Bitcoin Forum

Hi, everyone.  My name is Rafael; handle is Rafagon.  I've lived in Miami, FL almost all my life but was born in Madrid, Spain.  My interests include retro gaming on OS X, studying foreign languages, and I would like to try my hand at iOS app development sometime soon.  I majored in Computer Science and minored in French back in college (many years ago).

I'm a total Bitcoin newbie but I have been able to get the first couple of steps taken care of. I have created my Bitcoin wallet, and I chose Blockchain.info for that.

I've chosen MacMiner as my OS X Bitcoin mining app.

I don't want to be in a "pool"—I want to go solo.

I want to mine SHA-256 (for Bitcoins). I have a 27-inch iMac from Late 2009, Intel Core i7 (quad-core) running at 2.8 GHz, 8 GB RAM, and my graphics card is the ATI Radeon HD 4850 with 512 MB of RAM.

Every time I click on MacMiner to start Mining, I keep getting a pop-up telling me that my miner was restarted automatically after a sudden stop at hh:mm:ss. I'm not sure what I've done wrong. This pop-up keeps complaining every 10 or 15 seconds.

If anyone has the time to provide me with some pointers for Bitcoin mining with this app, I would really appreciate it.  If my selection of an app to begin Bitcoin mining on OS X is a horrible one, please let me know as well!

Anyone who reads this can feel free to inbox me here on the forum to continue in private messages, or reply publicly here.

Thanks in advance,

Rafagon

You're a few years too late to the party to mine with a CPU/GPU.  Sorry to break that news to you.  You're doing nothing but wasting electricity.

Mining with a GPU is fun, but ...


At the current difficulty, your chances of finding a block after mining for a year are about 0.046%, that is once every 2160 years. Good luck.


Because even if you mine in a pool, the cost of mining will far exceed your income.

Thanks for the help, @jonnybravo0311 and @odolvlobo!  I’m thankful to learn that it would've just been wasted effort before I kept on wasting time on this.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, what kind of rig are people mining with these days?  I mean, what are they using if not CPU/GPU?

What would I need?  Something like eight 2015 Mac Pro computers, maxxed out in RAM, CPU clock speed, working in parallel, dedicating 100% CPU time to mining?

Again, thank you so much for your assistance, guys!

-Rafagon

No... CPU/GPU no matter how many just multiply your loss.  So you would lose more money running more.

For SHA mining (BTC) look into ASICS, you will need a asic at this point.  I mean two usb stick miners from over a year ago will beat your GPU mining on bitcoin. 

If you're mining just for fun, get yourself an S3+.  Used they're less than $100USD.

Okay, this is my first time hearing about any of this.  A quick Google search found this on Amazon; I'm assuming this is what you're suggesting I look into.

http://www.amazon.com/ASICMiner-Block-Erupter-USB-Sapphire/dp/B00CUJT7TO

So ASIC mining is the thing now—thanks for the info.  I'll read up on that and see what happens.  I mean, I just want to play with it and see if it's worth my time.  My iMac is on roughly 18 - 24 hours a day so if I can plug in one of these ASIC USB sticks and make a few bucks on the side, it won't hurt!

Thank you, notlist3d.

I think I found what you're suggesting…  http://www.amazon.com/AntMiner-S3-441Gh-0-77W-SHA-256/dp/B00NZDBWKG

Couple of questions:

(1) What is this thing?  :)
(2) Does it attach to my iMac via an Ethernet cable, and that's how I control it?
(3) … Or does it need to be connected to a monitor (VGA cable perhaps)?  I have a spare monitor.

1.  It is a asic, which is a bitcoin miner
2. No you log into it through a network, it is set and forget almost.  You put pool info in and it will mine.
3.  No you use your PC to log into miner, but it will need a PSU on miner.

And look on ebay it will be cheaper then 100 dollars for S3 or it should be.

You might want to do more research before you start spending money. Otherwise, you are going to pay a lot of money for a worthless hunk of electronics, or you are going to get something that you don't know how to use.

hi rafael

good luck with your bitcoin mining.  i think your computers will overheat and catch fire before you get any bitcoin

You are entirely right.  I couldn't agree with you more.  I really just heard the Bitcoins could be mined in the past week or so.  (I previously thought the only way was to buy them using USD.)

After learning about mining, I really thought I just had to download a client and keep it running.  Like Folding@Home or SETI@Home … but with cash rewards!  I will keep on educating myself online before I make an investment.

I think I will start here:  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining and make an outline for myself detailing everything I need to learn about.  I can branch out from there.

I'm new to this forum software; I've yet to find a Thank You or Like button so that I can thank everyone for their help.

Also, I can't seem to figure out how to add a profile pic.  When I click on my own username I see this:


  Summary - Rafagon   Picture/Text
Name:   Rafagon
Posts:   4
Activity:   4
Position:   Newbie
Date Registered:   May 20, 2015, 07:44:58 PM
Last Active:   Today at 02:25:03 AM

But can't seem to click on Picture/Text.  I suppose they will become active as I post more.

