Does the program I downloaded (bitcoin-qt) mine bitcoins?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I start mining Bitcoin?

Nothing ever says how to actually mine bitcoins, except to join a pool. I don't want to do that. All I really know is that each block has an equation associated with it, and whoever solves it gets the coins. I assume that the miner is trying to solve the equation, and I also assume that this just means running the bitcoin client and hoping your computer can generate a block. If bitcoin qt (from the website) doesn't mine bitcoins, what does?

Jonathan

Posted 2013-01-31T12:44:49.410

Reputation: 89

I think you've gotten the wrong impression. Bitcoin is not about mining. You don't need to mine, and I recommend you don't. If you do want to mine, you need dedicated hardware, dedicated software and a pool. – Meni Rosenfeld – 2013-02-01T07:38:29.633

Answers

Yes, but not efficiently. In fact, CPU's are so bad at mining bitcoin that the option was removed from the user interface. However, the code is still there (though mostly as a reference implementation), and you can go to Help > Debug Window > Console and type in "setgenerate true" to turn it on. Type "setgenerate false" to stop.

You can also give bitcoin the option -gen at the command line.

Nick ODell

Posted 2013-01-31T12:44:49.410

Reputation: 26 536

The client cannot mine by itself you need a miner for that. However you will need the client to relay the blocks you find and to getwork if you mine alone. Try guiminer for starter it can mine on his own or on a pool.

And you should really join a pool since it can be really difficult to mine by your own (exept if you have 1.5 Thash/s mining rig ready)

Gopoi

Posted 2013-01-31T12:44:49.410

Reputation: 889