really stupid questions

[rebeltaz]

... Although I've been told there are no stupid questions. I'll let y'all be the judge

I am so new to bitcoins I am reading a book called "Bitcoins for  the Befuddled"! I have looked around the internet, I've set up Electrum on my computer which seems to have generated several bitcoin addresses for me. I've played around on some of the .4 bit free bitcoin sites. I've read a little about mining - probably just enough to be dangerous...

My questions are (and I apologize if this is already covered, but after four pages of the Beginner & Help forum, I didn't see them answered already):

1) What exactly is a "faucet" site?
2) What is a "signature campaign"? I've seen those mentioned here as ways of earning bitcoins, and I've seen campaign pages, but nothing really explaining what they are are what to do with them.
3) Is mining worth the trouble/expense? I have read that solo mining is a waste of time, and that pool mining is the only way to be "successful," but for pool mining, does one need to invest in high dollar mining equipment? Is there any use at all for the little USB ASIC(?) miners?

I guess that's good for starters Thanks!

[resya]

Since you're asking stupid questions, I will also reply with stupid answers:)

1) Faucet is a web site that dispenses small amounts of bitcoins (or satoshi) for simply entering your bitcoin wallet address
2) Signature campaign is an ads that sits on your signature space
3) not worth anymore

[bitbaby]

... Although I've been told there are no stupid questions. I'll let y'all be the judge

I am so new to bitcoins I am reading a book called "Bitcoins for  the Befuddled"! I have looked around the internet, I've set up Electrum on my computer which seems to have generated several bitcoin addresses for me. I've played around on some of the .4 bit free bitcoin sites. I've read a little about mining - probably just enough to be dangerous...

My questions are (and I apologize if this is already covered, but after four pages of the Beginner & Help forum, I didn't see them answered already):

1) What exactly is a "faucet" site?
2) What is a "signature campaign"? I've seen those mentioned here as ways of earning bitcoins, and I've seen campaign pages, but nothing really explaining what they are are what to do with them.
3) Is mining worth the trouble/expense? I have read that solo mining is a waste of time, and that pool mining is the only way to be "successful," but for pool mining, does one need to invest in high dollar mining equipment? Is there any use at all for the little USB ASIC(?) miners?

I guess that's good for starters Thanks!

Hi and welcome.

A1. Faucets are sites where you can earn for free very small amount of Bitcoin, which is called Satoshi and value of 1 Satoshi is 0.00000001 And at the Faucet sites you can get about (100-300) Satoshis generally every hour or as described on their site.. Some faucet pay more than that but have other conditions. Normally they send the free Bitcoins to your address when your balance has reached 5500 Satoshis. For more understanding try out some faucets on www.Landofbitcoin.com

A2. Signature Campaigns are used by companies to advertise their Business on this forum. The members working for a Signature Campaign get to carry that company's signature in their signature field and they get paid to do so. Payments depend on your Rank  (explained here : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178608.0) and as per the conditions defined by the company in their campaign (see this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615953.0 ). For ex. See the shiny text in my signature.

A3. Not an expert in Mining, so I am just going to leave this Ques for others who have greater Mining experience. For more information on Mining, visit the Mining Subsection of the forum : Mining

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.
You can also use the search function and see if a same question was asked and answered previously.
Enjoy your stay. 

[rebeltaz]

So if mining is no longer profitable, and if the success of bitcoin relies on miners (or so I've read) then what is the incentive for people to continue to expend their own money/time/effort to mine? Or am I further off base than usual?

And thank you for the answers - even the stupid ones resya

[Possum577]

So if mining is no longer profitable, and if the success of bitcoin relies on miners (or so I've read) then what is the incentive for people to continue to expend their own money/time/effort to mine? Or am I further off base than usual?

And thank you for the answers - even the stupid ones resya

Great questions by the way.

Mining isn't profitable for the casual hobbiest. Just like it's not profitable for you, yourself or with 5 buddies, to start a gold mining operation in the Yukon (even if you grow really long weird goatees). Mining requires a lot of equipment, electricity, and time. So unless you have a lot of money to invest in it you'll likely never make any money at it. It's ONLY profitable with huge scale operations, and will continue to become less profitable as the amount of "reward" miners get gets smaller. The next "halfing" is supposed to happen this month, where the "Reward" for mining goes from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.

