I think I did smth dumb... help pls?

[excavator]

Hi there

Could some experienced slush user help me pls, I think I did a rather dumb thing...

I setup a miner/worker, connected it to slush and started mining. Today my btc went over the "Send Thremshold" value so bitcoin.cz sent me the btc to the address on my account page. I can see it in the blockchain and also on the pool's Transaction History page

 Here comes the "dumb" part...

When setting up my account at bitcoin.cz I DID NOT enter any bitcoin address on the "My Account" page (or at least I don't remember entering an address) so I suppose the website just gave me some random generated btc address? I guess I should have 1. install a wallet client; 2. recorded the address of my wallet and 3. enter it on my bitcoin.cz account page, huh?

And now I am wondering how to transfer these coins that are sitting in that "default" address to my wallet or to gox??? If I change the address on the My Account page to be my wallet address will I lose the coins mined so far? There's not that many there, but still that would suck... mostly as I would feel like an idiot...

I guess what screwed me up was that I thought that somehow I would be able to enter my bitcoin.cz address into the wallet software but it seems to be the other way around - get a wallet app first and it gives you an address which you can then use, huh?

Any suggestions how to transfer the btc from slush to my wallet app or to mtgox? Thanks..

[greenegg]

If I change the address on the My Account page to be my wallet address will I lose the coins mined so far?

Unpaid coins should go to the new address once you cross the send threshold.

I'm not sure what the pool does if you don't enter an address.  I would double check to make sure you don't own the address.

If your email or pool account was compromised someone could have entered their own address.  If you think this is the case change your passwords to your email and pool.

The pool may have sent it to a default address they control like a donation address, but I think it's more likely that the pool would not payout until an address was entered.  If you contact the pool operator they may be able to help but I would not get your hopes up.

[excavator]

Now that I think of - it must have been an address that I entered long time ago. Coz my chronlogy was:
1. learned about bitcoin
2. experimented with wallet software
3. experimented with mining software using the crappy card I have at work
4. researched AMD cards and bought a couple and started mining

so somewhere along 2. or 3. I probably entered the address into that field... Now I probably need to search my work computer for wallet software... hopefully I ll be able to find the one I used to obtain that address...

I think what got me confused is the "step by step" instructions on slush's site:

How do I get started?

1. Install Bitcoin miner on your computer
2. Sign up with a bitcoin.cz account
3. Run miner

Which is wrong. It should be:

1. Install a WALLET, get a BTC address
2. Sign up with bitcoin.cz, use the address
3. Install and run a Bitcoin miner on your computer