Topic: Hi I'm new, I have a few quick questions - page 2. (Read 3376 times)

Okay d/led poclbm from here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/gui-mining-updated-dec-3-with-7970-bugfix-also-supports-stratum-3878

I clicked the guiminer exe after I extracted and it gave me an error saying something about OpenCL and if I have an ATI card(which I do) something about SDK?

What else do I need to do to get working? Any help is much appreciated.

That sounds like the best way to go for me since I already have python on my computer. Do you have a d/l link by any chance? Is it pretty easy to use?

You have to use a separate miner, like m0mchil's poclbm.py.  Your 4850 should generate around 1 BTC per day, based on the current difficulty level.  If you do solo mining, you will get a block on average once every 50 days.  If you join a mining pool, you'll get a little less than that, but in a steady stream rather than a whole block (50 BTC) at once.  You can think of mining receipts as a reward for supporting and protecting the network.

The bitcoin software does not use the GPU.

Wow, thanks for the donation! I'll go check out the mining section right now, I only have a 4850 though. Also, how do I use my GPU instead of my CPU? I couldn't find anything in the settings and options. Or does the Bitcoin program use GPU already by default?

Welcome to the community.  I rounded up your Bitcoin balance with a small donation.  There's a whole section of the forum just on Mining, so you'll have to plod through that to get a feel of what is involved in successful mining.  Basically, you need an ATI 5XXX or 6XXX graphics card and a machine you don't mind leaving on 24/7.

As to what you can market for Bitcoins, it would be just about anything you currently possess or can offer as a service.  In addition to the Marketplace section, check BiddingPond.com and bitcoin-otc.com.

Generating is trying to create a block. If you create a block, you generate 50 new bitcoins for yourself. It is very difficult to generate a block: it'll take you more than two years on average to generate a block with only 4500 khash/s. So it's not really "too good to be true".

khash/s is kilohashes per second, or 1000 hashes per second. You'll have more hashes per second with faster hardware, and especially with GPUs. More hash/s makes it more likely that you'll create a block.

See:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block

Hi, I just installed bitcoins and got my free 0.05 BTC yesterday(what a nice guy who runs that site BTW). I was a little confused on how generating works, it doesn't generate you free bitcoins does it? That seems too good to be true. It is generating bitcoins into the community as a whole is what I'm thinking? On that same note, what exactly does generating a block do, I read a couple FAQs/wiki but I'm still a little hazy on what exactly that does.

Also, from lurking the forums for a bit today I see a lot of people talking about their khash, so I'm guessing its important. Mine is around 4200-4500 khash/s. Is that good?

I've also seen that using your GPU instead of your CPU is better, how do I do that?

Also, what's a good way to get started making bitcoins? I seen the market section, I think I might try selling my Steam account with Black Ops on it(played it for a week then went back to CoD4 lol). But other than that I'm drawing a blank since I'm completely new to the community and don't know anybody. Any ideas would be welcome.

And finally I'd just like to say I think the philosophy behind bitcoins is awesome. One of my favorite documentaries of all time is Bill Still's 'The Money Masters', which chronicles the evils of central banks and fractional reserve lending.