Topic: So I'm running a headless rig. how do I get the coins from a pool? (Read 944 times)

how do you create a new wallet without the client?  Thanks alot btw, very helpful so far in helping me get set up.

Well the client may create a new address but your coins are sent to the "old" addrress.  Still the first part is right on the money/coins. 

The block chain is a record of where all the coins are at.  For example 123 coins at address A, 999 coins at address B, etc.
The wallet coins the public keys (which aren't secret) and private keys (which are).  The public key allows the wallet to lookup in the block chain to see if any of those addresses have coins (value >0).  The private keys ensure only the holder of the private key can "spend" or technically move coins attached to those addresses.

So yes if you have 100 BTC sent to Address A and you take a copy of wallet.dat, install it on a new machine, let that machine download the blockchain your coins will "show up" there.


It certainly is possible.  Remember in Bitcoin he who controls the private key OWNS the coins.  If the pool walked away with your coins they are gone.  No way to ever get them back.  Technically although the pool may show your balance is 123 coins as long as they are in wallet the pool controls for all intents and purposes they are the pools.  Personally I wouldn't leave coins at the pool.


Yes although technically you don't even need the client to create a new wallet.

Yes that will work.  It is sometimes called "cold storage". 

Your wallet doesn't need to be online in order to receive coins because the value of addresses are stored in the blockchain.
You could check on the value of your address by using the block explorer (just enter your address and you can see the current value at any time).

I would make more than one backup (w/ encrypted wallet file).  If the copy of your wallet is lost, corrupt, or you forget the passphrase then those coins are gone forever.  Remember the person who has the private key can move the coins and if nobody has the private key well then those coins will never move ever again.

One other quick noob question. The address is only for people to transfer coins, once the transfer has actually occurred and been confirmed, the "keys" are in the wallet. So technically, you just copy the wallet.dat and then could load it on a new bitcoin client installed on any machine, which creates a new address and once you load the blockchain, your coins would show up again.


Correct?

I like the idea of storing the coins at the pool, any real security reason not to do this besides the pool operator running off with them? Or is that even possible?

BTW, I have read the security guide stickied above, the wiki's etc. not just trying to take the easy way, but the security aspect does have me a bit confused. Basically, I only plan on offloading coins every few months to help pay down some of my hardware costs, but I anticipate saving most of the coins I mine and don't want them to get ripped off.

Let's say you get 100 coins in a particular wallet file, could you just copy that file to a usb drive, remove it, delete the one on the computer and let the bitcoin client create a new wallet.dat?

Basically have a few usb drives(backed up of course) with multiple wallet.dats with different amounts of coins?

Then just load a particular wallet when you want to trade?

^^ This

If you already have coins in a wallet on your miners, I would just setup a new wallet/client on the computer you want it on, then transfer coins from your wallet on your miners to your new client's address. Then in your pool's mining account, just set the payout address to be your new clients address.

Do all your trading from there...leaving the miners free to do what they do best

Wait I think you are confused.

If you are mining @ a pool you don't even need ANY wallet on your rigs.  The pool simply asks you for an address to get your BTC. You can give them an address for a wallet running on a non-rig (like laptop) or give them your exchange deposit address and just send the coins directly there.

A miner doesn't need a wallet.

I suggest that you look at a pool's guide to mining. Your mining computer runs software specifically for mining Bitcoins. You contribute work to the pool, and as the pool finds blocks, your account balance at the pool goes up. You can withdraw the bitcoins you've earned from the pool when you want, or you can set it up for automatic withdraws. You withdraw the coins to your own personal Bitcoin address, which can be Bitcoin running on any computer you want; you don't need multiple wallets or anything like that.

Thanks for the advice and the issue with the cpu bug. Was almost considering buying a 45watt dual core to avoid it, but I suppose that would not have solved my issue...lol.

I'm glad bitcoin isn't easy, beside being behind a decentralized currency, In have enjoyed learning about linux, security, economics, etc.

Even if people aren't interested in mining or buying/using bitcoins, it would be very educational just for them to read about it, set up a rig and trade a few coins. I believe many people would learn quite a bit along the way which would be useful in daily life.

Computers run just about everything and people don't know jack about them. Not very smart.

Got it, thanks. So I understand that if you want to trade them, etc. you copy your wallet.dat from your mining machine and then load it on the other machine with the bitcoin client? Then you wait for the confirmations and you can go from there?

I run the client on a different machine to my miners.

You will accumulate coins within your account in the pool you mine at, so I just set my wallet address to the bitcoin client on the PC that doesn't mine.

Do I just run the bitcoin client software for a while and wait? with a sempron and linuxcoin 0.2.1b, it gives me 100% cpu usage and the bitcoin client won't run. How the heck do the coins get to my wallet if there are no transactions?

Thanks. I'll post some specs about my rig soon as it's running fine with a 750w psu and two hd 5970's at 850mhz and 300mem for a max of 590 watts at the wall. getting 1.4 g/hash so far with phoenix miner.