Surely, by now you have heard of the phenomenon called Bitcoin. Is it digital money, is it a payment system, is it a network, or is it something else? The answer is yes to all the previous questions. Bitcoin is all of those and more. In this book, we will concentrate on the mining aspect of Bitcoin. Mining is how new bitcoins are created and how transactions are accepted into the Bitcoin blockchain. We will show you how to mine for yourself, if you are interested. We explain step-by-step what is necessary and how to do it. CPU, GPU, FPGA, and ASIC mining is also discussed. We will examine solo mining and pool mining. We will spend a little bit of time taking a look at large mining operations. Finally, we will speculate what the future may look like in the mining world of Bitcoin.
Chapter 1, Bitcoin Wallets and Mining Software, gives an overview of Bitcoin wallets: hardware, software, full and thin clients. The chapter also discusses mining software.
Chapter 2, CPU Mining, looks at Bitcoin mining using a CPU. It covers everything you need to get started.
Chapter 3, GPU Mining, concentrates on GPU mining. It covers GPU driver setup, mining software setup, and it touches upon practical mining issues. Examples are included.
Chapter 4, FPGA Mining, examines FPGA mining, including software, drivers, and a discussion of best practices.
Chapter 5, ASIC Mining, looks at ASIC mining in detail. We set up the software that is needed to mine and we show you practical examples of mining with ASICS.
Chapter 6, Solo Versus Pool Mining, explains solo and pool mining and weighs the pros and cons of both ways of mining.
Chapter 7, Large Scale Mining, looks at mining as a business. There are a handful companies that decided to mine for profit. They represent the bleeding edge in mining techniques.
Chapter 8, The Future of Bitcoin Mining, speculates how mining may evolve in the future. We look at the possibility of mining becoming more centralized and the possibility of mining becoming decentralized.
You will need a computer, preferably running Linux, but Windows and OS X is fine as well. You will also need an internet connection. If you'd like to try mining with a GPU, FPGA, or ASIC, you would need to have one (or more) of those hardware pieces. All software is open source and can be downloaded from the internet. We provide links in the chapters to the required software.
If you have never mined before, this book will ensure that you know what mining is all about. If you are familiar with Bitcoin mining, then it will help you to optimize your mining operations at a deeper level. A basic understanding of computers and operating systems is assumed and some familiarity with cryptocurrency basics would be an added advantage.
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: " Execute the getmininginfo command in the console of the Bitcoin Core wallet."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
./minerd --url <poolurl:port> --userpass <USERNAME.WORKER:PASSWORD> -a<algorithm>
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Now click on the Help menu and select Debug Window."
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply e-mail <[email protected]>, and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors.
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/BitcoinEssentials_ColorImages.pdf.
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded to our website or added to any list of existing errata under the Errata section of that title.
To view the previously submitted errata, go to https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support and enter the name of the book in the search field. The required information will appear under the Errata section.
Piracy of copyrighted material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <[email protected]> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors and our ability to bring you valuable content.
If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at <[email protected]>, and we will do our best to address the problem.