Bultin Miners for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies

[elements]

Hi there,

I remember the time when the Bitcoin client had a bult in miner (in the GUI) version which was removed to being obsolete from the client in 2011.

Now there are many new crypto currencies emerging - some of them still have a very low difficulty and one could at least try to cpu mine either solo or pool.

Now here is a question I posted several times in different threads for specific currencies and never really got a satisfying answer.

Realizing that it actually is a general question about cpu mining I dare to open another thread.


So here it is: some clients (old Bitcoin QT and some of the new cryptos) have this built in mining feature. As far as I know in order to start mining you need to open the debug window, then the console and enter: setgenerate true -1

If you want to check whether this was successful you enter: getmininginfo

You will get a response like this:

"blocks" : 4105,
"currentblocksize" : 1000,
"currentblocktx" : 0,
"difficulty" : 0.32427337,
"errors" : "",
"generate" : true,
"genproclimit" : -1,
"hashespersec" : 3644,
"networkhashps" : 11395692,
"pooledtx" : 0,
"testnet" : false

(As you can see the entry "generate" is set to true, meaning you're mining).


Now in the GUI there is a mining window and there you have a button which says start mining (once you press it it switches to stop mining).

a) Is using the comand "setgenerate true -1" equal to pressing the start mining button OR do you first need to enter the command and then press the start mining button


b) SOLOMING: Is this everything you need to do if you want to solo mine OR do you have enter something in the entry fields on the mining window:

Solomining OR Poolmining
Threads: 1 (default)
Scantime: 1 (default)
Debug logging: on/off (default = off)
Server: (default=empty)
Port: (default = empty)
Username: (default = empty)
Password: (default = empty)

c) if you want to solomine do you need to do ANYTHING else? Do you need an additional mining program? Do you need to change some settings somewhere? and so on...

d) What do you need to do if you want to poolmine?


Since I strongly believe that a lot of first time miners will have the same or similar questions I would really appreciate some clear instructions on how to use this feature.


Thank you for your time and your attention!

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[elements]

Honestly, no one?
Really?

You don't want competition or you don't know the answer?

I always thought "our" people want all the "other people" to adopt, understand and use Bitcoin (and maybe other cryptocurrencies also).

If you know the answers - please take the time to answer them.
I am 100% sure there are lots of people who would like to know.

Thanks again for your time and your attention!

[El Extranjero]

Be patient. You just posted this yesterday. I'm sure someone will eventually answer your question. It might help to move this thread under a Mining section. I'd like to know this as well incase I ever plan on adopting another coin start up.

[PEBKAC]

a) Is using the comand "setgenerate true -1" equal to pressing the start mining button OR do you first need to enter the command and then press the start mining button

Yes, they are the same. The button issues the same command.

b) SOLOMING: Is this everything you need to do if you want to solo mine OR do you have enter something in the entry fields on the mining window:

Solomining OR Poolmining
Threads: 1 (default)
Scantime: 1 (default)
Debug logging: on/off (default = off)
Server: (default=empty)
Port: (default = empty)
Username: (default = empty)
Password: (default = empty)

For solo mining, yes, that is everything you need to do.
To pool-mine, you should set the server, port, user and password fields.

c) if you want to solomine do you need to do ANYTHING else? Do you need an additional mining program? Do you need to change some settings somewhere? and so on...

No, you do not need anything else when the mining is done by your client software.
However, if you are mining coins that can be mined on a GPU, you would probably miss out on 99% of the hashing power of your machine. (asuming you own an ATI graphics card)
This is also the one big reason why there is no mining function in Bitcoin-QT anymore. CPU mining is way too slow and energy-inefficient compared to GPU, FPGA and ASIC mining. Integrating GPU mining would be a way around this, but on the other hand, it also increases variables (worksize settings, vector, etc) and relies heavilly on the user's ability to install good drivers (to enable OpenCL or Cuda) wich would make the client appeal less to newcomers.

d) What do you need to do if you want to poolmine?

As I said at question B. Just fill out the required fields.
Ofcourse, you need to join a pool beforehand. They will provide you with a server and port adress. Username is usually your login name for the pool and a 'worker' name (has to be set at the pool) combined, separated by a dot.

Some additional info:
If you do not have the hardware to produce at least a couple 10's of Gigahashes per second, don't even think about solo mining.
Solo mining relies on you finding a block, wich will pay out 25BTC (reward used to be 50, and will devide by 2 every certain amount of coins that are mined). However, on hardware that isn't fast enough, you need to be lucky enough to find a block before anyone else does. You're boxing against 300Terahash per second (currently, constantly grows), and the odds of you finding a block before anyone else are less than a winning with a lottery ticket.

So the advice is: join a pool, install a good mining client (CGMiner, BGFminer, Bitminter if you want something extremely easy to set up) and have the latest drivers for your GPU installed. This guarantees that you get some BTC. Far less than finding a block, but guaranteed income.