New to Cryptocurrency

[Lyikos]

Hello, I decided to get involved with this after hearing about it more and more and have some questions.

I am participating in mining pools right now, I'm getting some bitcoin. How do I obtain a block needed to collect transaction fees? How can I tell if I have one already? I generally transfer everything to a master wallet, would a block transfer that way as well?

What is the minimum amount needed to start profitably speculating to beat the fees? I don't care if I only make .000001 btc per trade, so long as its a positive amount. I'm hoping to get the hang of it by starting with around 1 btc. 

What's you favorite place to hear news of new cryptocurrencies? I want to get in early and hoard what I can mine in a week incase that particular currency ever takes off or becomes as popular as btc.

Thanks.

[koin]

How do I obtain a block needed to collect transaction fees?

some pools share the fees others don't.   some pools might give a bonus to the finder of the block, most don't.

What is the minimum amount needed to start profitably speculating to beat the fees?

with a pool, your miner does whatever work that your pool gives you.  you don't pick and choose which transactions to include.  (if that is what you are asking).

[Lyikos]

What is the minimum amount needed to start profitably speculating to beat the fees?

with a pool, your miner does whatever work that your pool gives you.  you don't pick and choose which transactions to include.  (if that is what you are asking).

Thanks, although that question was about speculating BTC versus USD. In other words buying x BTC for USD and the turning around to sell them for more USD. What's the exchange with the most favorable rates for that sort of thing?

[organofcorti]

Hello, I decided to get involved with this after hearing about it more and more and have some questions.

I am participating in mining pools right now, I'm getting some bitcoin. How do I obtain a block needed to collect transaction fees? How can I tell if I have one already? I generally transfer everything to a master wallet, would a block transfer that way as well?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this question. If you're speculating, you don't need to solve a block yourself - all you need are coins. You can buy coins a number of ways - through exchanges and also businesses specialising in selling bitcoin.

If you did purchase an entire block's reward (50 btc at the moment), you would simply have it transferred to you wallet via an address you'd give the seller. You could approach pools if you need a block's reward (rather than just 50btc in random coins). They'd probably want a premium though.