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The bitcoin market is big enough, and there are enough places where power is free and the hardware is already paid for, that I am quite certain there's at least

The bitcoin market is big enough, and there are enough places where power is free and the hardware is already paid for, that I am quite certain there's at least a few people still mining bitcoin today on GPUs. Then there's the educational market, where it's less important that people mine bitcoin to earn money, and more about learning how bitcoin works by actually running the code. So, no -- I don't think that's actually an open question at all. I don't have any proof, but then neither do you. And all I'd have to do to create my proof would be to spin up my own machine with a GPU and use it to mine bitcoin for a while. Maybe on a free AWS account or something. Not that I'd actually do that, but it would be possible.

latchkey 4y ago
Name one piece of software that mines BTC on GPUs that has been updated in the last few years.
viraptor 4y ago
> and more about learning how bitcoin works by actually running the code. You can find an old CPU miner for that. There's a few that have been written clearly with demonstration/learning in mind. If you don't expect any gains, why even go with a GPU?
- bradknowles 4y ago
  Maybe because you want to study how Bitcoin works on a GPU?
  - viraptor 4y ago
    Then they'll play with https://github.com/FourDizzle/js-gpu-bitcoin-miner/blob/master/client/src/webgl/shaders/og-fs.glsl https://github.com/FourDizzle/js-gpu-bitcoin-miner/blob/mast... or similar on some custom chain or simulated environment. They wouldn't be doing any actual mining.
    - bradknowles 4y ago
      Maybe. Maybe not. But you can't force them to do so, even if that is the only way to save your theory. Maybe they want to play with real software on real hardware. And maybe they've got access to free power to do it, or they already pay enough for power that the cost of a single GPU is not material to them.
thaumasiotes 4y ago
> The bitcoin market is big enough, and there are enough places where power is free and the hardware is already paid for, that I am quite certain there's at least a few people still mining bitcoin today on GPUs. > So, no -- I don't think that's actually an open question at all. But you didn't even address my question! It doesn't matter whether someone is assigning their GPU to the job of mining bitcoin. Has any bitcoin actually been mined by a GPU? That would be the difference between "using a GPU to mine bitcoin" and "using a GPU to LARP mining bitcoin".
- bradknowles 4y ago
  Can you prove that there is any Bitcoin throughout history that wasn't mined on GPU? If that's what people are doing, then they have their reasons. And unless you can prove that they don't exist, then you can't rightly claim they don't exist.

latchkey 4y ago

Name one piece of software that mines BTC on GPUs that has been updated in the last few years.

viraptor 4y ago

> and more about learning how bitcoin works by actually running the code. You can find an old CPU miner for that. There's a few that have been written clearly with demonstration/learning in mind. If you don't expect any gains, why even go with a GPU?

bradknowles 4y ago
Maybe because you want to study how Bitcoin works on a GPU?
- viraptor 4y ago
  Then they'll play with https://github.com/FourDizzle/js-gpu-bitcoin-miner/blob/master/client/src/webgl/shaders/og-fs.glsl https://github.com/FourDizzle/js-gpu-bitcoin-miner/blob/mast... or similar on some custom chain or simulated environment. They wouldn't be doing any actual mining.
  - bradknowles 4y ago
    Maybe. Maybe not. But you can't force them to do so, even if that is the only way to save your theory. Maybe they want to play with real software on real hardware. And maybe they've got access to free power to do it, or they already pay enough for power that the cost of a single GPU is not material to them.

thaumasiotes 4y ago

> The bitcoin market is big enough, and there are enough places where power is free and the hardware is already paid for, that I am quite certain there's at least a few people still mining bitcoin today on GPUs. > So, no -- I don't think that's actually an open question at all. But you didn't even address my question! It doesn't matter whether someone is assigning their GPU to the job of mining bitcoin. Has any bitcoin actually been mined by a GPU? That would be the difference between "using a GPU to mine bitcoin" and "using a GPU to LARP mining bitcoin".

bradknowles 4y ago
Can you prove that there is any Bitcoin throughout history that wasn't mined on GPU? If that's what people are doing, then they have their reasons. And unless you can prove that they don't exist, then you can't rightly claim they don't exist.