Bitcoin Forum

I'm very new to this so please forgive me if this has been addressed elsewhere. I DID search the forums looking for a thread where this has been addressed and I was unable to find this question answered.


Question:    How can I set up my client's computers to mine for Bit Coins as a pool?


Background info:   I work for a small computer repair company and we have 50+ clients. I've already gained permission from the clients whose computers I want to use (I'm not doing anything illegal here) and now I'm looking for ways to have the computers connected, mine together, and dump BTCs in my wallet. Is this more complicated than I think it is? Do you recommend any additional hardware? Ideally I would like to be able to have this system fully automated so that once the client's work day is over and their computer is free to use, their computers sync and mine together. What do I need to set this up?


Thank you for your help.

Not worth it, and it will be worth even less in a few weeks. Use the time for something more productive.

Do your client's computers have modern dedicated graphics cards installed?  ATI 58XX , 6XXX, or 7XXX series?  If not, it is not worth your trouble.  You'll make pennies a day while your client pays dollars a day for electricity.  If so, it may be worth your trouble, but only for a few weeks, until ASICs ship out.  Once ASICs are up and running, graphics cards will be just as old and slow as CPU's are now, and you'll again be back to making pennies a day while your client pays dollars a day for electricity.

Thank you for your input. Will you please elaborate? Why is this not worth it?

Answer this:  do these computers have very high end graphics cards or not?

I just looked into ASICs. This is the link I just read:  http://bitcoinmagazine.net/butterfly-labs-releases-more-asic-photos/

Should I hold off mining using client's computers and instead buy one of these?

If you haven't so far, I would suggest not mining at all. If you want to get bitcoins sell some stuff for bitcoin, offer services, get your business to accept bitcoin as payment, etc. Mining isn't some get-rich-quick scheme. It's not quick, and it most definitely won't make you rich.

Why would you suggest not mining at all?

Yes, about 20 of them do have high end graphics cards. I can get the companies that don't have better graphics cards to upgrade.

I likewise would suggest not mining.  It's probably not worth the effort.  Each person who says you'll make pennies while costing your clients dollars is spot-on.

Because mining is so last year, everyone is doing it, so it's barely worth the effort. If you want to help (and make a profit), get your business to accept bitcoin. That's what is needed the most right now.

It's unlikely that you'll mine enough coins for the net gain to be worthwhile.

For the average miner, it's only worthwhile if you can stick someone else with all the bills (like a landlord who pays the power, or the company who shoulders the cost of the graphics cards) and then ignore the fact that you're just taking money out of their pockets by stealth.

On the other hand if you wait long enough, enough people are going to be throwing in the towel soon that you might be able to get a decent deal on graphics cards.  Case in point: in early 2011 I bought graphics cards for $650 each, and mined coins - but didn't mine as many coins as I could have bought for the same amount.  But after months of mining, I sold the cards for about half what I paid for them.  The buyers of my cards had to face a much higher difficulty but also got in the game for half the price, and it was a good deal for me because although I didn't make $650 from each card, I definitely made more than half of that, which meant selling my cards put me in the positive.

Mine another crypto-currency. One of them will eventually be as Bitcoin was.

Yes I agree, you could use them to mine LTC that would be the best option now.

I think you'll find that your 50+ clients will dwindle once they start realizing that this little program you're installing to use untapped computer cycles uses an unreasonable amount of power, makes their computers less responsive, and makes the office louder and hotter. It's a very bad idea, IMO.

Learn how to set up your own computer to mine first, then you'll see if using your clients' computers to mine is plausible.

Basically this is the wrong time to get into mining.

Check back in march of next year... that will either be a better time or bitcoin will be dead.

IMO bitcoin will survive the jump to ASIC... once that happens you'll be in a better position to see if it's viable for you. Chances are without a very large initial investment ($50,000 - $250,000) it will be a non-starter.

lol, I remember doing this with a few hundred computers in my company to mine coins for me. it required a bunch of work and hundreds of wallets but it worsk but GPU's and ASICs are way better now, have some of those running as we speak