[fox19891989]

... Although I've been told there are no stupid questions. I'll let y'all be the judge

I am so new to bitcoins I am reading a book called "Bitcoins for  the Befuddled"! I have looked around the internet, I've set up Electrum on my computer which seems to have generated several bitcoin addresses for me. I've played around on some of the .4 bit free bitcoin sites. I've read a little about mining - probably just enough to be dangerous...

My questions are (and I apologize if this is already covered, but after four pages of the Beginner & Help forum, I didn't see them answered already):

1) What exactly is a "faucet" site?
2) What is a "signature campaign"? I've seen those mentioned here as ways of earning bitcoins, and I've seen campaign pages, but nothing really explaining what they are are what to do with them.
3) Is mining worth the trouble/expense? I have read that solo mining is a waste of time, and that pool mining is the only way to be "successful," but for pool mining, does one need to invest in high dollar mining equipment? Is there any use at all for the little USB ASIC(?) miners?

I guess that's good for starters Thanks!

It doesn't matter, I will tell u the answers.

1. faucet sites give you free and tiny btc, liks 300-2000 sat, you can claim it per hour.
2. Look at my signature, I join bit-x signature campaign, you can earn btc per post by rank.
3. I don't mine, so I don't answer this question.

[michinzx]

the little usb miners are like collectibles now, one can probably sell them on ebay for more than what theyre worth in hashing power.

[Kprawn]

... Although I've been told there are no stupid questions. I'll let y'all be the judge

I am so new to bitcoins I am reading a book called "Bitcoins for  the Befuddled"! I have looked around the internet, I've set up Electrum on my computer which seems to have generated several bitcoin addresses for me. I've played around on some of the .4 bit free bitcoin sites. I've read a little about mining - probably just enough to be dangerous...

My questions are (and I apologize if this is already covered, but after four pages of the Beginner & Help forum, I didn't see them answered already):

1) What exactly is a "faucet" site?
2) What is a "signature campaign"? I've seen those mentioned here as ways of earning bitcoins, and I've seen campaign pages, but nothing really explaining what they are are what to do with them.
3) Is mining worth the trouble/expense? I have read that solo mining is a waste of time, and that pool mining is the only way to be "successful," but for pool mining, does one need to invest in high dollar mining equipment? Is there any use at all for the little USB ASIC(?) miners?

I guess that's good for starters Thanks!

1. Faucets was created to help new people to acquire FREE bitcoins or smaller equivelents of it, called Satoshi's. {It will pay out VERY small amounts to people who visit these sites} These days, faucets are funded by adverticements.. so the more visits these sites get, the larger the payouts.

2. Companies want to advertize their goods or service on the internet.. or on this forum. The best way, is to spread out a signature at the boottom of each post, someone makes. You get paid, at different rates connected to your rank, based on how much you posted with the signature of that company. {Rules apply for each signature campaign and for the forum... if you break the rules you will get banned, so be careful}
For a good review of all signature campaigns, go here ---> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615953.0

3. Solo mining is a waste of time, when you want to mine solo for Bitcoin... you can still mine solo on any of the 900+ other Alt coins out there. Most "cloud" mining / group mining are Ponzi schemes, so I would avoid it.  

[ikydesu]

... Although I've been told there are no stupid questions. I'll let y'all be the judge

I am so new to bitcoins I am reading a book called "Bitcoins for  the Befuddled"! I have looked around the internet, I've set up Electrum on my computer which seems to have generated several bitcoin addresses for me. I've played around on some of the .4 bit free bitcoin sites. I've read a little about mining - probably just enough to be dangerous...

My questions are (and I apologize if this is already covered, but after four pages of the Beginner & Help forum, I didn't see them answered already):

1) What exactly is a "faucet" site?
2) What is a "signature campaign"? I've seen those mentioned here as ways of earning bitcoins, and I've seen campaign pages, but nothing really explaining what they are are what to do with them.
3) Is mining worth the trouble/expense? I have read that solo mining is a waste of time, and that pool mining is the only way to be "successful," but for pool mining, does one need to invest in high dollar mining equipment? Is there any use at all for the little USB ASIC(?) miners?

I guess that's good for starters Thanks!

Welcome

1) Place where you can earn free btc with write captcha, claim reward, usually you can earn 100-100000 satoshi per minutes or per hour.
2) Sig campaign is way to earn some btc with rent you signature space to advertise a company who held a sig campaign.
3) If you have much budget for mining is still worth, but if you have low budget my suggestion is mining altcoin.


~iki

[koelen3]

1) What exactly is a "faucet" site?

