That suggests then that roughly 10 million folks get to have a "regular life". What about the other 6 BILLION folks? This is based on a total of 20+ million coins being mined.

Could someone explain how this relates to Bitcoin? The overall Bitcoin economy and such doesn't register at all in this kind of discussion, does it?

This has some real risk associated with it. Not only do you need to consider the wire gauge, you also need to consider the connector at the power supply end if it's a modular power supply. The PCIe spec doesn't require that all six wires on the connector carry power correctly. Most higher end PSU's will use 16AWG wire, and connect all the pins correctly in the 6-pin socket, but it's not a requirement. If you want to pull 250+ Watts (i.e. more than 20 Amps at 12V), all the connectors and wires need to be well plugged in and of high quality, or things can get hot and actually start to melt.

Thanks for the update. Are you going to run your SP20 at "full speed" or are you planning a "downclock" reduced hosting cost arrangement?

A small update from bitcoinwisdom:

Bitcoin Difficulty:    47,427,554,951
Estimated Next Difficulty:    46,640,444,220 (-1.66%)
Adjust time:    After 337 Blocks, About 2.4 days
Hashrate(?):    331,044,027 GH/s
Block Generation Time(?):    
1 block: 10.3 minutes
3 blocks: 30.8 minutes
6 blocks: 1.0 hours
   
Updated:    10:25 (4.2 minutes ago)

Looks like it's almost certain to be a difficulty decrease this time around.

I have always wondered "who" is on the other side of the transaction when I sell an alt-coin? Who wants to give me Bitcoin, or better yet USD, for this alt-coin that I "mined"? That's why I could never see a long term model for the various GAW schemes that mined "X coin", but paid out in Bitcoins.

I beg to differ. While it's quite possible that many mining operations will continue to mine and make an operating profit, they will all notice the income drop and re-think how much they are willing to risk on mining Bitcoins. After all if you were make $1000/day profit (after costs) on Thursday, and then on Friday you were only making $200/day profit, you would notice. Also while you thought you had $500K in mining hardware value on Thursday, on Friday it's worth no more than $350K (probably less). That's worse than new car depreciation by a long shot. I personally would notice, and NOT ignore, that kind of drop.

I think the next "Block Reward Halving", estimated for mid 2016, will have a significant impact on mining. If all mining operations just ignore it, their income will just get cut in half one day in Mid-2016. Since the larger operations usually have to liquidate some portion of their mined Bitcoins to pay for rent, electricity, salaries and the like, what's leftover will be reduced significantly. I would also venture to say that absent a corresponding increase in the price of Bitcoin, the value of the mining hardware will also drop in a big way, since each bit hardware doesn't produce as much per unit of time. Since I have zero idea what drives the price of Bitcoin, beyond the usual supply/demand theories, there isn't anything to pressure the price upwards. That ill crush many mining operations. I've said before, I can't think of any other industrial operation where this happens "overnight" like it will with Bitcoin.

While it's possible that the whole OM things is a fake, I don't think Barbara is. Just over in Lee's thread, she purchased one of the S5's from phillipma1957 for $380. Phillip made some money over his original $340 cost, and she did better than the current $419 from Lee. I am 100% certain that transaction took place based on Phillip's public comments.

I don't know how to respond to the whole Minersource connection. It just seems to me that Barbara is legit, and if it's a fraud, she'll lose her money. I think her reporting is accurate and we won't really know anything for at least a month. She'll be able to tell if her pool is delivering as expected, and even if they are a Ponzi scheme, they won't fold up shop for at least a month I would guess.

It's funny to me that one of the largest risks today with Bitcoin isn't technical, it's the entire lack of trust that permeates mining. All the technology embedded within crypto currencies, and it still boils down to trust.

Thanks for trying this out and reporting your results. I do wish you the best of luck on this. My biggest concern here isn't the operating margin, which isn't great, it's the risk of fraud/collapse.

Probably a used piece of gear. An S1 might be bought for $50, or I expect an Rbox (the original 32 GH version). You could also consider several other "stick miners" which are much faster and more recent than the 333MHz Block Erupter. Examples would be the Antminer U1 or U2. I expect that all the "stick miners" won't actually produce more than they consume in terms of electricity, and initial cost. They will all fit your $50 budget for a hobby or tinkering. Nobody gets rich mining Bitcoins unless they are willing to invest (i.e. risk) big money.

I noticed you said "20 hours a day". Why only 20? Most mining operations are 24x7 full time operations. Virtually all the income calculators would have assumed 24 hours/day in terms of mining. I will assume that you can get good Internet access where your are going to set this up? Stopping and starting miners for 4 hours out of the day may be inconvenient and not entirely smooth every day if you aren't on site.

If you haven't already done so, I would suggest you invest $10 and get a volt meter to check polarity and voltage. Particularly if you are going to start splicing connectors and wire. My apologies if this is already obvious.

I would proceed cautiously on the three SP20 Ebay auctions mentioned. There is a guy over in the hardware section lamenting what he views as fraudulent sale. The items that concern me when looking at the listing:

- Listed on the Canadian Ebay, but miners are in France?
- This is a "Private" listing? I have traded on Ebay for years and never experienced that.
- The miners were in Israel DC, but are now in France?

Personally I wouldn't use BTC for this Ebay purchase, PayPal only. I think it unwise to stray too far from the Ebay guidelines with a purchase like this. BTC and such are just too big a risk for me.

@phillipma1957: Sent you a PM for the last S5 you have hosted with Lee.

Here in the US, I'll bet that's a $20-30 item at Target, a major retailer. I don't think they anything special.

While it might be nice if a "judge comes down hard", it may not really matter to the victims. If Zipkin has left the US, and there aren't any assets in the US, he's pretty much "judgment proof" in that there isn't anything for folks to collect.

As I recall, the SP20E has slightly better chips, in the sense that the ASIC manufacturing process was yielding more chips that are in the highest range of "good". I think that the net effect is that an SP20E has a better chance of hitting the described 1.7TH hashing rate, compared to a November SP20 (no E). I can't speak to the other improvements as other folks have.

I think Bitmaintech, and Avalon can work this out. Look into:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=902305.2980

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=951758.0

I would suggest Spondoolies, though they seem pretty limited at the moment. They might have some for sale if your budget will stretch that far. I know the SP20 is no longer for sale.

You should also look at the "Marketplace" section of the overall Bitcoin Forum, See:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=75.0

I have never purchased anything at the Marketplace, so you should exercise some caution to not get defrauded.

I am running 2.6.14 firmware. Does that match your SP20? When does the change seem to take effect on your system? Do you have to reboot, or what?

I do appreciate the comment.

Also of note, the primary Spondoolies thread appears to be unlocked now.