Bitcoin Forum

As it's apparent ASICs are coming/here, I also want to get in, but unlike most rich people, and I mean rich about people whose standards are that 10k is cheap,normal and can be gotten within 2-3 months of work or whatever.

I have only $1400-1500 atm and this amount is very big by my standards, what can I get with this amount that will have worth hashing at the absurd difficulties that will follow? $1400-500 with the intention of getting a done unit, not DYI that costs more and is worthless in speed unless you have 700btc, which I do not.

$1400-1500 for a done unit? Drop an order with BFL and pray to whatever god you believe that they'll ship your order to you before next year.

Or try a DIY/assembled by others unit via Avalon's chip orders.

Only choice you have is to join in the group buy of the Avalon ASIC chips and DIY them or get someone else to assemble them for you.

Another option, I would say is BFL 5 GH/s miners but who knows when you'll get them but to be fair they have started shipping. Albeit in tiny tiny quantities.

You dont even have to count asics. Popularity of bitcoin alone brings hundreds of people who are setting up they own miners. It is makeing enough difficulty increase. There is no solution to that, only bitcoin price should increase enough to make mining worthwhile.

There's always the gamble that LTC mining will stay profitable long enough to make a profit from GPU mining, at this point I would say the roi predictions on a BFL order placed today and a GPU rig are about the same, and GPUs are a lot easier to recoup part of the investment from rather than an ASIC that can't reach profitability ;P

If you must have an asic then as said before really your only option is the DIY Avalon projects, the BFL predictions seems to be around 3-6 months to clear out CURRENT orders, IF and WHEN they start shipping their "400 units a day" (Singles wont start shipping until early next month at best)

It's interesting how the high risk has shifted from buying BTC directly to now buying mining gear. Back in the days buying mining gear was considered the safe option since after all you still had your hardware to sell.

With all due respect, you have no idea who is rich and who is not.  Nor do you know what priorities/sacrifices people will make to buy the higher priced hardware.

Haven't we all heard enough childish whining about "only rich people can mine now"?

Your choices are very simple.  Buy an ASIC or don't buy an ASIC.  How much you or can or are willing spend is completely independent of how rich you are.

I've been eating stale bread for months to get my shiny ASIC.  :'(

PS: Just joking, but you get the idea of what people sacrifice for something you think they took for granted.

Bitcoin, I guess.

I've heard rich people like stale bread. :)

The group buy is for chips, that need to be assembled at 80 euro or more per module(which is 10 chips).

No joke here, I've had stale bread many times, simply because there is not enough money.

Am I the only one who kind of like the taste of stale bread?  :P

It just so happens I have a post that you might find helpful:

http://organofcorti.blogspot.com/2013/04/915-fair-price-for-asic-miner.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SKh5XgEniwo/UXphCbmIQ1I/AAAAAAAAHnw/RMBfHa2Ae90/s1600/9.15.chart1-2013-04-26.png (http://organofcorti.blogspot.com/2013/04/915-fair-price-for-asic-miner.html)

By stale I did mean it had mold.

Seriously.  Ask the people who plunked down 150+ BTC in June 2012 for a BFL single if they today had the option would they take back the 150 BTC or would they still want deliver of their ASIC single.

Mining has very rarely returned more than 1 BTC per BTC invested.

That kind of depends a lot on how long ago you started mining.

Mining now is certainly not like mining then.

Mining is pretty much solely predicated on the notion that the coins you mine will go up in value - longterm.

If you are looking for quick profits, try your luck at bitcoin poker.

Personally, Ive made a lot more BTC on Seals With Clubs than by mining which is incredibly slow and just gets slower.

he could of been rich with faith & luck and got first batch avalon for cheap!

He and I both.  I'm still kicking myself for preordering a Jalapeno for 13.4 BTC when I could have preordered an Avalon.  But I thought that was too much of a risk.

But you make a very good point sir.
Sam

the cheapest right now is the alreayd mentioned "diy miner" using avalon chips and assembled by burnin.

however, ASICminer should shortly be auctioning it's so called "honeybee" miners - single asic chips ready to plug in to a USB slot and mine at about 300mhash. the pricing is up in the air though, for now.

i can see some really cool honey bee colony setups now...  :D

I think the best option is to order chips from Avalon and create a DIY miner.

At least more people move to competitors of BFL, there were just too many issues and difficulty is rising quickly...

Another option of course is just wait and have a look for new offers/players in the "ASIC world"

oh, agreed. thinking about this makes me want to shop for usb hubs... notthat i could afford a bunch right now... but still!

also, i should point out to the OP that another auction of "block erupter" blades from ASICminer has begun. these are 10 gigahash units, price to be set by the auction. last batch went for 75 btc each, and were delivered in 4 days. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=189248

If you`re looking to get in to bitcoin mining, you are kinda stuck now. There is virtually no reason to buy a dedicated GPU miner, difficulty today is that you break even after 3-4 months. Difficulty will skyrocket with ASICs pouring in pretty soon, from BFL, from Avalon, from DYI who have preodered tens of thousands of these chips. There is also no reason to order anything from BFL or Avalon either since there is a ton of people ahead of you in line waiting for their device. So when you reach yours, the difficulty will be so high the ASICs will be just as profitable as GPU miners are now.

It looks like a dead end to me unless you snatch up a Asic miner from Ebay that either an Avalon or someone who preordered an ASIC from BFL 1 year ago since they will be the first one to get it.

Really frustrating

To be fair, BFL accepts payment in USD so if you sold BTC to purchase that sure sucks but no one forced anyone to do that. I ordered Jalapenos in 2012/early-2013 for USD and am pretty sure I'll make my investment back several times over even if delivery takes 2 more months.