Bfgminer

From Bitcoin Wiki. Jump to: navigation, search. A modular ASIC, FPGA, GPU and CPU miner written in C, cross platform for Linux, Mac, and Windows including. Bfgminer -o Pool1URL:PORT -u POOL1USERNAME -p POOL1PASSWORD -o Pool2URL:PORT -u POOL2USERNAME -p POOL2PASSWORD. The proxy server has to be specified if the pool is over a proxy server. As with the pool URL, the proxy server has its own URL, and the port number along with the classical password and username credentials. Download BFGminer for free. Miner for Bitcoins. BFGMiner is a modular ASIC/FPGA miner written in C, featuring dynamic clocking, monitoring, and remote interface capabilities. Bitcoin miner software with multi-threaded multi-pool gpu, fpga and asic mining support.

Bfgminer Vs Cgminer
Bfgminer 3

BFGminer is my program of choice for mining Bitcoins. It took me a while to understand all of the different lines of output and what they meant in the BFGminer console window. I figured I would share what I have learned about what BFGminer is displaying in its stats.

Line 1 - Version and Date

Name of program (BFGminer)
Version number (3.2.0)
Date program started
Total Time Mining

Line 2 - Admin Stuff

M - Manage Devices
P - Pool Management
S - Settings
D - Display Options
H - Help
Q - Quit

Line 3 - Pool Info

Pool URL
Difficulty given by pool
Protocol (stratum or other)
Username on pool

Line 4 - Network Info

Part of the blocks hash value (...1235ABCD)
Block number on pool
Current Block difficulty (149M = 149,000,000)
Current network speed (1.07 Ph/s = 1,070,000 Gh/s)
Date/time of current blocks start

Line 5 - Overall Stats

ST: Work in queue
F: Network Failures
NB: New blocks detected
AS: Shares in submission process
BW: Bandwidth (up / down)
E: # of shares * difficulty / 2kB of bandwidth
U: Shares per minute
BS: Best Share (highest difficulty block solved)

Line 6 - Combined Device Info

Number of active mining devices (2 in this picture)
3 Speed numbers in Mh/s
- First speed is last 5s avg speed
- Second speed is All Time Average (for this program run)
- Third speed is Effective Average (actual performance taking into account failures etc)
A: Accepted Shares
R:0+0: Rejected Shares + Discarded shares (and percent of total)
HW: Hardware errors (total number / percent of total)

Each devices line

Name of device
3 Speed numbers in Mh/s
- First speed is last 5s avg speed
- Second speed is All Time Average (for this program run)
- Third speed is Effective Average (actual performance taking into account failures etc)

Message Area

Each line here gives a current status of the connection to the mining pool, and what your client is saying to the pool. Some of the common lines you see when bitcoin mining are:

First is the date and time of the event
'Accepted 7b71d2c8 means that the block 7b71d2c8 has been computed, submitted, and accepted by the pool
ICA 0 is the device used for this calculation
Diff 2/2 is the actual difficulty of the block you solved, a slash, and the requested difficulty of your client
- Diff X/2 means I am requesting difficulty level 2 problems, and X is the difficulty of the problem I solved-- the higher the number the more shares, and the higher the number the more BTC payout. The largest X value is displayed in the BS: statistic

This line is just saying the pool is asking you how your calculations are going

External Links

BFGminer Github - repository on Git of BFGminer
Bitcointalk Forums - Using BFGminer, changelog, compatibility
Bitcoin.it - BFGminer description (very good one)

Retrieved from 'http://www.etcwiki.org/index.php?title=BFGminer_sections&oldid=3258'

Overview - Table of Contents

While the actual process of Bitcoin mining is handled by the Bitcoin mining hardware itself, special Bitcoin mining software is needed to connect your Bitcoin miners to the blockchain and your Bitcoin mining pool as well, if you are part of a Bitcoin mining pool.

The software delivers the work to the miners and receives the completed work from the miners and relays that information back to the blockchain and your mining pool. The best Bitcoin mining software can run on almost any operating system, such as OSX, Windows, Linux, and has even been ported to work on a Raspberry Pi with some modifications for drivers depending on your mining setup.

Not only does the Bitcoin mining software relay the input and output of your Bitcoin miners to the blockchain, but it also monitors them and displays general statistics such as the temperature, hashrate, fan speed, and average speed of the Bitcoin miner.

There are a few different types of Bitcoin mining software out there and each have their own advantages and disadvantages, so be sure to read up on the various mining software out there.

Sometimes you may want to mine a more volatile altcoin like MWC which is superior for scalability, privacy, anonymity and fungibility by utilizing MimbleWimble in the base layer.

With mainnet launching in November 2019 it has risen from $0.22 to over $8.00 in its first two months.

Network Consensus

If you solo-mine, meaning you do not mine with a Bitcoin mining pool, then you will need to ensure that you are in consensus with the Bitcoin network. The best way is to use the official BitCore client.

If you participate in a Bitcoin mining pool then you will want to ensure that they are engaging in behavior that is in agreement with your philosophy towards Bitcoin.

