How do I get started in Bitcoin or other mining?

3WAYsplit

3WAYsplit

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2001
Messages
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I've been hearing about Bitcoin for a long time now. So I finally decided to give it a try.

But I don't know where to begin.


The only thing I understand is that I need mining software & a wallet.
Where do I get them? How do I set them up?

Is the mining software something I can turn on & off when I want?
How do transactions (send/receive) work? Where can I exchange bitcoin for $?

How do I install the mining software? Can it be installed on an external drive?

Which of these are worth mining:

Bitcoin (BTC, XBT)
Litecoin (LTC)
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Zcash (ZEC)
Dash (Darkcoin)
Ripple (XRP)
Monero (XMR)

Is it possible to be mining more than one? Can they be placed in the same wallet?
 
Too bad you didn't consider this years ago when it was A LOT cheaper. You're going to need a decent GPU, because CPU mining will get you nowhere. ALSO be prepared for a huge electric bill. I'd start mining LITECOIN (LTC). Seems to be cheaper right now. Can not be placed in same wallet. Same wallet account, sure but each has their own wallet as you would have to convert them into eachother. BTC to LTC or LTC to USD to BTC or something.
 
Sorry to bust you bubble but the era of bitcoin mining is long gone.

Ethereum is loosing ground, it peaked at $390 about 3 weeks ago. It crashed to less than $10 bucks a few days ago and its currently at $260. Pretty much all alt-coins fare the same.
To give you an idea. I started mining ETH about 3 weeks ago, I had projected about $170 a month on a single GTX1070. With the increased difficulty and current exchange rate, I'll probably make about $115 if I'm lucky.
 
Bitcoin can no longer be mined by the common man. It's been taken over by ASICs (application-specific integrated circuit).

There are lots and lots of coins to mine, but I can't tell you if any of them are worth doing.
 
Are the instructions here pretty straight forward? https://blockoperations.com/ethereum-mining-on-your-windows-gaming-pc/

For Ethereum :

I need an exchange account. Which is more reliable Poloniex or Kraken?

I also need a Coinbase account. Is that the only Bitcoin account? I've read lots of mixed reviews about them.


Download the CPP-Ethereum .exe & install. Is that the correct miner?

Use notepad for a script, and make a shortcut.

Which mining pool should I use? Is there any more reliable? Is it possible to join more than one?


Where should I install the miner? Internal or external drive?

What wallet should I get? How do I set it up? Should that be installed on Internal or external drive?
 
Poloniex's website is really, really slow for me. They've been getting a lot of complaints about missing transactions. Somebody reported a support ticket that's still unanswered after 55 days.

Kraken's staff seems to be completely overwhelmed. I submitted ID information weeks ago and they still haven't gotten to it. I've seen reports of missing transactions here, too.

I've been using Bittrex and it's been very good. The interface is as snappy as you can expect and I haven't seen anything weird happen.

Coinbase is an easy-to-use exchange that creates a Bitcoin address that they control for you. What do you mean by "the only Bitcoin account?"
 
RevMen said:
Coinbase is an easy-to-use exchange that creates a Bitcoin address that they control for you. What do you mean by "the only Bitcoin account?"
Click to expand...

When I typed account, I meant exchange. Is Coinbase the only exchange?
_____________________________________________________________________________________

I'd like to try getting some Bitcoim. What local wallet should I get to use Bitcoin?

BitcoinQT, Armory, and Multibit, etc??

How do I set it up? Would a USB drive work?

Is is possible to use the same wallet for different coins?


If I want to try mining for some which mining program should I try?

CGminer, BFGminer, EasyMiner, etc?

How do I set it up? Are the settings easy to follow?

Should I join a pool? What are some of the better pools?

What other coins can I try? Which mining programs and wallets would I need?
 
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Which wallet is more reliable Bitcoin Core or Armory?

What are the thoughts on bitpay?
https://bitpay.com/card/

How about the other bitcoin debit cards?


Which mining software are preferred for each cryptocurrency? What about wallets for each?


Is it possible to mine different coins and have them save to one wallet?
 
Watch this

But just remember this is his opinion. There's a lot of info out there. It can be confusing. I know I'm learning myself.
 
Exchanges: Use Gemini or Coinmama to convert USD --> BTC; I have left Coinbase for Gemini.
Post that, its your preference, I prefer Bittrex; I stay way from Pol.

CPU mining isnt dead depending on your CPU power - Verium is Scrypt2 algorithm, Scrypt N with N of 1024 - 128MB memory required per thread. This project has a lot of potential but difficulty is rising quickly.

