Bitcoin Forum

Here is the question- 

I can run browser based mining, such as bitcoinplus on around 15 pc's in my office. These computers are on 24/7/365 anyway. They are relatively older PC's, so they aren't terribly powerful, but, I look at it as free mining time. BTW- I have full permission to do this, if anyone is wondering.

My questions are; would it make more sense to install a mining program, and will either a browser based or a program based mining operation cause the PC's to use more electricity, and/or cause more wear and tear on the components?

What say the hivemind of BTC talk?

Thanks.   :)

If you're doing it for fun, fine, but if you're really trying to obtain BTC then it's not even worth the effort. Cpu mining isn't worth much and you'll just make the electric bill higher for your company. And yes mining causes more wear/tear.

Probably not worth it. Like stated, if you are using the CPU they are going to be sloooooooow. If they have modern low end AMD cards they could be ok. And don't use a browser, users will just screw it up.

Finally, yes it will use more electricity. A lot more. Same with wear and tear as I assume they are cooled like crap.

OK so the bitcoinplus is actually a web interface for a pool right? Do you have any info about this one? They don't have much details on their website.
Also this sentence is a bit confusing for me: "When your computer solves the puzzle, you get 50 bitcoins. The puzzle difficulty keeps changing so that around 6 computers solve it per hour." But then they talk about years, so what do they mean by that? Or is that sentence just years old? :)

For every block-chain solved by a pool that individual miner that solved it is awarded 50BTC but it is shared out between the pool because mining is a bit like a lottery and the mining pool is like a lottery syndicate.

You'd probably be better off using cpuminer on litecoin.  It'd probably a LOT more profitable and there is even a browser miner too - http://www.litecoinpool.org/miner (http://www.litecoinpool.org/miner)  Try running it for a few day's on the fifteen PC's and see how much more you make in $'s.  Guarantee it mate your make a lot more and you can exchange your LTC for BTC or USD here - https://btc-e.com/exchange/btc_usd (https://btc-e.com/exchange/btc_usd)  If you could donate one of those PC's to me on the web-miner to me for making you a profit that'd be great  :)  username: matthewh3.2    Password: 2          

Agreed, I used about 8 PCs to mine LTC and was pretty pleased.  Again, if its going to be on anyways you might as well make money with it.

i would recommend a program because it would use less resources than the browser

If you're confused about the "puzzle" it's not really a puzzle of the sort you'd usually think of. You don't make "progress" on it, you just have a very low chance of getting the answer per try -- faster cards can try it more times per second, and a CPU, in order to have a reasonable chance (95% or so) would take a very long time. On average though, six miners get lucky per hour.