Why can't I solo mine?

[Sword Smith]

I am trying to solo mine with my CPU on my laptop. I only have the bitcoind daemon running in the terminal. I run the following command and get this answer. Can anybody explain to me why hashespersec is zero and why my System Monitor is showing that bitcoind is not using any CPU power?

Code:

./bitcoind getmininginfo
{
    "blocks" : 310250,
    "currentblocksize" : 0,
    "currentblocktx" : 0,
    "difficulty" : 16818461371.16111183,
    "errors" : "",
    "genproclimit" : -1,
    "networkhashps" : 132819031238684912,
    "pooledtx" : 474,
    "testnet" : false,
    "generate" : true,
    "hashespersec" : 0

Yes, I do know that I will not find any blocks. I am just playing around with bitcoin daemon.

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[cp1]

I think they took that out of bitcoind and cgminer.  You can try cpuminer.

[Sword Smith]

I think they took that out of bitcoind and cgminer.  You can try cpuminer.

Huh? That sounds weird but the Bitcoin Wiki agrees with you. So why is the command still there in bitcoind? Does it only work with a GPU?

CPU Mining
Early Bitcoin client versions allowed users to use their CPUs to mine. The advent of GPU mining made CPU mining financially unwise as the hashrate of the network grew to such a degree that the amount of bitcoins produced by CPU mining became lower than the cost of power to operate a CPU. The option was therefore removed from the core Bitcoin client's user interface.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining#CPU_Mining

[cp1]

The only people CPU mining are botnets, so there's no point supporting it.

[os2sam]

I think they took that out of bitcoind and cgminer.  You can try cpuminer.

Huh? That sounds weird but the Bitcoin Wiki agrees with you. So why is the command still there in bitcoind? Does it only work with a GPU?

Coin generation was taken out of the Bitcoin client in 2011.  If you want to solomine you can use CGMiner with an ASIC or you can use BFG Miner with a GPU.

If you want to tinker I would get a Block Erupter, CG Miner and Bitcoin-qt and tinker with that combo.  CPU or GPU solomining will use allot of electricity and make allot of noise.  Using a BE will be quite and waste only 2.5 watts.

[Sword Smith]

The plot thickens. For some reason, I seem to be mining now. With almost 3 Mh/s it seems.

Code:

sirius@sirius-ThinkPad-Edge-E540 ~/Documents/bitcoin-0.9.2.1-linux/bin/64 $ ./bitcoind getmininginfo
{
    "blocks" : 310296,
    "currentblocksize" : 133221,
    "currentblocktx" : 183,
    "difficulty" : 16818461371.16111183,
    "errors" : "",
    "genproclimit" : -1,
    "networkhashps" : 125469353927099632,
    "pooledtx" : 185,
    "testnet" : false,
    "generate" : true,
    "hashespersec" : 2627969
}

The chance that I will find the next block is one to 125469353927099632 / 2627969 = 45708941769 = 45bn. And I find myself hoping that I will find a block  

It is way more than a thousand times as likely that I will win the lottery by buying just a single coupon. My processor in Intel Core i5-4200M CPU @ 2.5 Ghz x 2. The i5 should give between 2 and 20 Mhash/s according to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#CPUs.2FAPUs

But why is bitcoin daemon suddenly mining, does anybody know that?

[os2sam]

Are you using Bitcoin-QT?  if so what version?

[Sword Smith]

Are you using Bitcoin-QT?  if so what version?

I have downloaded the bitcoin core, the newest version: 0.9.2.1

Code:

sirius@sirius-ThinkPad-Edge-E540 ~/Documents/bitcoin-0.9.2.1-linux/bin/64 $ ./bitcoind getinfo

{
    "version" : 90201,
    "protocolversion" : 70002,
    "walletversion" : 60000,
    "balance" : 0.00000000,
    "blocks" : 310301,
    "timeoffset" : -1,
    "connections" : 8,
    "proxy" : "",
    "difficulty" : 16818461371.16111183,
    "testnet" : false,
    "keypoololdest" : 1404914102,
    "keypoolsize" : 97,
    "unlocked_until" : 0,
    "paytxfee" : 0.00000000,
    "relayfee" : 0.00001000,
    "errors" : ""
}

[os2sam]

Are you using Bitcoin-QT?  if so what version?

I have downloaded the bitcoin core, the newest version: 0.9.2.1

Code:

sirius@sirius-ThinkPad-Edge-E540 ~/Documents/bitcoin-0.9.2.1-linux/bin/64 $ ./bitcoind getinfo

Duh, never mind my question.

I have no idea why it is working.  When I started with 3.22 I had to roll back to 3.12 with the Bitcoin client to tinker around with solo mining.

But it's more likely you'll burn up your CPU, over time, then find a block.  Someone would probably be willing to give you a Block Erupter which will give you 333Mhash/s and consume allot less power.