Is it possible to mine DGB from my gaming desktop, or would that not be worth my time? If so, how would I go about doing that?
Yes it's possible to mine from your computer. One option is using the digihash miner, go to this webpage and read #3.
If you think the price will significantly increase, then it would be worth your time.
In the here and now, you'll spend more for the electricity to run your computer than you will make back in DGB.
6 questions for DGB team regarding MINING DGB:
1. Has any coin done this before or is this a first?
2. How many blocks do you get per month with a basic laptop ?
3. What algorithm is best and most powerful to choose for DGB?
4. How come DGB has 5 different algorithms ?
5. What is the best mining rig money can buy to mine DGB?
6. Isnt this unfair to people who cant afford fancy miner? - less reward..less often?
Although I'm not a member of the DGB development team, here are answers to your questions ...
1. Lots of coins have mining rewards. The answer is: "no." DigiByte was not the first to have mining rewards. I'm seriously trying to figure out if "this" means "this" or maybe "this" means "that" or something else. Grammatically, the first "this" in your first question refers to the "Mining DGB" in the title - and the second "this" refers back to the first "this" as an antecedent. Therefore, here is my second answer, "no" DGB is not the first to introduce the word "this." My best guess is you meant the pronoun "this" in terms of multi-algo mining. So, the question you didn't ask "if DGB was the first multi-algo coin?" ... again, the answer is no ... DGB was not the first multi-algo coin. DigiByte was the first to introduce "DigiShield" - which retargets difficulty levels to account for multi-pool mining. Several other coins (including coins with only one mining algorithm have integrated variations of DigiSheild).
2. The second question doesn't make sense. Mining rewards are not based on a regular reward schedule. When a person buys mining equipment they are not buying rewards - they are purchasing processing power - and more processing power is like buying more chances to realize rewards. But, there's no guarantee that a chance is a reward - more chances mean more chances (and thus more rewards - but it's not like buying DGB directly). You could use a mining calculator to figure out an estimate; the real rewards might be higher or lower in any given time period. My experience with mining DGB is that the rewards vary dramatically depending on many factors. To try to answer your question as best I can ... Unless you have a pretty fantastic graphics card included in the quote-unqoute basic laptop ... you probably wouldn't get any substantial rewards. Because a "basic laptop" will not come standard with a high end graphics card - you probably wouldn't get huge rewards.
3. The best choice of algorithm depends on the constraints of your mining hardware. I mine scrypt; I have an
4. DigiByte has 5 algorithms because 6 algorithms seemed like too many and 4 seemed like too few. Actually, DGB forked to multi-algo mining and used the foundation of myriad. It's not the same as myriad. But, we use the same algorithms.
5. Depends entirely on how much money you have to spend. For $15 to $25 dollars you can pick up a used Gridseed 5-chip or SHA USB block eruptor. For a few hundred you could buy a mid-range GPU. For $700 you could buy a great GPU. For $250 you could buy a good CPU for mining. For between $500 and $1000 you could buy a mid-level ASIC. For a couple of thousand you could buy the latest Bitmain.
6. I sometimes put little bows and ribbons on my miner - and tell it how special and fancy it is. I believe that telling my miner that it's fancy makes it more successful. Obviously, if the mining equipment feels fancy, it will be more effective at doing its job. However, if you're asking a question about cost of investment against cost of return ... here's a different answer. If we spend a few thousand dollars for mining equipment - then we're buying access to efficiency and higher processing power. With a substantial initial investment we will receive a competitive advantage that will result in higher rewards than someone who doesn't invest as much. It's not a question of fair or unfair. Any time a block is accepted it has the same chance of getting a block reward. The probability of reward doesn't increase with better equipment - the frequency does. DGB is fair. The DGB network does not distinguish between equipment - everyone has the same probability of solving any given block. The frequency of finding a block does increase. Higher processing power results in more blocks found per time interval. Spending more money on equipment means we're investing more for higher processing power and/or better efficiency - but it also means we have a higher threshold for returns. Your question is not a question about if DGB is fair. The DGB network is fair. Your question is about if economics is fair. The answer is: "economics fair in theory; but not in practice."
