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Mining question

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ShonnyConstant

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I'm not entirely a Bitcoin Newb, but consider me as such for this question. I'm looking to buy a USB miner, fully aware that it will do nearly nothing in terms of providing me value or profit. I suppose you could consider me a 1st generation "outside" adopter, in that I'm converting standard currency in modest amounts to cryptocurrency as a show of faith in the philosophical and cultural potential of the movement. My desire is simply to apply the miner in order to see how the process works, regardless of how little I'll benefit from that process. So my questions are, does it matter which USB miner I get at this point? I suspect the range of power is negligible at this point. And once I get it and set it up, how do I find a network to connect to in terms of pooling resources? Any help is appreciated.

Posted on March 23, 2014 at 11:02 PM

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• fastfinge

  

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  Well, blockchain.info has some Stats about the major mining pools. Personally, I think BTCGuild is the easiest to get started with, if perhaps not the best performing. If all you want is fun, I'd suggest using a service like Item Alarm with a search like bitcoin miner. It will e-mail you all the new listings on EBay for bitcoin miners. Make sure the list is actual hardware, not just a mining contract, and that the listing says "in hand", so you know you'll get the miner right after you win the bid. This would be the quickest way for you to get mining hardware, as most of the major companies have large backlogs. It's important to remember that by doing this, not only will you fail to make any money at all, but the power cost of operating some of these machines is far higher than the Bitcoins they can generate are worth. So the hardware will never pay for itself, and you will continue losing money every minute you run it. That's why they're getting sold on EBay in the first place!

  Posted on March 24, 2014 at 12:42 AM
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• ShonnyConstant

  

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  Understood, and I appreciate the information and links. It's entirely intended as an immersion project, with no intentions of profit.

  Posted on March 24, 2014 at 1:06 AM
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• GhostInTheBlockchain

  

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  Something to consider.  Part of the experience of mining is actually seeing your mining rig generate something.  Setting up a USB miner will expose you to the processing of downloading and running cgminer.exe and joining a mining pool, but you will not generate any coins. Your rig will just sit there displaying cgminer stats in a window and your account on the mining pool website will most likely show a balance of '0 coins' indefinitely (ok maybe 0.00001 after a bit).  A big part of the fun of mining is seeing coins come in and that wont happen with a USB miner.  If you want to get the full mining experience I recommend mining a scrypt-based altcoin.  There are plenty to chose from.
  

  Posted on March 25, 2014 at 8:55 PM
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• ShonnyConstant

  

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  I appreciate that suggestion. I was thinking something of that nature would make sense, but without "script based," I wouldn't have put 2 and 2 together until I came accross an article makin the difference in processes clear to me. Thanks!

  Posted on March 25, 2014 at 10:19 PM
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• ShonnyConstant

  

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  Oh yeah. I'm in over my head here. Mistake. Haha.

  Posted on March 26, 2014 at 1:04 AM
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• fastfinge

  

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  @GhostInTheBlockchain: Wait, are there any USB miners capable of scrypt mining? I would have suggested this to @ShonnyConstant, but it sounded like s/he really wanted to buy a USB miner. If there are USB scrypt miners, I apparently missed the bus somewhere, and I'd love to know where! :-)

  Posted on March 26, 2014 at 1:16 PM
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• ShonnyConstant

  

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  I think he was recommending against bothering with the USB Miner. I got that. I haven't seen any evidence of new tech to aid in scrypt mining.

  Posted on March 26, 2014 at 2:37 PM
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• swedespade

  

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  One day they will fit all that power into a little USB miner. lol

  Posted on March 26, 2014 at 3:21 PM
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• fastfinge

  

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  @ShonnyConstant: Ah, OK. I've got an Nvidia Tesla K20 I'm willing to let go if you need a semi-decent GPU to start you off. Gently used, original packaging. Feel free to send me a PM if you want to make an offer. They are going at around $2500CAD for a new one, so obviously I'll take less than that. I'm not sure if this kind of thing is really allowed here, or not. Moderators: sorry if I'm breaking a rule, feel free to let me know if I am.

  Posted on March 26, 2014 at 3:24 PM
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• ShonnyConstant

  

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  I appreciate the offer, but it's so arcane to me that I'm not a good customer. I just want to experiment a little to gain some context. I don't see myself pursuing mining in any meaningful way. Hopefully the Mods aren't offended. I'm certainly not.

  Posted on March 26, 2014 at 5:12 PM
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