Topic: The Hitchhikers Guide to Bitcoin, Litecoin, & Other Alt Currencies (Read 2092 times)
I want to update the guide - Where can I find info on white label pool software? apparently there are 2 out there - p2Pool and one other, but they only do the backend and not the GUI. Is there no providers offering full white label solutions for people that want to start their own pools in one or multiple coins?
January 05, 2014, 06:17:00 AM
& thank you to the second person. K, i'm not going to mention it everytime someone tips, but will write a further post in a few weeks time, giving you my thoughts on how people tip for information etc
January 05, 2014, 01:30:11 AM
Thank you to whoever you are!!! got my first tip ever!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
January 04, 2014, 06:15:37 PM
Thanks FastHawk & Kemicall. Let me know if you have any other questions that i didn't answer in my overview...
January 04, 2014, 06:08:00 PM
Well put together.
Thanks.
Thanks.
January 04, 2014, 06:06:33 PM
Nice post mate! I not only write this comment because this is a new account of mine and I need a post to post elsewhere, but because I really appreciate your writing. It seems you put time in it and this is a good thing. Thank you in the name of all newbies and all the members out there who think it is good to have a "tutorial" to show to anyone new instead of telling them everything. 
January 04, 2014, 05:59:38 PM
glad to hear that it was useful - any major points that you feel i left out?
January 04, 2014, 05:53:00 PM
Nice info! I've been lurking in crypto for less than two weeks, learning at an insane level, but your post help bring alot of what i've learnt together. Many thanks 
January 04, 2014, 05:37:41 PM
So I’m one of the unfortunate few that have got obsessed with all virtual currencies too late - AFTER the big rises of 2013, so I haven’t made the BIG money like many of my friends. (a friend of mine made a million dollars this year with very little upfront money spent!!!)
Having said that, I’ve spent the last few weeks, obsessed, & getting to understand everything bitcoin and altcoin related, so for my FIRST POST on bitcointalk, I thought I’d share a summary of my thoughts & findings, with everyone for 2 reasons:
1. NEW TO BITCOIN ETC ⇒ To help the newly interested (aka noobs) get their knowledge up to speed without guessing along the way like I did
2. ANALYSING TIPPING → To understand more about virtual currencies & tipping, which is apparently a big part of the currencies. I want to know more about whether people ever actually tip! To date I’ve spent 2 hours writing, (and am planning on plenty more hours of updating & commenting), so it will be interesting to see if people like what I’ve written, and if so, who tips, and how much → My details are at the bottom if you are feeling generous.
BITCOIN 101
A. Getting up to speed:
a. There are currently 12 million bitcoins (known as BTC’s) in circulation and that will rise to a maximum of 21 million
b. People are increasingly using fractions of bitcoins rather than full bitcoins.
c. There are 2 camps of people
i. People that think bitcoin will be a million dollars each in a decade, and that you’ll never use a full bitcoin, but fractions of bitcoins. The lowest fraction is a satoshi (named after the founder or founders of bitcoin, who as of today, are still unknown). A satoshi is worth 0.00000001 BTC.
ii. People that think Bitcoin is a tulip bubble (LINK: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/04/bitcoin-bubble-tulip-dutch-banker)
d. You can get bitcoin’s by:
i. buying them, (LINK: https://www.mtgox.com/)
ii. getting sent them by other people (tips, personal payments, remittance etc)
iii. getting a fraction from free so you can understand what it’s like to receive, by visiting sites called faucets: LINK: http://www.newbitcoinworld.com/2013/03/list-of-sites-to-earn-free-bitcoins.html)
iv. selling something
v. mining them
e. You can see the market cap, and other stats at various sites – the market cap is currently around $10 Billion. (LINK: http://coinmarketcap.com/)
f. Download the official wallet (LINK: http://www.bitcoin.org/) and then try the unofficial wallets (LINKS: https://coinbase.com/ https://multibit.org/)
B. Mining
a. Mining is the process of letting your computer power verify transactions that have already happened, and get rewarded a small amount for allowing your computer power to be used
b. In the beginning there was only solo mining – nowdays, unless you have super fast hardware, making solo mining a waste of time for nearly everyone (LINK: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison)
c. Most people use a pool to mine – but unless you have really sophisticated hardware, it’s probably also a waste of time. In the beginning people used their CPU’s on their computers, and then their graphics cards, but nowdays unless you have ASIC cards, or other fancy hardware, you’re wasting your time. (I bought an expensive new computer with a graphics card to mine, and after a week of mining I realized I was wasting my time)
d. You can see your potential earnings by using a “mining calculator” (LINK: http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator)
e. Many of the companies selling the hardware needed to mine bitcoins are either scam’s, (LINK: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2013/09/16/two-new-bitcoin-asic-miners-scam-real/) or you pre-pay so long in advance, (LINK: http://butterflylabs.com/) that when you finally get the hardware, the speeds are not as powerful as when you placed the order, so they are not much use in mining.
