Bitcoin mining

[BrilloPad]

Anyone tried this?

[Project Monkey]

in a landfill in South Wales was it?

[Pondlife]

in a landfill in South Wales was it?

No wonder PC has been quiet of late.

[cojak]

Decidedly less attractive after all the hoohah in the Underworld at the moment.

Who knows what unwelcome attention you'd attract after you found a vein?

[Ticktock]

Unless you're willing to invest a fair amount in dedicated hardware, plus the running costs, then I wouldn't bother.
As I've said before, it's not a process whereby you earn an amount based on the work you've done, it's a lottery based on who completes the work - the final piece.

You may be lucky, but because the "professional" miners are able to complete many more calculations per second then they are much more likely to get that final piece, and take the prize. They'll probably be working in syndicates, and may each be running several dedicated machines.
Here's a link listing some of the machines dedicated to bitmining:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_Hardware_Comparison

About a year ago or so I remember a lot of discussion over the cost / benefit of just the electricity, and whether it was really worth it. Of course, with the value ballooning recently that calculation may be less balanced, but with the number of competitors probably joining the hunt then you are still less likely to win, so perhaps not.


Of course, you could give it a go on a crappy old desktop (with half decent graphics card(s) to do the processing) and all you're losing is the cost of the leccy, but don't expect to become a millionaire - you missed that boat by a fair few years now.



EDIT: And take a look at this, gives a profitability calculator: http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

[DaveB]

Don't bother, homebrew miners can't compete these days.

The secret Hong Kong facility that uses boiling goo to mine Bitcoins | The Verge

[OwlHoot]

So what exactly does bitcoin mining entail? A reference to a summary of the problem would be useful.

Is it some arithmetic algorithm for finding large inaccessible numbers, such as prime factors of given large integers? (I'm sure that isn't it, but using that for the purpose of example).

[AtW]

Is it some arithmetic algorithm for finding large inaccessible numbers, such as prime factors of given large integers? (I'm sure that isn't it, but using that for the purpose of example).

More or less it's something like that. Bitcoin mining did not make sense without ASICs 12 months ago, nevermind now.

[OwlHoot]

More or less it's something like that. Bitcoin mining did not make sense without ASICs 12 months ago, nevermind now.

Ah, there's a summary here of roughly what mining entails.

It does seem to be getting progressively less lucrative (by design) and more technically demanding now more and more people are involved. Darn - another boat I've missed!

[AtW]

It does seem to be getting progressively less lucrative (by design) and more technically demanding now more and more people are involved. Darn - another boat I've missed!

18 months ago bitcoins crashed from around 25 USD to 3 USD...