A sad man's tale of woe... (attn: -ck)

[RackAttack]

Anyone old enough to remember Gilligan's Island's theme song?  "Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale a tale of a fateful trip..."  Well, that's kind of what this is, so sit back...  (And, yes, I'm brand-spanking new to Bitcoin so stick around, after the "tale," I've got some great noob questions for you to boot!)

OK, so, I've heard of Bitcoin for a while now and was always curious about it.  A few days ago, I finally decided to just check it out with the intention of mining for Bitcoins.  I remember hearing about, what I thought was "recent news," that the "new thing" is being able to mine for bitcoins with your GPU.  Cool. I just got a pretty good one for gaming, so now's the perfect time to check into mining with it -- Except -- it isn't, or so I've just learned in the last few hours.  And yes, unfortunately, I've learned a little bit about ASIC mining and the rigs - again, *sigh*

So, ok, my life in general is going terrible, and I start to think, well, maybe mining for Bitcoins can give me a break.  -- Nope.


OK, so I download Bitcoin Core - and the entire 100+ GB blockchain (didn't see that one coming) and set up my wallet - although, I think I didn't copy down a "private key," unless it's the password I put in - all I remember is having to click on a few cards in a deck that were blank anyhow to generate something with more "entropy/randomness?," so it's probably worthless (worth less than even the 0.00000000 BTC that I keep staring at for the last few days).  I'll find out soon, because before I started to see the "mining with your CPU/GPU is dead" all over the internet, that's what I set out to do, and managed to land on: "NiceHash" which, yes, I've been pool-mining for BTC for the last few days intermittently using my desktop's GPU (nVidia 970, running at around 80 degrees C at full load @ about 220 Sols/s equihash (whatever that means), and have "supposedly" 'earned' about 0.00091420 BTC, which won't be paid until tomorrow sometime to an address which I'm not sure I have any way of accessing anyhow, due to the lack of the private key (unless it is that stinking password I put in).  -- You see, I didn't think I wanted to stick with Bitcoin - I just wanted to "see what it's all about."  I had no plans on buying any Bitcoin, and only seeing if I could mine some.  But now, after not properly setting up my wallet - which I didn't even encrypt yet, because I didn't think it necessary because I wasn't going to stick with it.  I'm also too afraid to encrypt it now, as I'm not sure what that will do to the addresses I've already generated for NiceHash and a silly Faucet thing I spent some time on. -- anyhow, I do now plan on sticking with Bitcoin, and I'm not sure what the heck I did to my wallet.

Uggh.

OK, now for the noob questions:

1.) Any comments or suggestions about the large, laborious, above paragraph? Tips, pointers, etc?

2.) So, finding a Block and getting paid BTC as a reward: First I saw the reward was 50 BTC, then, in another place, I saw it was 25 BTC and yet again, I saw another spot which says it's 12.5 BTC.  What gives?  What's the reward for finding a block?  Is it being scaled down?  If so by whom?

3.) Is "finding a block" a matter of luck?  For instance, is it conceivable to begin mining for BTC and finding a block within the first few seconds because you were extremely, extremely lucky?  Is that possible?  Even theoretically, against all odds, is it even possible?  (Hey, I warned you that it was going to be noob questions.)

4.) THIS IS WHERE I WISH SOMEONE COULD POKE "-CK" A MOD ON THESE FORUMS FOR ME: In my dwindling hope of mining Bitcoins with my desktop PC, as I was finding out, I came across this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1243791.0 - In it, someone suggests trying out "CK's solo pool" located here: http://solo.ckpool.org/ but the thread is over a year old ... Is "-ck" still around? ... Is this pool still going?  Can I, using my current setup, solo-mine on it still?  Is it worth it, just to "try my luck?"

and lastly:

5.) This being my first post, and having not found any forum rules yet, is there a link to "rules" to this forum someone can give me?  Also, in the same light: If I created a signature with a BTC receiving address in it with maybe a QR code pic, or even just text - is that allowed?  Or is it against the rules?


Thanks to any and all replies - please, go easy on me, my hopes are already dashed quite a bit.

 

[Velkro]

Uggh.

OK, now for the noob questions:

1.) Any comments or suggestions about the large, laborious, above paragraph? Tips, pointers, etc?

2.) So, finding a Block and getting paid BTC as a reward: First I saw the reward was 50 BTC, then, in another place, I saw it was 25 BTC and yet again, I saw another spot which says it's 12.5 BTC.  What gives?  What's the reward for finding a block?  Is it being scaled down?  If so by whom?

