BitCoins

[trangoul]

In case anyone leaves their computer running overnight on a regular basis, you might as well put it to use. I did, and I've made ~ $200 in a month from it. Sharing this so others can jump on the bandwagon if they want. Enjoy!

http://bitcoin.org/

Basically you let your computer do some work while you are or aren't using it, if it helps find a block you get a tiny fraction of payout in bitcoins. To dumb it down a bit, imagine there was a huge math problem that needed to be solved, and whoever solved it would get $1000. You could try to solve it yourself or join with many other people and try. However if you go with other people, you will need to split the winnings. Bitcoin mining is kinda that. You let your computer solve problems, either by itself or as part of a group. If you find it yourself, you collect 50 bitcoins (which are ~$14 USD each right now) or if you join with a group you get whatever small %. The problem is that if you try by yourself, it may take years to be the first to solve a problem verses a group of 2000 people working together. So its up to you.

When you want to sell, there are several sites that you can goto, I've been using www.mtgox.com

Also a note on mining: video cards work MUCH better than your processor, so if you have an old video card or a bad processor, don't bother mining for bitcoins because it will actually cost you more money (in electricity) than you will gain from it, albiet you will only use like $2-4 dollars of electricity, you might only make $1 worth of bitcoins in a month.


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If you plan to start, feel free to mine on your own or check out some groups: www.btcguild.com is the group I mine with, but there are tons to choose from. The official Bitcoin forums on the link at the top are the best place to get started. If you have a good video card and want to start mining awesome and enjoy, if you want to donate some time to me (kinda like referals here) even better, and instructions are below, and when you want to stop and mine for yourself, make your own account (instructions at end). If you don't want to donate, just skip to the instructions at the very end.

___________________________________________________
TO DONATE SOME TIME INSTRUCTIONS:

Here is the program that mines:
https://github.com/downloads/Kiv/poc...r-20110701.exe
(from http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=3878.0)

If you have windows, this is how to set it up.
#1) Start the mining installer and install it wherever you please.
#2) Start the program, a default window will come up, you will need to set it up based on what video card you have.

#3a) If you have an NVIDIA card, hit FILE --> New Miner ---> New CUDA Miner...
#4a) Call it Nvidia and then hit OK
#5a) Where it says SERVER, change it to BTC Guild
#6a) Where it says Username, change it to lostservant_mmo
#7a) Where it says password, change it to champ
#8a) Where it says Extra Flags, type -aggression=3
#9a) Hit FILE ---> Save settings.
#10a) That's it, your configured, hit start to start, and then that button turns to stop to stop.

#3b) If you have a Radeon card, hit FILE --> New Miner ---> New OpenCL Miner...
#4b) Call it Radeon and then hit OK
#5b) Where it says SERVER, change it to BTC Guild
#6b) Where it says Username, change it to lostservant_mmo
#7b) Where it says password, change it to champ
#8b) Hit FILE ---> Save settings.
#9b) That's it, your configured, hit start to start, and then that button turns to stop to stop.

Thanks in advanced to anyone know helps out! If you try to get this set up and something isnt working, let me know i'll try to help ya fix it.

_____________________________________________
TO START MINING FOR YOUSELF:
1. Download the Bitcoin program from http://www.bitcoin.org/
2. Start the program and get your new Bitcoin address (its a LONG string of numbers and letters)

3. Set up an account at some bitcoin mining site:
For example
Goto www.btcguild.com
Hit create an account on left.
Enter a username and password.
Hit Change wallet address and copy your bitcoin address (from the bitcoin progam in step 1) and save it.
Add a worker by going to the "manage workers" tab on left, then entering a new working name and password.

After getting your bitcoin address and workers set up its now time to set up the actual mining program for your computer.

Here is a program that mines.
https://github.com/downloads/Kiv/poc...r-20110701.exe
(from http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=3878.0)

4. If you have windows, this is how to set it up.
#1) Start the mining installer and install it wherever you please.
#2) Start the program, a default window will come up, you will need to set it up based on what video card you have.

#3a) If you have an NVIDIA card, hit FILE --> New Miner ---> New CUDA Miner...
#4a) Call it Nvidia and then hit OK
#5a) Where it says SERVER, change it to BTC Guild
#6a) Where it says Username, change it to [your account name]_[your worker name] (for example, lostservant_mmo)
#7a) Where it says password, change it to [your worker password]
#8a) Where it says Extra Flags, type -aggression=3
#9a) Hit FILE ---> Save settings.
#10a) That's it, your configured, hit start to start, and then that button turns to stop to stop.

