Assets, Ethereum

How Do You Mine Ethereum With Geth?

Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference. In order to run these applications, people need to use Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, Ether.

Ether is mined through a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus algorithm that is designed to be ASIC resistant. This means that anyone with a computer can mine Ethereum.

The mining process is how new Ether is brought into circulation and it encourages decentralization by ensuring that no single entity can control the network. Miners are rewarded with Ether for each block they successfully mine.

A block is mined every 12 seconds and the amount of Ether rewarded per block starts at 5 ETH and goes down every 100,000 blocks (approximately every 4 years).

To start mining Ethereum, you’ll need to download Geth, which is the Go Ethereum client. Once you have Geth installed, you can join the main Ethereum network by running:

geth –rinkeby –syncmode “fast” –cache=1024 –ipcpath ~/.ethereum/geth.ipc console

This will synchronize your node with the Ethereum network and then open up the Geth JavaScript console where you can start interacting with the Ethereum network. To start mining, simply type in:

NOTE: WARNING: Mining Ethereum with Geth is an extremely technical process that requires advanced knowledge of the Ethereum blockchain and associated protocols. Before attempting to mine Ethereum, you should be prepared to understand how the Ethereum protocol works, how to configure the Geth software, and any additional software or hardware necessary for successful mining. Improperly setting up Geth and/or making incorrect assumptions about Ethereum mining can lead to serious financial losses. If you are not comfortable with this level of risk, please do not attempt to mine Ethereum with Geth.

miner.start(4)

This will start mining with 4 threads. You can increase or decrease this number depending on how many cores your CPU has. Once you’ve started mining, you can check your progress by running:

miner.hashrate

You should see your hashrate reported in MH/s (Mega hashes per second). Depending on your hardware, this number can be anywhere from 1 MH/s to 1000 MH/s or more.

If you want to stop mining, you can type in:

miner.stop()0x2a65aca4d5fc5b5c859090a6c34d164135398226.

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