Thanks everyone for your help and info.  At least now I have a starting point.  Luckily, or unluckily, I'm in between jobs so I have some free time to invest in learning about Bitcoin.

At new level you are not allowed to have it yet.  It will become available at a higher level.

Welcome to the forum!  :) Mining is certainly exciting and fun (and mysterious too lol) when you first get into Bitcoin, if you have $100 that you don't mind losing (worst case scenario), I'd say go ahead and get the s3+. It's easier to learn about something through hands-on experience and if all goes well, you could get your $100 back in about 1 year (depending on power costs in your area). Have a look here if you want to have a rough estimate of potential earnings - http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

Hello, everyone.  Just wanted to post a quick little update.  So far I haven't purchased any hardware, and it's going to be a little while before I can.  I simply don't have the funds to spend on hardware yet, especially considering that I don't even know that if I were to order and receive it, I'd know how to set it up properly.

I do have a Bitcoin Wallet and Bitcoin address already.

I also have my first Bitcoins, courtesy of 99bitcoins.com!  They gifted me 0.1 milli-Bitcoins for signing up to their newsletter.  I know it's not much but at least my Bitcoin wallet isn't empty anymore!!

Couple of new questions:

Anyone have experience with any of these so-called Bitcoin Faucets (http://www.bitcoinaliens.com/top-10-free-bitcoin-faucets/?)?

Are any of them any good or are they just all BS?

I spun a Wheel of Fortune at http://goldsday.com/free-bitcoin/ and I never saw a damn thing get deposited into my Bitcoin Address.

Also, another question… if I open a second wallet at a second site, and they give me some infinitessimal fraction of a Bitcoin for signing up, am I able to transfer that balance into my first (and original) wallet?  I would guess yes, but I just want to double-check.

Thanks to all of you who have been so helpful thus far.  And Thanks in advance for any future help you may be able to provide.

Rafagon

Welcome, I hope you dont burn up your PC with mining :P

This must be a troll. Nobody can seriously be mining bitcoin with CPU in anno 2015.
And further with an iMac (lol on that).
I suggest that people does not feed this troll.
Move along nothing to see here.

Oh the good first days :P.
Well to start faucets aint gonna make you rich in any way not even few bucks, you would have to spend way too much time.
Mining right now is only for small profiters or the ones that believe bitcoin will skyrocket.
Aaaand finally on the gambling subject, you will see a lot moves around gambling, i would recommend to you to stay away from it, tought if you dont become a degen i can show you a way to make few bucks extra by chatting (or just check my signature).
Also, be aware of scams there is plenty of them.
Yes you can transfer your balance to your wallet, tought with microfractions fees can eat up it all unless you send no fees (no fee= long processing time).

Lol yes looks like a troll to me too in first look ;)

As I said when I first created the thread, I am a total newbie as far as Bitcoin goes.  Is it THAT hard to believe that someone just started with Bitcoin and had practically no prior knowledge about it until about two weeks ago should end up on this forum?

If this forum isn't a place where Bitcoin newbies can come to get help, you're welcome to suggest another forum that may be of service to me, and I'll be happy to get out of you all's hair and go there instead.

I appreciate the initial replies I got, but yours was slightly insulting, and honestly, I did not come here to be called names.

Thanks,

Rafagon

Thanks for your help andulolika.  I figured faucets were too good to be true, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask.

Please tell me though about how to make a few bucks extra by chatting …  You could inbox me if you like.  In the meantime I will check out your signature and see what I can figure out from there!

Thanks!

Rafagon :)

UPDATE:  Looks like I can't use the LuckyBit that's in your signature… one of the Terms & Conditions that I had to agree to was "Attest that you are not located in the USA or any jurisdiction where the LuckyBit service could be illegal;"  I am, in fact, in the USA.  :-(

Well yeah, luckyb.it was the way to make few bucks extra, eitherway if you enter and start speaking there i assure you that the only problem you will have is that ill be the one that will give to you the addresses, i can get you started with few things if you up to.
Eitherway the easiest way to get bitcoins is buying them.

If you really are new and just started just 2 weeks ago, then do I owe you an apology.
I am deeply sorry that I offended you (I really am).
I (and the rest of the community) would be more than happy to asist with any questions you might have.

One thing you will learn in this bitcoin community is that people "shoot first and ask the questions later". This can seams both rude and harsh for new users, but there is a good reason for this.
As you will learn there is many-many alt-acounts, trolls and scammers here.
Basically can you not trust anybody, unless you know them.
Take the information you can get here, ask for help, but keep your guards up, untill you learn how things are done. And for god sake, if you make any bitcoins transaction here, use escrow!

youll be mining forever mining with a laptop, and everything says youll never get anything. youll need dedicated special mining hardware for that.

Thank you kindly.  It's okay, no harm done.  I know there's a lot to learn, and I'm not in a huge hurry, but I'm glad to have found this forum where I can get some help getting started.