Trading isnt a bad way to start and you will learn a lot while you watch your coin or token rise and fall.
1) Research the project completely, all aspects
2) Dont listen to 98% of the people on Twitter or /biz/

Most techy folks will feel they are late to the game because we have been discussing this in circles for the last 5 years (or more) and are just now getting involved. Keep in mind that 99% of the global population has ZERO idea what digital currency or tokens for service are. This is a 2nd internet bubble and there is still lots of money to be made and lots of cool tech to be born out of it.

Last but not least... dont forget Mr. Taxman. He is ever present in this space and more aware each day.
 
There are companies sell special usb thumb drives BTC wallets like https://www.ledgerwallet.com/ If you don't to spend any where from $80.00 to say $130.00 for a special usb wallet, here's another video for you.





3WAYsplit said:
^^ That video just got me turned around. :(


Are any of these Multi-coin wallets good? Or is it better to have separate wallets for each coin?

Counterwallet
https://counterwallet.io/

Exodus
http://www.exodus.io/

CoinSpot
https://www.coinspot.com.au/multicoinwallets

Agama
https://supernet.org/en


My initial plan is to use the cryptocurency on my PC putting the wallet(s) on a USB drive.

Would that work?
Click to expand...
 
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rehab - good post. Good service names in there.



@OP: I'll abstract it out a little bit more:

In terms of services you need as a miner:

Wallet Service - Hold your coin and/or cash out. Not all services cash out to USD.

Crypto Exchange - To move in and out of bitcoin. You never mine into your exchange wallet

Pool / mining software - To actually mine out your coin. You mine directly to your Wallet service
 
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like this
"i'm too lazy to do some google searches", the thread.

TLDR: you missed the bandwagon and those here are trying to get our hashes done before the profitability goes to shit, and competition doesn't help that.
 
lilbabycat said:
"i'm too lazy to do some google searches", the thread.

TLDR: you missed the bandwagon and those here are trying to get our hashes done before the profitability goes to shit, and competition doesn't help that.
Click to expand...

Your first line seems to be a parody of the thread starter. Is your second line a parody of all the subsequent posts - or is that what you really think?
 
I hate to be a dick here buy you really do need to watch some getting into mining videos on youtube, even your follow up questions could all be summed up in like 10 minutes on watching basic how to get into mining videos

Start there, you seem like you're not getting the whole flow of things so write it out on paper in like a simple flow chart or something, then you can start looking into parts from there with google searches all over the web

I recently jumped back into mining but had been on and off for the past 8 years. I will say so much changed since the last time I mined that I pretty much had to start from scratch

But you can't really expect to just come on a forum and have everyone make a decision for you on every aspect, you need to make some choices for your self then come back when you have a very specific kind of question, like what arguments do I need for X miner to go up Y percent of performance or something like that

1. Why do you want to mine? Figure that out. Are you trying to make bank right away? Are you trying to just upgrade a GPU and have it pay itself off? You trying to find the next breakaway coin and get in on it early? Do you want a coin because you like the tech it is based on and just want to support it? Do you want to mine a coin that has a meme on it? Do you not even want to really mine but instead want to make money just by trading coins like on a stock exchange (closest analogy I can think of)You keep going back to BitCoin for some reason even after multiple people here have told you that it's virtually pointless to do on a computer these days, simple google searches would tell you the same thing, yet you seem insistent on coming back to BitCoin every time you ask a question besides already getting an answer. To me this shows that you don't even know what you want or why you want it, which is just going to lose you money in the end.

2. If you're die hard on mining I'll give you a basic flow chart that you will need to make decisions and research on:

Pick your initial investment, how much money do you want to put into this to get started? $0? $100? $1000?

Pick a type of coin you want based on your answers to number 1. Some mine easier for long term holds, some get you more money up front but you never know how long these will be profitable. Regardless, pick a coin based on your goals by doing some google searches

Once you've picked a coin, do some more google on what the best way to mine it is and what hardware (AMD, NVIDIA, CPU, ASIC, etc) is best for that coin, then factor in your budget and google some hash-rates for hardware that fits that price

Do some google comparing multiple options in your budget and decide what's best for you based on budget AND OPERATING EXPENSES (building the rigs, running the rigs, electric bill, maintaining the rigs, etc)

Once you've picked a coin and have hardware selected, look into HOW you're going to store said coins on google, this is usually going to be a wallet you host on your end but you need to research the pros and cons of different wallets and see what fits for you

