Mining Bitcoins with pencil and paper (video)

Posted on Tuesday, September 30 2014 @ 11:06 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck

Ever wondered what it would be like to mine Bitcoin by hand? The guy in the video clip below gave it a try and discovered it took almost 17 minutes to finish one round of the algorithm. This works out to a hash rate of 0.67 hashes per day.

Current Bitcoin mining hardware is about a quintillion times faster than manual hasing and about 67 quadrillion times more energy efficient (assuming you feed yourself with $0.23 a pop donuts).

Bitcoins are mined using a cryptographic algorithm called SHA-256. This algorithm is simple enough to be done with pencil and paper, as I show in this video. Not surprisingly, this is a thoroughly impractical way to mine. One round of the algorithm takes 16 minutes, 45 seconds which works out to a hash rate of 0.67 hashes per day.

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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