bitcoin mining

[jurasofish]

what do you guys think of bitcoin mining? I've just set it up on my machine (dual5770) and am getting 180Mhash/s x 2. in a pool this has gotten me .5 bitcoin in about 1 day, which is equal to about ~$9usd.

http://www.bitcoin.org/

I thought this was the most appropriate section for this. mods feel free to move it if it's not

[Little Man]

By the looks of things it looks like you cash these 'coins' in for real money


Huh

[jurasofish]

Originally Posted by Little Man

By the looks of things it looks like you cash these 'coins' in for real money


Huh

pretty much. I thought it was too good to be true but it seems legit so far

[EvilGenius]

I don't get it.

Is mining used for some useful computation?

The computations done when mining are internal to Bitcoin and not related to any other distributed computing projects. They serve the purpose of securing the Bitcoin network, which is useful.

Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?

To provide security for the Bitcoin network, the calculations involved need to have some very specific features. These features are incompatible with leveraging the computation for other purposes.



So it's basically using your computer to calculate ways of keeping the network secure, while generating free money.. Right. WTF?

[Embercide]

I've just gotten into this also, using a 5850 i'm getting 270M hashes. I'm part of a pool but would be keen to start our own, if viable

[Little Man]

Originally Posted by Embercide

I've just gotten into this also, using a 5850 i'm getting 224M hashes. I'm part of a pool but would be keen to start our own, if viable

Show me the money and maybe i'll hop on board.

It can pay for this quarters power bill increase from folding

[jurasofish]

Originally Posted by EvilGenius

I don't get it.

Is mining used for some useful computation?

The computations done when mining are internal to Bitcoin and not related to any other distributed computing projects. They serve the purpose of securing the Bitcoin network, which is useful.

Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?

To provide security for the Bitcoin network, the calculations involved need to have some very specific features. These features are incompatible with leveraging the computation for other purposes.



So it's basically using your computer to calculate ways of keeping the network secure, while generating free money.. Right. WTF?

it's confusing at first, but trust me it will make sense if you look around for some basic guides

[Embercide]

Originally Posted by Little Man

Show me the money and maybe i'll hope on board.

It can pay for this quarters power bill increase from folding

People have started using it to pay for goods/services already. And being completely anonymous and a limited number of bitcoins, the potential for future value is there

[Little Man]

Originally Posted by Embercide

People have started using it to pay for goods/services already. And being completely anonymous and a limited number of bitcoins, the potential for future value is there

Is there anywhere that pays directly into paypal money?

[d1ng0d4n]

Originally Posted by Little Man

Is there anywhere that pays directly into paypal money?

Not that I've found yet. I go through an American service. Running at 1002 MHash/s

[Embercide]

Originally Posted by Little Man

Is there anywhere that pays directly into paypal money?

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins
These sites will buy your bitcoins in different currencies & methods

https://www.virwox.com/ deals with paypal

[rush]

Remember seeing something like this a while ago. The basic premise was along the lines of being used to test networks (they onsold their testing service)

I never really got going with it, as my home PC was too feeble. But I read some people claiming that you could set up several virtual machines all doing the same thing and make some ok dollars.

I'll be interested to see if this one can actually generate any money - and if so, does it offset the costs involved (electricity and data consumption etc)

[jurasofish]

Originally Posted by Little Man

Is there anywhere that pays directly into paypal money?

that's a real problem actually, as paypal sees buying/selling bitcoins as currency exchange (which it is), so it doesn't allow it. you can, however, organise to sell bitcoins to people directly, but that requires a bit of trust
http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/

[-Ace-]

Have you been able to actually convert any of this work into real money yet?

[Little Man]

Originally Posted by jurasofish

that's a real problem actually, as paypal sees buying/selling bitcoins as currency exchange (which it is), so it doesn't allow it. you can, however, organise to sell bitcoins to people directly, but that requires a bit of trust
http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/

How exactly do they find out if you just call it a what ever and send as a gift?