It's hard to find a development team as dedicated as the team for Northern.  Couple that with the community around this coin that is very involved and active, it won't take long for one to see Northern is a rare gem in the cryptocurrency world.  Keep up the great work.  If you don't have this coin in your portfolio, your missing out.

Thank you all for your replies thus far.  The conversion of Dash to Bitcoin did seem a viable way but I had hoped there was a more direct or native way to the Dash currency to do so. 

I suppose the next logical question, then, would be to ask is it worthwhile and profitable to mine Dash?  If I can convert it to Bitcoin, and then to a fiat currency it's at least usable.  Or would one be better off mining just Bitcoin or is there value in doing, perhaps both, and holding on (Dash) and using the other for expenses?

The problem I face in that consideration is that miners like the S9 are nearly out of reach but the potential is there to make a fair amount of money.  Whereas the X11 miners are somewhat more feasible, including the ASIC versions.  I suffer from a bit of confidence crisis.  Looking at the profit calculators, both will make money but if it is not readily available for me to use for expenses I have, what good is it?  Know what I mean?  If I make 10,000 USD in Bitcoin, it has no value unless I can tap into it for things I would need that amount of currency for.  Same for Dash and all other cryptocurrencies.

I guess I am just trying to get informed as to how to tap that value and which would be better to start with.

I was looking at other cryptocurrencies such as Dash.  I have seen several ways to use Bitcoin for daily things, in fact, Visa even has a card you can load with Bitcoin which is converted to cash called Bitpay.  Which, obviously, you could use for daily purchases in your local area for places that do not accept Bitcoin, yet, and of course could be used to pay monthly bills, etc.

What I am curious about as I have just started to learn about Dash, is if there are such services available to make use of that particular currency.  I live in Oklahoma, so cryptocurrencies are less adapted here than say in much, much larger metropolitan cities on the east and west coasts.  If I were to mine for Dash, is there a way to conveniently use it for daily living expenses?

crairezx20, thank you SO much for that insight.  I have been very guarded about purchasing from Alibaba for the very reasons you mentioned but I thought if I could verify or secure my purchase it would be worth it.  I guess you can't really go wrong with Bitmain since they seem to have a good reputation.  I had hoped to save some money and get ROI faster, but as the saying goes, if it is too good to be true...

Hello all.

I have been trying to read and learn about bitcoin and have even played around a little with mining on my PC with a pretty inadequate GPU.  Though the purpose was to figure out the joining of pools, getting a wallet, all the beginner stuff.  I have decided I want to jump in on a bigger scale and start by purchasing an S9 miner (actually two of them).  I have found a pair for a really good price, but it is from an overseas vendor (not Bitmain).  I have communicated with the seller and have set the price, etc.  It will be two S9's with PSU's.  However, past that, I know nothing of the seller and would like to purchase the miners, but want some security in the purchase.

Since the seller takes Bitcoin I thought I would just buy enough to make the purchase then put them in an escrow account.  I have never dealt with a bitcoin escrow account and was hoping to get some input on a good one to use, what other things I should consider, or if what I am considering for the purchase process is not a good way to go.  In the interest of full disclosure, I found the seller on Alibaba.  I came across it searching for S9's and my thought was since they come from overseas anyway, why not cut out the middleman and save a good chunk of cash in the process.  The downside to that is I don't automatically have some of the purchase protection that you might have from buying from Amazon, eBay, etc.  I cannot touch the price this seller is offering via any domestic vendor I have come across, so the incentive is there, but I just want to make sure once I fork out the money, I get the miners.

Any help, insight and wisdom is greatly appreciated.