I generated my first Bitcoin

[El_Capitan]

So, when I came back on vacation last Sunday (04/07/2013), because of the hubbub of Bitcoin prices, I setup 3 computers to mine Bitcoins. Basically 3 overclocked HD 7970's on stock voltage (Core Clock overclock only), and one overclocked HD 7850 on stock voltage (also Core Clock overclock only).

 

I got so busy at work (92 hour work week, was really fun), I forgot all about it.

 

Anyways, I checked this morning and I received my first Bitcoin via Slush's Pool sometime yesterday morning, it took about 1 week to generate.

 

During that time, the Bitcoin price was at $144 when I started to generate it, went up to $265 during the middle of the week, and now is worth around $65. Great timing, eh?

 

You can get a twitter feed that updates the worth of a Bitcoin every hour.

 

Man, so bummed I missed the $265 price.

[Onion]

So its kinda like folding but with math problems and you get rewards out of it? 

[El_Capitan]

So its kinda like folding but with math problems and you get rewards out of it? 

Yes, pretty much the same concept. However, with folding, you're better off with Nvidia cards and CUDA. With Bitcoin generation, you're better off with AMD cards with OpenCL. There's a finite amount of Bitcoins that will ever be generated, and blocks of Bitcoins will be lower and lower the closer it gets to compete generation. There's a Bitcoin calculator of how much it would cost to generate it (electric costs via power consumption), and the price of Bitcoins. I don't have the link on me right now (at work atm).

[EuroFight]

I'll just nick El_Capitan's job

 

http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

[ir_cow]

it's only worth as much as some sucker will buy it for . bitcoin idea is just a big prank to see how long people will do pointless things for the chance of money .

 

funny thing is that bitcoins are from what i gather "prime numbers " and I wouldn't be surprised if he company is selling what you generate for millions .

[freddie]

I'll just nick El_Capitan's job

 

http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

 

 

Default values are for a system of four 6870s.

 

lol

[IVIYTH0S]

[EuroFight]

 

 

I'll just nick El_Capitan's job

 

http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

Default values are for a system of four 6870s.

lol

I guess Nyt must have made the calculator a couple of years back?

[Penti]

Seems like a cool idea (sorry for hijacking the thread).

 

One question though, is it still profitable to mine bitcoins considering the dedicated rigs out there that can out mine your usual consumer PCs?

 

Also, how does one eactly get the money / bitcoins. Is there like a paypal for bitcoins?

[bigball1]

Im still working on my first one. Got work 3 PC doing the work, they are in a pool and dont have a video card. Its been a week and l got 0.002 at this point. HAHA

[El_Capitan]

Yeah, I don't recommend buying dedicated rigs, too expensive, and not good for anything except for mining. If you already have AMD cards from the HD 5000 to the HD 7000 line, they will generate at a pretty decent rate (one HD 7970 alone might generate you 1 bitcoin per month), and you just get better power consumption with the latest cards.

 

You'll generate the least amount with your CPU and an okay amount with Nvidia cards.

 

The cheapest way is to just use your work computer to generate bitcoins (since your company is paying the electric bills, and it's most likely their computer), but don't expect to generate much that way.

 

To get money from it is to setup an account at Mt. Gox's BitCoin Exchange, send your BitCoin there when you want to sell it, and have it go to a Dwolla account, and then transfer the money to your bank account. That's the most common and least expensive way with fees.

 

I guess I'll write an in-depth guide when I get some time in a couple of weeks if there's interest for it. It's pretty simple, took all of 15 minutes for me to setup. I use GUIMiner for mining, setup an account at BitcoinCZ to mine at Slush's Pool, created workers (i.e. computer1, computer2, etc.) and then enter your worker username and password in GUIMiner at the computer you're mining with and then start mining (so that worker gets credit to your BitcoinCZ account). I personally use Bitcoin Wallet to handle my BitCoins (I don't recommend an online wallet, if they go down, your bitcoins do, too), When you want to receive bitcoins, you generate an address, and for BitcoinCZ, you can then put that address down to automatically receive your confirmed bitcoin rewards.

 

I use Twitter to get hourly updates on prices of Bitcoins from @bitcoinprice, which usually shows the price at Mt. Gox.

 

I also use this Bitcoin Calculator, which saves your information in the URL.

 

Here's my estimate going by this current rate at $86 per Bitcoin: http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/?difficulty=7672999.9202&hashrate=2450.00&exchangerate=86&bitcoinsperblock=25.00&rigcost=0.00&powerconsumption=1100.00&powercost=0.16&investmentperiod=355

 

As you can see, it's barely worth it. It costs me $26.30 in power to generate a single Bitcoin. If I wait until it goes back up to $265 per Bitcoin (the highest it's ever been), then that's $239 profit in one week: http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/?difficulty=7672999.9202&hashrate=2450.00&exchangerate=86&bitcoinsperblock=25.00&rigcost=0.00&powerconsumption=1100.00&powercost=0.16&investmentperiod=355

 

At any rate, Bitcoins might be nothing to like $.04 again, or it might end up being a lot again (up to $265). If Bitcoins end up less than $26.30 (the cost it takes for me to generate one in electric costs), then I might buy a few and just wait until another spike happens. If the price of power is high where you live, it may not be worth it to generate one.

[Waco]

Somehow I think using company resources for this might be frowned upon.