So I have a few specific questions

[werdna94]

Hello world, and all the boys and girls ! My name is Andrew: future computer scientist and soon to be college student. My inherent love for free as in freedom software and the gnu/linux operating system eventually led to my discovery of this wonderful community. I was looking for a good way to benchmark my graphics card on gnu/linux due to the absence of games and I think that mining suits the purpose just fine. I'm not sure if I will ever make hard currency off of bitcoins, or even accumulate a lot of it, but it's at least a fun way to try.

I know that there is an introductory thread at the top of the forum, but I have a few specific questions and I highly doubt that that thread is checked often enough for my questions to be acknowledged.

I recently joined the slush pool and I have a few questions.

1) cgminer reports that my M/hash rate is 44.7 while my slush pool account reports that my average rate is only 25. What gives? Am I contributing more than I'm getting credit for?

2) My score is changing wildly every few seconds. Sometimes it's over five thousand, and sometimes it's around seven. I don't really understand why.

3)If I set the bitcoind daemon to generate coins will it tell me when/if I win a block?

4) How are "rounds" set up? slush pool reports my contribution to a round, as well as my "unconfirmed" contributions. I apparently have no "confirmed" contributions. Am I still going to be awarded the unconfirmed bticoins? It is included as part of my total award. Do rounds end when slush pool wins a block? how does that work, it's very confusing.

5) I know I shouldn't develop a sense of entitlement, but I sent for bitfaucet to send me coins. It's been 24 hours and I still haven't gotten anything. has the faucet dried up? Will I ever get those bitcoins?

[swissmate]

1) That rate is the average mhash/s you make in 60 mins.
So if you have been there mining 1 minute, 59 of the other minutes indicate you have been mining at 0Mhash/s
2)What do you mean with score?
3)
4)Confirmed rewards take some times due to the possibility of non valid blocks, but mostly always you'll recieved the unconfirmed reward amount.
5)It took me like 3 days to recieve it and it is a very small quantity don't care about that

You'll like to study for computer science, it's a very interesting and chill career.

[imsaguy]

Hello world, and all the boys and girls ! My name is Andrew: future computer scientist and soon to be college student. My inherent love for free as in freedom software and the gnu/linux operating system eventually led to my discovery of this wonderful community. I was looking for a good way to benchmark my graphics card on gnu/linux due to the absence of games and I think that mining suits the purpose just fine. I'm not sure if I will ever make hard currency off of bitcoins, or even accumulate a lot of it, but it's at least a fun way to try.

I know that there is an introductory thread at the top of the forum, but I have a few specific questions and I highly doubt that that thread is checked often enough for my questions to be acknowledged.

I recently joined the slush pool and I have a few questions.

1) cgminer reports that my M/hash rate is 44.7 while my slush pool account reports that my average rate is only 25. What gives? Am I contributing more than I'm getting credit for?

2) My score is changing wildly every few seconds. Sometimes it's over five thousand, and sometimes it's around seven. I don't really understand why.

3)If I set the bitcoind daemon to generate coins will it tell me when/if I win a block?

4) How are "rounds" set up? slush pool reports my contribution to a round, as well as my "unconfirmed" contributions. I apparently have no "confirmed" contributions. Am I still going to be awarded the unconfirmed bticoins? It is included as part of my total award. Do rounds end when slush pool wins a block? how does that work, it's very confusing.

5) I know I shouldn't develop a sense of entitlement, but I sent for bitfaucet to send me coins. It's been 24 hours and I still haven't gotten anything. has the faucet dried up? Will I ever get those bitcoins?

1) Slush uses a large average for showing hash rate.  Over the long term, they should match, but over the course of 20 minutes, probably not.

2) Slush uses a decaying score method to determine your credit.  Basically, the closer your submission is to the time the block is found, the more credit you get for it. You will always see your score going down.  When the block is found though, you will get your proper credit.

3) Yes.  You will see in your transaction history 50 mined coins.  It takes 120 confirmations before they are spendable.

4) Rounds are blocks.

5) Faucet only sends .001, I wouldn't worry about it.

[werdna94]

So do all solved blocks yield fifty bitcoins? I was under the impression that getting those bitcoins took a lot longer. Also what's the probability of finding an invalid block, and why do they appear? How long does it take for slush to confirm my earnings? Also I'd like to confirm that earning fractional values going solo is not possible...when you're alone it's all or nothing correct?

[swissmate]

So do all solved blocks yield fifty bitcoins? I was under the impression that getting those bitcoins took a lot longer. Also what's the probability of finding an invalid block, and why do they appear? How long does it take for slush to confirm my earnings? Also I'd like to confirm that earning fractional values going solo is not possible...when you're alone it's all or nothing correct?

until december, all blocks will be 50btc, from then on they will be worth 25 btc
Your Gpu sends constantly block solutions and that is what generates you money.
In a pool, at some point someone will send the "right" solution for the block and then the 50btc are given to the pool miners.

If you are solo mining (must be using a powerful mining rig) you alone will send those "block answers" and at some point one will be the right answer and then you'll get the 50 bitcoins.

[werdna94]

alright thanks for the information!