This site is amazing. I think we should call it a fauzi or a poncet since it's a mix of faucet and ponzi depending on how you use it. But it's a damn site better than most faucets even if the site does go down or become unresponsive a lot. And even more fair play to them for not littering the UI with ads. This is by far and away my most rewarding faucet right now.

Genius! I tried first the official HUC qt then Mithrilman's then went back to the official qt and downloaded the blockchain but the closest I've been able to get to synced is 40 weeks ago. Just as I was about to slam the door shut on ever getting going with HUC, another door opens 

Thanks Billybob2014 

Give-me-coins are merge mining LTC with PTC, uLTC and SYS and they're working on adding DOGE to that.

HUC Huntercoin can be merge mined on SHA256 or scrypt and while there doesn't seem to be any big market for it, it does have a game built into it which is a fun innovation for those that way inclined. Discus Fish offer it.

It seems that the USC official website has gone MIA too; I went there to get the wallet since I'm getting USC for free when mining with Discus Fish however the USC website now goes to the fashion brand USC.co.uk. I don't think I can be bothered to compile myself for what looks like a dodo coin...

Seems like just a short burst of server indigestion or something. It's all good again.

The Eligius.st server seems to have gone kaput this morning on an Error 500 when it connects at all. Double checked it against downforeveryoneorjustme.com and they see it as down too. Does this affect mining or just the stats?

Absolutely! Although Slush's is 0.01 BTC minimum, I reckon I'll still get a payout from all three each week assuming the S3 delivers in split (balance) mode.  But as I type my averages are:

Eligius - 101.81 GHs
BTC Guild - 113.38 GHs
Slush - 130 GHs

Combined this is 344 GHs which, admittedly is a figure based on pool reported speeds that can be inaccurate, but it is far enough below the S3's standard 453 GHs to cause some concern. Is it just me? Anyone else found this?

This thread has got me considering the purchase of a HEPA filter to stick on my Antminer. Inner city air is filthy and making it a dual purpose air filter/BTC miner might help prolong the life of both it's and my circuitry!

Yes, I am aware I can have 1, 2 or 3 pools. My view is that since BTC Guild, Eligius and Slush combined are equal to a little less than GHash.io or Discus Fish in terms of hashing power, by mining on all three I should get a similar rate of payout to if I were on one of the big two (although I won't get to payout thresholds as quickly). I prefer this because although I'm only a tiny fish in a big ocean, I'd like bitcoin to stay decentralised and because it gives me a smoother payout rate rather than the lumpy mining that comes from putting all my hashing power on one smaller pool. A steadier payout rate means I can use my BTC for everyday purchases more easily rather than being a hoarding or trading type that is concerned with BTC's value in fiat. In short, for me it's an extra income. But that's just my philosophy. What I'm really looking for is someone who knows whether an S3 running in balance mode delivers it's full GH/s and why balance and load balance mode seem to cause trouble with Ghash.io difficulty settings.

Other SHA256 coins aren't easy to mine. Sadly this isn't reflected in a good conversion rate to BTC either. Take for example Peercoin (PPC). Total network size is about 223TH with a difficulty of 174,600,181. Running a 30GH/s miner you might get somewhere around 0.25 PPC daily depending upon luck. But conversion to BTC as I write is about 0.0015 BTC to 1 PPC. So you'll need to mine about 700 PPC to get 1 BTC or, in the scenario you mentioned, you'll need somewhere less than 70 to break even on the assumption that the BTC price and exchange rate remain fixed as of now. Yet on the basis of this completely unrealistic assumption, it is theoretically possible that you'd be pulling a profit by the year end assuming you still had free electricity. Not to mention that the whole exercise of participating in mining would help you learn more about it and you'd also be part of what keeps these networks decentralised.

Maybe that, together with the fact that you would have easy access to a small trickle of coins to spend would, together with the possibility that they could become worth much more one day (as well as the risk they could be worth nothing or much less!) is sufficient to make the idea a goer for you. After all, $40 isn't a lot to gain a hobby. I could spend that one one meal out or a single dress and not think about it. Plenty have spent and lost far more on sh*t penny stocks which never gave any sort of income! So worth it or not all depends upon what you want as an outcome. If it is to go to the moon, then no, it is not worth it. If it is to explore mining and gain experience in cryptos then it's most likely going to be money well spent. There are too many variables to say with certainty whether you can break even or make money, so doing it with that as a motivation is not to be encouraged because who knows what lies in store for bitcoin and it's pals? Revolution? Evolution? Or destitution? Either way it's going to be fun to be a part of it's history.

There are quite a few people doing that. I picked up this blog on another part of the forum just yesterday and I found it fascinating to hear how he got on. In fact it was what drew me into this thread! http://www.thecoinsman.com/2014/08/bitcoin/my-bitcoin-trip-to-europe/

Hi guys,

I just got started with my first Antminer S3 and one of the features I liked the look of was the ability to specify three pools and mine from them simultaneously. I figured that this would mean a more stable level of mining income for me since using three pools would mean that the risk of one pool being very unlucky in any given time period would be offset by the chance of one of the other two pools being above average lucky. All things being equal, it should mean getting closer to a miner's average return, rather than peaks and troughs. At least that was the theory...

When I tried this, I initially set it up with Ghash.io, Slush and BTC Guild. All was good except that GHash error rate decided to go to the moon! I started getting 60 - 80% reject rates per shift with masses of low difficulty rejects, despite specifying in their workers page to send them at diff 256. This was in stark contrast to when I first rigged it up online. I pointed it at Ghash.io alone and it performed very well, a few GH/s less than advertised but I'm only running it off of a CS550M PSU with two connectors so I hadn't expected it to overperform.

Naturally I did what any sane miner would do and ditched GHash.io in favour of Eligius  

Jokes aside, does the S3 perform as rewardingly when split between 3 pools as it does when aimed just at 1 or does some GH/s never get utilized? And does anyone know why mine struggles with GHash.io difficulty when it's aimed there as part of a balanced pool set up but works fine with GHash.io if I set it to work 100% on that pool alone?

PS Sorry to post this while an important discussion on security is going on but I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread for this or keep it in this thread where all the S3 expertise is clearly hanging out 

I just joined Eligius today. I have mined with Slush's, Give Me Coins, Ghash.io and BTC Guild. I like what I see a lot and I think that Eligius has some very commendable features, like mining directly to a receiving address which can be locked.

I have set up a small contribution from my mining. Just wanted to say thanks for setting up a great pool and looking forward to working with you more.