f. If you choose to pool mine, you download a program called “cgminer” (LINK: https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer) and then connect to a pool, where a group of you mine together and share the rewards
g. There are many different type of rewards from pools (LINK: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools)
h. You can get more sophisticated by adjusting your various settings on cgminer, or even changing the settings on your graphics card (LINK: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/overclock-ati-video-card-ati-overdrive/)
i. The other way is to buy some “hashing power” (the name given to how fast you can mine) from a cloud service, with the most reputable one being cex.io. (LINK: https://www.cex.io/) – however, even though the price of “hashing power” gig’s are falling rapidly, the difficulty is increasing so rapidly that it’s difficult to see how you can make any decent money from this. (I bought a gig and a half, and a week later, the price of “hashing power” is 50% down from what I paid, (so if I sell I’ll lose money) and it looks that if I get what I paid back from mining over the next few months, I’ll consider myself lucky!)
C. Trading
a. There are many ways of transferring fiat currency (such as dollars or pounds) into bitcoin’s and vice versa
b. And there are many trading platforms where you can trade bitcoins for the other alt coins and vice versa (LINK: https://btc-e.com/ https://www.cryptsy.com/)
c. I’ve taken a part of my bitcoin and bought various other alt currencies with it, and have quickly realized that:
i. There are plenty speculators pushing the prices up and down to manipulate the markets from less savvy people (pump and dump schemes)
ii. That if bitcoin rises against the US dollar, then all the other alt currencies will probably fall against it – and then when it’s stable, it’s anyone’s guess which go up and which go down (as you can hear, I haven’t quite got my mind around the trading side)
LITECOIN & OTHER SCRYPT ALTCOIN’S 101
* some of the info & links above are also relevant below but I haven’t duplicated them.
A. Getting up to speed
a. If Bitcoin is gold, Litecoin is considered silver
b. Bitcoin & a couple of the other altcoin’s use the SHA-256 algo for mining, and Litecoin & most of the others use scrypt
B. Mining
a. The alt-currencies that also use SHA-256 are too difficult to mine without fancy equipment, so the only option is to mine on currencies using Scrypt such as Litecoin or the other ones that follow Litecoin
b. No company has yet figured out how to make hardware to mine scrypt other than with graphic cards
c. One company called Alpha-T (LINK: https://alpha-t.net/) claims they have found a way and are pre-selling a 5MB and 25MB card, but the audience is divided as to whether they are legit or not (And because they are asking for 30% prepayment now, and the remainder 8 to 10 weeks before they deliver, and only believe they can deliver in either Q2 or Q3 this year, the savvy people believe that faster AMD graphic cards would have already been released which make their current offerings not so attractive in a few months time)
d. So anyone with a AMD graphics card (LINK: https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison/raw_data) can make something from mining (provided the electricity isn’t prohibitive – I haven’t figured out yet the cost of how much electricity I’m using from mining)
e. The clever guys are using rigs, which is a computer with mainly just multiple graphic cards – from what I understand you can have 3 graphic cards in a rig, and up to 6 (I’m looking to build my own rig in the next few weeks, but haven’t got there yet) (LINK: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2013/12/09/litecoin-101-how-to-build-your-own-mining-rigs/)
f. To actually mine, you can’t use the cgminer program which bitcoin uses – rather you use a modified program called GuiMiner-Scrypt (LINK: I downloaded it from an unofficial link, and after searching now, I’m actually not sure what the official URL is), you register for one of many pools, (LINK: https://litecoin.info/Mining_pool_comparison) and then enter the details into the GuiMiner-Scrypt program
g. There is talk about cloud mining for some of the scrypt’s being viable, but I haven’t tried it yet (LINK: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2013/12/04/primecoin-cloud-mining-using-digital-ocean-complete-guide/)
OTHER THOUGHTS
1. I haven’t decided whether the money is in:
a. Mining
b. Buying & holding
c. Trading
d. Advertising from Faucet pages
e. Creating a pool
f. Selling the hardware
g. Creating another alt-currency
2. Interesting article on getting started:
a. http://skybin.net/cryptocoin-mining-getting-started/
I’ve learned a LOT in the last few weeks, but still have a FORTUNE to learn, so if you have any advice for me, post it below, and I’ll update this doc with it, AND if you are also new, and I didn’t answer any of your questions in my thesis above, then ask below, and I’ll try my best to answer them.
