Even if we don’t quite understand what’s happening in a Bitcoin mine, we all pretty much know what’s needed to set one up. Racks of GPUs and specialized software will eventually find a few of these vanishingly rare virtual treasures, but if you have enough time, even a Xerox Alto from 1973 can be turned into a Bitcoin mine. As for how much time it’ll take [Ken Shirriff]’s rig to find a Bitcoin, let’s just say that his Alto would need to survive the heat death of the universe. About 5000 times. And it would take the electricity generated by a small country to do it.
Even though it’s not exactly a profit center, it gives [Ken] a chance to show off his lovingly restored Alto. The Xerox machine is the granddaddy of all modern PCs, having introduced almost every aspect of the GUI world we live in. But with a processor built from discrete TTL chips and an instruction set that doesn’t even have logical OR or XOR functions, the machine isn’t exactly optimized for SHA-256 hashing. The fact that [Ken] was able to implement a mining algorithm at all is impressive, and his explanation of how Bitcoin mining is done is quite clear and a great primer for cryptocurrency newbies.
[Ken] seems to enjoy sending old computer hardware to the Bitcoin mines — he made an old IBM mainframe perform the trick a while back. But if you don’t have a room-size computer around, perhaps reading up on alternate uses for the block chain would be a good idea.
[via Dangerous Prototypes]
I’m going to guess this machine won’t run Crysis either.
Probably will in a custom QEMU-like virtual x86 emulation and at a WHOPPING SPEED of:
8-FPC (Frames Per Century)
Sure it will. We just need to accept benchmark results in frames per hour.
It all depends on how high you want your framerate to be. Human eye can’t see past 0.003 frame per second anyway.
worlds worst mining rig you say…
challenge accepted.
(grabs a peice of paper and a pencil)
alright, lets find that next block!
you modern girls with your fancy pencils and white paper … ts!
/me returns to his block of marmor, waving his chisel at popcrate …
Pfft… chisels… too modern:
Me get flint me smash flint…. Uuuug
1000 monkeys drawing with their own @#$% wonder why the funny hairless one is playing with rocks
And the Lord God didst look down upon the multitude and exclaim…
“Oh my goodness! What on earth are they doing now!”
Ken Shirriff did exactly that more than two years ago.
http://www.righto.com/2014/09/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-paper.html
haha of course he did. :)
Nah, the Alto is cool and all, but not the GREAT granddaddy… That would go to the Scientific Data Systems SDS 940 at the heart of Doug Engelbart’s NLS (oNLine System), featured in the ever awe inspiring 1968 “Mother of all Demos”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY
can anyone write an article about how much energy is currently wasted on bitcoin mining?
There are many.
Here is one: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ypkp3y/bitcoin-is-still-unsustainable
You could only mine bitcoins in the winter to warm the house, then the heat is not waste!
There is a startup in Paris that offers “free” electrical heaters. Well, you have to pay the electricity consumption. These heaters are actually computers, computing. A shame I can’t remember the society’s name.
Is bitcoin mining more expensive than a bill-printing press yet?
Printers? Today the Fed adds a few zeroes into a database. Takes a few dozen watts maybe.
I’m waiting for someone to make a cellular automaton that mines. Maybe it’s already done…
Would Conway’s simulation count?
Conway’s or Wireworld. :)
“As for how much time it’ll take [Ken Shirriff]’s rig to find a Bitcoin, let’s just say that his Alto would need to survive the heat death of the universe. About 5000 times. And it would take the electricity generated by a small country to do it.”
That’s an expected average value.
It’s possible that he could find a block in a minute.
It’s not likely, certainly, but it is possible.
If you’re not doing at least 2TH/s don’t even bother joining a pool let alone solo mining..
That’s fine as a proof of concept, but I sincerely hope that Ken Shirriff will NOT keep that precious piece of computer hardware (and history) crunching away at nothingness. He seems like a smart guy, so I’m sure that he’s figured out the economics on this endeavor. Nice article though and I’m still not interested in BitCoin ( or any other sort of crypto currency), maybe I’ll read up on his exploits.
Im just glad that an Alto is still in use … the Alto was one of the most important machines ever made
Couldn’t he make money faster by selling access to the Alto? A fee per hour, surely there are lots of people who’d like a chance to try one. Not many computers can be more legendary than the Alto.
Of course, if he’d done this earlier, he might have had success with bitcoins. It took less resources in the early days.
Michael