So do you think that the standard 18.04 distro will work for GPU? Or would I need to install some specific CUDA software for 18.04?

I know it works for CPU (as long as you install g++).

In terms of GPU:

My impression is that 18.04 is required for Vanity Search. Is there a particular model of NVIDIA / CUDA that you (or anyone) would recommend?

From the NVIDIA site the options for Ubuntu 18.04 are:

    10.2-base, 10.2-base-ubuntu18.04 (10.2/base/Dockerfile)

    10.2-runtime, 10.2-runtime-ubuntu18.04 (10.2/runtime/Dockerfile)

    10.2-cudnn7-runtime, 10.2-cudnn7-runtime-ubuntu18.04 (10.2/runtime/cudnn7/Dockerfile)
    latest,

    10.2-devel, 10.2-devel-ubuntu18.04 (10.2/devel/Dockerfile)

    10.2-cudnn7-devel, 10.2-cudnn7-devel-ubuntu18.04 (10.2/devel/cudnn7/Dockerfile)

Thanks - again!

Thanks - I'm trying this now.

That seems much quicker!

What are the best options to use for maximum Mkeys/s output?

I assume that -u (search uncompressed addresses) is quicker than -b (search compressed and uncompressed addresses).

For -i (the input file) - I'm unclear about what's in that file. Is it just a list of prefixes you want e.g:
1abc
1def
1ghi
...

Or something else? I see people using input files with hundreds of lines but they don't post the content of those input files.

Can someone give an example, please?

Thanks for the information.

Is this on your computer or on a VPS? If it's a VPS, please could you let me know the company you use either in this thread or in a PM. Thanks.

Thank you for the helpful information.

I see my conceptual error. I have been imagining renting a GPU per month as is the case for CPU VPS's. Whereas, one is buying per hour and expecting very quick responses to queries (e.g. billions of keys/s) and thus not using  up very many hours.

Presumably GPU VPS's are the same to use as a CPU VPS e.g. the same Ubuntu OS. It's just that the hardware specs "behind the scenes" are different. Yes?

It is more of a research / curiosity question than trying to find something specific.

I was looking at the difficulty in generating vanity addresses with specific prefixes.

For example (at ~4Mkeys/s)

5 characters case sensitive - starting with a lower case (15,318,045,009 difficulty) - 50% takes about 40 minutes.
6 characters case sensitive - starting with a lower case (888,446,610,539 difficulty) - 50% takes about 36 hours.

So I was simply speculating as to how many Mkeys/s one could generate for a reasonable price. The VPS I use with 6 cores costs 35 euros/month.

Of course, a GPU will cost more - but how many times more? The cheapest GPU (35 cents/h) here (https://gpurental.com/) costs $250/month. The most expensive ($1.35/hour) costs $920/month. However, I don't have the experience to know what the specifications of the GPU actually mean.

Here is a cheaper example at $99/month (https://www.gpuserversrental.com/) using 6 x GTX 1050 2GB.

So they are not hugely expensive though the price ranges far more so than for a CPU-based VPS.

Thank you for your comments.

I am currently using the VanitySearch program. I've tried four such programs and this is the most effective.

Would, in your opinion, using a dedicated CPU VPS be viable? Or is it more "any kind of CPU is a bad idea."

Are there any GPU based VPS that you can recommend? I have looked around and they seem highly expensive.

Would some kind of EC2 type thing work?

I hope I have placed this technical question in the correct section. I simply do not know where else to put it.

This is a question about generating vanity addresses (not mining): generating keys until you get the result you want.

I rent a Ubuntu VPS with 6 cores. This is not a dedicated server. Currently I get a speed of about 2.8Mkeys/s.

My understanding is, that in a shared VPS model, the overall CPU and memory are shared across all users. So I have my own IP but the capability of the resources I use depends on what other users are doing (with other IP addresses). That's why my speed can vary (it has been as high as 4.5Mkeys/s and as low as 2.1Mkeys/s).

What do you think would be the most cost effective way to generate a higher number of Mkeys/s?

A dedicated server with a certain number of CPU cores (how many cores?)

And what's the difference between KVM or OpenVZ VPS's? My impression is that KVM is superior but why?

Thank you.

As the title says. I have used Bitcoin Blender but it closed. There are many scams out there.

I would like a reliable mixer / tumbler.

Many thanks.

Can anyone suggest a website where people can sell their services e.g. programming in exchange for crypto?

I was very impressed by xbtfreelancer.com but they are not allowing new sign-ups. I tried them a few months ago and had the same problem.

If you hire people, where do you post?

Did she speak to her sister and ask her "give me my money back?"

Well this is true but if you plan to sell an alt-coin quickly (if the price rises) it's easier to keep them on an exchange and set a sell order than transfer them to a wallet on your computer.

Now the bitcoin prices are $10000 and it will take a lot of investment to touch million mark in holdings. I am still adding some money every month and will be content with total worth of about $100000.

There are a lot of issue in buying BTC with PayPal. It is hard to find a seller interested and he will ask for escrow most of the times which results in additional fees.

I think you are paying very less amount for Facebook likes . For 200 likes it should be minimum $20.

Yes,  I think in addition to fixed number of merits to reach a rank, there should also be a requirement to earn some merits very year to maintain rank. This should be enforced for senior rank members first.

In my country, you can get unlimited electricity for $10 per month in villages. Problem is that there is power cut for 12 hours a day.

In addition to the methods you mentioned, you can also spread your investments in multiple exchanges to remain safe. In case one exchange is hacked, your investment in other ones will be safe.

You will not be able to rank up. Highest you will go is to Junior member on completing 30 activity.