Once you have budget, hardware, coin, and a place to store coins, you'll need to google the best way to mine said coin, again on google, as each coin will have multiple miners you can use and shit loads of info out there online that you will need to read through to see what you want. Some are easier to use but slower, some require tweaking, some are in beta but faster and also buggy, some are super easy but have higher dev fees, some I'm sure are also just scams and will screw you over. Google is your friend, and you'll probably have noticed from when you googled about what hash-rate you can get from what hardware a lot of people will talk about the miners in those same areas so more google

Once you have a miner, you'll pretty much always have to find a pool as most coins are pointless to mine solo unless you're dropping like 5 figures into the hardware. Again, google around for things like mining pool reviews or comparisons or best mining pools and read some forums. There is a shit load of info out there you just have to look for it.

3. Once you have all of that you have a basic grasp on everything you want and how to get it. But don't stop there. Seriously, there are multiple sub 20 minute videos on youtube that sum up 90%+ of everything I just mentioned. Seriously, once you pick a coin you can pretty much type How to Mine XYZ into youtube and find multiple videos taking you from the web page to get the wallet all the way through running your miner. Once you have it going then you can do more research on how to get the most bang for your buck

Not trying to be a dick but in about 2 days of 3-5 hours on youtube and google and I had my cards matching the best numbers I could find for hash-rates. And I had virtually no info going into this because last time I seriously mined was back in 2010-2011 and A LOT has changed since then. You need to put that leg work in, if for no other reason but to be able to understand what you're doing and either know how to fix issues you run into or have a good enough understanding of what's going on to know HOW to ask for help. But more realistically so that YOU can get out of mining what YOU want to get out of it. Right now all you're doing is asking a million questions and getting the same answer multiple times than asking questions again about the very thing people said not to do

People aren't going to want to help you if you don't do things for yourself. It's really not that hard to start and you can build from there.

Example: I say hey, everyone here said not to mine BTC and I've decided that ETH is going to be the coin I want because your sig says you have a 1060. So, I go to youtube and type in How to Mine Ethereum.

<< Literally the second video but every video in the top few are how to's.

This video happens to be called ETHEREUM MINING GUIDE | Step by Step , That's probably a good place to start. If you watch this exact video in under 12 minutes you'll know everything you need to know to get a wallet, a pool, and get your miner running. If you look in the comments the number one comment is a few more Q&A things that people weren't able to figure out in the video.

In less than 20 minutes from pressing play you can be mining ETH. Now from there since you have an understanding of how mining works because you've done it yourself now you can go back and google ways to get better hash-rates from your hardware (google X coin hashrate for Y Hardware), you can compare pools (google best pool for X), compare wallets (google best wallet for X coins, best crypto wallets), etc, and since you now have a basic knowledge of how it works you'll understand some things when people talk about differences between A and B
 
step one download bitcoin core wallet
step 2 add wallet directory to av exceptions
step 2.5 disable av
step 3 download and install nicehash
step 4 add nice hash directory to av exceptions.
step 5 run nice hash and put your wallets receive address in click the grey button that says hardware then run the bench mark
step 6 run nice hash wait for payday a single r9 280x/gtx 970 or better will make 1.50+ per day nice hash pays out at .01 btc

what you look for in a gpu is hashrate per watt rx any work very well the 10 series nvidia are also good...

Amd cards back to the hd 5000 series work and nvidia back to the 400 series but the 10series and maybe the 900 series and the r9 series are pretty much only worth mining with
 
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Missing the point said:
^^^ Nice summary.. sounds sketchy as hell but it works...
Click to expand...
Yeah actions of a few made antivirus flag the mining code as virus because a few people put a miner as the payload of some malware. I get it 100000 shitty pc all mining for you ads up.

But it means the mining community has to deal with the false positives...

There is another service like nicehash called minergate both of them simplify it rather well and make it very easy to start mining as all the hard work is done for you and you can literally just throw it up on any rig that meets whatever requirements and you will be mining in no time...
 
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mining btc is kinda capital intensive process, so weigh all pros&cons and if u still wanna do this follow the "trivial" schedule:
1. get the best mining hardware
2. download a software
3. u can do it yrself or join the pool (which is the better option for newbies)
4. acquire a wallet and be sure that u r staying up to day with all news
 
1. Open Gemini account.
2. Open HitBTC account.
3. Buy BTC on Gemini and withdraw to HitBTC wallet
4. Buy as much $ZRX / $OPT as you can stomach and HODL
5. Go eat big steak dinner

t. miner turned trader
 
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