https://altquick.com/exchange/market/BitcoinTestnet
Little necro, but extremely relevant to the question.
Topic: Where to get large amount of testnet coins? (~2.5BTC) (Read 1037 times)
Mm right, that's a pity. If / when I'll be building and testing my own miner, I will then probably just change that constant and recompile it so that I can achieve e.g. a 1 minute block time to verify that the device is working as expected. But it would be cool if it was self-adjusting like mainnet every 2016 blocks. Maybe even with an optional flag that sets the block time target (e.g. 1 minute for testing purposes instead of 10).
We have 4 networks (I'm not familiar with Signet so I will skip it).- MainNet where difficulty adjusts each 2016 blocks
- TestNet where difficulty adjusts each 2016 blocks but on every block the time is checked and if there weren't any new blocks in the past 20 minutes it falls down to minimum difficulty = 1
- RegTest where there is no difficulty adjustment and the target stays at lowest value to allow blocks to be mined within seconds
Each of these networks serve a different purpose, eg. TestNet is there to mimic the MainNet but at the same time we don't want to cause a huge gap between blocks if difficulty were high and nobody was mining it anymore. RegTest is there to allow you to quickly acquire any amount of [test]bitcoin and be able to test anything without needing to experience a bottleneck caused by mining.
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Can't you just increase the difficulty? Actually, it should self-adjust in Bitcoin, after 2016 blocks.
It is fixed to 0x207fffff for regtest, you can try mining 10k blocks by running: "generatetoaddress 10000 YourAddress" and check difficulty for the latest block.
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Can't you just increase the difficulty? Actually, it should self-adjust in Bitcoin, after 2016 blocks.
It is fixed to 0x207fffff for regtest, you can try mining 10k blocks by running: "generatetoaddress 10000 YourAddress" and check difficulty for the latest block. Quote
Then I would probably just setup regtest and mine in there. (not sure if this is possible but I think you can mine on regtest)
It is possible even if you use CPU for mining, but when I tried it, I had a lot of stale blocks, because the difficulty was too easy and mining was faster than sending blocks to the clients.Is there any good reason why so many miners are apparently mining it?
They must have an incentive. I can't really believe that paying the hosting of a faucet website plus the mining costs are less than the ad revenue, but they must have a profit somehow, otherwise they wouldn't mine. That profit may not be translated into money.Is there any good reason why so many miners are apparently mining it?
They must have an incentive. I can't really believe that paying the hosting of a faucet website plus the mining costs are less than the ad revenue, but they must have a profit somehow, otherwise they wouldn't mine. That profit may not be translated into money.Quote
Then I would probably just setup regtest and mine in there. (not sure if this is possible but I think you can mine on regtest)
It is possible even if you use CPU for mining, but when I tried it, I had a lot of stale blocks, because the difficulty was too easy and mining was faster than sending blocks to the clients. Here's relevant post. IMO their motivation is either data collection or disrupt Bitcoin development. Claiming "free" token/coin usually require your email address and accessing their website (which means they obtain your browser fingerprint). On extreme case, they might ask for KYC verification.
Data collection would mean they get really a lot of money for a few stats about their site's visitors. Again, not sure a few ads and browser information is really worth more than mining and giving away worthless test coins. Disrupting BTC development makes a bit more sense to me since it's not monetary, like BlackHat said. I have had a small web search for 'buying testnet coins' and it yielded nothing, so I don't think that's how they make their money back.Quote
not sure if it has some limitation that would incentivize using testnet instead
The only serious limitation in signet I can think of is mining.
They must have an incentive. I can't really believe that paying the hosting of a faucet website plus the mining costs are less than the ad revenue, but they must have a profit somehow, otherwise they wouldn't mine. That profit may not be translated into money.
Interesting thought; however I'm not sure what else could motivate them.. Do you have anything particular in mind (even if just pure speculation)?Here's relevant post. IMO their motivation is either data collection or disrupt Bitcoin development. Claiming "free" token/coin usually require your email address and accessing their website (which means they obtain your browser fingerprint). On extreme case, they might ask for KYC verification.
Please don't give TNBTC to people who are just hoovering it up to paid by defi scams based on it.
Real testing just needs tiny amount, the people who "need" large amounts are selling it. (technically trading it for defi testnet defi tokens which they expect to get converted into real value once that scams they are participating in go live).
This abusive and anti-social behaviour has made it hard for people to get testnet for actual bitcoin testing because they've drained all the faucets and conned the people that have historically given it out out of theirs.
It's also forcing bitcoin development to abandon testnet for testing.
Real testing just needs tiny amount, the people who "need" large amounts are selling it. (technically trading it for defi testnet defi tokens which they expect to get converted into real value once that scams they are participating in go live).
This abusive and anti-social behaviour has made it hard for people to get testnet for actual bitcoin testing because they've drained all the faucets and conned the people that have historically given it out out of theirs.
It's also forcing bitcoin development to abandon testnet for testing.
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not sure if it has some limitation that would incentivize using testnet instead
The only serious limitation in signet I can think of is mining. You can only get coins from faucets created by signet developers. You cannot mine a single block on your own. Or rather: you can mine it, but you cannot sign it. Also, you can do one block reorg, because nonce is not signed, but then the next signed block will resolve that and all nodes will follow the right chain. 
Interesting thought; however I'm not sure what else could motivate them.. Do you have anything particular in mind (even if just pure speculation)?
Well they have to either sell them in a market or use them in a way to have a greater income than outcome. Since I don't believe in the latter, I'd bet that there're people who buy them. Still, at the moment each block gives a tiny amount of coins, but it's too expensive. I can't really speculate anything farer.
