New to bitcoin and mining

[Devilish]

Hello,

I'll probably get flamed for this, but I really hope I don't. (because this is a forum for newbies after all). I'm consider myself fairly techy, but not advanced like most of you.
I have finally decided to get on the Bitcoin bandwagon. However, the concept of having a wallet (savings, and checking) is a little confusing for me. I'll get to that later.

First, I want you to know I have access to about 27 workstations in my office. (disclaimer: I own the business.) I'd like to see where Bitcoin can go and take me. So I'd like to install bitcoin on all these workstations (PCs/Win 7). These workstations will mine for me. I'm guessing that these workstations will mine and "deposit" them into my checking wallet based on my configuration (can I deploy them with configuration en-masse using MSI?).

My questions are:

• How to, if possible, en-masse configure (to deposit to the same checking wallet I have) and install these mining softwares into the 27 PCs.
• Since all these 27 miners will be depositing to one checking wallet, each of them will have access to all bitcoins mined by the 26 other PCs .. any way to keep it safe? (I don't think there will be a lot of coins mined daily, but still.. )
• How do I move them to a savings wallet (wallet.dat) daily? Does the wallet need to be opened on bitcoin for me to take this deposit in?
• How to keep the mining software running in background and not be intrusive to my employees?
• Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks in advance!

[mjc]

Mining with CPU is inefficient.   Since GPU mining started the network hash rate hash made it so that CPU mining generates very little value.  With the new ASIC miner hitting the markets the GPU mining is over.

I wrote a blog article that will help you understand the value of mining hash rate as it compares to the network hash rate : http://bitcoinsbs.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/how-much-mhash-does-it-take-to-mine-1-btc/

Then to understand the mining hash rate of the mining devices look here : https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

If you are interested in ASIC mining, there are two companies Butterfly Labs and Avalon that seem to be the way to go.  You'll be on a waiting list for either company.

For a comparison with CPU mining you might get 10 MH/sec, GPU depending on the card up to 800 MH.s with lots of power consumption,  FPGA you'll get less power consumption and just as high of rates for the money.  The cost of power is an issue at the present time.  ASIC change that some as they use a lot less power.  ASIC run about 60 GH/s depending on the unit.  Avalons 60 GH unit uses about 600w and BFL 60 GH unit is supposed to only use 60w.

Hope this helps.

[odolvlobo]

My recommendation is to try mining on a single machine and see what happens before you try to turn it into a big project. There is a lot of information out there about mining. Look around. Experiment.

Mining in the background is possible. You can configure the software to work at a reduced load so that it doesn't affect the user as much. You will have to experiment to see what level is tolerable.

In the end, I think you will be glad that you tried mining, but you will find that it is not as profitable as you thought it would be, even with 27 computers.

If you want to segregate your money, you can create a wallet on your personal machine and then create another wallet (perhaps even a paper wallet) elsewhere. There are many options. Moving bitcoins between wallets is done just like any other transfer.

If you mine in a pool, then you tell the pool where to send the mined coins. The wallet doesn't have to be on the machine that is mining and the machines don't need to be able to access the wallet that is receiving the coins.

Finally, it is important to know that bitcoins are not stored in a wallet. Bitcoins are effectively stored in the block chain, and wallets store just the keys. So, just like you don't have to have Quicken running to receive a direct deposit to your checking account, you don't have to have wallet software running to receive coins.

[Devilish]

Thanks so much for the input guys!
Yes, you're right. I've had a very informative chat with one Mikhail1 on IRC just a few minutes ago, and what you guys say is exactly what he said. However, odolvlobo is perfectly correct! I want to learn mining before I try to get my hands on ASIC. So is there a way for me to get started on one PC that has a good GPU to get a feel for things?

Thanks!

[Aahzman]

sure.

start by creating a wallet at blockchain.info/wallet - this is a lightweight web-wallet that is easy to use, offers multi-factor authentication, tools to backup your wallet keys, etc.  This'll save you mucking around having to install the bitcoin-qt client (the basic Bitcoin client) and downloading the entire blockchain which can take several to many hours.

generate a receive address in your blockchain.info wallet. Label it "pool mining receipts" or something like that.

Download guiminer from wherever you get guiminer from (it's been a while so i don't remember, and i wouldn't post the link anyway, cuz people are paranoid about clicking links in the newb forum).  it's fairly simple to install.  You'll want to throw that sucker on the PC with the best video card. using the hardware mining comparison list linked earlier up the thread, you can see what cards average what for hashrate. Basically, if you ain't got something ATI/AMD on that list, it's really not even worth the effort. For example, with recent increases/changes in the network difficulty rate, my 6770 card, which generates about 180Mhash/sec.  Mining in the Slush pool, I make about a bitnickel every 18-20 hours. Yep. 0.05000000BTC.  so, that's about 1BTC every 360-400 hours, or every 15-17 days. So 2BTC a month, and I'm probably using far more than $40/month in electricity to do so (luckily, I don't pay for electricity here).

If you have a HMCL (hardware mining comparison list) compliant card, and still want to try it, pick a mining pool and have at it. I suggest Slush's Pool, as it's probably one of the simpler ones to sign up for and get started. You can tell if your mining software is working by looking at the default tab of guiminer. Down in the bottom right corner,you'll see a Mhash/s value. if you are actively mining, this will be a number that fluctuates slightly every second. (mine varies about 2Mhash every second)

And there ya go. there are lots of help threads to get you going if you have trouble configuring guiminer, etc. Once you're up to speed on how to mine, start reading threads on securing your hoard of bitcoins once you start to acquire some.  I don't keep a lot of btc in my blockchain.info wallet, it's mainly just a clearing house.  When I buy BTC, they get sent to me via that wallet, so that I can transfer them either to a investment site, or to an offline wallet. an offline wallet is basically a wallet executable on a memory stick, or even on a netbook or something that you only connect to the web when you need to access it, then you take it offline again.  There are also paper wallets (where you print out your private keys and store them someplace securely), physical bitcoins (cascacius, i know i probably spelled that wrong) where the private key is hidden under a hologram sticker, printed bitcoin bills, etc. Plenty of ways to store your bitcoins securely.

Once you get into the social aspect of bitcoins, i just have one piece of advice. STAY ALERT, TRUST NO ONE. Distrust everything. Or at least, don't automatically trust anything. There are several mechanisms to gain rep/credibility, the OTC (i haven't figured that out yet, it's an IRC channel, i think), be active on the forums here, don't beg or try to borrow, etc.  If you are going to buy bitcoins, use a reputable exchange service, ie nothing involving paypal, and if you are using bitcoins to buy goods, use an escrow service/person. Escrow is when a community-trusted 3rd party agrees to be a holding point for the bitcoins in a transaction.  Party A wants to buy a widget from Party B.  They agree on a price and an escrow provider. Party A sends the funds to the escrow provider, who confirms receipt of the funds with both Parties. Then Party B ships the widget. When Party A receives the widget, they inform the escrow provider, who transfers the bitcoins to PartyB.  Most escrow services will charge a small fee to hold the funds. Some don't, and will do it for the good of the community.

Bottom line is, BTC is just like real world stuff. If a product or service sounds too good to be true, it likely is. There are a lot of scammers out there.  Be friendly and open, but be cautious about where you send your money or bitcoins.  There are some scams which are so obvious they are like the equivalent of some homeless-looking dude walking up to you on the street and asking you for $1000 so he can start a street-corner hobo dance academy.