Anyone crypto-currency mining?
 

I think there's still some profit left for the hobby miner. Not a lot - but still a decent return if you are careful and have decent power rates.

Anyone else doing this?

I'm considering some of the newer ASIC machines if I can get my hands on a few.

Yes I know the market is volatile. Everything I don't want to risk losing would be turned into USD.

Really? No one?

I'm just trying to rake up all the damn leaves in my front yard. I ain't got time for that!

I looked into Bitcoin Mining Hardware - ASIC Bitcoin Miner - Butterfly Labs a couple of years ago. Seems pretty volatile at the moment.

How do you cash out?

At the extremely high price, is the mining cost now reasonable?

WPO there are several reputable exchanges. Coinbase is one of the more popular.

Mining hardware can be had cheap. Profitable mining hardware (that is, hardware that generates more worth than the electricity that it consumes) isn't.... :) TONS of scams out there. In fact if I were to guess there's probably 50 websites scamming people for every 1 legitimate one that will sell you hardware.

Bitpay and Coinbase are the two *most* reputable at the moment. If you're looking for a miner go for AntMiners. With BTC climbing you can mine, exchange, repeat and probably keep ahead of your electric bill.

Good luck trying to find one though. :)

I tried to get my hands on the new S9 to no avail unless you want to pay 3x retail. I have a few Avalon 741's coming. Power requirements for two Avalons are about 2100W vs. 1600W for the S9 at a similar hash rate.

That translates into $40 more per month in power cost - but thats 4% of the current value. You can offset that by buying more efficient power supplies than most people use. Going from a Gold to a Titanium PSU gains you 4% efficiency.

I use Antminers on Slush's pool for about seven years now, it's done very well for me.

I just do some hobby trading, getting my feet wet.

I like the Antminer hardware, but I think starting now is too late in the game. I think, if you took the same investment in hardware and put it into a forex with a conservative trading strategy, you'd do better.

I'm still learning and trying to develop a strategy that I can apply to code to automate the trading.

From what I've read, at leat for BTC, it's a waste of time unless you have a lot of resources to commit to it. People are hiding mining software in websites now, so when an unsuspecting rube visits the site, his machine starts mining in the background. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those "casual games" eg Candy Crush aren't doing this as well; I know the fan on my wife's laptop goes nuts while she's playing.

Thanks.

Slushpool has some nice features and I will probably start there.

Is there a good list of legitamate hardware suppliers somewhere? I seem to find 50 suspicious/scammy sellers for every 1 legit.

Chris

I've read that. Pretty sneaky (and genius).

I think the Bitcoin Miner on the windows 10 store may be doing this. Just a gut hunch.

If you want really legitimate Amazon has everything.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9_sc_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aantminer&keywords=ant miner&ie=UTF8&qid=1513012939

Thanks. The BTC ones are astronomical. However the two I bought should break even in about 3-4 months assuming the price stays up. If it drops in have that time doubles.
So that's pretty good. Once I get the BTC Rig running we'll start looking into some of the alternate currency.

So basically you guys are printing money!

That sounds too good to be true :confused:

It is. It takes a long time to recoup equipment costs and it's unlikely most people will ever profit over their KW/h input.

Not so much printing money, as piecing broken money together.

In its early days, there were lots of broken pieces to be found, but now that most has been put together, it is about finding new broken pieces. A much smaller return.

The more that look, the smaller the return per individual.

No doubt many a small/mid size company network admins are rocking these in the server room. Free electricity and connection at the very least.

My last employer came down on an employee that was caught doing that. Not a miner in the server room, under his desk at his cube. Shortly after the Internet/hardware policy changed. I'm just jealous I didn't think of it first!

I’ve got an S9 coming in the next week or two. Haven’t mined before, but a friend seems to be pretty passionate about it, so I figured why not see what the fuss is all about. Note that the run [most efficiently] on 240V and put out a lot of waste heat which has to be considered depending on your mining size and location.


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Had dinner last night w some friends including one guy who has been into Bitcoin since 2009. He's the one who opened my eyes to its rise earlier this year before it was all over the news.

Anyways, he and his brother started mining BC back then as well as making moderate investments in it. Maybe a thousand dollars here and there. He's way up in the millions now in BC worth and he told me that he has no plans on selling off. He's a true believer. I brought up the possibility of the big BC players selling them for to take profits and hedge against a crash and he wasn't buying it. Said that it would be against their interests to do so.

We shall see. I'm watching from the sidelines and making 🍿. :)

I’m expecting my ASIC machines this week. Hoping to break even in 4-6 months. Once I do that, the question will be do I continue to cash out, or speculate on a rise in value. Not much to lose after that point but electricity costs.

Then the next task will be generating 2300W of Free electricity somehow so the rest of it is free. I’ll need some taxpayer subsidized solar for that since I don’t have a river or tides. :)

Can someone explain the process from start to end?
So you buy a bit of hardware and set it up on your DSL. What software is it running? Do you set up an account somewhere?
How do you ensure that you get the WHOLE value and nothing is forked to some programmer?
How does the cashout work?

I am not into this sort of virtual mining at all. In fact I dont like where this is going. There is no back up for the value at all. So the money is generated out of the air. That cannot "hold" ...

Wind and solar. Best of both worlds. Generate power at night with the turbine.

Holger - There are plenty of good primers and YouTube vids explaining it.

There are parts where crypto-currency actually could be closer to traditional cash. For example - there are a fixed number of units that can generated. Unlike paper money that has an unlimited number that can be printed reducing the value. Most countries currency is no longer on the gold standard - so the value is no different really.

https://www.bitcoinmining.com/images...oin-mining.jpg

Um, sorry, but this computing power generates a value that can be transfered into real money? They must be kidding?!

How is that any different than "designated entity puts a picture on a piece of paper and calls it valuable" ? Especially when they can just make more any time they feel like it and devalue the entire currency?

There's no gold standard anymore so....

Its worth exactly what people will pay for it.

But you can hype it, like it is done right now, that is not so easily done with the normal currency.
And, normal currency is made by a controlled designated entity. Virtual currency has no control. That will lead to its downfall at some point.

Maybe there is no gold standard, but normal currency always has some sort of "backup" to its value.
BitCoin? Not at all.

There's no governmental managing body. Thats true. Eventually this will happen. There are world governments starting to regulate or, in some cases, create their own. I think we may end up seeing National crypto currencies that can't be mined, controlled by that government.

Currency is bought and sold every day. The big difference is, it is much more stable. Right now crypto is fueled on hype and speculation as you've said.

That said - it is somewhat self-controlled based on its very nature. The math and such...

To expensive. Chinese crypto farms consisting of thousands upon thousands of asics running on dirty power is where is it's at.

Dirty and free...

https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https:...uzfl/00021.jpg

IN the end - I think this will, at most - be a break even hobby for me for a few months. Due to the increasing difficulty rate I no longer see this as being potentially profitable.

That said - it could change and provided its at least close to self-sustaining I might keep going. Right now - I think I'd be in the same profit/risk realm if I just bought a BTC.

What do you think Scott R?

Isn't there only something like 25% of the total left for mining? With the escalating interest in mining, doesn't that spell an earlier end for the mining?

Then the money is in micro-transactions.

I think it's a great hobby! Getting I always get older tech on the cheap that people have used for a year or two and I pool mine. Over the last eight or so years I've amassed a pretty good wallet.

Have you calculated your profitability?

I'm wondering if it makes sense to pivot to various alt-coins as the market shifts.