A faucet is a site which gives away free bitcoin or any other altcoin , the amount given might seem and interest newbie's but in the end if you calculate , it's nothing , you might make 10$ a month with faucets if you work so hard.
While they make revenue of the Advertisement or Goggle adsense from visitors
Facuet list

2) What is a "signature campaign"? I've seen those mentioned here as ways of earning bitcoins, and I've seen campaign pages, but nothing really explaining what they are are what to do with them.

Signature campaigns are organised by Trusted members who are Hired by Several Bitcoin Lottery / Gambling site / Exchanges and any other business.
People put the signature in their profile , you can find it in profile information , as your rank increases so does the amount of space you get to put the signature.
Here is a list of active sig camp

3) Is mining worth the trouble/expense? I have read that solo mining is a waste of time, and that pool mining is the only way to be "successful," but for pool mining, does one need to invest in high dollar mining equipment? Is there any use at all for the little USB ASIC(?) miners?

Mining will not give you any profit , firstly you will need to buy several Asic miners for it (as difficulty have increased and simple USB or GPU won't be good) . People mining aren't making any good profit or maybe even getting loss but they are going in expectation of future .
THough what you can do is search new Altcoins and mine them , they might make you some profit

[Muhammed Zakir]

So if mining is no longer profitable, and if the success of bitcoin relies on miners (or so I've read) then what is the incentive for people to continue to expend their own money/time/effort to mine? Or am I further off base than usual?

And thank you for the answers - even the stupid ones resya

Difficulty of mining can go down. In December 3, 2014, dificulty decreased by 0.62%.^[1][2].

Also read:

It only adjusts every 2016 blocks. If we get stuck in that kind of situation, the code will probably be changed to allow for difficulty reduction in some other way. I think it's unlikely we'll ever get that stuck, since transaction fees will accumulate until blocks become valuable enough.

[1] https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-mining-difficulty-decreases-first-time-almost-two-years/
[2] http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-decline-sparks-rare-mining-difficulty-drop/

   -MZ

[Brewins]

the little usb miners are like collectibles now, one can probably sell them on ebay for more than what theyre worth in hashing power.

anything that someone pay for them is more worth than their hashing power.

I guess there are people that would give their USB miners for free, only charging the mailing thing

[Agestorzrxx]

1) What exactly is a "faucet" site?
2) What is a "signature campaign"? I've seen those mentioned here as ways of earning bitcoins, and I've seen campaign pages, but nothing really explaining what they are are what to do with them.
3) Is mining worth the trouble/expense? I have read that solo mining is a waste of time, and that pool mining is the only way to be "successful," but for pool mining, does one need to invest in high dollar mining equipment? Is there any use at all for the little USB ASIC(?) miners?

1)"faucet" site is just waste your time, it's so little even can pay a transaction fee.
2) joining signature campaign is a good way to earn free bitcoin, it like you help others to ad.
3)mining is not worth.

[ranochigo]

So if mining is no longer profitable, and if the success of bitcoin relies on miners (or so I've read) then what is the incentive for people to continue to expend their own money/time/effort to mine? Or am I further off base than usual?

And thank you for the answers - even the stupid ones resya

Some people have access to free or low electricity and are in places which are relatively cool. The difficulty depends on the amount of network hashrate indirectly and time between blocks directly.  Also it's hard to manage a warehouse of hardware without having a technician to diagnose stuff if hardware goes down.

Also, if you have a block erupter, you can try to solomine in hope to find a block. It may be impossible but miracles happens all the time. The electricity use would also be quite small.

[Amph]

faucets are those site, that reward you(little amount, depend of the faucets) for resolving captcha basically
signature campaign are, a campaign that you carry in your sign, and they areward you by posting, in exchange you offer them publicity
not now sadly, mining was good at the end of 2013 with doge era and start of 2014 until jackpotcoin(june/july 2014), then there was a drastic decline, solo mining was actually really good on some scrypt coin baack then now not anymore, (i know it because i was solo mining everything in the altcoin section  )

[waterpile]

So if mining is no longer profitable, and if the success of bitcoin relies on miners (or so I've read) then what is the incentive for people to continue to expend their own money/time/effort to mine? Or am I further off base than usual?

And thank you for the answers - even the stupid ones resya

The mining is dominated by the mining farms and this mining farms are selling their hashrates to people "cloudmining" if you heard about it.. Thats their trick to recover the expenses.

