Bitcoin Forum

How do I get paid when solo-mining?

I've just started to mine using 'Bitcoin-Qt 0.8.5' & 'GUIMiner 2012-12-03'
Have sucessfully used pool-method and managed to generate som 0.00000123 BTC from this.

Now I'm trying to set up a solo-mining project using 'localhost' and port 8332,
it's running on my pc now.... but I found myself asking this question:

When solo-mining, how do I get paid when I actually haven't entered
any 'MyWallet-info/Bitcoin-adresses' into either of
the two programs I am using (Bitcoin-Qt 0.8.5 & GUIMiner 2012-12-03)

?

First of all, what's your hash rate?

Pretty sure BitcoinQT does it for you. Your mining program puts a payout address for the reward in the block you found, I assume Bitcoin QT knows the private key since it generates the payout address, so it should be automatically imported.

You better have lots and lots of mining equipment to mine solo. Seeing as how you didn't even make enough to hit most pool's payout threshold I'd say you will never ever find a block mining solo. You are burning electricity for a chance to win ~$3200 bucks. Rather crummy odds, you'd do better buying lottery scratch off tickets.

Yes bitcoind will use one of it's addresses in it's pool. 25 BTC + transaction fees will appear in your wallet. But of course you have to find a block first. This is where it gets a little difficult.

I've read a lot last few days on pros&cons of pool-mining vs.solo-mining; How soloing could take like "for ever" to discover a block...

My question was triggered in part by reading about 'bfgminer' and one of it's comand line arguments:

--coinbase-addr <arg> Set coinbase payout address for solo mining

But it seems like the answer to my question is what Buffer Overflow writes:

Seems your hashrate is so low (CPU ?) you will not mine enought BTC at pool to be able to withdraw, so solo mining might be the best choice - or not mining at all  ;)

You're not going to get anywhere.
http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

What do you mean, there is very small chance of finding a block solo mining with such small hashrate, I know it

^^This is bad advice.^^


^^This is better advice.^^

Yes, you can alternatively use this option to specify an reward address.

Hash for hash, you have the same chance of finding a block as anybody else.

My best guess is that he means that if you ever do get lucky enough to mine a block, you will very likely have spent far more than 25 BTC worth of electricity to do so.  In other words it would be much cheaper and much faster to simply buy the bitcoin now with cash than to spend all that cash on electricity in a Captain Ahab effort of mining.  If the current mean time between solving a block is 55,000 years, then the odds are pretty darn good that you aren't going to find a block before the block reward gets cut in half again in about 3 years.

This. I never understood why people wasting money on Lottery tickets. They would be better to save these money for future and their childrens

Hash for hash?  Sure.

The problem is when everybody else is generating a billion hashes for every hash that you generate.  Since they are generating 144 blocks per day, that means that you have the same chance to generate 144 blocks every billion days (or 1 block every 7 million days).

Well there is that little problem I didn't mention.

You are not going to find a block all by your lonesome :(. Unless you have a couple of Thash that is. Barring that I would recommend that you continue to pool mine on BTCGuild or something like that. However, if you are using GPUs to mine BTC then I would recommend that you mine some alts such as LTC because that will make more than BTC right now

http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab357/pontiacg5_2010/foundblock_zpsfecbf11a.png

I found a block when it should have taken me over 300 days, so it is possible.

I just got a new miner running, and was at it for around a month. When I found the block diff was around 21 million  ;D

Of course I could occasionally break into BTCguild's top 10 on the USA team with my total hashrate back then, those were good days...

Somebody wins the lottery, so it is possible to win, but that doesn't make it a worthwhile investment. Just because you won the bitcoin lottery, doesn't mean that I am likely to win.

Anyway, the amount you earn from mining in a pool is expected to be about the same amount that you will earn mining solo. It is a mistake to believe that if you earn 0.00000123 mining in a pool, that you can earn more mining solo.

The fact is that if you mine 0.00000123 BTC in a day, then the chance of finding a block each day is 0.00000123/25, or about 1 in 20 million. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5jNnDMfxA

Seems like finding a bug, in the jungle.
Too small chance

So your chances of finding a block were about 1 in 43,200


So you had about 4,464 trials at a chance of 1 in 43,200 for each trial
In other words the chance was about 1 in 10.186


The OP's chances of solving any particular block are 1 in 20 million.


Sure, but there is a big difference between 1 in 43,000 and 1 in 20,000,000.  And that's if the OP had only been running for 1 day to get the 0.00000123 BTC.  If it took them several days, then their chances are even worse.


I haven't tried the math, but intuitively I'm not sure this is true.  Pool mining pays out based on the current block reward.  So you get a small percentage of at least 25 BTC for every block you participate in during the next three years.  Meanwhile, if your odds of finding a block while solo mining are really bad, then there is a decent chance that you won't find a block until after the reward as dropped a few times.  Therefore, for the next 3 yeaars, you'd be expending electricity at a level that is supported by a reward of at least 25 BTC for a solved block, but the actual reward you receive when you finally solve a block a few years from now may only be 12.5 BTC.

I wasn't considering costs or pool fees, just theoretical revenue. As for the block reward halving, it doesn't make a difference because it affects pool miners and solo miners identically.

hi, I'm a noob to this..., but, I was thinking it too be so crazy a such a shame that (most)everyone can only answer every noob question with "what's your hash rate?". lol. if you don't know the answer, maybe don't reply? also, anytime someone says something about noob hash rate, if the rate is not given, then they go on about the returns vs. electricity.  too bad no one on the planet is smart enough to set up a solar farm and mining farm all at the same time? even buy a rollout panel for a 12v and some batteries and converters... there is more math here than just hash rate and local hydro cost. if your government is good... they buy your electricity from you at a higher rate than they sell it to you for. so, eliminate electricity from your equation.

just a thought.
h.

Most of this is nonsense, especially the solar power part. Either way, what you are talking about has been discussed many times. Nobody can tell you if it is profitable for you to mine, especially not on a internet forum filled with kids.

And if noobs would provide more relevant info to start with annoying nonsenical posts would disappear. Even if they did not go away, you would always be able to spot the people with no clue. Not that it's exceptionally difficult now anyway.

good call,
unless you are factoring in what the exchange rate for 1btc is worth atm.