Yet Another Newbie Question: Regarding getting bitcoins

mushy99999

newbie

Activity: 42

Merit: 0

Quote from: Photon939 on June 29, 2011, 07:07:40 PM

Quote from: IamFuzzles on June 12, 2011, 12:48:55 AM

Makes sense. I'm not sure what's considered a high hashrate, but good to know. Any place to find more info on the fees thing and how that works?

I wouldn't even bother looking at solo mining unless you have >10Ghash at your disposal and even then it could take you more than a week to find a block if you are unlucky.

I think even 10GHash is slow these days judging by how fast deepbit ans slush's pool total hash rate is expanding. I reckon there are rig setups out there with 30 or more machines.

mizike29

full member

Activity: 168

Merit: 100

NO you can not get one quickly. It will take a very good graphics card, top of the line ati 6990 mining in a pool like I do almost 2 days not to get 1 bitcoin, to get 50 bitcoins your looking at about 2 months at this difficulty.

Arxan

newbie

Activity: 11

Merit: 0

Quote from: raresaturn on June 29, 2011, 09:21:44 PM

...
Holy crap 50 Bitcoins is like $800 bucks right? So how do they get solved, is it like trial and error? So theoretically I could get one after a few minutes mining? (if I'm lucky)

Yeah, brute-forcing a hash calculation by adding a nonce value and hoping the hash meets the appropriate conditions, if I understand correctly. If you are that lucky, you should buy some lottery tickets!

The_JMiner

member

Activity: 70

Merit: 10

Remember though the difficulty increases thus its not a for sure thing.

raresaturn

full member

Activity: 168

Merit: 100

Everyone Is A Bank

Quote from: Arxan on June 29, 2011, 09:02:37 PM

Quote from: raresaturn on June 29, 2011, 08:43:52 PM

What do you mean by 'find a block'?

thanks

Using your processing power (GPU) to do a bunch of calculations to create a valid block of bitcoin transactions. This rewards the person who did it with 50 bitcoins plus any transaction fees in the block. It is quite a lengthy process, and the whole network (everyone mining) produces only on average about 6 blocks an hour. If you mine in a "pool" you share your processing power with a bunch of other folks. This can provide you a steadier income, as generating a block solo with only a GPU or two could take a very long time.

Holy crap 50 Bitcoins is like $800 bucks right? So how do they get solved, is it like trial and error? So theoretically I could get one after a few minutes mining? (if I'm lucky)

Arxan

newbie

Activity: 11

Merit: 0

Quote from: Arxan on June 29, 2011, 09:02:37 PM

... generating a block solo with only a GPU or two could take a very long time.

For example, I'm currently mining in a pool with one GPU at about 350 MHash/sec, and in the past 8 days have earned 2 bitcoins. Projecting that out very roughly, if I were mining solo, that two weeks would represent 2/50 ths of the effort required to generate a block, which means I would on average generate one every 50 weeks. Of course, by then the difficulty would have gone up dozens of times and I would have to be pretty lucky to generate one at all.

Arxan

newbie

Activity: 11

Merit: 0

Quote from: raresaturn on June 29, 2011, 08:43:52 PM

What do you mean by 'find a block'?

thanks

Using your processing power (GPU) to do a bunch of calculations to create a valid block of bitcoin transactions. This rewards the person who did it with 50 bitcoins plus any transaction fees in the block. It is quite a lengthy process, and the whole network (everyone mining) produces only on average about 6 blocks an hour. If you mine in a "pool" you share your processing power with a bunch of other folks. This can provide you a steadier income, as generating a block solo with only a GPU or two could take a very long time.

Photon939

sr. member

Activity: 452

Merit: 250

"Finding a block" is the goal of mining - it is what gets you the reward of 50BTC + transaction fees. It is a completed batch of transactions that is added to the block chain (the total record of bitcoin transactions).

When you're mining in a pool, once someone finds a block the reward is distributed to those who worked on it. If you submitted more work, you get a larger chunk of the reward.

If you're solo mining you get the entire reward to yourself, but even with 10GH/s your average time on finding a block would be nearly a week. You could easily go two weeks without finding one. (variance)

Hence one of the main reasons people use pools - you don't get as much money at once but you get a constant flow of the smaller payments.

raresaturn

full member

Activity: 168

Merit: 100

Everyone Is A Bank

Quote from: Photon939 on June 29, 2011, 07:07:40 PM

Quote from: IamFuzzles on June 12, 2011, 12:48:55 AM

Makes sense. I'm not sure what's considered a high hashrate, but good to know. Any place to find more info on the fees thing and how that works?

I wouldn't even bother looking at solo mining unless you have >10Ghash at your disposal and even then it could take you more than a week to find a block if you are unlucky.

What do you mean by 'find a block'?

thanks

The_JMiner

member

Activity: 70

Merit: 10

http://www.bitcoinminer.com/

Really good info on mining

joshuaissac

newbie

Activity: 4

Merit: 0

Quote from: EnzoMatrix on June 29, 2011, 08:02:41 PM

what OS? guessing from Point and click windows if so I would try using GUIMiner

Linux I recommend pheonix

Thanks. I'm a Windows user. Downloading GUIMiner...

EnzoMatrix

newbie

Activity: 42

Merit: 0

what OS? guessing from Point and click windows if so I would try using GUIMiner

Linux I recommend pheonix

joshuaissac

newbie

Activity: 4

Merit: 0

Any recommendations for a Bitcoin mining program? One with a point-and-click interface would be ideal, though I would be OK with a CMD one with instructions. Thanks.

mizike29

full member

Activity: 168

Merit: 100

Join a pool its the only way that makes sends. I have one ati 6990 and am getting about 1.5 bitcoins every 30 or so hours. 900 hash rate. Fees are minimal, non need to worry about those just yet with most common well used pools

EnzoMatrix

newbie

Activity: 42

Merit: 0

I personally recommend http://www.btcguild.com and using a USB live OS called LinuxCoin

Photon939

sr. member

Activity: 452

Merit: 250

Quote from: IamFuzzles on June 12, 2011, 12:48:55 AM

Makes sense. I'm not sure what's considered a high hashrate, but good to know. Any place to find more info on the fees thing and how that works?

I wouldn't even bother looking at solo mining unless you have >10Ghash at your disposal and even then it could take you more than a week to find a block if you are unlucky.

Arxan

newbie

Activity: 11

Merit: 0

Quote from: 1.21gigawatts on June 12, 2011, 12:51:39 AM

join a pool is the best way

Yep. It is pretty straightforward:

Install the bitcoin client so you have an address for the pool to send to
Install a miner (I used DiabloMiner)
Pick a pool
Sign up with the pool if necessary (I started with Eligus and you don't even need to sign up)
Start your miner with the information for your chosen pool

BTCPrizes

newbie

Activity: 28

Merit: 0

Quote from: IamFuzzles on June 12, 2011, 12:48:55 AM

Makes sense. I'm not sure what's considered a high hashrate, but good to know. Any place to find more info on the fees thing and how that works?

I believe this will answer your questions: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools

jondecker76

full member

Activity: 238

Merit: 100

yes, pools are the way to go for most people - I personally wouldn't even consider solo mining unless I had at least 50 GHash or so

1.21gigawatts

member

Activity: 98

Merit: 10

join a pool is the best way

Topic: Yet Another Newbie Question: Regarding getting bitcoins (Read 1945 times)