4/ Minimizing downtime = hashing as close to 24/7 as possible.
E.g. miners on solar/wind can supplement with grid power or batteries to keep their ASICs online while the primary energy source is unavailable.
This is especially critical right after purchasing ASICs because…
5/ Difficulty trends up over time (5-10%/month usually), decreasing the amount of BTC an ASIC can produce. Downtime in the early days is more costly in BTC terms than downtime 2 years into an ASIC’s lifetime.
6/ Supplementing with a secondary energy source can boost mining profitability significantly, even if said energy source is more expensive than the primary.
E.g. 8hrs/day of “free” solar, 16hrs/day of grid power at 8¢/kWh outperforms mining with solar alone by >50%
7/ But this part is rather obvious to miners.
More interesting is the ability to granularly optimize based on variable energy prices and amounts. Enter Braiins OS+...
8/ With autotuning, miners can increase hashrate while using the same amount of power, making the 8hrs/day of free solar more profitable.
Even better, they can optimize for efficiency while on more expensive grid power.
9/ By reducing the power consumption of their ASICs when energy is more expensive or less available, miners actually make their rigs more efficient. That means they get more BTC per Watt of energy they consume.
The results of strategic autotuning (right column) are clear.
10/ Our article by @dfrumps explains more about these optimizations miners can make and how they can also think long-term to maintain hardware lifespan by reducing thermal cycling.
On Jan 22, 2021 2 miners found a block simultaneously causing a temporary chain split
Mainstream media reported that a “double spend” occurred & bitcoin had a fatal bug. A company called NexTech sold their BTC, missing out on ~$2.3MM in upside
Summary:
+Temporary forks occur when miners find blocks simultaneously. This is rare but expected
+Bitcoin is decentralized & designed to align to a single version of the blockchain
+Nodes keep track of bitcoin’s ledger
1/ The cypherpunk ethos runs deep among many #bitcoin miners.
As mining gets more public attention, some from misinformed politicians, we want to share info on how miners can better protect their hash & privacy.
TLDR: not that simple to get #secretsats but doable. Thread 👇
2/ First thing’s first: 𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗷𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴.
If you don’t take any measures to protect your privacy, you’re vulnerable to having your hashrate stolen. And if the attacker is sophisticated, you might not even know about it.
3/ This is because Stratum V1 uses human-readable data transfers, so your ISP or even a nosy neighbor can see that you’re mining based on your activity.
It’s similar to HTTP, where your ISP can see everything you do including entering passwords and payment details.
1/ There’s growing interest recently in the idea of decentralized mining pools, especially with the possibility of miners & pools being considered “brokers” based on the latest US infrastructure bill.
It seems about time we share our perspective on all of this. A thread👇
1a/ First, for those who missed it, here’s a great thread summarizing the relevant parts of the infrastructure bill.
2/ The core idea of a decentralized mining pool is that there is no custodian of funds. Miners get paid directly from the coinbase transaction and don’t have to trust a 3rd party with their payouts.