Learn how to mine Bitcoin with just a pencil and paper

[Shawn Knight]

Interested in mining Bitcoin but don’t have any hardware to commit to such a project? No problem, just grab a pencil and some paper and crunch the numbers by hand! Surprisingly enough, it’s not all that difficult although it is terribly inefficient as Ken Shirriff recently explained.

In a blog post on the matter, Shirriff does an excellent job of describing how the mining process works in layman’s terms. The math, on the other hand, is a different story so I won’t even begin to describe exactly what’s taking place.

As you may or may not know, Bitcoin uses a hash function called SHA-256 (actually it’s applied twice for added security, a process called double-SHA-256). Since it’s all just mathematic calculations, they can be done by hand as Shirriff demonstrates in the clip above.

It all breaks down to simple Boolean operations and 32-bit addition which is why custom ASIC chips are so efficient at mining. For example, the Bitfury ASIC chip you see below can mine Bitcoin at 2-3 billion hashes per second.

In comparison, it took Shiriff 16 minutes, 45 seconds to complete the first round of hashing to mine a block manually. At this rate, hashing a full Bitcoin block (128 rounds) would take 1.49 days, for a hash rate of 0.67 hashes per day. Conversely, current Bitcoin mining hardware does several terahashes per second which is roughly aquintillion times faster than my manual hashing. 

Very cool? Yes. Practical? Not in the least bit.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/58224-learn-how-to-mine-bitcoin-with-just-a-pencil-and-paper.html

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Well that was extremely clear (like mud).

 

[VitalyT]

Well that was extremely clear (like mud).

And fast!

 

[Adhmuz]

And then after you calculate these numbers, who buys them and why is this of any value to anyone? I'm more interested in knowing where all these calculations go and serve what purpose. This is essentially decrypting for the sake of decrypting? Or vice-versa. This is great, taken from the Bitcoin WiKi "Bitcoins have value because they are useful and because they are scarce. As they are accepted by more merchants, their value will stabilize." or "Bitcoins have value because they are useful as a form of money." Because they are useful and because they are scarce... That just increases the value further evidently. I really can't wait for this Bubble to burst, and all the people who wasted electricity will have nothing to show for it, because, Bitcoins have NO backing currency or gold or anything.

 

[Guest]

7 Billion people hashing the bitcoins all days and all nights and no need computers anymore, we all just counting our money always, oh heaven here.

 

[Guest]

Don't knock it, it's the mathematicians equivalent of doing a crossword (which I find incredibly boring)

 

[Darkshadoe]

So can you do this on an abacus?

 

[Guest]

I have a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics which included a lot of numerical mathematical (I.e. solving math problems with computers) and all the practical computations are SIMPLE. Actually most of them are just linear equations (e.g. 5 + 3*x = 9, solve for x), the point is that you have to solve lots and lots and lots of them to do anything practical.

If you want to do complicated math (e.g. non-linear equations) with the computer then you have to use sophisticated software (e.g. Maple, Mathematica) but that is so hardware intensive its not used beyond research and academia. Practical software used by engineers for real-life applications will mostly solve linear equations. This follows naturally from the fact the ALU inside the CPU can only do simple logic & arithmetic functions.

So basically what I am saying is that anything the computer can do, a human can do with pencil and paper, even weather prediction was first suggested in 1922 to be done with a large number of people working in concert.

I hope this article was just click-baiting and that the writers & editors of this website have a better understanding of computers that what it would imply.

 

[3of12]

And then after you calculate these numbers, who buys them and why is this of any value to anyone? I'm more interested in knowing where all these calculations go and serve what purpose. This is essentially decrypting for the sake of decrypting? Or vice-versa. This is great, taken from the Bitcoin WiKi "Bitcoins have value because they are useful and because they are scarce. As they are accepted by more merchants, their value will stabilize." or "Bitcoins have value because they are useful as a form of money." Because they are useful and because they are scarce... That just increases the value further evidently. I really can't wait for this Bubble to burst, and all the people who wasted electricity will have nothing to show for it, because, Bitcoins have NO backing currency or gold or anything.

Its just hashing for the sake of hashing. There is a predetermined amount of blocks, this is true of all the currencies. They are not meant to be backed by anything, since the dollar gets along fine on the piss tiny amount of gold we have to back it. But what caused it's death is people trying to use it in brick/mortar stores when it was always meant to be "digital cash", ie an untraceable online currency that requires no personal information to use it. Buying it, then trying to spend it in a physical store has zero convenience for you or the store, and proves how limited the public's imagination and understanding are conversely.