[I don't know if this is the correct place to post this. I originally posted this to the Cryptocurrency reddit but they do not allow self stories anymore. I hope it is allowed here as I want to help people on their journey. I know it's a lot. I'm sorry.]

I don't know if this is the correct place to post this. I originally posted this to the Cryptocurrency reddit but they do not allow self stories anymore. I hope it is allowed here as I want to help people on their journey. I know it's a lot. I'm sorry.

With all the fear and losses in the crypto market, I wanted to take the time to tell my story; that ordinary people can change their lives through crypto even if everything looks like it's crumbling down now. Here's my whole story with Crypto. Long, boring, filled with regret, luck, and bad moves. I don't know if I should post this or even if anybody will read it all but I am hoping that it at least helps a few realize that they can get there too.

I first heard of Bitcoin in 2011 or 2012 when my friend showed me this website where you could buy drugs online and have then shipped to your house. I thought it was fascinating and went home to access the same site. From what I remember, you could purchase small amounts of weed for 20-50 Bitcoin. I wanted to try it out but I didn't want to jump through hoops trying to buy Bitcoin so I just shut my computer down and forgot about it for a year or two.

Fast forward to 2013 and I saw that "Bitcoin thing" pop up again, this time the price was over $100. I thought that I missed the boat but it was still moving upwards so I bought some. I was a broke 20 something year old kid so I only got 1 BTC. I wanted to try mining so I took out a loan (from Amazon I think) and got 35 Block Erupter USB miners and some USB hubs. I also put in a pre-order for a Black Arrow Prospero X-1 miner. I wanted the 2 TH/s miner but the 100 GB/s was still faster than anything currently out at that time and I could still profit.

I mined with the little USBs for a while. Mined some altcoins as well. Looking at my old Bitcoin Talk forum posts, it was peercoin mostly. That's where I met a friend that I would try to start a business with, in some obscure peercoin mining chatroom. We talked for a while and we both expressed interest in trying to push Bitcoin to the next level. I found an auction website template to use and tried to run the business on the front end (advertising, sales, customer service) while he hosted the website on his computer. You could auction for crypto or for fiat. You needed to provide your wallet though as we hadn't modified the auction template enough to have our own wallets that users could store crypto in and use on the site. I also tried and failed at advertising the site. Keep in mind I was an eager 20 something year old and thought if I spammed the forums we would get some business. That did not work out, only a few people used it. We got mentioned on the Mad Bitcoin youtube channel (Is he still going?), which was a small channel, that got us a few more people to list and buy stuff but not many.

I tried messing with trading on Mt. Gox for a while. By this time, the writings were already on the wall. If you wanted to cash out, you were to do it in Bitcoin because cashing out fiat to your bank took a long time. I only did about $100 of transactions and trading lost me a but of money so I pulled out my Bitcoin. The account was left with a tiny amount of Bitcoin left. 0.0000001 or something small like that. I left it there and went on my way.

By now it's around December of 2013 and Bitcoin has peaked. It's starting to drop and I decided to sell my USB miners. I post them for sale in Bitcoin Talk and get a decent amount for them, more than what I paid. The guy sends me the Bitcoin but no transaction in sight. We used a reliable Escrow forum user so I know he sent it. I was worried that I had given him the wrong address but I double checked again and it was correct. The price was still dropping and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to pay off the loan I took out for the miners if I didn't cash out soon. Finally, after a few hours, the transaction went through. Turns out the escrow didn't use any transaction fee (or really low) so it took a long time to go through. I was able to sell between the first peak and the peak before the fall. I sold the Bitcoin paid off the loan and was happy that I made a few dollars in the process.

Looking back at my forum posts, I sold them the day Bitcoin peaked. Talk about luck. I also kept one of the block Erupters as a souvenir. I still have it laying around somewhere. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=355708.msg3814221#msg3814221

By now, it's January or February 2014. Black Arrow has delayed the miners. Great. They are offering to have someone else buy you out of the pre-order but only if someone purchases a miner and you are in front of the line. Nobody is still pre-ordering these things right? Wrong. I put my pre-order up for sale through Black Arrow and somebody bought it immediately. Good thing for me too because Black Arrow would not deliver until around 2015 I think? I don't know. The crypto auction website still wasn't going anywhere and I didn't want to waste my business partners time anymore so we parted ways and stopped hosting the site. This is the first time I was out of Bitcoin completely. The price of Bitcoin stayed around $200-300 through this whole period.

