Quote from: MoonShadow on December 10, 2012, 11:26:46 PM

Quote from: SusiBiker on December 10, 2012, 11:20:46 PM

Hiya Folks!

Just need to know how to use it now and how to mine coins.

Don't bother. It's a specialized occupation that requires much geekiness to become profitable. You're much better off offering some service to the community in exchange for bitcoins. Most people are the same. I have personally never mined anything.

Just to offer an alternative view on mining:

Now might be a good time to take your time reading up about it - there's heaps here - and decide whether you might want to dabble in the longer term. One thing I like about the ASIC future (should it actually materialise) is it should require less technical know-how than making home-made rigs with graphics cards (check out some of the youtube vids on mining gear) which is what was required before. If there is one thing I would recommend taking away from your first considerations of mining is that the chances of making great money are pretty low and there's a fair chance of not covering the cost of your initial purchase (and electricity to power it) if you buy at the wrong time.

Another thing I like about the ASIC future is there is very little difference in 'hashing power' per pound spent whether you're spending $1,000 or $20,000. The bigger difference between profit and loss (other than timing of purchase) is the price you pay for power. Putting aside maintenance overheads it's pretty much a level playing field so although the odds of you making money from whatever you're spending may not be very high they're about the same as those spending the big bucks at the same time as you.

The way I'm looking at it is if you fancy the idea of playing a part the mining network upon which the Bitcoin network, its future and all its users are dependent and accept you may not see the money you spent for some time if at all then why not?

It might just be worth holding your horses until things have settled down after the forthcoming introduction of ASICs. Definitely don't be tempted to do calcs based on today's difficulty figures. Nobody really knows where that's going to settle if and when ASICs in quantities are introduced.

I'll second MoonShadow's suggestion of finding ways of offering services for Bitcoin because regardless of contributions to the robustness of the network through mining unless enough people are providing services for which people can pay Bitcoin ultimately it has no future.

Best,

Tf