Day: July 16, 2017

Bitcoin mining has grown into a vast economy over the past few years as large ASIC-powered mining farms process transactions for the $32 billion dollar market. In the early days, people could mine bitcoins using their central processing units (CPU) and they still can, but the undertaking is extremely inefficient. However, a few people still mess around mining bitcoins using older computers and retro devices merely for the fun of it and for experimentation purposes.

Also Read: Investment Funds That Offer Cryptocurrency Exposure See Big Gains

Bitcoin Mining With Classic Computers and Retro Gaming Consoles

The bitcoin mining ecosystem is a competitive environment of pools processing transactions while simultaneously securing the network. Miners run special software and use application-specific integrated circuitry (ASIC) to mine bitcoins these days, using chips far more efficient than your standard CPU. Currently, older computers can mine bitcoins at a prolonged rate, but it’s still pretty cool to see if a classic system can perform the task of bitcoin mining.

One bitcoin enthusiast has done just that a few times with older computers. Ken Shirriff is well-known in the bitcoin community for his work on getting the bitcoin symbol added to Unicode. Shirriff also has a popular blog where writes about his projects and how he has mined bitcoins using classic devices from the past. Just recently Shirriff has been working on a Xerox Alto restoration and managed to get the seventies built computer to mine bitcoins at 1.5 hashes/second. The Xerox Alto is a well-known computer classic that was the first device to support a graphical user interface (GUI) in 1973.

“I’ve been restoring a Xerox Alto minicomputer from the 1970s and figured it would be interesting to see if it could mine bitcoins,” explains Shirriff.

I coded up the necessary hash algorithm in BCPL (the old programming language used by the Alto) and found that although the mining algorithm ran, the Alto was so slow that it would take many times the lifetime of the universe to successfully mine bitcoins.

The computer’s 1.5 blocks per second is significantly slower than the chips used today. Shirriff details the Xerox Alto’s speed would take “5000 times the age of the universe” to mine one block. For demonstration purposes, Shirriff used the input of a successfully mined block to see if the algorithm succeeded. Shirriff’s code is available on Github for those who would like to try out Xerox Alto mining.      

An Old IBM Mainframe From the Sixties Would Take Roughly 40,000 Times the Current Age of the Universe to Find a Block

Another project Shirriff worked on back in 2015 was mining with a 55-year-old IBM 1401 mainframe at 80 seconds per hash. This computer was the best-selling computer of the mid-1960s and mainly used for business purposes.

“While modern hardware can compute billions of hashes per second, the 1401 takes 80 seconds to compute a single hash,” details Shirriff. “This illustrates the improvement of computer performance in the past decades, most famously described by Moore’s Law — To summarize, to mine a block at current difficulty, the IBM 1401 would take about 5×10^14 years (about 40,000 times the current age of the universe).”

Mining Bitcoin With a 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System

Lastly, another neat project is another incredibly slow miner built in 2013 out of a 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The creator of the NES mining system was joking around with his friend about mining bitcoins with an 8-bit game console. Well, he took that as a challenge and built a Nintendo that communicated with the network and performed SHA256 hashing. For other portions of the project, he did need a Raspberry Pi for computing that did not take place on the NES.

“SHA256 hashing uses many 32-bit operations, and the 6502 in the NES is an 8-bit CPU,” explains the retro miner creator. “Initially I thought this would be a significant challenge, but with some modifications, I got an open implementation of SHA256 to compile to a 6502 target using the cc65 compiler.”

The Raspberry Pi gets a chunk of data, compiles it into a ROM that includes the SHA256 algo and current target data, and sends it to the console via USB CopyNES. Each ROM computes and tests a single hash.

In the end, the NES miner worked and started searching for blocks with Slush’s pool, but the creator said there was plenty of room for build improvements. “What I’m doing now is very slow, and I admit, pretty lame,” explains the retro miner’s blog post. Additionally, bitcoiners have had great discussions concerning mining bitcoin with other gaming consoles like the Playstation 3.

ASIC Producers Don’t Need to Worry About Retro Miners

Obviously, these types of projects won’t be mass adopted to mine excessive amounts of bitcoins like ASICs because it would take many lifetimes to find one block using a retro device. However even though watching an older computer or gaming console mine bitcoins is super slow it’s very interesting to see that these devices are compatible with the Bitcoin network.