Donate bitcoins - BTC: 12nS9HSiC8iSAPpLkL6JZQjNnMvbWGivSx
Donate litecoins - LTC: LRqQudQtvDTTj9LuqBhabNVHojmQkJYAzV
Having said that, I’ve spent the last few weeks, obsessed, & getting to understand everything bitcoin and altcoin related, so for my FIRST POST on bitcointalk, I thought I’d share a summary of my thoughts & findings, with everyone for 2 reasons:
1. NEW TO BITCOIN ETC ⇒ To help the newly interested (aka noobs) get their knowledge up to speed without guessing along the way like I did
2. ANALYSING TIPPING → To understand more about virtual currencies & tipping, which is apparently a big part of the currencies. I want to know more about whether people ever actually tip! To date I’ve spent 2 hours writing, (and am planning on plenty more hours of updating & commenting), so it will be interesting to see if people like what I’ve written, and if so, who tips, and how much → My details are at the bottom if you are feeling generous.
BITCOIN 101
A. Getting up to speed:
a. There are currently 12 million bitcoins (known as BTC’s) in circulation and that will rise to a maximum of 21 million
b. People are increasingly using fractions of bitcoins rather than full bitcoins.
c. There are 2 camps of people
i. People that think bitcoin will be a million dollars each in a decade, and that you’ll never use a full bitcoin, but fractions of bitcoins. The lowest fraction is a satoshi (named after the founder or founders of bitcoin, who as of today, are still unknown). A satoshi is worth 0.00000001 BTC.
ii. People that think Bitcoin is a tulip bubble (LINK: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/04/bitcoin-bubble-tulip-dutch-banker)
d. You can get bitcoin’s by:
i. buying them, (LINK: https://www.mtgox.com/)
ii. getting sent them by other people (tips, personal payments, remittance etc)
iii. getting a fraction from free so you can understand what it’s like to receive, by visiting sites called faucets: LINK: http://www.newbitcoinworld.com/2013/03/list-of-sites-to-earn-free-bitcoins.html)
iv. selling something
v. mining them
e. You can see the market cap, and other stats at various sites – the market cap is currently around $10 Billion. (LINK: http://coinmarketcap.com/)
f. Download the official wallet (LINK: http://www.bitcoin.org/) and then try the unofficial wallets (LINKS: https://coinbase.com/ https://multibit.org/)
B. Mining
a. Mining is the process of letting your computer power verify transactions that have already happened, and get rewarded a small amount for allowing your computer power to be used
b. In the beginning there was only solo mining – nowdays, unless you have super fast hardware, making solo mining a waste of time for nearly everyone (LINK: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison)
c. Most people use a pool to mine – but unless you have really sophisticated hardware, it’s probably also a waste of time. In the beginning people used their CPU’s on their computers, and then their graphics cards, but nowdays unless you have ASIC cards, or other fancy hardware, you’re wasting your time. (I bought an expensive new computer with a graphics card to mine, and after a week of mining I realized I was wasting my time)
d. You can see your potential earnings by using a “mining calculator” (LINK: http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator)
e. Many of the companies selling the hardware needed to mine bitcoins are either scam’s, (LINK: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2013/09/16/two-new-bitcoin-asic-miners-scam-real/) or you pre-pay so long in advance, (LINK: http://butterflylabs.com/) that when you finally get the hardware, the speeds are not as powerful as when you placed the order, so they are not much use in mining.
f. If you choose to pool mine, you download a program called “cgminer” (LINK: https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer) and then connect to a pool, where a group of you mine together and share the rewards
g. There are many different type of rewards from pools (LINK: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools)
h. You can get more sophisticated by adjusting your various settings on cgminer, or even changing the settings on your graphics card (LINK: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/overclock-ati-video-card-ati-overdrive/)
i. The other way is to buy some “hashing power” (the name given to how fast you can mine) from a cloud service, with the most reputable one being cex.io. (LINK: https://www.cex.io/) – however, even though the price of “hashing power” gig’s are falling rapidly, the difficulty is increasing so rapidly that it’s difficult to see how you can make any decent money from this. (I bought a gig and a half, and a week later, the price of “hashing power” is 50% down from what I paid, (so if I sell I’ll lose money) and it looks that if I get what I paid back from mining over the next few months, I’ll consider myself lucky!)
