Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

righto.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 405 posts

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#361

Post by Tepix »

needle0 wrote: post #348

After all the years I'm still having trouble comprehending what Bitcoin - and Bitcoin in specific - is useful for aside from speculation. I get that Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies have the ability to execute code on the blockchain, enabling useful applications, and that stablecoins could be used for everyday payment due to it not fluctuating wildly (at least in theory). As I understand it, Bitcoin has ne…

Bitcoin can be a cautionary example for what happens when development grinds to a halt because of internal power struggles.

Today, bitcoin's underlying technology is unable to evolve, other crypto currencies have surpassed it and bitcoin will probably be taxed or outlawed due to its contribution to climate change.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#362

Post by Aromasin »

dint wrote: post #27

Discussed with Ken on the most recent episode of Oxide Computer Company's (very good) On The Metal podcast: https://oxide.computer/podcast/on-the-metal-13-ken-shirriff/

Do you or any one else here know of any other podcasts that are as 'unapologetically technical' as this one? It was very enjoyable, and I've now got an urge to listen to similar experts in the field of STEM that don't dumb it down for the listener as much.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#363

Post by Tepix »

tromp wrote: post #220

I suspect one lifetime would not suffice to mine Grin with pencil and paper. Its Cuckatoo32 PoW puzzle is to find a 42-cycle in a random bipartite graph with 2^32 edges. each defined by 2 siphashes. https://github.com/tromp/cuckoo

Well, calculating one hash will not result in any bitcoin either. We're at 145 EH/s (10^18) and a block is mined average 10 minutes on average.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#364

Post by nicky0 »

needle0 wrote: post #348

After all the years I'm still having trouble comprehending what Bitcoin - and Bitcoin in specific - is useful for aside from speculation. I get that Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies have the ability to execute code on the blockchain, enabling useful applications, and that stablecoins could be used for everyday payment due to it not fluctuating wildly (at least in theory). As I understand it, Bitcoin has ne…

A decentralised, borderless, irreversible payments system, not tied to any state or government or bank, near-impossible for even the most powerful entities to censor or manipulate. There are some useful features in there.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#365

Post by genidoi »

Tepix wrote: post #361
needle0 wrote: post #348

After all the years I'm still having trouble comprehending what Bitcoin - and Bitcoin in specific - is useful for aside from speculation. I get that Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies have the ability to execute code on the blockchain, enabling useful applications, and that stablecoins could be used for everyday payment due to it not fluctuating wildly (at least in theory). As I understand it, Bitcoin has ne…

Bitcoin can be a cautionary example for what happens when development grinds to a halt because of internal power struggles. Today, bitcoin's underlying technology is unable to evolve, other crypto currencies have surpassed it and bitcoin will probably be taxed or outlawed due to its contribution to climate change.

Bitcoin is digital gold. The technology of it needn’t evolve further than the technology of casting a gold ingot, storing it safely or transporting it.

And FWIW, transporting $1M worth of gold in a secure way is going to cost you significantly more than BTC’s worst Tx fee day.

Other coins can serve the purpose of everyday transacting etc.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#366

Post by shawnz »

intrasight wrote: post #255

I'm trying to understand Bitcoin as a store of decreased entropy. It's an interesting information-theoretical question as to how much information will eventually be captured by Bitcoin, and what this ultimately means.

There are lots of ways we already use "needless" competition to establish a consensus (or any natural system, really). Perhaps Bitcoin is just a trading platform for that competition.

If that's the case then I would be interested to see how the success of more efficient proof-of-stake systems like Ethereum 2.0 might increase the overall energy efficiency of our species.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#367

Post by ALittleLight »

dualvectorfoil wrote: post #5

Unrelated to the algorithm, I’ve found that doing things “by hand” is a surprisingly good way to develop intuition for otherwise opaque concepts. I wonder if it’s a function of doing work more slowly or paying closer attention. Examples include writing code written by others and working through math on paper.

I've been doing this while optimizing leetcode problems recently. I just force myself to step through the same logic that the computer is doing to solve the problem. Not the code, but the same logical manipulations to calculate the answer the same way the code is.

Very often I'll find myself thinking "This is a waste of time, I could easily shortcut this by... X" and when I find the shortcuts that make the "by hand" process more manageable, I can apply that same logic to the code and make it faster as well.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#368

Post by hoseja »

IgorPartola wrote: post #327
Consultant32452 wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we imagine a deflationary currency encourages savings over consumerism... That doesn't sound so bad.

From everything I’ve read, it tends to stagnate society. Why buy a car when you can just hold onto your money and tomorrow you can buy a house? Why buy a house when tomorrow you can buy a mansion. No value is produced because there is little incentive to invest into anything since just holding onto your money is a safe investment.

Sounds like what the people owning 95% of wealth are currently doing.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#369

Post by ausbah »

dorgo wrote: post #359
needle0 wrote: post #348

After all the years I'm still having trouble comprehending what Bitcoin - and Bitcoin in specific - is useful for aside from speculation. I get that Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies have the ability to execute code on the blockchain, enabling useful applications, and that stablecoins could be used for everyday payment due to it not fluctuating wildly (at least in theory). As I understand it, Bitcoin has ne…

Bitcoin is usefull as an entry point and a figurehead of the crypto world. Its fame fuels/advances other projects. It also has a historic value (first crypto currency). What was the first computer useful for? Probably for more than bitcoin today, but its value was not its usefulness at the time.

the first computers were used in the study of nukes, code breaking, and filling out firing tables for artillery. the first computers did have geninuine use cases and weren't just cool looking toys or something

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#370

Post by JoshTko »

nicky0 wrote: post #364
needle0 wrote: post #348

After all the years I'm still having trouble comprehending what Bitcoin - and Bitcoin in specific - is useful for aside from speculation. I get that Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies have the ability to execute code on the blockchain, enabling useful applications, and that stablecoins could be used for everyday payment due to it not fluctuating wildly (at least in theory). As I understand it, Bitcoin has ne…

A decentralised, borderless, irreversible payments system, not tied to any state or government or bank, near-impossible for even the most powerful entities to censor or manipulate. There are some useful features in there.

This comment should be higher up. But interesting that HN is still very much unclear of BTC's core benefit.
Post reply on HN