Bitcoin Forum

I have been doing research for about a month now and I am fascinated with the market shifts in mining from CPU to GPU to FCPA and now ASIC on the horizon. I fundamentally think Bitcoin is a revolution that I want to support and see succeed.

If you had $30,000 to invest in a mining setup what hardware what would you get? - I have been looking at the Butterfly Labs Mini Rig and I am interested, as I am sure you all are, about their ASIC announcement. I have signed up and have been working with MT.Gox., Dwolla and Blockchain to get a feel for the market and flow. I am now working on my encryption strategy for my main wallet along with backup processes. What I was thinking of doing is buying a small board maybe something like a spartan 6 dual or quad to get the hang of the things better while I am waiting for whatever rig I buyis being built. (long lead times right now)

What are your thoughts

David

I havent mined since the days you could do so with a cpu which is why I buy mining shares and bonds on glbse.

I would go with the bfl because they offer a trade in when the new ASIC miners come out. Thats my suggestion if you want hardware.

Buying specialized hardware is a bold move compared to using regular hardware which you could easily resell if later on you wanted out.

Regular hardware will not compete given the current and upcoming difficulty

I'm not mentioning any names, but people talk a lot of crap in these forums.  You have to take everything with a grain of salt.  "Pictures or it didn't happen" is good to always keep in the back of your head. 

I would recommend mining bonds on https://glbse.com. There are many available, just research and find the ones that work best for you. Some asset issuers will purchase ASIC hardware in the future to stay relevant.

I am looking to build my own mining operation  - for profit and for fun (I enjoy technical system design and implementation)

I recommend x6500 (http://fpgamining.com/) boards. They're really well built and have an awesome and professional crew to back them up. They can typically get a large quantity of boards to you within a couple weeks.

It is pretty fun setting it all up, too :)

If I am using a windows platform would you use GUIminer or the CGminer software (or something else?)

I use cgminer for GPU mining on my windows/linux machines. IMO, MPBM (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=62823.0) is the best for FPGAs.

Welcome David, happy to have you here.

Will your contribution to the "bitcoin economy" mainly consist as a additional
miner? Be aware that buying mining equipment now for 30000 Dollar by no
means assures you of any long term profit because mining represents taking
on a long term stake into bitcoin.

I am curious to know what brought you to bitcoin.

Do you see any other services you can offer?
Have you also looked into buying some bitcoins as part of your strategy?

I got the notion that he wants to help out the network, aka securing the network by being a "good" miner. He's one of the few that aren't in this for the money :)

Go with P2Pool when you do start mining!

I have an account on MT.gox  and plan to invest in Bitcoins themselves also, but I have plans to grow a mining operation starting with FPGA and moving into ASICS as soon as I can acquire them. I also just finished law school and I am fascinated with the economic and taxation issues arising out of this new medium. I think there are many opportunities with Bitcoins and I want to not only make a profit but help promote and grow the ecosystem.

I have spent a good deal of time researching the technology and premise behind Bitcoin and I think that it is a very solid idea with a bright future. I want to invest in the network and contribute to the overall growth of the Bitcoin network by not only being a miner but also by offering my calligraphy products from my website for purchase using Bitcoins.

I would like to see more ubiquitous adoption of Bitcoin and I think I can assist.

would you recommend Linux over Windows? I have experience with both, but ill be honest some of the config in Linux can be tedious. I am willing to engage in extra work though if there is an advantage in using linux over windows though

I also have FPGAs and for me CGMINER is better than MPBM. More shares per hour.
MPBM only needs python so the OS is irrelevant.

But In my case I don't need a computer to run it, I plug all the boards via USB into a openwrt router.
See this: http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Icarus#Using_TP-LINK_TL-WR703N_as_host

You might want to know about this FPGA board: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51371.0
And notice theres a new one coming, not yet released: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=79835.0

thanks ill take a look!

In linux, things seem to work better :)

Welcome david

May I ask which country?
There are many soapbox lawyers in the forums, be interesting to have relevant comment at times from someone that actually has studied law (realising of course laws vary from country to country)
cheers
Graet

Sure, I went to Law School in CA (Concord Law School) and I am scheduled to take the CA Bar Exam at the end of July. It took four years to complete while working full time, so I am excited to see the conclusion :)

My emphasis was in cyberlaw and health law (I do consulting for hospitals for security and regulatory issues surrounding electronic medical record systems)