
Bitcoin mining the hard way: the algorithms, protocols, and bytes (2014) - bemmu
http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoin-mining-hard-way-algorithms.html
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splintercell
I have always been interested in imagining if Internet ever goes down (Or our
computing power comes to a grinding halt due to an EMP strike) then how would
bitcoin networks work (again not from a realistic point of view, but from a
Anathem (by Neal Stephenson) way.

The difficulty rate would have to be lowered, low enough to be processed via
some human effort, but not super easy[1]. Maybe there would be these
monasteries where monks would process transactions by hand. Considering there
would be synchronization issues so each region would mine the transactions
using state channels and every month whenever ships carry updated blocks
across the ocean, there would be a sync up of inter-continental trade.

Or at that point we would all revert to using gold.

1\. You can get 0.67 hash per day if you perform these transaction only using
pen and paper, [http://www.righto.com/2014/09/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-
and...](http://www.righto.com/2014/09/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-
paper.html)

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rtkwe
It wouldn't, at least not in a useful way. At that point there's two major
issues: hashing becomes impossibly slow, network partition aka forking the
chain, and validating transactions. Just distributing a new block becomes a
huge task in and of itself. Also before a transaction can be included our
hypothetical human miner has to check to ensure that the inputs/source address
has a corresponding output/target address earlier in the chain. That step
could require scanning the whole 15 GB blockchain to confirm that a
transaction is valid.

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leovailati
From the article:

> It seems to me that the effort put into Bitcoin mining has gone off the
> rails recently.

And that was in 2014! In the past three years the hash rate rose to about 20
times the level it was back then. This just blows my mind!

[https://blockchain.info/charts/hash-
rate?daysAverageString=1...](https://blockchain.info/charts/hash-
rate?daysAverageString=1&scale=0&timespan=all)

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argo_
This article is very old. Bitcoin reward is 12.5 bitcoins per block and BTC
Guild is long time gone. Nonetheless, very interesting and helpful to
understand the mechanics.

