Bitcoin Forum

As the title says, if I have $5000 that I can afford to gamble, which of these would be the best move?

Here are a few important facts about my situation:

1. Can relocate to an apartment that has free electricity
2. Wouldn't mind playing the 'long game' with cryptocurrency.
3. Tech savvy, worked in the software industry.
4. Late 20's
5. Have one extra computer not being used
6. Can sell some un-wanted items to gain around $2000 more


Notes:
Recently laid off, but have enough experience in my field to get a job should I want to focus my attention on it again (software industry). The job can only offer close to $100k a year max within the next 5 years -- currently $75k (pre-tax) a year. Still have residual income coming in at around $1500 per month. Do not have a house and would really like to buy within the next 5-10 years... current housing here is $575,000 for a decent, non-ghetto house. With that type of income, I will NOT be enough to be semi-comfortable w/ house and 1-2 vacations a year in southern california, as I plan to be, so looking into various options right now. Any ideas in both cryptocurrency and life in general would be appreciated too, especially if you live in southern california!

Anyway, thanks in advance everyone -- trying to decide on next steps here. Want to get into cryptocurrencies (long-term gamble?) before finding another full-time job and now seems like the perfect time to do it. Thanks all!

Hi,

As with any good and well thought of investment portfolio, you would be better off to diversify. 

You could spend half or 3/4 of your money on a mining rig and invest the rest in bitcoin or alternative cryptocurrencies.  This way you get the best of both worlds.

With building a mining rig you will need to understand that the cost of running the machine to what you will get in return (there are calculators for this). With investing in the crypto coin itself, a bit of research on what alternative currencies seem to be the future proof ones will help with overall gains in this department.

With cryptocurrencies still being young, do expect some volatility and try not to rely on them as an income as of yet; however I do believe that cryptocurrencies will be a worthy investment for near future gains.

I hope some of this helped.

Invest it in currency for now and then once the 20nm chip asic miners are open for pre-order than try and get one although of course check the ROI using one of the various calculators online to determine how much you'll make

I took the plunge myself and bought me a bunch of mining gear.  Originally started and got my feet wet with bitcoin mining by buying mining contracts off Ebay.  This seemed to work well and got me started and helped me to understand things like setting up pools and understanding how to basically setup everything.  I've had good and bad success with mining contracts.  A few were great, but I also encountered a couple scams.......so be careful.  I suggest to anyone reading this and thinking of buying a contract......DO NOT BUY ONE from someone who says they will start they contract more than 3 months after you send payment.  I've already been scammed once.  After 90 days it is very difficult to get your money back, luckily paypal was nice to help me out.

Waiting on my mining equipment to get here.  Most of it should arrive this coming week.  I am super excited.  Will be hashing around 1.2th/s with an investment around $8000

I took the plunge and am super excited about bitcoins.  I see opportunity with mining.  I also see opportunity with selling equipment.  I also see opportunity to sell mining contracts.  3 options to bring in cashflow.  Looking at it as both a hobby but as a business.....if that makes sense.

Good luck on your ventures!! 

Thank you for the insight! Here's a follow-up question:

I will most likely buy the mining equipment and have assembled multiple gaming rigs in the past, but just wondering what the best course of action would be:

1. Wait for (Scrypt) ASIC Miner
2. Build the multi-gpu dedicated mining rig
3. Buy the current ASIC Miners (Nanofury) yellowjacket (https://www.hashratestore.com/shop/asic/nanofury-yellowjacket-bitfury-usb-asic/)  

How does this pre-built system look and are there any other reputable rigs you could link to? http://www.cryptohero.com/#!online-store/cuc/!/~/product/category=8364147&id=32515669

@ digitalminer407

If it's not too much trouble, would you mind sharing the $8000 rig spec?

forget about scrypt miners for now. if i was you just buy btc now and research and read read read about as much as you can cover. see whats out there. dont rush into conclusions. but buy btc now since its probably gonna be on steady uptrend from now on.

@ Morbid:

Why ignore the miners for now?

this damn forum and newbie restrictions on posting..........BLAH!!!!


I bought 3 Avalon 2 400gh/s machines @ $2600 each

How much do you expect to make from mining? It doesn't seem very smart for someone to invest a lot of time and money into mining without even knowing how much they will make.

@digitalmining:

Where did you get them at that price and how quickly are they arriving? I found some online but they ship from China.

@odolvlobo:
As for mining, you're right, I don't know how much I'll make. I'm doing this as a gamble since I have spare time/money at the moment, and to be honest, cryptocurrency seems really interesting to me (as I'm sure it does with most of the community) so I'm coming from all directions -- as a miner, investor, and overall thirst for knowledge & the evolution of 'money'.

I plan on mining all different types of coins to diversify and sit on them to see if they mature in the future (3-5 yrs down the road), and I have the time to do this freely for the next 3-4 months. Please, as I'm in the noob forum and welcome any insight, any advice is appreciated. Does this not sound like a good gamble? Once again, thanks all!

a friend of mine has a reliable resource from China.  These are some of the first 400gh/s machines coming out of China.

Just be careful with who you buy from in China.......I've read of scams already.  On a chatroom board I read someone lost $10K from sending money to China and never getting anything shipped.  So please be careful.  Hate to see anyone get scammed.  Especially a fellow enthusiast!!