How much bandwidth does Bitcoin mining take? If you are mining with a pool then the amount should be negligible with about 10MB/day. However, what you do need is exceptional connectivity so that you get any updates on the work as fast as possible.

For example, some rogue developers have threatened to release software that could hard-fork the network which would likely result in tremendous financial damage.

Therefore, it is your duty to make sure that any Bitcoin mining power you direct to a mining pool does not attempt to enforce network consensus rules you disagree with.

Bitcoin Wallet Software

The whole point of mining bitcoins is to earn them!

But once you earn them then where do you keep them safe and secure? For a Bitcoin wallet we highly recommend using one where you hold your own private keys in contrast to to a hosted wallet like Coinbase or Circle.

Breadwallet - easy to use mobile Bitcoin wallet
Copay - easy to use mobile Bitcoin wallet
Armory - highly secure desktop Bitcoin wallet

You will also need to be able to buy and sell your Bitcoins.

Once mined Bitcoin becomes like a currency that can be purchased, used in transactions or even traded like with this Bitcoin trading platform.

For this we recommend:

Kraken - The largest European exchange with same-day SEPA
Local Bitcoins - This fantastic service allows you to search for people in your community willing to sell bitcoins to you directly. But be careful!

Examples of the best Bitcoin mining software for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX:

MinePeon: Open source and may need WinDisk32Imager.

EasyMiner: A GUI based miner for Windows, Linux and Android. EasyMiner acts as a convenient wrapper for the built in CG; BFGminer softwares. It auto configures your Bitcoin miners and provides performance graphs to for easy visualization of your Bitcoin mining activity.

BFGMiner: A modular ASIC, FPGA, GPU and CPU miner written in C, cross platform for Linux, Mac, and Windows including support for OpenWrt-capable routers.

CGMiner: This is a multi-threaded multi-pool GPU, FPGA and ASIC miner with ATI GPU monitoring, (over)clocking and fanspeed support for bitcoin and derivative coins.

MinePeon: Open source and may need WinDisk32Imager.

BFGMiner: A modular ASIC, FPGA, GPU and CPU miner written in C, cross platform for Linux, Mac, and Windows including support for OpenWrt-capable routers.

CGMiner: This is a multi-threaded multi-pool GPU, FPGA and ASIC miner with ATI GPU monitoring, (over)clocking and fanspeed support for bitcoin and derivative coins.

50Miner: A GUI frontend for Windows (Poclbm, Phoenix, DiabloMiner).

BTCMiner: Bitcoin Miner for ZTEX FPGA Boards

BitMoose: Run Miners as a Windows Service.

Poclbm: Python/OpenCL GPU miner (GUI (Windows and MacOS X))

Poclbm-mod: more efficient version of Poclbm (GUI)

DiabloMiner: Java/OpenCL GPU miner (MAC OS X GUI)

RPC Miner: remote RPC miner (MAC OS X GUI)

Phoenix miner: Released in 2011. Free and open source.

CPU Miner: Mining software for solo or pooled mining.

Ufasoft Miner: CPU/GPU miner for Windows pooled mining.

Pyminer: Released in 2011. CPU mining client.

Remote Miner: Open source Bitcoin miner for pooled mining. Works with RPC Miner.

Open Source FPGA Bitcoin Miner: Released in 2011. Makes use of a compatible FPGA Board. Can be used to mine in a pool or solo.

Bfgminer Vs Cgminer

MinePeon: Open source and may need WinDisk32Imager.

BFGMiner: A modular ASIC, FPGA, GPU and CPU miner written in C, cross platform for Linux, Mac, and Windows including support for OpenWrt-capable routers.

CGMiner: This is a multi-threaded multi-pool GPU, FPGA and ASIC miner with ATI GPU monitoring, (over)clocking and fanspeed support for bitcoin and derivative coins.

50Miner: A GUI frontend for Windows (Poclbm, Phoenix, DiabloMiner).

BitMoose: Run Miners as a Windows Service.

Poclbm: Python/OpenCL GPU miner (GUI (Windows and MacOS X))

Poclbm-mod: more efficient version of Poclbm (GUI)

CPU Miner: Mining software for solo or pooled mining.

Ufasoft Miner: CPU/GPU miner for Windows pooled mining.

MinePeon: Open source and may need WinDisk32Imager.

BFGMiner: A modular ASIC, FPGA, GPU and CPU miner written in C, cross platform for Linux, Mac, and Windows including support for OpenWrt-capable routers.

CGMiner: This is a multi-threaded multi-pool GPU, FPGA and ASIC miner with ATI GPU monitoring, (over)clocking and fanspeed support for bitcoin and derivative coins.

Poclbm: Python/OpenCL GPU miner (GUI (Windows and MacOS X))

Poclbm-mod: more efficient version of Poclbm (GUI)

DiabloMiner: Java/OpenCL GPU miner (MAC OS X GUI)

RPC Miner: remote RPC miner (MAC OS X GUI)

BFGMiner: A modular ASIC, FPGA, GPU and CPU miner written in C, cross platform for Linux, Mac, and Windows including support for OpenWrt-capable routers.