Mt. Gox, I couldn't complete this story without talking about the fall of Mt. Gox. They fell and doom was in the air. Everyone thought this was it. There were a few hopefuls but this was the largest exchange at the time and it permeated the air around anybody not in crypto already. Very few wanted to touch it. Later on I ended up getting a letter in the mail from... China maybe? Talking about the lawsuit for getting your money from Mt. Gox or something. It showed my balance in USD, we were going to get the USD value of our accounts at the time of collapse or something so if you had 1 BTC in Gox, you would get it's value at the time of collapse instead of the crypto itself. My share was about $0.02 or something ridiculous like that. They sent me a letter for the lawsuit over $0.02. I just found that pretty funny, people lost millions but I was also on their radar for the small amount of dust left in the exchange. Oh well. I just ignored the letter, received 1 or 2 more letters from them before they stopped. I don't know how many people ever got anything back from Gox but I'm sure it wasn't many.

Fast forward to 2015. I have a good job and some money and I'm back in school for software development so I'm feeling good. The halving is coming up soon and I know it will go up. I buy some Bitcoin, this time just to hold. I purchased a Prospero X-3 from someone who bought 10 of them years ago for thousands of dollars. I think he just received them and they were only worth a few hundred or something. Huge loss for him but I purchased one and mined on it for a while, getting a substantial amount more Bitcoin to add to my bag. A few months later I start going broke again and need money. I was terrible with money at this point in my life. I never had more than 1 paycheck in my bank at a time. It was usually gone the same day. I had to sell the Bitcoin and the miner because of my spending. Next thing I know, Bitcoin almost hits $20k. My family starts asking me if I'm rich now. I have to break it to them that I sold my Bitcoin and have nothing. This is the first wave of real regret. I thought I missed the boat in 2013. We always joked about Bitcoin reaching $10k but that seemed like a pipe dream. Impossible that it would happen but it did and I missed the boat. All hope is lost and I dip out again for a few years.

The year is now 2019 and I remember Bitcoin and the next halving is coming up. Now is my chance. I fixed my life up and had a few thousand in the bank. I was in between jobs at the time but I had enough to live for a while and buy some Bitcoin so I did. The price was around 9k or 10k. I got half a coin and waited. I got a new job and had more cash to go around. The price plummets to $4k overnight so I quickly buy some more. I had 1.5 Bitcoin now and the halving was coming up. I got a bit of Ether too but not much. Got myself a Trezor and stored my Bitcoin and other crypto.

I remember thinking there's more to the market now. I remember how altcoins always followed Bitcoin and looked for new opportunities. I remembered the downfalls, the pits, the hard times and this time I would use that to my advantage. I knew the signs and this time would be different. I looked around. Celsius seemed good with a known CEO behind it. I put a few stable coins in Celsius, about $500. To get the most of the interest you receive you needed a certain percentage of CEL to Crypto so it incentivized people to purchase and hold CEL. I thought that was a genius way to pump the coin. I bought about $140 worth of CEL, around 6000 CEL at the time.

This wasn't all. I was still looking for new opportunities. I saw Richard Heart was launching a coin soon. HEX. Instantly I knew it was a bad coin to get into. It had all the signs I saw people scammed with years before but the community was so die hard about Richard and HEX that I decided it could be an opportunity. I remember seeing Richard Heart on YouTube years ago so he was also a known entity to me, a sketchy one but still known. I waited a few days into the release of HEX and bought about $8 worth, around 127,000 HEX, from the Adoption Amplifier. I staked them for 2 years. I was going to buy about $100 more HEX just for shits and giggles but ultimately decided it was too risky. I would have had over 1 million HEX if I did (much much more if I staked).