Unfortunately I do not know what company mine are coming from.  I gave the money to my friend and he ordered them for me.  Tracking shows them arriving this week via DHL.  I'll have to post pics and performance once I get them running.

Ken

Would your source happen to know if there are 1 or 2 more machines available? I'm definitely in the market and if there is a reliable place online, a lot of us new folks would be interested.

Also, were these previously used to mine already or are they completely new? I want to keep in contact with you btw and you should post pics up once you get em ;)  Thanks!

All the machines we have ordered are currently taken.  We just happened to be very lucky and ordered these machines right when they became available and happen to get our hands on a few.  We have other friends asking but the next order is currently on a pre-order status.  We want to test the machines first before I even consider selling one to someone else.  We will know this week if these machines are worth it or not, then we will go from there on ordering more.

The only thing I worry about is that the difficulty versus mining power.......one of those things where I think the window of opportunity is getting very small to keep mining at a profitable stage.  After April or May I am curious to see how much it really changes.  Especially when a few of the other companies are releasing 2th/s machines sometime in April.  That is going to put the mining power up quite a bit.

Don't quote me on the April thing.......but curious to see how hard it will really get to mine without having a substantial amount of mining power.  Basically if your not running with the big dogs, you will need to stay on the porch......if you get my drift.  That is what I have read anyways.......

That is why my idea is to get my mining gear paid for as fast as possible.  If I can at least break even, I'm happy.  Hoping to maybe use the ASIC miners for another type of cryptocurrency to mine later on if bitcoin mining becomes to difficult or not lucrative enough.

If this is really just a gamble, then you don't need to ask for advice. You are asking to many questions. Just pick something and see what happens.

Personally I wouldn't get in to mining now, to much competition and the difficulty is always increasing.

I'd put a fair chunk in to BTC and a little in to some of the 'proper' alts  :)

https://i.imgur.com/aGo4vXh.jpg

don't join the club

These nanofury usb's keep getting better and better ;D If these yellow jackets are truly like they describe 2.2ghs stock with no heatsink I may have to pick up some to satisfy my usb miner fix.  I hope we get to 10ghs on a stick by the end of this year.

@odolvlobo: I am trying, as much as possible, to make it an 'educated' gamble and to see it from the eyes of people who've already played the field. As expected in the noob forums, I am asking a lot of questions to try and get there (as well as scouring various forums/sites). 

Looks like most of the Sr. members and veterans are saying 'no' to mining, and the jr members are saying they want to try their luck with it. Any new miners out there (1 month in) care to share their experiences in the field so far? Thanks again all.

cryptomogul..........feel free to ask away.  I'm more than happy to help out a fellow enthusiast if I know the answer!  Learning and knowing is important in this hobby/business. 

$$Happy Mining$$

Protip: Don't ask people who lost money to altcoin pump&dump/asic scams for financial advice.

i was reading to be competitive in mining u nead to be paying around $10 GHS them yellow jackets if you were to buy 10 that's a total of $800 for 20 GHS = $40 PER GHS having said that what is the best deals around per GHS

Bitcoin mining is profitable only if you can get the equipment for less than 0.018 BTC per GH/s.

Scrypt mining is harder to estimate because it also depends on electricity costs and exchange rates. My scrypt mining revenue is about $5.00 per day per MH/s right now. If the difficulty rises 1% per day, then I can expect the total revenue to be about $500 per MH/s. I then subtract the power and equipment costs to get my profit.

Does anyone know what the electricity bill or watts are for a 1500KH/S mining rig?

It depends on the equipment and the cost of electricity. A good guess would be $1.25 to $3.50 per day.

A rough answer would be about 45$ a month.

A more precise answer can be calculated as follows.

1. Understand the terms.  1 Kwh = 1 kilo-watt hour = 1000 watts for 1 hour
2. Look at your most recent electricity bill.  It should state your rate per kwh. (Will assume $0.10)
3. Select the type and quantity of GPUs you want to use.  For example 2x R9 280x would give you more or less 1500 KH/s.
4. Find the power consumption (i.e TDP) in watts for your card.  The R9 280x consumes about 250 watts.
5. Add about 100 watts for your CPU, harddrive, etc.
6. Total wattage = 100 w + (card wattage * number cards).  In this example, 600 w, or 0.6 kw.
7. Calculate costs: Mining hours per day * mining days per month * total kw * rate per kwh.

i.e. 24 * 30 * 0.6 * 0.1 = $43.20 a month

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_radeon_r9_280x_windforce_review,8.html

Happy mining!

Don't invest in mining.

take 1/3 of money in buying mining things + 1/3 on buying alt-coin = profit + saving 1/3 of your money  8)

I'd go 50% BTC, 30% LTC and 20% Netcoin.
Thats from of a professional investor perspective.

Good question, have been wondering about this myself for a long time...
It both has obvious pro's and con's, investing that 5k right now in some upcoming altcoins might generate huge profits in the long run, while a steady stream of crypto via mining also seems very sweet...
In regards to GPU mining or waiting for ASIC, that's probably one of the million dollar questions. Although GPU mining is still very profitable, it could be left in the dust as soon as those ASIC's hit the market...
Then again, that will be in like 4 month's, and honestly, I can't predict what the playing field will look like by then!  ???

I would recommend building rigs for scrypt mining. You can make alot of profit being an early adopter of altcoins.

Buy bitcoin and maybe some PoS coins. Keep an eye out for altcoins that are original and actually do new things, versus just being another copycat coin.