 140.000.000 = 2.316.214.506.057.142 seconds = 38.603.575.100.952 minutes = 643.392.918.349 hours = 26.808.038.264 days = 73.446.680 years
So, on average, at current difficulty, it would take you about 73 million years to hit a block with the "best" cpu in the benchmark

There are all averages offcourse... yes, in theory, there *is* a chance of hitting a block with an rpi whilst cpu mining for a couple of seconds... The thing is that people are very bad in interpreting the odds, as long as they see a number and the word "average", they think there's an actual possibility of hitting a block with a cpu/gpu, whilst in reality their odds are sooooo small, they are so close to zero that you can probably just round them down to zero to begin with... You'd probably have better odds of getting married, going for a swim before the ceremony, being bitten by a shark at the same day as being hit by lightning, winning the lottery and getting into a car crash on your way to the hospital (i didn't do the exact math tough).

[ABCbits]

--snip--

I've done my research about this thing and yes, I don't think that it's a good idea to be buying this unless you've got your own computer, I didn't ask my company since I don't think they'll even be able to do it with the Internet here being so slow.

Even if you bring your own computer to the office, the company is still the one who pay for electricity. And slow connection isn't major problem for mining (since you use stratum protocol), unless you're talking about connection with high latency.