I remember I had created this thread back when I had more, similar queries: What's the point of mining testnet bitcoins?
Is there any good reason why so many miners are apparently mining it?
They must have an incentive. I can't really believe that paying the hosting of a faucet website plus the mining costs are less than the ad revenue, but they must have a profit somehow, otherwise they wouldn't mine. That profit may not be translated into money.Quote
The moment when tBTC is sold and bitcoin community know it, there will be discussion to abandon testnet 3 network and create testnet 4 network 
There is "testnet 4" called signet that is used now, because of blockstorms and other testnet issues. Getting large amount of signet coins is easier than testnet coins, so testing in signet should be easier. Also, the only reason why someone would need huge amounts of that coins is just for paying minimum transaction fees. But assuming zero satoshi outputs and one satoshi per byte fees, that means every 0.01 tBTC is enough to create 1 MB of test transactions. That means 2.5 tBTC is enough to send 250 MB of test transactions. But then, does someone really need to put 250 MB on-chain? Or maybe that amount of data could be lowered by using Lightning Network inside testnet?Regarding the name: I find it good that it's not called testnet4, because it's actually really not a 'new testnet'
It has a few notable changes and is not just a newly setup 'testnet' with new genesis block, like testnet 1 through 3 were. Quote
The moment when tBTC is sold and bitcoin community know it, there will be discussion to abandon testnet 3 network and create testnet 4 network
There is "testnet 4" called signet that is used now, because of blockstorms and other testnet issues. Getting large amount of signet coins is easier than testnet coins, so testing in signet should be easier. Also, the only reason why someone would need huge amounts of that coins is just for paying minimum transaction fees. But assuming zero satoshi outputs and one satoshi per byte fees, that means every 0.01 tBTC is enough to create 1 MB of test transactions. That means 2.5 tBTC is enough to send 250 MB of test transactions. But then, does someone really need to put 250 MB on-chain? Or maybe that amount of data could be lowered by using Lightning Network inside testnet? Is there any good reason why so many miners are apparently mining it?
They must have an incentive. I can't really believe that paying the hosting of a faucet website plus the mining costs are less than the ad revenue, but they must have a profit somehow, otherwise they wouldn't mine. That profit may not be translated into money.Or maybe it just has a different difficulty target / other parameters that were chosen?
It has the same difficulty parameters. Check chainparams.cpp#L180. Absurdly, mining testnet bitcoins is really expensive. Currently, it has a difficulty of 61681740.29071233 which means it has a target of:
To be honest; I was wondering about mining tBTC myself a while back and I was astonished how the difficulty can be so high, even though there is no monetary reward for mining it. Is there any good reason why so many miners are apparently mining it? Or maybe it just has a different difficulty target / other parameters that were chosen? Code:
0x0000000000000045a14a00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
What about mining them?
Absurdly, mining testnet bitcoins is really expensive. Currently, it has a difficulty of 61681740.29071233 which means it has a target of:
Code:
0x0000000000000045a14a00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Your odds of generating such hash are ~0.00000000000000037% or 1 in ~264,925,099,745,189,347. This isn't meant to be accomplished from a CPU/GPU. You'll need to work on a pool, but your rewards won't be big. Currently, each block generates only 0.1 tBTC.
If you want some tBTC to make testings, I'm running a forum faucet: [Merit] [Faucet] Hey Bitcoiners! Wanna try out the lightning network?
What about mining them? Is much hashpower needed or they can be mined with a PC?
Are there public pools available?
Are there public pools available?
Did anybody ever determine what was up with the trend of people asking for large amounts of testnet coins? People are asking again... I'm wondering if it is to participate in an airdrop, token sales or some kind of giveaway... Maybe they are scammers looking to pull a tBTC/BTC switcharoo. Anyway I could sworn I saw a thread with an explanation somewhere but I can't find it.
it was mostly the airdrop thing; some bastard started a trend that DeFi scams needed testnet bitcoin, people were claiming tbtc to get the shittoken. that created a lot of demand for a while and that ended but the trend is not.there is also always a rare type of scam where they try to sell tbtc to newbies, but this is rarely successful since tbtc requires a different wallet, explorer,... and there is a ton of warning and indicators that alerts the newbies.
i have also seen some developers say they want to "test" their application but i am not yet convinced that they need large amounts since i have not seen any actual test that couldn't be done in another way without even needing any coins!
Did anybody ever determine what was up with the trend of people asking for large amounts of testnet coins? People are asking again... I'm wondering if it is to participate in an airdrop, token sales or some kind of giveaway... Maybe they are scammers looking to pull a tBTC/BTC switcharoo. Anyway I could sworn I saw a thread with an explanation somewhere but I can't find it.
I see some people try to buy it (and you know if there are buyers, there are sellers) tBTC. tBTC is zero-value on the market, in theory. In reality, such testnet bitcoin is not from the air and people have to spend mining cost to mine it.The total lost tBTC is likely much higher than the total amount of lost BTC. People are less backup their private keys for tBTC and lost it.
You can check the testnet statistics there https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/testnet. The total hashrate of testnet is at 8,259,552.00, not low.
Sum up:
- Mining cost (expensive, not cheap)
- Huge lost tBTC from its total supply
- The naively thought for the future that sometime in next few decades, people will use tBTC and trade it when price of BTC is extremely high
Did anybody ever determine what was up with the trend of people asking for large amounts of testnet coins? People are asking again... I'm wondering if it is to participate in an airdrop, token sales or some kind of giveaway... Maybe they are scammers looking to pull a tBTC/BTC switcharoo. Anyway I could sworn I saw a thread with an explanation somewhere but I can't find it.
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