Archive for the ‘General Info’ Category

New Raspberry Pi 3 Announced, Faster and with WiFi and Bluetooth

29, Feb 2016

raspberry-pi-3-model-b

Most crypto currency miners should be very familiar with the Raspberry Pi, the small and inexpensive Linux-based “computer” that is often used to run big ASIC miners without the need of a dedicated powerful PC. The RPi however can be used for other things such as running a full Bitcoin or other crypto currency node with the help of a large USB drive or running a wallet for PoS for example. So the announcement of a new faster Raspberry Pi 3 could be of interest to a lot of people, especially considering the fact that the new model comes with built-in WiFi and the price remains the same as with the old model 2 – $35 USD, with the RPi 2 still available for anyone that needs it.

Raspberry Pi 3 Specifications:
– Processor: Broadcom BCM2387 chipset, 1.2GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A53, 802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1 (Bluetooth Classic and LE)
– GPU: Dual Core VideoCore IV Multimedia Co-Processor. Provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode. Capable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24GFLOPs with texture filtering and DMA infrastructure
– Memory: 1GB LPDDR2
– Operating System: Boots from Micro SD card, running a version of the Linux operating system or Windows 10 IoT
– Dimensions: 85 x 56 x 17mm
– Power: Micro USB socket 5V, 2.5A

Raspberry Pi 3 Connectors:
– Ethernet: 10/100 BaseT Ethernet socket
– Video: Output HDMI (rev 1.3 & 1.4 Composite RCA (PAL and NTSC)
– Audio Output: Audio Output 3.5mm jack, HDMI,
– USB: 4 x USB 2.0 Connector
– GPIO Connector: 40-pin 2.54 mm (100 mil) expansion header: 2×20 strip providing 27 GPIO pins as well as +3.3 V, +5 V and GND supply lines
– Camera Connector: 15-pin MIPI Camera Serial Interface (CSI-2)
– Display Connector: Display Serial Interface (DSI) 15 way flat flex cable connector with two data lanes and a clock lane
– Memory Card Slot: Push/pull Micro SDIO

The dimensions and layout of the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B are the same as with the RPi 2 Model B including the connectors, so it should be compatible as a direct replacement for the older unit if you are already using it for a project. The faster CPU can be a good upgrade for tasks requiring more processing power such as running a crypto currency node, the GPU is the same as with the old model, but clocked higher and you get WiFi and Bluetooth built-in for easier wireless network and peripheral connectivity.

– For more details about the announcement of the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B…

Check Out the YoBit Altcoin Cryptocurrency Exchange

28, Feb 2016

yobit-altcoin-exchange

There are quite a lot of large crypto currency exchanges that are focused on the mail crypto currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, DOGE and a few more. When talking about altcoins however there are not that much options available that have a large number of coins available for trading, especially when talking about more recent coin launches. The first two large ones that come in mind are of course Bittrex and Poloniex, but getting an altcoin listed there and keeping it long term may not be that easy. So here comes YoBit, one of the biggest altcoin exchanges at the moment that currently has 467 active trading pairs and and some daily trading volume on at least half of them.

It is not just an crypto currency exchange however, as on YoBit you also have a built-in Dice game that seems to support all currencies in the exchange, free coin giveaways for many coins with the ability to claim free coins as well as to donate coins for the giveaways, there is even a coin info database to help you easily find more information for an altcoin you might not be familiar with. The exchange is also running coin ICOs as well as has free and paid listing options available for including new coins, something that can be useful for new coin developers that want to get their new project up and running on an exchange.

– For more information and check out the YoBit altcoin cryptocurrency exchange…

How to Keep Track of the Different Bitcoin Nodes

27, Feb 2016

nodecounter

One of the main things that has pushed the development of alternatives to the Bitcoin Core software is the ongoing debate about the blocksize and more specifically if and how it should evolve over time in order to cope up with the growing number of Bitcoin users and the increase of the number of transactions. So now apart from Bitcoin Core we also have Bitcoin Classic, Bitcoin Unlimited and Bitcoin XT as major alternatives and there are already quite a lot of nodes running a different software than the Core one. The website Node Counter allows you to easily keep track of the number of different nodes in the Bitcoin network and what version of the Bitcoin software they are running as well as how things are changing over time. Looking at the graphs we can clearly see that the support for 2MB or larger blocksize is growing, but still the number of Core nodes that are keeping the 1MB blocksize is a few times larger. Bitcoin Classic is getting significant increase in support and is currently with about 1/4 of the size of the number of Core nodes, followed by Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Unlimited that have been recently loosing support most likely in favor of the Classic implementation. If you are interested in how thing are developing you can keep track on Node Counter or another of the many new websites with similar goal that have popped up recently.

– Visit the website Node Counter for more details about the available different Bitcoin nodes…


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