I just want to mine to support bitcoin

[Arctangent]

It seems to me the 51% threat is very real, and there's not much we can do about it.  Greed will trump common sense every time. I want to do what I can to contribute to the other 49%.  I'm fully aware that the mining-for-profit ship has sailed, but I'd like to learn how to mine as well as offset the 51% as much as I could.

Anyone got any advice for a noob with good intentions?

[jonnybravo0311]

It seems to me the 51% threat is very real, and there's not much we can do about it.  Greed will trump common sense every time. I want to do what I can to contribute to the other 49%.  I'm fully aware that the mining-for-profit ship has sailed, but I'd like to learn how to mine as well as offset the 51% as much as I could.

Anyone got any advice for a noob with good intentions?

Other than not to mine on a pool that might reach 51%?  There are plenty of places out there that you can point your miners to.  If you're just in it for the mining, and not for the profit, I know a very good place where you can send any of those extra BTC... my wallet

Personally, I run a local p2pool node and mine on that.  It's been a rough few days, though, with no blocks found.  But, that's the fun of variance and luck.

[Light]

It seems to me the 51% threat is very real, and there's not much we can do about it.  Greed will trump common sense every time. I want to do what I can to contribute to the other 49%.  I'm fully aware that the mining-for-profit ship has sailed, but I'd like to learn how to mine as well as offset the 51% as much as I could.

If you're doing this entirely to try and prevent a 51% attack I would advise you not to bother unless you're swimming in money and don't mind losing some of it. To actually have enough hashing power to make any significant change you'd need tens of thousands of dollars, and more than likely you will not get 100% ROI let alone more. Want to help Bitcoin, run a full node.

[BurtW]

Want to help Bitcoin, run a full node.

This is your best bet.  Very inexpensive and it really does help.

[5w00p]

FYI, the 51% is supposed be the GOOD guys.  The Good Guys are supposed to control the majority of the network, hence the "51%."

A 51% Attack is when the BAD guys take over the majority of the network. 

So, you are hoping to contribute to network to allow the Good Guys to maintain and control AT LEAST 50.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000001% of the net.

You don't want to "contribute to the other 49%," as you stated.  That doesn't really make sense.

[DrG]

Regardless of whether the entity in ownership of 50% the hashing power has good or bad intentions Bitcoin will suffer due to a perception of centralization.

[freebit13]

I think if everyone bought a little mining equipment, we'd be back on the road that Satoshi envisioned with "one CPU, one vote".

[spazzdla]

Kijiji.. spend $200 on something.

You could probably find an S1 ant minter for like $3-400, which will actually net you some nice coins!

Or look hard for a 7g/hs BFL miner and refuse to pay more than $60.

[Acidyo]

Free p2p pools should open up so people won't use ghash all the time, imo.

[philipma1957]

It seems to me the 51% threat is very real, and there's not much we can do about it.  Greed will trump common sense every time. I want to do what I can to contribute to the other 49%.  I'm fully aware that the mining-for-profit ship has sailed, but I'd like to learn how to mine as well as offset the 51% as much as I could.

Anyone got any advice for a noob with good intentions?

well it depends on your wallet.

 your tolerance for noise and heat.

you can get a r-box for about 70 dollars and hook it up to a pool like bitminter.com or btcguild.com

low noise low heat . good power numbers for a low-cost item.

you could get an ant miner s-1  200 gh over clocked 400 watts so heat and noise are somewhat of an issue.

it can be found under 325 with a psu included.  you only need an internet cat 5/6 jack to run it.


If you want real low cost I could sell you a few ice fury sticks 2 for 25 usd  free shipping to the usa  4-5 gh for 25 bucks plug them into a usb jack and point them at a pool like bit minter.

[RoadStress]

It seems to me the 51% threat is very real, and there's not much we can do about it.  Greed will trump common sense every time. I want to do what I can to contribute to the other 49%.  I'm fully aware that the mining-for-profit ship has sailed, but I'd like to learn how to mine as well as offset the 51% as much as I could.

Anyone got any advice for a noob with good intentions?

Get an SP30 and have it colocated!

[nwfella]

Start small.  Only with what you can absolutely afford to risk losing, because you more than likely will.  Try to avoid pre-orders unless you have some sort of "inside information".  Watch how quickly your hardware value depreciates, then decide if this is how you want to support the bitcoin network.