Some Bitcoin Questions... Be Gentle

[xenonex2003]

Hi,

I only recently discovered bitcoin. I had an HD 4890 card which I recently sold and replaced it with a HD 5770 card. I'm getting about 210 mhash/s. I'm getting about 0.10 per day which means it will take me a week to mine 1 bitcoin.

I just wanted to have a few things clarified.

1. Do I have to run guiminer 24/7 to have more of a chance of solving a block or could I still solve a block if I run it for only 12 hours a day?

2. I'm a member of slush's pool. Does this mean I will never have the opportunity to solve a block and only get the fractional 0.10 btc every day?

3. Will I eventually solve a block or is it totally random, and therefore, may never solve a block? I have been mining for 3 weeks and have mined 2.2 btc.

4. Does the number of shares have an affect on solving a block? At the moment guiminer shows I have accepted 16422 shares. What does this mean?

5. The bitcoin client only ever shows a maximum of 62 connections. I have forwarded the ports in my router. Is that normal? Does the number of connections have an affect on solving a block?

Thank for any help with these questions.

Regards,

xenonex2003

[1714007191]

1714007191

[1714007191]

1714007191

[Jaime Frontero]

1. Do I have to run guiminer 24/7 to have more of a chance of solving a block or could I still solve a block if I run it for only 12 hours a day?

it's luck.  it's statistics.  you can solve a block CPU mining in ten minutes, or never solve one with 5 Gh/s.  that said, the more consistently you mine the better your results.

2. I'm a member of slush's pool. Does this mean I will never have the opportunity to solve a block and only get the fractional 0.10 btc every day?

you could be the miner who solves the block (i've solved a few), but it goes to the pool.  that's what they call 'fair' - since we get paid for all the other miners who solve blocks on that (our) pool.

3. Will I eventually solve a block or is it totally random, and therefore, may never solve a block? I have been mining for 3 weeks and have mined 2.2 btc.

keep at it and you probably will - but like i said, it goes to the pool.

4. Does the number of shares have an affect on solving a block? At the moment guiminer shows I have accepted 16422 shares. What does this mean?

not sure - i use Diablo.  but generally, the bigger your hashing numbers (whatever the nomenclature) the more you make.  on slush's pool, the 'shares' on your account page are a reflection of your Mh/s.

5. The bitcoin client only ever shows a maximum of 62 connections. I have forwarded the ports in my router. Is that normal? Does the number of connections have an affect on solving a block?

you don't need to run the client when you're mining in a pool.  only when solo mining.  and when solo-ing, no - there's no effect.  it's all about the Mh/s.

[Xephan]

1. Do I have to run guiminer 24/7 to have more of a chance of solving a block or could I still solve a block if I run it for only 12 hours a day?

2. I'm a member of slush's pool. Does this mean I will never have the opportunity to solve a block and only get the fractional 0.10 btc every day?

3. Will I eventually solve a block or is it totally random, and therefore, may never solve a block? I have been mining for 3 weeks and have mined 2.2 btc.

4. Does the number of shares have an affect on solving a block? At the moment guiminer shows I have accepted 16422 shares. What does this mean?

5. The bitcoin client only ever shows a maximum of 62 connections. I have forwarded the ports in my router. Is that normal? Does the number of connections have an affect on solving a block?

1. Your chances of solving a block is directly related to how many hashes you calculated, so the more you run, the higher the chance.

2. You might solve a block, you'll see it in your account profile if you submitted a share that was the winning hash. But because you're in a pool, you'll only get a fraction of the 50 BTC reward. If there were 20,000 shares for that round and you had the winner with just your first and only share, then you would get 0.0025 BTC or so depending on the actual sharing method.

3. Yes, totally random, nobody can predict if they will ever solve a block

4. That is the number of submitted shares (each share is group of hashes calculated) that you've completed and sent to the pool server. Usually how much BTC you gain depends on how much shares you submitted for that round. Guiminer only shows total, regardless of which round you submitted to.

5. That's ok as long as you have more than 6~8, and has no impact on your ability to solve a block. You could solve a block even without bitcoind running.

[JoelKatz]

1. Do I have to run guiminer 24/7 to have more of a chance of solving a block or could I still solve a block if I run it for only 12 hours a day?

Every hash you do has the same chance of solving a block. Half as many hashes means half as many chances.

2. I'm a member of slush's pool. Does this mean I will never have the opportunity to solve a block and only get the fractional 0.10 btc every day?

Every hash has the same chance of solving a block. But just as you get paid even if you don't solve a block, you don't get paid extra for solving a block. By being a member of a pool, you divide the revenue for any blocks found evenly. (Different pools have different rules. Some might pay a bonus to a block solver. Check your pool's distribution rules if you're not sure what they are.)

3. Will I eventually solve a block or is it totally random, and therefore, may never solve a block? I have been mining for 3 weeks and have mined 2.2 btc.

It's random. Every hash has the same chance to solve a block. You may never do it. You might do it twice in the next minute.

4. Does the number of shares have an affect on solving a block? At the moment guiminer shows I have accepted 16422 shares. What does this mean?

When you "almost" solve a block, you provide proof that you have done so to the pool. The pool validates this proof and credits you with one share. The pool then pays out based on the number of shares you have submitted. Typically, one in every 4.29 billion hashes will generate a share.

5. The bitcoin client only ever shows a maximum of 62 connections. I have forwarded the ports in my router. Is that normal? Does the number of connections have an affect on solving a block?

When you mine as part of a pool, you don't need to run the client. The pool assigns you work, verifies proof of work, and submits a solved block should you generate one. If you solo mine, you do need to run the client, but the number of connections isn't terribly important. It's mostly just to make sure that an attacker can't hide the real network from you and that you have a current view of what's going on. 62 is more than enough for any application.

[Neokolzia]

your currently mining for a pool not solo mining. Think this should be notable.

You finding a block is well important but fairly irrelivant, your basically contributing your Mhash to the pool and your getting your share of the BTC gained from someone in the pool finding a block (50 BTC split)

[xenonex2003]

Thank you very much for the replies.

As I said earlier, I have a 5770 card at the moment. Would it be better to get another 5770 or 5870 and use crossfire or get rid of the 5770 and get a single 58xx/59xx  or 68xx/69xx?

Also, is it worth trying solo mining?

Thanks,

xenonex2003

[Xephan]

As I said earlier, I have a 5770 card at the moment. Would it be better to get another 5770 or 5870 and use crossfire or get rid of the 5770 and get a single 58xx/59xx  or 68xx/69xx?
Also, is it worth trying solo mining?

You don't need cross fire, and in some cases it will make things slower. The software can make use of additional cards as they as standalone units so you can mix and match without worry.

As for which card is better, you have to weigh your electrical costs vs the potential returns from the mining operations if financial profit is your objective. If you just want to get some bitcoins regardless of the operating cost, then a 58xx series card is usually the best for this.

Solo mining at this point is not really feasible unless you have a double digit GigaHash/sec farm.