#3b) If you have a Radeon card, hit FILE --> New Miner ---> New OpenCL Miner...
#4b) Call it Radeon and then hit OK
#5b) Where it says SERVER, change it to BTC Guild
#6b) Where it says Username, change it to [your account name]_[your worker name] (for example lostservant_mmo)
#7b) Where it says password, change it to [your worker password]
#8b) Hit FILE ---> Save settings.
#9b) That's it, your configured, hit start to start, and then that button turns to stop to stop.

[bohapjut]

mah keys? MAH KEYS!!!

[naadra]

We should form a MMO Champion Bitcoin group

[SylarAC]

Almost bought a computer from craigslist and the guy was accepting bitcoins for it...was wondering what he meant by it...thanks for the clarification!

[Djinni]

I heard that it was pointless now ... (from the point of making any money) since the bitcoin value is less than the cost in time and energy (electricity) that you would use to generate it.

[naadra]

Hell even if you made half of what he did, its still a real nice computer or some real nice computer upgrades every year hehe. On the plus side I have no electric bill!

[Asmekiel]

I heard that it was pointless now ... (from the point of making any money) since the bitcoin value is less than the cost in time and energy (electricity) that you would use to generate it.

That's why you don't want a 590 running at 100% for mining.
Might want to wait for Kepler / Southern Island for better performance/watt.


I actually tried this bitcoin farming, but I had problems logging in to a group or w/e. So my GPU-fan was spinning at 100% (damn, what noise that thing can make), while not actually helping me

[trangoul]

I heard that it was pointless now ... (from the point of making any money) since the bitcoin value is less than the cost in time and energy (electricity) that you would use to generate it.

If your using nvidia cards it basically is, unless you already leave your cpu on all day/night, then its like $5 more a month. If your using radeons, its MUCH better, for example a radeon 5830 (older card) mines at ~300 MH/s a gtx 460 mines at ~60 MH/s

[Djinni]

That's why you don't want a 590 running at 100% for mining.
Might want to wait for Kepler / Southern Island for better performance/watt.


I actually tried this bitcoin farming, but I had problems logging in to a group or w/e. So my GPU-fan was spinning at 100% (damn, what noise that thing can make), while not actually helping me

By which time it'll take years to generate a single coin....

---------- Post added 2011-07-18 at 11:36 PM ----------

If your using nvidia cards it basically is, unless you already leave your cpu on all day/night, then its like $5 more a month. If your using radeons, its MUCH better, for example a radeon 5830 (older card) mines at ~300 MH/s a gtx 460 mines at ~60 MH/s

I had heard that the 5870's were good for this and actually selling on ebay for insane amounts of money.

[ispano]

Not that i'd do it, but I wonder how well this thing would do.

[Cyanotical]

interesting, i know the US government hates bitcoin because they cant trace drug runners using it, and im not sure about the legality, in the US it's illegal to make a currency, not sure if bitcoin falls under this, but sounds like a neat way to make some cash on the side

[Deleted]

Yeah and btw it's illegal to promote drugs (which is what that site mainly sells)

[chaud]

Mining is now pretty much worthless unless you already have an AMD GPU with a lifetime warranty and are going to be leaving it on 24/7 anyway. Also https://mtred.com/ best pool.

[Deleted]

soooooo...it should just say "connecting" and then nothing else? nothing really will happen or?...

[Saithes]

That's why you don't want a 590 running at 100% for mining.
Might want to wait for Kepler / Southern Island for better performance/watt.

Nvidia needs to fix their OpenCL performance first haha.

[Keller]

buttcoins are awesome for putting your computer to good use while not using it. Some Argue that it's lulzsec's botnet, though.

[Uggorthaholy]

I'm intrigued by this.

I don't have to worry about power bill for the time being.
Can anyone comment as to how my system would perform on this, and whether it's actually legitimate and something decent for my system to do?
Is there a way to throttle my usage so my GPU isn't running at 100% for 10 hours while I'm gone at work? Don't want to take a chance of damaging anything.

I'd be semi interested in it if someone could give me some more info.

Thanks!

[Saithes]

I'm intrigued by this.

I don't have to worry about power bill for the time being.
Can anyone comment as to how my system would perform on this, and whether it's actually legitimate and something decent for my system to do?
Is there a way to throttle my usage so my GPU isn't running at 100% for 10 hours while I'm gone at work? Don't want to take a chance of damaging anything.

I'd be semi interested in it if someone could give me some more info.

Thanks!

It's not even worth doing on a GTX 460 It'd take a week to even make 1 bitcoin on it =\

[Uggorthaholy]

It's not even worth doing on a GTX 460 It'd take a week to even make 1 bitcoin on it =\

WELL BOO!

But I has wants the monies!

[Saithes]

WELL BOO!

But I has wants the monies!

Nvidia's implementation of OpenCL is still quite inferior and CUDA isn't optimized very well for bitcoin mining I had 2 GTX 460s before and my 6970 gets 2.5x more MHash/s than both of my GTX 460's combined lol