Bitcoin - do you do it, and can you advise me (for a fee)

[Hugfrancis]

I am looking for someone who can give me up to 2 hours advice choosing equipment, adjusting router and starting up the miner. Must be knowledgeable (and preferably a good teacher). I am obviously happy to pay a fee.

[bradley]

Make a full research on the topic. I've looked into it when it blew up but IMHO at the current time it's not worth it.

All the bitcoins released worldwide are a fixed number. That means that it's connected - the less there are left, the harder they are to mine. To be able to mine a bitcoin with a regular PC you will need (for example) anywhere from a month to a year and it's not viable when you calculate the energy costs and wasted time.

There are a lot of online calculators in which you fill in your PC's characteristics and it will show you the time needed and electricity consumption. From then on it's simple math to see if you will have any profit.

You can always join a mining pool and get a part of a bitcoin based on the amount of mining you've done but it's even less viable than mining by yourself.

All of the above is my point of view and I stand to be corrected.

[Hugfrancis]

Many thanks for your thoughtful reply. I should have started this much earlier, when you could still get away with almost an ordinary PC - now you need dedicated equipment with sophisticated settings (and preferably your own solar power!).

I was spurred into acting by an amusing book "Bitcoin: The Future of Money" by Dominic Frisby (reviewed this week in the Spectator). But the technical difficulties are well explained in this article

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/17/ten_bitcoin_miners/

A money system which requires an 'effort' to make (as opposed to fiat' money), and which cannot be manipulated by government still seems a good idea, despite the difficulties.

How about an East Dulwich Bit mining pool?!!

[michaelDavis]

I think it is possible to make a certain profit mining in a pool. There are several mining calculators online (e.g. coinish.com/calc), that you can use to see if (considering the ammount of people and/or effort you can afford) this effort will be profitable for you.