3.) Is "finding a block" a matter of luck?  For instance, is it conceivable to begin mining for BTC and finding a block within the first few seconds because you were extremely, extremely lucky?  Is that possible?  Even theoretically, against all odds, is it even possible?  (Hey, I warned you that it was going to be noob questions.)

4.) THIS IS WHERE I WISH SOMEONE COULD POKE "-CK" A MOD ON THESE FORUMS FOR ME: In my dwindling hope of mining Bitcoins with my desktop PC, as I was finding out, I came across this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1243791.0 - In it, someone suggests trying out "CK's solo pool" located here: http://solo.ckpool.org/ but the thread is over a year old ... Is "-ck" still around? ... Is this pool still going?  Can I, using my current setup, solo-mine on it still?  Is it worth it, just to "try my luck?"

and lastly:

5.) This being my first post, and having not found any forum rules yet, is there a link to "rules" to this forum someone can give me?  Also, in the same light: If I created a signature with a BTC receiving address in it with maybe a QR code pic, or even just text - is that allowed?  Or is it against the rules?


Thanks to any and all replies - please, go easy on me, my hopes are already dashed quite a bit.

 

Some question here are not begginer state, you should move to mining section for answer for couple of them.
Ad. 3 yes, you could find a block with close to 0 mining power in a second, but statistically its very very very very very low probability.
Ad. 2 yes its scaled down by bitcoin code, every 4 years around by half. Now its 12.5 for each block.

I will leave you here, but will add one more thing. If you are starting your journey learning about bitcoin. Mining is a bad way to start, you will just loose money. You will "earn more" by just buying and keeping. More safe

[devans]

1.) Any comments or suggestions about the large, laborious, above paragraph? Tips, pointers, etc?

I suggest trying to limit your post to the essentials in the future. Its relevant information could easily be distilled into one or two short and easily readable paragraphs.

You are correct in that Bitcoin mining on a personal computer is futile. However, it sounds like you are mining an altcoin–which is likely equally futile–and not Bitcoin. In any case you should carefully consider if your earnings will even cover your electricity costs.

Bitcoin Core saves your private keys to disk. You do not need to memorize them. Before spending any more time and energy on attempting to mine or otherwise obtaining Bitcoin, you should at least familiarize yourself with how your Bitcoin wallet works and how to use it.

2.) So, finding a Block and getting paid BTC as a reward: First I saw the reward was 50 BTC, then, in another place, I saw it was 25 BTC and yet again, I saw another spot which says it's 12.5 BTC.  What gives?  What's the reward for finding a block?  Is it being scaled down?  If so by whom?

All those sources were likely correct. The block reward is reduced by half roughly every four years in order to ensure that eventually there will be a finite supply of Bitcoins. This is effectively done by miners but based on consensus among the entire network.

3.) Is "finding a block" a matter of luck?  For instance, is it conceivable to begin mining for BTC and finding a block within the first few seconds because you were extremely, extremely lucky?  Is that possible?  Even theoretically, against all odds, is it even possible?  (Hey, I warned you that it was going to be noob questions.)

Essentially it's a matter of luck, but your chances depend on the speed of your hardware. Think of it as a lottery: Every miner is looking for the winning ticket, but the faster miners get to open more tickets every second. It's possible to find the right ticket even with a very slow miner, such as a GPU, but it is very unlikely to the point where you're better off buying an actual lottery ticket.

4.) THIS IS WHERE I WISH SOMEONE COULD POKE "-CK" A MOD ON THESE FORUMS FOR ME: In my dwindling hope of mining Bitcoins with my desktop PC, as I was finding out, I came across this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1243791.0 - In it, someone suggests trying out "CK's solo pool" located here: http://solo.ckpool.org/ but the thread is over a year old ... Is "-ck" still around? ... Is this pool still going?  Can I, using my current setup, solo-mine on it still?  Is it worth it, just to "try my luck?"

You can "poke him" yourself by sending a private message, though I believe it's a waste of time. The pool appears to be online, but the chance of you finding a block on your own is infinitesimal.

5.) This being my first post, and having not found any forum rules yet, is there a link to "rules" to this forum someone can give me?  Also, in the same light: If I created a signature with a BTC receiving address in it with maybe a QR code pic, or even just text - is that allowed?  Or is it against the rules?

See this post.

[RackAttack]

Thank you for the responses.  They were helpful.

Happy New Year All!!