Bitcoin Forum

Newbie here.,.
I've dabbled with bitcoin a while back and i used an offline wallet. Shit took forever to download and set up and i only had .00001 btc and i tried mining but my computer is shit so i didn't get anything.

I'm think of getting back into bitcoin and doing pool mining.

My question is it worth it wasting time to create an offline wallet and download all those blocks again? i know offline wallets are more secure though..
Should i go with an online wallet like coinbase since it's much faster but i know coinbase got fees and shit and money is not that safe being store on someone's else server..

If you don't want a hosted wallet, but you don't want to have to download and store the entire blockchain, you could use a lightweight wallet like MultiBit or Electrum.

You might also consider a hybrid wallet such as blockchain.info.

Regardless, unless you have some high end ASIC equipment, you're going to be very disappointed with the results from mining.  You'd be better off taking that money that you'll spend on electricity and just purchasing the bitcoins directly.

Only store as much money in an online wallet as you are prepared to lose. I'd recommend putting most of your savings into cold storage and keeping a small amount for daily use into an online wallet or your desktop client.

As DannyHamilton said, you're not going to get a decent return from your mining equipment unless you have a lot of money to invest in ASICs. You should probably take that money and buy bitcoins rather than mine them.

what's the difference between the lightweight wallet and the regular?  what's missing in the lightweight to make it lightweight?

Also i'm mining in a pool with an inspiron 1520 laptop (8600mgt gpu, duo 2 core cpu).  how much could i make in a month in a pool?

what's considered high end asic hardware? i saw 5gh asic miner for relatively cheap, is that powerful enough?

Bitcoin mining with the GPU on a laptop is a great way to overheat and destroy the laptop without earning any bitcoins at all.

With some tuning and care given to keep it cooled, you might be able to manage a bit less than 5 MH/s with that 8600m GT.  With a bit of luck, that might get you 0.00000732 BTC (about $0.004) per month at the current difficulty.  That quantity will drop as difficulty increases.

If you could connect it today, at the current difficulty, 5GH/s will earn you almost 0.0002405 BTC per day.  How cheap did you see it for?  If it costs you more than 0.072 BTC, and you have to pay for your electricity at all, then you'll probably never make back your investment.

With the lightweight wallets, you don't store the entire blockchain.  Instead they use SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) as described in the original bitcoin whitepaper written by Satoshi Nakamoto. 

LMAO...wow....and here i was getting all excited and crap..i guess mining is not for me haha, maybe not bitcoin either, with the current prices that bitcoin are at right now...

i saw the asic 5ghs machine for $270 but at the profit you listed for me, i would only make 0.0002405 btc or $0.1382, that won't even pay for the electric bill, i doubt i'd even make back my $270 if i spend it....
I just used this calcultor https://tradeblock.com/mining/a/6a7daabfcd
and i'd be losing hundreds of dollars buying and asic machine and trying to mine and i'd still be losing tons of money on eletricity if i use my normal laptop, not to mention it'd be fried.

So basically most people don't mine Bitcoin these days? they just buy?  what's with all these other coins like Litecoin? is it related to bitcoin? or it is different? did someone just make litecoin because bitcoins mining is so saturated now lol....

Current prices?

You can get 1,725 microbitcoins for $1

difference between microbitcoin and bitcoin is? or are they the same? i'm noob...sources say 1 btc = $578 right now...

Just buy what you can from time to time. Take your 270, buy some coins and look for good investment opportunities. The value will go up so you can just hold them as well.  

Coinbase doesn't have fees as long as you are sending out 0.01 BTC or more in your transaction (they cover the fees). It can take a while to get payments out though.

I see nothing wrong with using Coinbase as an online wallet, despite how others feel. They are backed by a lot of VC money and are a trusted source.

for any substantial amount, especially coins that you don't plan on spending any time soon, definitely get an offline wallet. electrum is wonderful for this, has a great UI, and is much lighter than a full client like QT. electrum and multibit have subforums on this forum -- you can find help there. :D

if you want to use use online wallet i would recommend you to use blockchain.info it is much secure then any other online wallet. :P :P ;) ;)

If you're going to push for blockchain.info, you should also add in that you control your own private keys and therefore you can really use any wallet (by importing your key).

You do not actually need to download blocks to create an offline wallet, use a paper wallet service and generate it on a offline computer. Coinbase do not need fees for transactions with 0.001 and above. Put a small amount in coinbase and most of the BTC in offline wallet.
-ranochigo

1 microbitcoin is just an easier way to say 0.000001 btc.

That way you don't have to pronounce all those zeros (or remember how many of them there are).

0.001 BTC = 1 millibitcoin (mBTC)=  100,000 satoshi
0.000001 BTC = 1 microbitcoin (µBTC) = 100 satoshi
0.00000001 BTC = 1 satoshi = 0.01 microbitcoin (µBTC)

So, for $1, you can get about 172,500 satoshi, which is the same as saying 1,725 microbitcoin (µBTC), which is the same as saying 1.725 millibitcoin (mBTC), which is the same as saying 0.001725 btc.

From science, here are what they mean:

Micro (u) - millionth
Milli (m) - thousandth

That's an easier way to remember it. So 1k uBTC is 1 mBTC. 1k mBTC is 1 BTC.

Coinbase usually covers the TX fees when you send BTC to other addresses. You are correct to say that it is generally good to not have BTC stored at a 3rd party website, however Coinbase is probably the best one.

If you do not wish to have to download the blockchain you can use a "light" wallet. I would recommend multibit.