[dothebeats]

... Although I've been told there are no stupid questions. I'll let y'all be the judge

I am so new to bitcoins I am reading a book called "Bitcoins for  the Befuddled"! I have looked around the internet, I've set up Electrum on my computer which seems to have generated several bitcoin addresses for me. I've played around on some of the .4 bit free bitcoin sites. I've read a little about mining - probably just enough to be dangerous...

My questions are (and I apologize if this is already covered, but after four pages of the Beginner & Help forum, I didn't see them answered already):

1) What exactly is a "faucet" site?
2) What is a "signature campaign"? I've seen those mentioned here as ways of earning bitcoins, and I've seen campaign pages, but nothing really explaining what they are are what to do with them.
3) Is mining worth the trouble/expense? I have read that solo mining is a waste of time, and that pool mining is the only way to be "successful," but for pool mining, does one need to invest in high dollar mining equipment? Is there any use at all for the little USB ASIC(?) miners?

I guess that's good for starters Thanks!

1. Faucets are sites that gives every user some btc. But those free btc aren't worth the time and the effort of the user so it's advisable not to waste too much time on those.
2. Signature campaign is a kind of advertising done by websites/services. They offer it to the forum members, particularly those that have the rank of Member or higher, to avoid spam and nonsense posts. Instead of posting banners or ads, the websites/services uses the members to promote their services by putting their signature on the signature space.
3. Mining isn't worth the trouble if you go solo. Chances are you'll end up paying for a high-energy bill. Even if you mine in a pool, you probably won't get the cut. The best chances to be successful in mining is to have the most powerful hardware available in the market. And a single-miner won't help.

[DannyHamilton]

1) What exactly is a "faucet" site?

A waste of time.

It is a website that is run by someone that has a source of income that pays them for getting people to interact with the website.  Most often the person running the website is paid by advertisers for getting people to view the advertisements.  The operator of the website tricks people into visiting the website (so that he can earn income from the advertisers) by paying the visitors extremely small amounts of bitcoins.  The amount given to the website visitors is so small that it is generally unspendable.  Since the transaction fees that you pay when you send a bitcoin transaction are based on the size (in bytes) of the transaction, and the size of the transaction depends largely on the number of transactions you received to create the funding, "faucet users" often find when they later try to send a transaction that the necessary fees exceeds the amount that they have available to send.

2) What is a "signature campaign"? I've seen those mentioned here as ways of earning bitcoins, and I've seen campaign pages, but nothing really explaining what they are are what to do with them.

A way for an advertiser to create an incentive for greedy people to fill the forum with thousands of posts of completely useless nonsense.  The advertiser offers a small payment in exchange for the user to add the advertiser's ad to the user's signature space.  The user is required to create a particular number of posts on the forum so that the advertiser feels that the ad will get noticed.  Since the average greedy unknowledgeable user doesn't have enough useful and well thought out things to say to meet the advertiser's quota, they end up just spamming threads all over the forum with useless drivel.  Serveral of the regular forum users have taken to blocking (using the "ignore" link) all users with a signature ad campaign in their signature.  Therefore, by participating in such a campaign, you significantly increase the likelihood that helpful and knowledgeable users will never see anything that you post here.

3) Is mining worth the trouble/expense? I have read that solo mining is a waste of time, and that pool mining is the only way to be "successful," but for pool mining, does one need to invest in high dollar mining equipment?

Mining can still be profitable if you have access to inexpensive resources.  If you can find a source to get your mining equipment inexpensively enough, and if you have access to inexpensive electricity, then it is still possible to be "successful" with mining.  You should make sure that you have a good understanding of how to calculate how much bitcoins a particular piece of mining equipment is likely to generate, and how much the resulting electrical usage is likely to cost.  You should then compare those costs to what it would cost you to simply purchase the same amount of bitcoins directly.  You can then make the comparison and determine if you are likely to get more bitcoins for the same money by mining them or buying them.

Is there any use at all for the little USB ASIC(?) miners?

They are ok if you are willing to mine at a loss.  In other words, if you interested in the mining process and aren't interested in being profitable but rather are just mining as an inexpensive hobby.

I guess that's good for starters Thanks!

You're welcome.

[rebeltaz]

I guess there are people that would give their USB miners for free, only charging the mailing thing

lol... well, if anyone is willing to send me one for the cost of shipping, by all means, get with me!

@DannyHamilton -> I especially liked your answer to #2.

I appreciate all of the replies. They have been helpful!

[Possum577]

Hey, check this campaign out to "get your feet wet" -> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=893138.0