bitcoin confusion....please explain for a noob...

[dnawaz]

I've been reading about the idea of bitcoin and would like to participate.
However I'm confused about the technical requirements.

I can't seem to figure out why some people use the GUIminer vs the bitcoin client?
Don't they do the same thing? mine?

GPU vs CPU mining?

I understand the benefits of using a GPU vs the CPU mining, from a power side.
Would not a virtualized environment work as well as multiple GPU environments?

thanks in advance...
D

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[kokjo]

and you seems confused about english too 

a VM would not be as good as a GPU, it would be even worse then a CPU.

gpus are about 20x faster then any cpu. and way more efficient in terms of Mhash/W and Mhash/$

[Meni Rosenfeld]

The Bitcoin client doesn't mine, it allows you to use Bitcoin. GUIminer allows you to mine.

What are you planning to do with a virtualized environment? If you want to mine you need your hardware to have compute power.

[dnawaz]

Thanks for the replies.

So the bitcoin client does what exactly? Send and receive bitcoins only?

Newer VM setups allow you to virtualize hardware, some graphics cards can now be used by a VM host machine.
I was thinking it would be more efficient to virtualize then throwing hardware at the problem.
Of course my understanding of bitcoins at the moment is simple at best.

Again, so I am clear on this. Bitcoins can be bought with money or mined with a PC?

thanks again...

[dnawaz]

and you seems confused about english too 

you're a very helpful person...

[kokjo]

Thanks for the replies.

So the bitcoin client does what exactly? Send and receive bitcoins only?

Newer VM setups allow you to virtualize hardware, some graphics cards can now be used by a VM host machine.
I was thinking it would be more efficient to virtualize then throwing hardware at the problem.
Of course my understanding of bitcoins at the moment is simple at best.

Again, so I am clear on this. Bitcoins can be bought with money or mined with a PC?

thanks again...

no would not help. you still need the hardware, to perform the duty.
it like saying: "motorcycles drives faster then cars, will they drive faster if i get a bigger steering wheel?"

and you seems confused about english too 

you're a very helpful person...

thanks. i appreciate your kindness.

[Dutch Merganser]

and you seems confused about english too 

you're a very helpful person...

+1

Does anyone know of an FAQ addressing basic mining questions? I thought to respond but I didn't want to do a half-assed job posting off the top of my head.

I did find this posting, "Beginner's Guide":
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9430.0

Perhaps something like the above would make a good sticky for the top of the Mining forum.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Thanks for the replies.

So the bitcoin client does what exactly? Send and receive bitcoins only?

And store them.  It is a wallet.

Newer VM setups allow you to virtualize hardware, some graphics cards can now be used by a VM host machine.
I was thinking it would be more efficient to virtualize then throwing hardware at the problem.

VM simply split of existing computing power.  They don't magically make more computing power out of nothing.  If your host hardware has "X" computing power you can't get >X out of the VM combined.  Instead of X you could have x/4 + x/4 + x/4 + x/4 but it is still = X (technically <x because of the VM overhead).  What do you think VM do?

The analogy would be like saying.
"why do people build supercomputers?  They could just use a VM?  An atom netbook with VM would be more efficient than a supercomputer."

So why do people build supercomputers?  Is is the same reason why people build massive hashing farms.

Again, so I am clear on this. Bitcoins can be bought with money or mined with a PC?

Yes.  Or traded for goods & services.

[sylkyx]

A bitcoin wallet just allows you to send a receive coins which you can purchase from sites like intersango and mtgox.
GUIminer allows you to mine your own bitcoins... its slow though