Mining on Testnet4: Strategies and Issues

I figured we should chat about mining on Testnet4 without cluttering the main threads. Let's hear what everyone's thinking.

Dude, there's no doubt he has a higher hashrate. This isn’t meant for CPU mining unless they change the algo, which hasn't happened. It's gonna suffer the same fate as Testnet3 with people blasting it with ASICs.

How can you be so sure? He's mining at difficulty=1. That seems too simple, right?

Exactly, if no blocks get found for 20 minutes, it can be mined at difficulty=1. But I need to find a good comparison page for Testnet3 vs Testnet4. I heard something about the block storm attack being fixed.

Current difficulty on Testnet is like 121M. You need to hit that to validate your block, but there’s a loophole some are using. If 20 minutes pass, they can submit at 1 difficulty.

So that means if no blocks are mined for 20 minutes, you can actually mine at 1, but only then. But look at that guy who mines with 121M difficulty. Once he mines one, he grabs the next few.

Yeah, but I think he’s running multiple nodes. If he propagates a high diff block through his other nodes, that’s sketchy. You could check the blocks your node gets to see what’s going on.

Is it possible to mine on a MacBook Pro during the night? Looking to get some coins without using faucets. Any mining pools for Testnet4?

You might luck out and get a block if the timing’s right. But there's this dude monopolizing tBTC minting, using a CPU but probably flips on an ASIC when others join.

Been mining on Testnet4 with a private pool for a few days, and I’ve hit 3 blocks with 3Ths. But those difficulty=1 blocks? Never see them unless my share’s high enough.

Why are people spamming TestNet with hashrate? Testing software should be about finding a few blocks and stopping. Tried mining with 1Th/s and got nowhere in three days.

We really need a pool that shares rewards for smaller miners. That could change everything. I used to run a pool ages ago, thinking about starting a new P2Pool.

They probably spam it because it’s profitable. Testnet coins have some value now, so you need enough hashrate to find blocks and split shares.

I’m solo mining and finding blocks with 1-1.7 PH from Mining Rig Rentals, but it’s frustrating not being able to share with the smaller miners.

Yeah you can do that but it’s tricky. If you see CPU-mined blocks and no ASIC blocks, just timestamp your new block right after the last ASIC one to reorganize.

I checked why there are so many empty blocks on Testnet4. Difficulty needs a tweak. Instead of dropping to 1 after 20 mins, what if we halved it?

I talked to the miner doing this nonsense. He’s just exploiting the system. If you change the rules too much, someone will definitely game it.

Difficulty doesn’t just drop to 1 without someone finding that block first. 20 minutes is a long wait, and it’s tough for even ASICs sometimes.

So people are breaking transactions on purpose to prove a point? Dividing by 2 could help, but it could also backfire.

Gotta make sure your transactions are actually being sent out, not just showing up on an explorer. If you alter the block header, you might create a hard-fork.