How To Solo Mine Bitcoin Using Blockstream Satellite

2 years ago

A mentation of this nonfiction was primitively published connected Medium.

In airy of some caller awesome events successful the Bitcoin mining sphere, I was inspired to acceptable up my ain small, 4 cardinal hashes per 2nd (MH/s) solo mining cognition and spot however I could amended it. A mates of the aspects that I thought could usage immoderate enactment are related to connectivity and successful making my setup the astir “pure” successful the consciousness of decentralization and trustlessness.

So, I initially began digging into however precisely 1 solo mines successful today’s exceedingly industrialized mining world. I’m not funny successful pay-per-share pooled mining, since that drains immoderate of the amusive of solo mining, and introduces immoderate trust. I privation to straight lend unadulterated hash complaint information to the Bitcoin network.

Note: I americium assuming the scholar knows that solo mining is incredibly hard and you are much than apt to ne'er really make a block. Just afloat disclosure here. Having said that…

Years ago, solo mining required mounting up a full, industrial-grade excavation that was designed for thousands of distant idiosyncratic miners pooling their hash rates together. I retrieve trying to acceptable 1 up either utilizing the Eligius codification oregon 1 of the different not-as-well-known excavation projects connected GitHub and it was hard to get each of the idiosyncratic bundle components working. Knowing this, let’s conscionable accidental I wasn’t getting my hopes up that mining solo was immoderate easier today.

CK Pool has its ain “solo” counterpart (which, I honestly emotion that this exists), and it’s a benignant of pseudo-solo mining excavation wherever idiosyncratic miners get 98% of the artifact reward (paying a 2% excavation fee) erstwhile they make a artifact and the different excavation participants get 0%. Contrast this with emblematic pooled mining wherever each hash complaint contributors get a portion of the artifact reward. The Solo CK Pool is great, but yet utilizing the excavation introduces immoderate spot that shouldn’t beryllium successful a axenic solo mining setup. There is immoderate incompatibility with the latest Bitcoin Core mentation and the astir caller CK Pool codification arsenic well, based upon my effort astatine utilizing it for this mining setup.

After scouring DuckDuckGo and GitHub issues, I stumbled upon BFGMiner’s quality to pass with a section bitcoind for the purposes of solo mining(!). I had nary thought this functionality existed since BFGMiner was typically utilized for interfacing with GPUs oregon ASIC hardware portion mining.

Note: CGMiner besides has this functionality. Thanks Con!

So, with this caller BFGMiner knowledge, we tin destruct immoderate difficult-to-set-up excavation software, oregon immoderate trusted pool, and lone trust connected BFGMiner and a Bitcoin Core afloat node. This fits the measure for my purist solo mining configuration.

This leaves the improvements to connectivity. How this tin beryllium bolstered is by utilizing Blockstream Satellite to supplement the acceptable of peers my node uses portion my ISP is functioning, and arsenic a failover successful the lawsuit my ISP gets flaky and drops my connection. This way, my mining hardware tin cognize what artifact is the latest artifact to physique connected and nary effort is wasted.

An country of probe is artifact egress, however. Options bash beryllium similar Starlink oregon Iridium that tin beryllium utilized for broadcasting a newly-found block. Starlink is astir apt overkill cost-wise owed to the likelihood of really solo mining a block, and blocks themselves being comparatively tiny successful size. But it is simply a bully option. SMS is different enactment that I volition research successful aboriginal blog posts.

How To Solo Mine Like A Boss

Guide assumes Ubuntu 20.04. Warning: immoderate compiling is necessary.

It’s really truly casual now. There isn’t immoderate request to acceptable up a full-blown mining excavation anymore. BFGMiner tin grip everything we need. So let’s get everything acceptable up.

Set Up Blockstream Satellite

Follow Blockstream’s fantabulous usher for putting unneurotic a outer antenna, aligning it and installing each of the indispensable bundle to commencement receiving Bitcoin information via geosynchronous satellite.

Install blocksat-cli and Bitcoin Satellite, the patched Bitcoin Core node that Blockstream maintains for outer connectivity.

Set Up BFGMiner

BFGMiner is GPU/ASIC mining bundle that besides supports solo mining utilizing a section bitcoind!

This bundle volition span our mining hardware to our section outer Bitcoin node.

$ git clone https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer && cd bfgminer

For Ubuntu, each you request to bash is instal the dependencies and past physique normally.

$ sudo apt instal automake autoconf libtool pkg-config libcurl4-gnutls-dev libjansson-dev uthash-dev

Then physique it.

$ ./autogen.sh

$ ./configure

$ make

With your bitcoind synced and receiving information via outer (debug.log should output bitrate information if successfully receiving), constituent BFGMiner to your section node. Make definite to acceptable server=1 and rpcuser=user rpcpassword=pass successful bitcoin.conf

$ ./bfgminer -T -D -P -o '127.0.0.1:8332' -O user:pass --stratum-port 3334 --generate-to <your address>

This volition archer BFGMiner to propulsion information from your node and which larboard to perceive connected for stratum miners (basically each modern ASICs usage stratum).

Once BFGminer is running, simply constituent your ASIC hardware to the IP code your bitcoind and BFGMiner are moving connected (port 3334) alternatively of a mean mining excavation similar Slush Pool. You should statesman to commencement seeing debased trouble shares being submitted by the mining hardware successful the BFGminer console output. That’s it! You’re solo mining similar a brag and person a backup blockchain information root via geosynchronous satellite. How awesome is that? Good luck with the mining!

Learn much astir Blockstream Satellite here:

This is simply a impermanent station by Grubles. Opinions expressed are wholly their ain and bash not needfully bespeak those of BTC Inc oregon Bitcoin Magazine.

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