Topic: Brand new to Bitcoin Mining. Wondering what the dos and don'ts are for a newb. (Read 1807 times)

To begin, you need to make sure that you read up on Mining first and how it works. Calculate all electricity costs and future profit margins before investing in an Antminer, etc. Example: when will you break even (roughly). It should be asked so you have a forecast of expenditures vs profits.

From your description of mining, I can tell you have it confused. It's very complicated so, again, I suggest you read and watch videos on it (many topics on the forum here that go into plenty of details). But basically, to make it short, your wallet has nothing to do with mining. You can send and receive transactions on it, but that's all. In order to mine on your computer you must have the correct software and be able to connect to a pool where your computer will begin. What it does is it just confirms other users' transactions that they sent. However, mining on a computer is virtually useless nowadays. The difficulty is far too high along with all the other users who are participating in the network and the amount of Bitcoin in circulation. Honestly, a really good computer would probably earn about ten cents worth of Bitcoin in a week, when their electricity bill will tally well over $50 by the end of the month. Waste of time and money.

If you wish to make a little more and eventually be able to break even, try researching the Antminers. They require investment, but will actually be able to earn you some Bitcoin. Eventually, after a little bit, you'll be able to break even as well.

Just make sure you read all the forums and reviews and everything you can find on Mining first before investments. It will help you gain a lot of knowledge and will help you decide whether mining is for you. IMHO mining is not for me so I earn all my money trading, but perhaps you've got a good setup. Do the research.

Based on your post I can see you're completely new, so I'd recommend watching some yt videos that explain the process of mining.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmOzih6I1zs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7opj5-32hw
These are quite old, but the process is still the same, you just need a newer, better hardware.

Bitcoin wallet software is not the same as bitcoin mining.

 Bitcoin MINING to have a prayer of actually earning anything is run on Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) based hardware, that is far far more efficient than any general-purpose computer hardware can be for Bitcoin mining.

 For perspective - the BEST currently-available GPUs for mining Bitcoin with might manage 1-2 GigaHash for mining Bitcoin at a power consumption in the 200+ watt range.
The Antminer S9 ASIC based miner achieves well over 10,000 (TEN THOUSAND) GigaHash mining Bitcoin at a ballpark 1300 watt power consumption.

 Even the 2 generation old Antminer S5 (and it's direct competition the SPondoolies SP20E) manged over 1100 GigaHash at a power consumption of around 600 watts - and THOSE under current conditions are money LOSERS unless you have VERY VERY cheap or free electric cost (they MIGHT break-even at 3 cents/KWH electric cost, I've not crunched the numbers for a while).


 Trying to mine Bitcoin on a computer is a total waste of time effort and money at this point.
 You have a better chance of break-even by putting the money into lottery tickets.

This is quite interesting thanks for the link. Why only those kind of devices, surely a hard drive and processor should be enough to start Bit mining; what program do you use to actually perform the bit mining if not the Bitcoin software? As far as I understood it, once the database is up to date and you are actively updating the bitcoin ledger, surely you should start having a chance of mining bitcoin? Is there a step by step guide to setting up a bitmining rig on the cheap? Why is there a hardware limitation?

No. You have understood it all wrong.
Read this for start https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining
That wiki has all kind of information about bitcoin and bitcoin mining.
Also there is a lot of existing threads here at the forum for you to find info from.

Bitcoin mining today is done with ASIC hardware, for example Bitmain Antminer S9 or Canaan Creative AvalonMiner721.

This is my first post ever so hopefully I'm not breaking any forum rules, but as far as I understand it, downloading the Bitcoin software, updating the database and running the database is all that's required for Bitcoin Mining.

Does this mean that if I install multiple Bitcoin software on a multiple of hard drives all with the same IP address that I will have a slightly (ever so slightly) higher chance of mining a Bitcoin?

Again, I am a super noob to everything to do with Bitcoin. I understand how it works and why it is so great a currency system but I'd like to get into mining as a pass time.

Thanks in advanced for any help with my questions!