Bitcoin Forum

Hey all,

I've been wondering for a while - all the sites I look at for buying mining hardware seem to only accept payment in bitcoins. I don't particularly want to buy bitcoins to then go and buy hardware and then spend an age mining just to get a bitcoin back - if I wanted to go down that route then why not just speculate by buying and selling bitcoins and skip the whole mining side of things?!

So - How do most people start out mining when they don't have any bitcoins to buy any (decent) hardware to start with?! I have found some sites that accept "normal" currency payments but they all seem to be pre-order only or MUCH more expensive than buying in bitcoins directly?!

Thanks for any info/advice

Why do you want to mine? Why do all newbs want to mine? Its for pros now.

I don't think it's for pros. It's for people who are willing to invest and not to expect anything back for a long time.

If you have cheap electricity you may buy GPU rig and mine Scrypt coins and exchange to Bitcoin.

Do NOT buy a from a site that only takes bitcoin for payment for a miner.

This is an almost 100% surefire way to lose what bitcoin you have,

and not get a bitcoin miner too...

That is what the large majority opt to do.

To be honest I want to mine because the whole thing is of interest and I can afford to give it a try and see what happens. However just because I can afford to risk it doesn't mean I want to spend twice as much on hardware just because I am using a regular currency.

In relation to a GPU rig, it seems like a waste of time - I'm ideally looking to start out with a 10Gh blade but as it stands can only find them for currency purchase on sites like eBay at a stupidly inflated price so I may end up having to go with a few of the new ant miner 1.6 GH usb keys till I mine enough Bitcoins to use for trade on sites like this one.

RE: speculating on currency,  that doesn't interest me to be honest. The majority may opt to do that but it's just not something that interests me tbh

Yep, just buy and trade.

The mining devices cost a lot now, I guess later next year the prices will be much more affordable.

http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-lin.png

The interest in mining can surely only be understood from a psychological perspective (Imma get something for nothing!). Its not rational. The difficulty is 1.1 million now. Just forget about it.

"I don't think it's for pros. It's for people who are willing to invest and not to expect anything back for a long time."

Nope its for pros. 1.1 million.

I agree, it's gotten to the point where mining is for pros. With that said, if you're determined to mine you pretty much have to face the fact that you're going to have to buy BTC to get the hardware. Unfortunately that's the current reality.

Or as you said you could choose to "pay too much" on ebay...

I feel like an evangelist on the pointlessness of mining.

KNC accept bank drafts as payment for their mining equipment, check link in my sig.

I would advise simply investing in BTC - mining Bitcoins is very hard now.

Alternatively mine and alt currency and convert to BTC.

 ;)

Buy low, sell high.

You could try begging or getting a loan for your first BTC, but I advise buying some. I'm already in negotiations with another user to buy via Western Union. Hopefully I don't get scammed.

I intend to just stick to trading and loans. It's how I've made the BTC I have now. So buy from people wanting to unload, and go at about -15%. Sell to people willing to buy at about +15%.

Long term you probably want to wait to ride the BTC wave until it "peaks", then unload. Of course then you'll have some dead zone time where you wait for the wave to collapse again.

It's not a good idea for newbies to trade these days...

Yes,maybe it's not so good idea to start trading.Try with something else,it could turn out to be better.

You could buy and hodl... That works out for everyone ;)

Yes,this is a good option too.It seems like a good choice for now.

I had never buyed a single bitcoin... Never, even 0.1. I never spend my money in cryptocurrencies... But, i maded money from there, in the last 6 or 7 months i maded more than 3.000 USD just with the alternate cryptocurrencies giveaways, and holding they till hit exchanges...

I know, for some of you 3.000 its not much money, but in my country the salary per month its like 300 USD, so i maded a year money in 6 months without invert a single dollar and just for 1 or 2 hours per day.

It's shocking how quickly mining equipment becomes obsolete. Feel like 500gh/s needs to b starting point. However roi serious problem unless prices move up quick a bit

People will keep wanting to mine whatever the situation. They could be losing money (many are). Mining is just an attractive option for people, for whatever psychological reason.

Looking at the current (and near future expected difficulties), getting a 1Th/s+ rig NOW and start mining (and selling coins on e.g. mtgox) seems very lucrative, no? At least calculating the most pessimistic way tells a machine of ~10000 USD will pay itself in max. 2 months.

Am I wrong?