What do you think about people testing old computers and retro gaming devices with the Bitcoin network? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Pixabay, Wiki Commons, and Ken Shirriff’s blog.

Express yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com.

The post Mining Bitcoin Using Old Computers and Retro Gaming Consoles appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Coffee, it is hard to refuse the fantastic beverage, even blockchain technology can’t say no to it. Bext360, a Denver, Colorado based company has implemented distributed ledger technology and artificial intelligence to upgrade the coffee supply chain. The technology platform combined with a Coinstar like hardware is capable of sorting the coffee beans and tracking … Continue reading Bext360 Grades Coffee Beans, Issues Payouts over Blockchain to Farmers

The post Bext360 Grades Coffee Beans, Issues Payouts over Blockchain to Farmers appeared first on NEWSBTC.

We have seen some interesting revelations by the WikiLeaks team over the years. One of their latest leaks exposes CIA hacking tools. The list of tools is growing alarmingly long. In their new release, WikiLeaks talks about a tool known as HighRise, which is capable of snooping on SMS messages on the Android ecosystem.

HighRise is a Tool one Shouldn’t Ignore

Why does the CIA needs so many hacking tools in the first place.? Sadly, most of these tools are not just used to expose criminals and malicious individuals, but also provide the intelligence agency with a way to spy on citizens. So far, all of their tools have been rather successful, although it is unlikely anyone will ever know the repercussions of these hacking tools.

HighRise is one of the tools the CIA has been quiet about for several years. This one specifically targets Android devices. Compared to other mobile operating systems, Android is by far more popular. iOS does not even come close, and Blackberry is only used by a small minority. New entrants in the market, such as Firefox OS, Sailfish OS, and others have yet to gain any form of noteworthy traction against Android.

The Android ecosystem lets users install applications from outside of the official Play Store. All it takes is one check box to enable or disable this feature. It makes a lot of sense for the CIA to target Android users. According to the WikiLeaks information, HighRise works on Android versions 4.0 to 4.3. That means it will only affect a small portion of all global users, yet there are still far too many phones running any of these Android OS versions.

Under the hood, HighRise can be used to redirect incoming and outgoing SMS messages to listening posts belonging to the CIA. Once they received a copy of the messages, the content itself would just be sent to the initial recipient without further issues. It is essentially an SMS proxy which “handles” incoming and outgoing text messages. In other words, HighRise is a CIA spying tool looking to snoop on your personal communication.

Victims of this tool do not get “infected” with HighRise like they would with other types of malware. Instead, the app would need to be installed manually by Android users. Even then, they still need to update all settings manually before it can become active. There is also an app-list checked component called TideCheck, which goes through all of the installed applications on said device. Last but not least, the app will only work once the ‘victim’ enters the world “inshallah” -“God Willing” in Arabic- in the activation textbox.

The whole world had their eyes opened to how the CIA operates and what they are trying to achieve. While the agency continues to claim these are matters of national security, US citizens and others around the world may not believe that any longer. Intelligence agencies only handle in their best interest, which means they go to any lengths to spy on consumers if they have to. Thankfully, it appears HighRise is not much of a threat, since Android 5.0 and higher are becoming the norm for Android devices.

Islands have been a fixation of many countries, be it the Arab world, especially Dubai with its obsession towards building luxury property over artificial islands or China’s expansion of dominion in the South China Sea. But the African nation of Mauritius has a different kind of aspiration. The country is on the verge of creating … Continue reading Mauritius Plans to Create an Ethereum Island

The post Mauritius Plans to Create an Ethereum Island appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Las Vegas is always an exciting city. Even more exciting and novel changes are coming to Las Vegas, since the city will soon be home to a robot bar. Bionic bartenders will run the show here. In fact, it appears the joint will have a fully autonomous robot staff altogether. The world of robotics continues to evolve and permeate our daily -and nightly- lives.

Las Vegas’ Bionic Bartenders

It sounds interesting and fun to be served by a fully autonomous robot staff. Buying drinks at a bar is often a bit of a hassle, especially when the place is packed. Human staffers require breaks, lose concentration, and are expecting a nice wage every single month. Robots, on the other hand, can virtually work 24/7, serve drinks like a human, and do not require a wage. That does not mean we should abuse them completely either, as robots are not slaves by any stretch of the imagination.

