# of Blocks -> Bitcoins

[knight12374]

What I'm asking is how many blocks does it take to earn a Bitcoin? I have processed 121,246 (and counting) blocks so far. And I still have 0.00 Bitcoins. Is there something I have to do to receive my Bitcoins or is there just a certain # of blocks it takes to earn 1? 

Thanks for answers.

[davout]

Please read the FAQ
After that, if some things are still unclear feel free to come and ask.

[benjamindees]

http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/old_calculator.php

You might find this useful.

[jspielberg]

You haven't started generating yet.  You need to download the full block chain, which your client is doing.  Once it completes, your client can start hashing the blocks.

If you aren't GPU mining, at the current difficulty, you will need quite a bit of patience to successfully mine a block reward (close to 5 years+ if CPU mining at 4MegaHash/s).

http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/old_calculator.php will give you an estimate.

[Ian Maxwell]

What I'm asking is how many blocks does it take to earn a Bitcoin? I have processed 121,246 (and counting) blocks so far. And I still have 0.00 Bitcoins.

Most likely you are looking at the block count in the lower right-hand corner of the client. That's the number of valid blocks ever generated by anyone, not the number that you've generated.

You should read the FAQ, but the short take-home is that if you're looking for a low-effort way to get bitcoins, mining is probably not it. Try selling something.

[davout]

Enabling the option should be enough to start generating.
But don't get your hopes up, you'll probably never generate a single block that way (depending on your hashrate (shown in the client))
Google 'bitcoin calculator' to find out about your odds

[knight12374]

Thanks. I get it now. Sort of. I just know it takes a long time. lol

[Ian Maxwell]

Sigh. This is why that checkbox needs to be removed (and will be in the next client version). If we have a big button that says "Generate coins" can we really blame people for thinking it will generate coins?

knigt12374: Don't try to mine by using the "Generate coins" option built into the client---it's little more than a historical relic at this point. You will probably never generate a single block using a typical CPU (there's a 50% chance you'll do so within 65 years). To have any hope you need specialized hardware (most commonly a high-end video card) and software (for example Kiv's GUI miner, and even then you should probably join a pool (for example BTCMine to even out the variance.

Try reading the FAQ, which includes an entire section on mining, before asking more questions.