CGMiner: This is a multi-threaded multi-pool GPU, FPGA and ASIC miner with ATI GPU monitoring, (over)clocking and fanspeed support for bitcoin and derivative coins.

Bitcoin Cloud Mining Software

Being listed in this section is NOT an endorsement of these services. There have been a tremendous amount of Bitcoin cloud mining scams.

Hashflare Review: Hashflare offers SHA-256 mining contracts and more profitable SHA-256 coins can be mined while automatic payouts are still in BTC. Customers must purchase at least 10 GH/s.

Genesis Mining Review: Genesis Mining is the largest Bitcoin and scrypt cloud mining provider. Genesis Mining offers three Bitcoin cloud mining plans that are reasonably priced. Zcash mining contracts are also available.

Hashing 24 Review: Hashing24 has been involved with Bitcoin mining since 2012. They have facilities in Iceland and Georgia. They use modern ASIC chips from BitFury deliver the maximum performance and efficiency possible.

Minex Review: Minex is an innovative aggregator of blockchain projects presented in an economic simulation game format. Users purchase Cloudpacks which can then be used to build an index from pre-picked sets of cloud mining farms, lotteries, casinos, real-world markets and much more.

Minergate Review: Offers both pool and merged mining and cloud mining services for Bitcoin.

Hashnest Review: Hashnest is operated by Bitmain, the producer of the Antminer line of Bitcoin miners. HashNest currently has over 600 Antminer S7s for rent. You can view the most up-to-date pricing and availability on Hashnest's website. At the time of writing one Antminer S7's hash rate can be rented for $1,200.

Bitcoin Cloud Mining Review: Currently all Bitcoin Cloud Mining contracts are sold out.

NiceHash Review: NiceHash is unique in that it uses an orderbook to match mining contract buyers and sellers. Check its website for up-to-date prices.

Eobot Review: Start cloud mining Bitcoin with as little as $10. Eobot claims customers can break even in 14 months.

MineOnCloud Review: MineOnCloud currently has about 35 TH/s of mining equipment for rent in the cloud. Some miners available for rent include AntMiner S4s and S5s.

TRANSCRIPT - Do it yourself with Bitcoin mining software

What's going on every one? This is Fredand this Part 2 of our DIY Bitcoin Miner. Today, we're going to take a look at software.

Okay, so the first thing that you need to do before you could start Bitcoin mining is to sign up for a Bitcoin wallet. Now there’s a lot of wallets that you could choose from but I prefer Circle. Now let’s head over and set up an account. All you have to do is enter in your email and choose a password.

Once you log in to your account you will see a summary of your Bitcoin balance and transactions. But before you can receive any Bitcoins you need to set up a Bitcoin address. You could do so by clicking account settings.

Once you are on the account settings page go ahead and click Bitcoin Addresses. From there click Create New Address. This generates a long string of numbers and letters. This is the address that we will need to enter into our mining pool. So let's take a look at that now.

There are many mining pools that you can choose from, but I prefer BitMinter as my primary pool and Slush’s pool as my backup. Just create an account whichever one you choose and log in. Your account details page will normally have an auto cash out option.

This is where we will enter in our wallet address that we created earlier. When you have mined enough Bitcoins to meet the threshold it would automatically be transferred to your Bitcoin wallet.

Next, go up top to the My Account drop down and select Workers. This worker information is what you need to input into the mining software so that you get credit for the work that is done. You do not need to secure this information with a difficult username or password because anyone that uses this information will be giving you credit.

Now let's take a look at setting up the mining software. As mentioned in Part 1 of the series we'll be using the MinePeon operating system. This can be downloaded from sourceforge.net.

Now this is the image that we will need to write onto our SD card. Another software that we need to download is called the Win32 Disk Imager. This can also be found on sourceforge.net. This is the software that we will use to write the MinePeon image onto our SD card.

Once you have downloaded both files insert your SD card into your computer. Then open up Win32 Disk Imager. Simply select the location of your MinePeon image then select the correct drive for your SD card. All you have to do now is click write. This will write the MinePeon image on to your SD card. Insert the SD card into your Raspberry Pi as shown on Part 1 of the series then power up the unit.

Now sign in to MinePeon by typing in the network IP address into your browser. The easiest way to find this IP address is by logging in to your router and looking for the device called MinePeon. You will then be prompted to enter in your MinePeon's username and password. The default setting for this is MinePeon for the username, peon for the password. You will see a security warning but do not be alarmed. This is perfectly normal so proceed anyways. You will then be asked to re-enter the username and password.

So again, MinePeon is the username peon is the password. You are now finally in MinePeon's dashboard. This is where you can monitor the performance of your mining rig. Head up top and click pools. This page allows you to set up your mining pools. As you can see I have BitMinter as my primary pool and Slush’s pool as my secondary. Just enter in the URL of your mining pool, the username and password if you have one.

Then go ahead and submit your settings. You may need to reboot MinePeon after any changes. Great job every one. You are now officially mining for Bitcoins.

Bfgminer 3

All right, so that should be everything that you need to start Bitcoin mining.