Bitcoin Forum

I am just now learning about what Bitcoin is and how it works. I am slightly if not totally confused. I thought maybe I would just DL wallet and mining program per YouTube tutorial I saw, but I am worried that I will screw something up. I just want to learn how it works and I learn much more efficiently through hands on experience than I do from hearing things explained, although that does help. I am a not very tech savvy single working mom of two, but I moonlight as an activist ;D and so I'm curious and really excited what looks to me like a global revolution and this new form of currency being a facet of that. I would appreciate any advice, definitely DONT dos, or links to some really solid information about Bitcoin and mining.

You can't mine bitcoin "with a program per Youtube tutorial". You need specialized hardware called ASIC, there are quite many options, but it all depend on how much you pay per kW per month and your starting budget.

Yay! I am glad that you are getting interested in bitcoin. I highly recommend doing just a lil more research on bitcoin before diving into mining. If you haven't already, I recommend reading the original white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto (creator of bitcoin). Before mining, you should definitely first buy some bitcoins into a wallet (I suggest bitcoin core) or a mobile wallet and just find some services to spend some on. As for diving into bitcoin mining, it will depend on your goal. If you want to profit, you will need to go with a heafty ASIC miner such as the antminer s7 from bitmain. That can need extra planning on power consumption, wiring, etc because they are beasts. If you just want to get your feet wet and understand the process, you can buy cheap asic USB miners or even mine with your computer but that will take a toll on it. The more research you do the better off you will be because bitcoin is very unique and revolutionary as you said.

Base on what I red, I'm assuming you just want to test and learn the process of mining and by saying YouTube you actually mean to mine using your computer using the tutorials provide over the internet which could be one way of having a taste of how mining feels but at the moment, it won't make you any money if you mine using your computer alone and not buy external special hardware (Asic miners) for the matter so don't expect to be reach by doing so.

If you want to learn about bitcoin, more particular about bitcoin mining, i would recommend the following.
1) Either start fast by mining an altcoin. You can find a tutorial here.
http://dashcoins.net/dashcoin-mining.html

2) Wait a little while buying a USB block eruptor and start with the real thing; bitcoin mining.

If you like it and understand, ask yourself, if there is a profitable future (depending on energy cost etc.) for me.

If you see a future then buy some Asic Miners at Bitmain.com or SpondooliesTech.com.

Avoid services referred to as "Cloud Mining" like the plague, they are mostly Ponzi-based scams.

Always check the links people provide you for websites around here, many of them will have a hidden referral code that you won't see unless you hover your mouse over the link and read the full address displayed by your browser. Referral codes are where a user gets paid by the scam site for every new sucker they send over, few legitimate businesses uses them.

This isn't to say that the absence of a referral code means a service someone recommends is legit, either.

Basically understand this, cryptocurrency is an unregulated finance industry, tread *extremely* carefully.

Wow, great info guys. I will definitely be reading the white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto as well as the other link Harry provided. As far as the YouTube tutorial...the starting process my understanding was DL a wallet, DL something like GUIMiner, join a pool, and mine. The video showed that unless you have a fast computer you wont really make any profit. I am not all that interested in making a profit at this time, but at the same time I don't want to blow up my computer. He mentioned that you could invest in a really good graphics card to get more out of mining sessions. I don't really want to leave my comp running 24/7 either. But what I gathered from these replies is that the mining process requires some extra hardware that I don't have. I will look more into the hard ware that is required. Thanks again. Very helpful!

I did not see that video but it is probably years old, GPUs can't effectively mine BTC anymore, and GUI miner is extremely outdated and irrelevant. You'd do much better even with an outdated Antminer S1 for 40$.

If you wanted GUI nowaday you'd probably use the cgminer pretty much everyone uses but with something like "Awesome Miner" which is a watchdog software that will monitor and manage cgminer the way you want.

But making a simple .bat file is very easy, so that would not be a problem, but typically miners that aren,t self contained nowadays are controlled by a raspi running the same self contained firware for the other miners or something like Minera.

All in all, pretty much all the information you mentioned is obsolete.

I have to give you some credit on your signature... looks like a certain cloud mining site that pushes it hard.  Not 100 percent are bad.   Look at hashnest if you truly need to cloud mine, it is the most popular I would say as of right now that is not a ponzi.   

It is not guaranteed profit though, be aware of that going into it.  The ones who do really well seem to be those who sell at right time, which can be hard to know when that is.

The block erupter mentioned up above is not a bad idea, but I would look in group buys and get a compac from sidehack.  If you get that a powered hub, and RPI.  You will not make ROI but you will be able to learn mining at a low cost.

First off many scam artists abound.
Second where do you live?
A state if USA .
Or a country if not USA .

I ask because there are a lot of rules for and against Bitcoin.
If you want to mine what do you want to spend?
What does your power cost?
Single mom + 2 kids = danger with some mining gear.

You have a pc so if you want to learn I would say buy 1 usb compac stick from sidehack.

You can learn with that for about 30 usd. It could actually make money if you join my compac sidehack club.

Most likely you won't earn anything with a compac stick but the club is fun and you will learn.

Go to the pool section of this website and find the compac club.