Now I am set. Time to wait. I sit back and start DCA to get some more Bitcoin and build up my stack. Get to a new record of Bitcoin I own. I won't say how much this time as it is not important. Time goes by and Bitcoin halves. It's on. The price was stagnant for a bit. Some people called the halving an insignificant event because it did not happen right away. Steadily the price started to go up, then rapidly, then it was inescapable that we were in the next bull run. I was prepared this time. I sat back and watched the numbers go up. There's no way this is real. It happened, I had made something, more than I had ever made before. I wanted to hold this time, wait until the next halving, but I also wanted a house of my own. All this time I was a broke 20 something year old living with his parents, a loser. Nothing going for me and I never thought anything would go in my favor but now I had more wealth than I could imagine was possible for myself so I decided to buy a house when the time is right.

The bull run went on and the dip happened. Now for the telltale second peak. The peak that signifies the end of the bull run. I knew if I was going to change my life in any capacity that I would need an exit plan. I had one, once the HEX stake had matured, I would exit HEX. CEL had already rose to a point where I could sell half and I was already breaking even on ALL of my crypto. I sold half of my CEL for around $5 or $6 each. Now I was even, I could not lose all the fiat I invested, it was impossible. I was still sitting well in crypto. By now The second peak had come and gone. It was only a matter of time before it fell completely and I knew it. My HEX was still maturing and ending the stake now would mean half is gone. It was luck that it ended in February, a few months before the fall. I took my HEX and sold it instantly, around 250,000 HEX for $0.20 each. I didn't trust HEX so I was glad to be out. I put that into Celsius as a stable coin while I waited, slowly gaining interest. Looking back, I trusted Celsius too much and it was a very close call.

I now have a significant amount that I planned to purchase a home with. Owning a home is a good long term investment and a huge step in my life. From living with my parents to owning a home, skipping renting completely felt good. Now my money would be going towards equity instead of to a landlord. You could argue that I am giving money to a bank instead of an individual but I also get to build equity and spend significantly less on mortgage each month than renting a small 1 bedroom apartment. I spent a while looking for a home and eventually found one. I got approved for a small mortgage since I didn't want to sell all of my crypto.

It is now March 2022. The deal went through and the seller accepted my offer. Now the bank wants me to sell crypto to reach my down payment on the home. I do just that, withdrew all I had from Celsius, and have the most I've ever had sitting in my bank account. I withdrew my CEL and stable coins from Celsius just in time before they fell. My CEL is gone, HEX is gone, Ether is gone, but I still have half of my Bitcoin and soon I will have a house. Now the hard part, getting proof to the bank of where my funds came from. I had to gather all my transactions from a certain time period. It was a pain but I managed to do it. I had to explain to the underwriter how all the transactions fit with each other since they knew almost nothing about crypto. Jumping from one exchange to an Ether wallet, to a hardware wallet, to Celsius, back to my Ether wallet, to an exchange, then withdrawal to my bank. They said they've never dealt with Crypto before so you can imagine their confusion. They eventually understood the transactions, the mortgage went through, and I was the owner of a new home.

As I'm sure you know, just after April the market start plummeting even more. HEX crashed hard, Celsius blew up completely, Bitcoin took a big hit, Ether was down, FTX just crumbled a few days ago driving the price down further. All of this was very narrowly avoided thanks to incredible luck and my drive to buy a home.

That's my story. It's not lambos and a private island rich but crypto gave me enough of a boost to buy my own home. It took a long time with many mistakes along the way but I eventually got to a point where I am comfortable and still have some Bitcoin sitting there waiting for me. I'll not say how much I have currently but I am about to start DCA again soon.

Just know that if all hope seems lost now, there will be more opportunities later. We still have many more halvings to go and many years to gather knowledge about missed opportunities. I still have regrets even though I came out in a good position. I could have bought $100 of HEX and had enough to purchase a house without a small mortgage, reinvest some, and use the rest to start a business that I've been thinking about for years. I still think about it but I know there's nothing I can do about it now other than to use what I know for the future.

TLDR:
I spent many years failing to catch Crypto at the right time. This past halving I had enough luck to buy a house with Crypto and still have some Bitcoin left in my hardware wallet to continue to DCA and HODL.

So I have a few mining rigs and was thinking about ways to make them cheaper. I thought about using a generator or possibly a series of batteries with an alternator hooked up to something like a workout bike.

I'm not sure how difficult these would be to achieve but I know the workout bike would most likely require a lot of exercise (probably more than 1 person could do). Maybe if you owned a gym? Or thousands of hamsters on their wheels.

