<blockquote>
<p><strong>Is the native Bitcoin client intended for mining?</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>No.</p>
<hr />
<p><strike>Long long</strike> <em>A decade or so</em> ago, <strike>back in the mists of time, in prehistoric days when dinosaurs roamed the earth</strike>, early versions of the Bitcoin software did indeed include a mining capability that used the <strike>pitiful</strike> capabilities of CPUs. But this function has long been rendered defunct by the advance of mining hardware such that one small ASIC is now more powerful at mining than <strike>a billion</strike> <em>4.6 million</em>† modern <strike>high-end</strike> <em>decentish</em> desktop computers <strike>even if each were crammed with dozens of overclocked multi-core CPUs and GPUs</strike>. So the vestigial and useless appendix was removed from Bitcoin-core's <strike>DNA</strike> <em>mainnet phenotype</em>.</p>
<div class="s-table-container">
<table class="s-table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Hardware</th>
<th style="text-align: right;">Hashrate <em>Mh/s</em></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Intel® Core™ i7-2600 / 8 / 3.40 GHz</td>
<td style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Non-specialized_hardware_comparison#Intel" rel="nofollow noreferrer">23.9</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Antminer S19 Pro</td>
<td style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://shop.bitmain.com/release/AntminerS19Pro/overview" rel="nofollow noreferrer">110,000,000.0</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>Your choice of mining hardware determines what specialised control software you use.</p>
<p><strike>(Health warning: answer may contain microscopic traces of hyperbole)</strike><br />
† <sup><em>Roughly. Give or take an order of magnitude, or two.</em></sup></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-28T17:08:20.823Z
I think your 'hashrate' column header should be Mh/s. It also not a very fair comparison, as a single Core i7 can run multiple hashing threads in parallel (I believe 20 Mhash/s for a single high-end CPU is not unreasonable), and costs far less than an Antminer S19 pro. Still, the conclusion remains the same of course that CPU mining is utterly pointless these days.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-28T18:52:15.147Z
@Pieter: Sadly I didn't check my facts adequately when dashing off my not entirely serious but well meant answer. I've fixed the hashrate. I think I hastily and mistakenly pulled one for the wrong cryptocurrency algorithm off some random website.
RedGrittyBrick
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-29T10:26:12.607Z
Note that Bitcoin Core still contains the *ability* to mine, and uses it if you run a regtest - that said, it doesn't change the fact that it is useless for mainnet mining
Raghav Sood
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-28T15:41:17.103Z
2021-08-11T12:09:52.867Z
2021-08-11T12:09:52.867Z
RedGrittyBrick
<p>I almost hate to provide a second answer to pair against RedGrittyBrick's beautifully worded answer, but there is a consideration that matters here beyond that of Mhash/s: profitability.</p>
<p>Most people run a miner for profit.  Not many people are out there running miners just for the philosophical principle behind bitcoin.</p>
<p>The ASIC miners are extraordinarily efficient in terms of power.  The <a href="https://shop.bitmain.com/product/detail?pid=00020200226232356122Y0FHc2rQ0657" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Antminer 19</a> linked in RedGrittyBrick's answer mentions that it has an efficiency of 29.5 J/TH.  That means for every 29.5J of energy which goes into the Antminer, it can do 1 trillion hashes.</p>
<p>For the poor i7 in the example, the numbers are dismal. An i7's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i7_microprocessors" rel="nofollow noreferrer">TDP</a> is about 95W.  At 20GH/s (a number that does appear roughly in <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Non-specialized_hardware_comparison#Intel" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bitcoins wiki</a>) it will take 50s to do trillion hashes, which is  4,750 J/TH.</p>
<p>The economics of bitcoin are such that you literally cannot pay for the power it takes to mine with the profits from the mining.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-29T03:40:08.843Z
2020-09-29T03:40:08.843Z
Cort Ammon
<p>I can't understand, a native bitcoin client for calculations - will he be able to take part in mining?
If not, what kind of native mining software should use? Does he even exist?
I only found third party products like cgminer, cudaminer, etc.</p>

<bitcoin-core><mining-software>
Is the native Bitcoin client intended for mining?
VGryboedov
# Is the native Bitcoin client intended for mining?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-09-28)

I can't understand, a native bitcoin client for calculations - will he be able to take part in mining?
If not, what kind of native mining software should use? Does he even exist?
I only found third party products like cgminer, cudaminer, etc.

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, mining-software


---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-09-28. Score: 10

> **Is the native Bitcoin client intended for mining?**

No.

---

Long long *A decade or so* ago, back in the mists of time, in prehistoric days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, early versions of the Bitcoin software did indeed include a mining capability that used the pitiful capabilities of CPUs. But this function has long been rendered defunct by the advance of mining hardware such that one small ASIC is now more powerful at mining than a billion *4.6 million*† modern high-end *decentish* desktop computers even if each were crammed with dozens of overclocked multi-core CPUs and GPUs. So the vestigial and useless appendix was removed from Bitcoin-core's DNA *mainnet phenotype*.

| Hardware | Hashrate *Mh/s* |
| --- | --- |
| Intel® Core™ i7-2600 / 8 / 3.40 GHz | [23.9](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Non-specialized_hardware_comparison#Intel) |
| Antminer S19 Pro | [110,000,000.0](https://shop.bitmain.com/release/AntminerS19Pro/overview) |

Your choice of mining hardware determines what specialised control software you use.

(Health warning: answer may contain microscopic traces of hyperbole)  
† *Roughly. Give or take an order of magnitude, or two.*

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I think your 'hashrate' column header should be Mh/s. It also not a very fair comparison, as a single Core i7 can run multiple hashing threads in parallel (I believe 20 Mhash/s for a single high-end CPU is not unreasonable), and costs far less than an Antminer S19 pro. Still, the conclusion remains the same of course that CPU mining is utterly pointless these days.  
> **username_1**: @username_2: Sadly I didn't check my facts adequately when dashing off my not entirely serious but well meant answer. I've fixed the hashrate. I think I hastily and mistakenly pulled one for the wrong cryptocurrency algorithm off some random website.  
> **username_3**: Note that Bitcoin Core still contains the *ability* to mine, and uses it if you run a regtest - that said, it doesn't change the fact that it is useless for mainnet mining  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2020-09-29. Score: 3

I almost hate to provide a second answer to pair against username_1's beautifully worded answer, but there is a consideration that matters here beyond that of Mhash/s: profitability.

Most people run a miner for profit. Not many people are out there running miners just for the philosophical principle behind bitcoin.

The ASIC miners are extraordinarily efficient in terms of power. The [Antminer 19](https://shop.bitmain.com/product/detail?pid=00020200226232356122Y0FHc2rQ0657) linked in username_1's answer mentions that it has an efficiency of 29.5 J/TH. That means for every 29.5J of energy which goes into the Antminer, it can do 1 trillion hashes.

For the poor i7 in the example, the numbers are dismal. An i7's [TDP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i7_microprocessors) is about 95W. At 20GH/s (a number that does appear roughly in [bitcoins wiki](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Non-specialized_hardware_comparison#Intel)) it will take 50s to do trillion hashes, which is 4,750 J/TH.

The economics of bitcoin are such that you literally cannot pay for the power it takes to mine with the profits from the mining.


---

