Wrote this in a PM to someone the other day but mind be useful be post it for others.
Basically to get started you need the following.
> Bitcoin Wallet.
You can run this locally on your machine, but if the machine does and it isn't backed up it is lost. So I use a "cloud" based provider. After much searching I decided on
https://blockchain.info/ but [url]coinbase.com[/url] works just as well. I just prefer blockchains interface and features.
> Some mining hardware
You start off using your GPU to mine its a good way to get an idea of how the software works and stuff like that before buying kit, but really its going to work so it just delays stuff really.
I started with these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Antminer-U1-USB-ASIC-Bitcoin-Miner-1-6Gh-s-2-2Gh-s-UK-Seller-IN-HAND-/331254579392?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4d204fc0c0 They are cheap, just stay working and dont really need any additional cooling so are silent, and as they are only slightly larger than a USB key you can just plug them into your PC and leave them running. I have 10 of them in a 10 port USB hub connected to my server.
> Mining Software
There are a couple of options here.
1. BFGMiner
http://bfgminer.com/This is what I use on my server, its got drivers built in for most miners so you just have to plug the miner in start the software with something like
Code: Select all
bfgminer.exe -o **mining pool address -u **your worker name** -p **worker password**
It also makes over clocking of the ASIC easy too, for my AntMiners I use
Code: Select all
bfgminer.exe -S antminer:all --set-device antminer:clock=x0981 -o **pool address** -u **worker username** -p ** password **
That starts all antminers it see and clocks them up to 2 gigahash.
2. CGMiner
I know very little about this other than ever time I have used it for mining I get very pissed off. I hate it.
3. MinePeon
http://minepeon.com/index.php/Main_PageThis is a OS distro for the RaspberryPi, it lets you use a Pi as the host for your mining kit and provides a web interface for managing pools, miners etc. It is very good if you dont want a PC running all the time as it is lower power and silent. Only thing to be cause of is there are some USB hubs that dont work on a Pi.
> A Mining Pool
This you have which is my one, but you can use others. There are a few other there. CEX.io is a massive one. You wont really gain anything by moving pools. You get basically the same payout everywhere the only difference is some pools are bigger so you will get lots of small payments others are smaller so you few big payments.
Personally I prefer P2Pool which is what my pool runs as it pays directly to you from completing the block, in a traditional pool your money sits with the pool until they pay it out and if they get hacked/ decide to be a banana split they could just not payout. P2Pool the system just does the payout I have no way of stopping you getting your moneys.
My pool details are here:
http://errkal.homeserver.com and anyone is welcome to use it if they want, but there are quite a few pools out there.
Basically that is it, once you start making some money you can then save it spend it or exchange it. I do a mix, so I use Netagio
https://secure.netagio.com/ as a Bank, they let you store coins and can sell instantly into £ or Euro or use it to buy gold if you have enough. I send about half my earning there, the other half sits in my blockchain.info account as that wallet lets you spend quickly which I then use for more hardware when I want it what ever I want to buy really.