But for the gas generator, has anyone tried this or know if it would be cheaper to pay for gas to keep it running?

There's also a way of using wood gas to run the generator I think but that might take some time to "refill" or loss of power etc.

Basically I'm asking which method would seem more reasonable to power miners?

[Features:]

I'm selling a lightly used Ecig Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer. Escrow is Accepted

It looks brand new and has virtually no wear and tear. It is an original Aris RDA by The Council Of Vapor and not a clone. It can be used to build a dual or single coil setup.

Serial number is 2113. Located on the bottom of the deck.

I'm asking for $30 worth of BTC plus the shipping cost.

If you want, I can throw in some resistance wire, cotton and/or rayon for free. I have some 28 gauge Kanthal A1, 22 gauge Kanthal A1, 22 gauge Nichrome or some 22 gauge G-plat Elite (I know it's just SS316 or SS317l)
- 5 feet of Kanthal and Nichrome
- or 2 feet of the G-plat
and
- 20 cotton balls
- or 20 feet of rayon

Features:
- Original Council Of Vapor - Aris Box
- Aris Quick Start Guide
- Glass Drip Tip W/SS(Stainless Steel) Base, Single O-ring
- Glass Cap W/SS Top
- SS Deck -

• 24K Gold Plated Posts
• Silver Plated Positive Contact
• 510 Thread Compatible
• Adjustable Airflow Control (Doesn't have the best airflow but better than nothing)
• Dual O-ring
• Council Of Vapor Logo & Serial Number on bottom
• 6.6mm Deep Well

- Mini Philips Head Screwdriver
- Extra O-rings
- Extra Screws

Pictures:

These batteries are used for power tools, hobbyist flashlights, mechanical Ecig mods and VV/VW(Variable Volts/Variable Watts) Ecig mods

I'm selling 2 of my Sony VTC 4 batteries. I have 6 VTC 4s but I got 2 for free and don't need that many.

I'm asking for $20 worth of BTC for both of them plus shipping. I can throw in a charger for the batteries for $5 worth BTC more.

The ones I am selling here I got from fasttech (came on slowboat from China). I have VTC 4 and 5s from RTDvapor and a local shop which I compared them to, along with online description and pics, to verify their authenticity.

They are real VTC 4s and if you want to verify them through the pics and in real life before the escrow service releases the payment that is fine.

They have never been used.

I did charge them to 4.2V when I got them. If you want me to discharge them to 3.6V for shipping safety, I can do that.

If you don't know the specs:
Size: 18650
Capacity: 2100mah
Continuous Discharge: 30Amp
Pulse Discharge: 60Amp (not recommended without cooling system)
Chemistry: LiMN IMR/Hybrid
IMR Safe Chemistry Note: Safe chemistry LiMN have reduced risk of venting with flame or risk of explosion. These batteries have no added or build-in protection circuitry due to the safety inherent in IMR safe chemistry batteries.

Here are the Pics:

I got one. No longer looking to buy

If you wish to purchase 2 prospero X-'s you could jump straight to spot 816 through black arrows reseller miner source. They are at $400 or above now but I purchased them when they were $350 so you could save $100.

Message me for details as I am going to have Matt from minersource give you my spot.

I have lost some BTC in the crash the other day and would appreciate any help I can get. I had purchased 2 of black arrows prospero x-1 rigs before the crash. I sold my BTC to hold fiat until I get the payment address from minersource.net but I lost some cash in the process. Just my luck of a crash right when I'm buying something... also I missed the raise to get my money back. I have 0.0554 BTC in mtgox but I am waiting for that account to be verified before I can get that out. Also I have over $300 in PayPal waiting to be accepted as I am a new eBay seller. I have enough to pay people back just not right away.

I have an account at BTC jam to help keep track on paying back.
https://btcjam.com/listings/8567
Any help is appreciated.
If my funds go through before I receive the amount needed, I will just send the loans back and the interest to help raise my btcjam score.


Edit:
The PayPal money will be used to buy BTC to pay the loan back and not send fiat.

I am selling 34 block erupters. 9 of them have heatsinks on the chips. They come with the hubs and the fans. 1 Overclock kit as well for 400 -500 Mh/s. Only selling as a set. Selling for $750. Accept payments in bitcoin or paypal. PM me with offers.

