Estimating CPU Hashrate for Mining the Genesis Block

Looking to figure out how much it cost to mine the Genesis Block for a research paper. Got this hashrate of around 8228 h/s. 1- Took the time difference between the timestamps of Genesis and block#1, which is 506,360 seconds (5.86 days). 2- The nonce for the Genesis block is 2083236893, meaning Satoshi did 4,166,473,786 sha-256 operations (incrementing nonce and doubling the SHA256). Hoping my math checks out.

Cool question! From what I found, back in 2011, people were mining at about 65kHash/s on one thread using some basic C program, not even Bitcoin Core. In 2008, the hashrate could've been much lower, maybe around 10kHash/s. Satoshi could've been using a laptop too, so who knows. Just saying, your calculations depend on a few assumptions for sure.

Yeah, I can see a few issues with those assumptions. First off, you’re assuming the timestamps are perfect, which is a big if. Also, thinking that Satoshi just started at nonce=0 and went up by 1 is kinda naive. Not to mention the CPU back then didn’t have hardware for SHA256, so it was all done in software, likely C. Thanks for putting this together!

But considering it’s the Genesis block and Satoshi was solo mining, are those factors really a big deal? No competition, right? Also, I’m new here. Is there a way to move this discussion to the Development & Technical section or should I just delete it and start over?

Timestamp adjustments can totally happen, regardless of competition. Not sure why Satoshi would’ve gone that route though. Your assumptions seem reasonable but it’s a tricky topic. As for moving topics, most forums let you do that in the corner area, I think.

The Genesis block does state the earliest possible date it could be mined. Check the coinbase signature. Bitcoin rules limit timestamp values too. When timestamps come up, remember it’s not always when the block was mined; it’s about when the pool sent it or adjusted it. Nowadays, timestamp adjustments aren’t needed as much because of stratum.