Las Vegas is a place where finding a drink is as easy as spotting a neon sign. It is a place as good as any to experiment with a robot staff serving drinks. The Tipsy Robot bar, as this venue is called, will open its doors in Planet Hollywood later this month. Interacting with the robots will be quite different from how regular bar interactions work, but it is a fun sounding prospect.

Rather than going up to the bar or waiting for a waiter, customers are expected to order drinks through a proprietary smartphone application. Customers are also expected to register an account by submitting their email address, but no further personal details are required. It is also possible to use the built-in tablet at the tables to make an order.

Once the order has been submitted by the customer, the robots behind the bar will use an articulated arm to pour out drinks. Two arms are suspended from the bar and will certainly be the main attraction of the bar during its first few months of existence. With over 150 bottles to drink from and make combinations with, there are a ton of possibilities for people looking for some more exotic beverages.

Delivering the drinks is ingenious as well. This will be done through a conveyor belt system, which allows drinks to reach their destination with relative ease. Customers can then return the empty glasses, which will be rinsed and washed by another robot. The robots will also clean themselves to ensure there is no contamination whatsoever. Upholding hygiene is quite important at the Tipsy Robot bar.

Human staffers will also be on hand to pour beer, champagne, and mimosas. Drinks poured by the robots will cost you at least $14, making it a place most people will visit once and then probably never again. It also appears the robots at the bar can dance to the music playing through the speakers. It is a very interesting concept which will hopefully bring some positive attention to the robotics industry.

A new malware, known as Ovidiy Stealer, is making the rounds on Russian websites. This particular tool is quite cheap for criminals to purchase. The price is around $10. Unfortunately, it is not the best type of info-stealing malware either, which explains the lower price point.

Ovidiy Stealer can be an Annoyance

As is the case with any type of malware designed to steal information from people’s devices, Ovidiy Stealer can prove to be a real pain in the neck. It appears this particular tool is often spread through executable files for the Windows operating system. It pops up in some fake cryptocurrency wallets, games, and hacked software versions. So far, it does not appear any cryptocurrency users have had their wallet information stolen.

Ovidiy Stealer can be purchased from a Russian darknet marketplace for as little as $7, although prices may vary depending on the RUB/USD exchange rate. At most, people will pay just $13 for it. However, you get what you pay for, and a cheap tool will not result in people making millions of dollars overnight. It takes a fair amount of work to infect people with this malware in the first place.

Criminals purchasing this particular tool often embed it in executable files distributed through peer-to-peer protocols such as torrents.Several filenames have been identified already, which appear to relate to Litebitcoin, VK Hack Tool, World of Tanks, and a TeamSpeak update. This list will grow a lot longer as more time progresses. Spreading hacked paid software is always a great way of distributing malware and that trend will not change anytime soon.

It also appears criminals distributing Ovidiy are trying to get more people infected through dedicated spam email campaigns. Spreading a malware-laden executable as an email attachment to people all over the world certainly has a lot of potential to succeed. There is no evidence to show this particular tool has been even remotely successful, even though its list of features -limited as it is- should not be written off by any means.

Ovidiy Stealer can obtain data from programs such as FileZilla, Google Chrome, Opera, and a few other browsers. That in itself is quite disturbing since a lot of people spend their entire online life in a browser these days. Knowing someone may snoop on your information and harvest login credentials is worrying. It is expected antivirus solutions will release an update to thwart this malware.

There are some downsides to this malware as well. The control panel for all “customers’ is hosted on the same domain hosting the Ovidiy Stealer itself. Paying for this malware can only be done through RoboKassa, the Russian version of PayPal.  Last but not least, rebooting your device will eliminate Ovidiy Stealer as a threat. A rather glaring list of shortcomings which make this malware more of an annoyance rather than a legitimate threat.

The Sale of Rustbits Tokens commenced on June 26, 2017 and will go on till July 31, 2017. Rustbits are Counterparty tokens which will provide the game fuel and also act as a premium in game currency for SpacePirate: Age of Rust. The Rustbits sale is a means to crowdfund the development of Age of … Continue reading SpacePirate’s Rustbits Token Sale is Now Live

The post SpacePirate’s Rustbits Token Sale is Now Live appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Bitcoin users over 55 years old account for less than 7% of the total market. What’s stopping the older generation from entering this $87 bln market?