New to bitcoin and The Tek

Hey guys, I've been watching The Tek for a few months now and decided to sign up here after I watched the recent Bitcoin vid.

I'm interested in both mining bitcoins for the site AND for myself at some point but I know pretty much nothing about bitcoins and mining and am a bit nervous going into it. I have been reading posts on bitcoins and tutorials and hopefully I can get to grips with it, I hope.

I have a new 7950 xfx 3GB, I understand that AMD is better for mining, so if any one can let me know if its benefitcial for me to go ahead with this for both the site and myself.

Kind regards

Krane

I’m no expert but I can share what I’ve learned. First of all you need to register in a pool like Slush’s pool or BTCGuild if you want to mine for yourself (BTCGuild has a better website but I don’t know which is most profitable). You could try this to see how much you would make first and then mine for teksyndicate later maybe. Second you need to get some mining software. CGminer is really good for this because it gets more Hash/s than GUIminer and you can actually use your computer for other stuff while mining. I think that’s all I know :(

Here are some cool websites to watch the bitcoin stuff:

http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/

http://blockchain.info/en

http://www.listentobitcoin.com/

 

Half of the Bitcoins you mine for Tek Syndicate will go to the website, and the other half will go to prizes given back to the miners. If I understand everything correctly for every 2,000 shares you get you get an entry into the prizes. Every week there will be software prizez, and monthly hardware prizes.

There's a thread created by another forum member, Rytak, which explains exactly what you need to do in order to start mining Bitcoins for Tek Syndicate. 

http://teksyndicate.com/node/135013

And as Steephill mentioned, half of the money raised will go to weekly software prizes, as well as a monthly hardware prize. You can also give suggestions for possible prizes in THIS thread as well. 

Just a quick note to say that that thread is outdated. The way we are giving the money to teksyndicate and dividing the prizes and stuff has changed. Logan is planning on releasing a video soon, so i wont say any more about that.

As for how to getting started, that thread is also outdated.

Feel free to ask if you have any more questions

This is the new one: http://teksyndicate.com/forum/bitcoin/bitcoin-mining-guide-and-faq/137660

It includes the up to date info and also a list of FAQ

As for CGminer vs guiminer, if you don't really know what you are doing, GUIminer is the way to go. It has a much better interface, the troubleshoting is easier and it's less of a hassle to set up, even though it might cost you a few % points of efficiency.

Also, just a quick note to say that mining wont make you heaps of money. Although you may know this, its a delicate balance of power costs and return. Mining solo is pretty hard and i would expect max about $5 a week profit for about 12 or so hours a day. I wouldnt normally include this but i think its good to manage your expectations.

Based on what Tankata has said, I have no idea now as to how the Bitcoins are distributed. But hopefully it will be a change for the better. Anyways, a 7950 would be an a excellent edition to the team and we would be more than happy to have you with us. If you would like to mine by yourself for yourself I would recommend investing in a lot of GPUs. Probably 4 or more to make some profit. Mining Bitcoins is extremely tasking and that is why most users mine in pools. For mining solo I would recommend mining for litecoins since its difficulty is much lower making it easier to achieve small portions of bitcoins faster.

Haha, the division of funds will be improved. The idea is that it is more transparent so people can actually see where every cent is going. (the 50% thing should be roughly the same) I can't tell you exactly though, Logan said he wants to release the details in a full comprehensive video/post. Yeah, litecoin is definitely an alternative.