Searching for a Record

Here are the instructions to look for large prime constellations and attempt new records using the rieMiner\'s Search Mode, or via mining. We assume that you already downloaded rieMiner or built it.

Preliminary remarks

You should have a recent (less than 3 years) and high-end processor (at least 8 cores) if you want to try to beat records, as it would take a lot of time to find a record with slow processor. Look at the rieMiner benchmarks to have an idea of how different CPUs perform. Having 16 GiB or more is also recommended (especially if you mine shorter tuples, but for longer constellations 8 or even 4 GiB could be enough).

Please note that in this competition, luck is involved (the appearance of prime constellations of a certain length can be modeled as a Poisson Process). We can precisely estimate the average time to find a constellation of a certain length or how much time is needed to have 50% chance to find one, but there is no way to predict when exactly you will find a record. You may be lucky and find one pretty quickly, as well as having bad luck and not finding anything during several multiples of the estimated average time, that is part of the game!

The Search Mode is offline and independent of the Riecoin network. You will not find any Riecoin block nor get payouts, though you can check if there is a bounty for beating a record. Alternatively, you can also do usual mining and configure rieMiner using the tips on this page in order to find records.

The list of records is maintained by a hobbyist, Norman Luhn, and can be found here. He is the person to contact if you find a new record, and you are of course encouraged to share your result to the Riecoin community!

Prime constellation pattern and Difficulty choice

There is one record for every prime constellation pattern, so you have to choose one. The choice can be based on personal preference, or whether the record would be easier or in contrary more challenging and rewarding to beat. Shorter tuples are more suited for systems with a lot of cores (more than 16) and memory while longer ones can cause a lot of CPU Underuse and reduce the efficiency of many cores.

Constellations having different patterns but the same length are as hard to find, so we tend to care less about the actual pattern and only consider their lengths for the record. To find out the Difficulty setting for searching, check the records pages and convert the number of digits of the chosen record to number of bits ("digits" in base 2), and add some margin.

rieMiner Configuration

Now, you must configure rieMiner with a rieMiner.conf file next to the rieMiner binary. Here is a template.

Mode = Search
Difficulty = 600
ConstellationPattern = 0, 2, 4, 2, 4, 6, 2, 6, 4, 2

It is strongly recommended to tune rieMiner, read the tuning guide to get the best performance. Also read the README.md to see more options for the configuration file.

Search

You should now be ready to look for a record. Good luck!

If you are looking for a k-tuple, do not discard the (k − 1)-tuples as you can submit them as well and usually get easy top 10 submissions (they also act as consolation prizes in case you are unlucky and do not find a k-tuple). They will also be shown in the miner. By default, these tuples will be saved in a Tuples.txt file next to the binary.

Submit a record

Did you find a record? Congratulations! Contact Norman Luhn on the Riecoin Forum or via the email is given on his page. Do not forget to mention that you found the record with rieMiner so it gets credited.

Note that you may be asked to prove that your numbers are really prime (rieMiner only makes probabilistic Fermat tests). In this case you can look for such prime proving software or ask in the #competition channel in Discord.

Mining for a Record

Riecoin accepts 7-tuplets since the second fork for the PoW. Both patterns 0, 2, 6, 8, 12, 18, 20 and 0, 2, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20 are accepted and rieMiner chooses to mine one of them at random if no choice was made. Such constellations could be part of a longer one in both cases, from k = 8 to k = 15. However, rieMiner is not yet written to support the second case yet if you want to beat a record (for example 0, 2, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20 could be part of 0, 6, 8, 14, 18, 20, 24, 26, add 6 to the offsets of the 7-tuple). So for now, you can only choose patterns that start with 0, 2, 6, 8, 12, 18, 20 for this.

To know whether a record is possible, you must look at the current difficulty, and see starting from which length it beats the record. For example, if the current difficulty is 1100, it will be lower for 8-tuples, but finding a 9-tuple at such difficulty would beat the record. Then, you must choose the correct pattern (note that in the configuration file, the offsets are offset differences and not just offsets from start).

Once done, rieMiner will look for these tuples. This will reduce the mining efficiency, however you will have a chance to get a record and there are some bounties to earn! If you do not configure rieMiner for a longer tuple, it is still possible that it eventually finds a 8-tuple or longer, but the probability of this happening would be significantly lower.

To mine for a record, just use your pooled or solo mining configuration file and simply append the chosen constellation pattern, like

ConstellationPattern = 0, 2, 4, 2, 4, 6, 2, 6, 4, 2

Apply the tips above, and good luck!