Bitcoin Forum

Hello; I'm a total newbie when it comes to Bitcoin and I am not a techie at all. I know that a lot of people set up huge Bitcoin mining setups with several computers and such but I really don't have the technical expertise to set one of those up. I'm wondering if there are any programs or apps that I can use on an ordinary Windows 8 laptop and phone that doesn't require a lot of crazy script-writing or anything like that? Something so that your computer can mine during idle time.

I tried using the forums search function, but it's claiming I'm making to search queries and to wait 90 seconds, even though I didn't make any previous searches.

As I have been using laptops exclusively since 1999 and not having a desktop Ijust bought cloud hashing online and they mine bitcoins for me. Lookup Cex.io in google.

Just mine on a GPU just like most others are doing. If you can't set up Guiminer with a pool, bitcoin may not be for you until you understand the system a bit more.

Another note: Mining on the phone is probably a lost cause. On the laptop, I'd mine litecoin as you wouldn't be competing against as many large ASIC miners.

I'm pretty new to the bitcoin scene myself, but my understanding is that it really isn't worth it for an individual to mine bitcoins, unless you have access to lots of capital. these people with the large mining setups are getting such high hash rates that your personal computer would mine bitcoins with hardly any return, certainly not enough to cover your electricity costs.

I just installed guiminer like rarkenin suggest; it's giving me a rate of ~350 khash/s (dunno if that's low, high or average). There's also nothing on there that lists how much bitcoin is being generated as a result or where to access them; there's something calls "slush's pool" in the "Server Name" box.

... ... ... Australian Securities and Investigation Commission?

Yeah, I have no idea how to do that; I'm not even sure if my computer has a graphics card. It might just be a video card

I have a 1.80 GHz Intel Celeron running Windows 8.

1. ASIC is a special mining device that mines faster because it's designed to mine, and only mine.

2. A video card is a graphics card.

3. 350 khash/sec is way too slow for bitcoins. You also need to make an account on a mining pool to send coins to/from, for example on slush's pool. Then just input the login settings into guiminer.

What do you guys think about pool mining Litecoin with a laptop? Dual core AMD, Radeon 8240 512Mb

Even with specialised ASICs it's very difficult to mine Bitcoin. I've been looking onto it for around 6 months, waiting for an opportunity.  A standard laptop has no chance, it will just cost you a lot in electricity and burn out your graphics card.

Mining other currencies would be more productive, but the more established ones, such as Litecoin are probably out if your reach too.

If you want to do it to get a better understanding or for a bit of a hobby, a USB erupter would be your cheapest way, but don't expect to see a profit.

Cloud mining such as cex.io looks to be a pretty good way, but even this looks a risk to me.

Check out the mining section of the forum, there's loads of info in there that will help.

Okay, I set up a Slush Pool account; I went to their website "mining.bitcoin.cz" and made an account, though I have 2 usernames and 2 passwords; 1 to login into their website, and 1 to put into guiminer.

I tried copying and pasting the address they gave me into guiminer, stopped my mining and restarted it with the new username and password they gave me.

In the "My Account" section, I was asked to input a "Bitcoin Address." Stumped, I tried imputing my email address twice but that didn't do anything.

My guiminer program is still running but the "My Account" section lists "0.00000000 BTC," even though it's been running for 2 hours.

 ???

I'm pretty sure the Bitcoin address is your wallet address. It's a long sequence if numbers and letters. Have you set up a wallet yet? I use Bitcoin-qt but there are others. Electrum looks good, but I've not used it.

You could probably run your laptop for the next 2 years, never mind 2 hours without seeing a change to your BTC balance.