Bitcoin Forum

Hello,

I've started to mine a coin on a Linux server, using bitcoind. After having it running for several days I would like to shutdown this server, but obviously I do not wish to lose the work I have put into generating this coin so far. What should I copy to continue the generation on another Linux server? On my Windows machine at home?

Also, can I "merge" work from several machines? I would assume that each of them started matching for a different cryptographic key, meaning mining a "different" coin?

New and a bit confused to the bitcoin concepts...

Thanks,
Maxim.

Hi Monoquark,

I see your point, guess I simply don't understand the protocol then. I was sure that you get a "cryptographic target key" and then you try all options starting from 0 to the maximum bit field size (which is?).

Also you mention something about solo mining, I'm currently using Bitcoin client and I see it do 4208 khash/s. I don't know if it uses my GPU, I have AMD Radeon HD 6800 how can I verify I'm using the GPU?

Every time a new block is found or a transaction is added to the block you are working on you end up working on a different problem. Also there is no guarantee that the problem you working on at any given time even has a valid solution so there is no incentive to avoid adding transactions or ignoring a new block that shows up.

Edit: to get more specific about the problem being worked on, it is a guess and check sort of problem with you computer making millions of guesses per second each of which has an equal chance to find a acceptable solution (a cryptographic hash that is lower than a certain value).

mining is like throwing a bunch of coins, if they all land heads, you win. saving the coins from you failed attempts do not help toward your future attempts.

You're not using the GPU. Don't use bitcoind's generate coins option. Instead, join a pool and run a GPU miner like poclbm.