C. Trading
a. There are many ways of transferring fiat currency (such as dollars or pounds) into bitcoin’s and vice versa
b. And there are many trading platforms where you can trade bitcoins for the other alt coins and vice versa (LINK: https://btc-e.com/ https://www.cryptsy.com/)
c. I’ve taken a part of my bitcoin and bought various other alt currencies with it, and have quickly realized that:
i. There are plenty speculators pushing the prices up and down to manipulate the markets from less savvy people (pump and dump schemes)
ii. That if bitcoin rises against the US dollar, then all the other alt currencies will probably fall against it – and then when it’s stable, it’s anyone’s guess which go up and which go down (as you can hear, I haven’t quite got my mind around the trading side)
LITECOIN & OTHER SCRYPT ALTCOIN’S 101
* some of the info & links above are also relevant below but I haven’t duplicated them.
A. Getting up to speed
a. If Bitcoin is gold, Litecoin is considered silver
b. Bitcoin & a couple of the other altcoin’s use the SHA-256 algo for mining, and Litecoin & most of the others use scrypt
B. Mining
a. The alt-currencies that also use SHA-256 are too difficult to mine without fancy equipment, so the only option is to mine on currencies using Scrypt such as Litecoin or the other ones that follow Litecoin
b. No company has yet figured out how to make hardware to mine scrypt other than with graphic cards
c. One company called Alpha-T (LINK: https://alpha-t.net/) claims they have found a way and are pre-selling a 5MB and 25MB card, but the audience is divided as to whether they are legit or not (And because they are asking for 30% prepayment now, and the remainder 8 to 10 weeks before they deliver, and only believe they can deliver in either Q2 or Q3 this year, the savvy people believe that faster AMD graphic cards would have already been released which make their current offerings not so attractive in a few months time)
d. So anyone with a AMD graphics card (LINK: https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison/raw_data) can make something from mining (provided the electricity isn’t prohibitive – I haven’t figured out yet the cost of how much electricity I’m using from mining)
e. The clever guys are using rigs, which is a computer with mainly just multiple graphic cards – from what I understand you can have 3 graphic cards in a rig, and up to 6 (I’m looking to build my own rig in the next few weeks, but haven’t got there yet) (LINK: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2013/12/09/litecoin-101-how-to-build-your-own-mining-rigs/)
f. To actually mine, you can’t use the cgminer program which bitcoin uses – rather you use a modified program called GuiMiner-Scrypt (LINK: I downloaded it from an unofficial link, and after searching now, I’m actually not sure what the official URL is), you register for one of many pools, (LINK: https://litecoin.info/Mining_pool_comparison) and then enter the details into the GuiMiner-Scrypt program
g. There is talk about cloud mining for some of the scrypt’s being viable, but I haven’t tried it yet (LINK: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2013/12/04/primecoin-cloud-mining-using-digital-ocean-complete-guide/)
OTHER THOUGHTS
1. I haven’t decided whether the money is in:
a. Mining
b. Buying & holding
c. Trading
d. Advertising from Faucet pages
e. Creating a pool
f. Selling the hardware
g. Creating another alt-currency
2. Interesting article on getting started:
a. http://skybin.net/cryptocoin-mining-getting-started/
I’ve learned a LOT in the last few weeks, but still have a FORTUNE to learn, so if you have any advice for me, post it below, and I’ll update this doc with it, AND if you are also new, and I didn’t answer any of your questions in my thesis above, then ask below, and I’ll try my best to answer them.
Donate bitcoins - BTC: 12nS9HSiC8iSAPpLkL6JZQjNnMvbWGivSx
Donate litecoins - LTC: LRqQudQtvDTTj9LuqBhabNVHojmQkJYAzV
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