I need a loan for 0.36 BTC. I have the money to purchase this amount in my paypal account but I need to wait 21 days until it I am able to spend it. I sold a Red Fury on eBay and was paid for it. I am planning on making a purchase with the loan and will pay you back in full. If you need any proof of anything I am more than willing to give you the proof. 21 days is the max amount of time I need. I can negotiate something out with you as well. PM me or email me at mglidden58@yahoo.com

Thanks,
Mike

Crypto Hash Auctions is a new Cryptocurrency auction site that allows you to pay for your item with Bitcoins, Litecoins and Peercoins as of now. There are other payment methods as well. We want to help PPC grow and when sites offer trades in crypto coins, this greatly helps out that coin. So if you have something to sell or want to buy something with your BTC, LTC or PPC then head on over to:
http://cryptohashauctions.com

We need some more members and items here so any signups or items will help out greatly!

Comments are appreciated!

The site is still being developed to look more user friendly. There won't be any down time for modifying it though


http://cryptohashauctions.com

Crypto Hash Auctions is a new Cryptocurrency auction site that allows you to pay for your item with Bitcoins, Litecoins and Peercoins as of now. There are other payment methods as well. We want to help PPC grow and when sites offer trades in crypto coins, this greatly helps out that coin. So if you have something to sell or want to buy something with your BTC, LTC or PPC then head on over to:
http://cryptohashauctions.com

We need some more members and items here so any signups or items will help out greatly!

Comments are appreciated!

The site is still being developed to look more user friendly. There won't be any down time for modifying it though.

There is a new site that just opened up about 2 days ago that allows you to auction off your mining contracts, mining equipment, crypto coins (many different kinds) electronics and other stuff. If you have something you were thinking about selling, consider trying out Crypto Hash Auctions. You never really know about something until you give it a shot right? So why would you not want to try out an auction website that is specifically for people like ourselves (miners, enthusiasts, collectors etc...).  You might even like it! It could be something that you use all of the time. It could be something that you purchase your mining equipment from. Or to auction off your coins.

You can set a reserve price on your auction if you are afraid that it will sell for way less than what you expect. You can have a buy it now option. There's feedback so you can find reputable sellers or buyers. There is many more good things about this new site. All you have to do is stop by and try it out!

http://cryptohashauctions.com

I have just purchased a Red Fury miner. I am running windows 7 and BFGminer through a USB 3.0 hub. I plugged it in, downloaded the driver from zadig and now I am stuck. I go to run BFGminer and it doesn't find the fury. I tried -S BF1:all and that did not work. I am using --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=100 at the end as well. Does anyone out there know how to run a Red Fury USB miner on windows 7? All help is apprechiated. Thanks.

Crypto Hash Auctions is a new auction site that is specifically targeted towards Bitcoin and Altcoin miners, traders and enthusiasts. We offer some great services for Cryptocurrencies. Instead of trying to search the internet for one specific service only to find that it is sold by a company at a very expensive price, just visit one site that has many options. At Crypto Hash Auctions we glorify the everyday Bitcoin/Altcoin enthusiast. Whether you have a mining rig that you would like to sell, purchase someone elses rig, sell or buy mining hash rate contracts, or even if you would like to exchange currencies with another person directly and not through an exclusive trading site, then this site is for you!

Crypto Hash Auctions has just opened and will be updating some things with the site, Most likely visuals, but we are not going to make many changes that would direct you somewhere else. We know that people try to sell mining contracts over eBay and other auction sites. We also know that this is not allowed by these auction sites and has the risk of being deleted. We will not do that to you. You can auction off anything you want that is related to Cryptocurrencies! We also have a wide range of Cryptocurrency categories so you can buy or sell exactally the coin you need!

MEMBERS ARE NEEDED!

If you are looking for a site to buy or sell something, you can go sign up here: http://cryptohashauctions.info/

Keep checking back if you wish to buy something and post anything you can for selling! This will greatly help out the site.

You can also help us out here: Bitcoin Address -  1LQ9mnhGeKsuK3MXjvjpvSmAKgJxKwdZMT

I was just wondering if anybody here has started from scratch and built their own USB miner around the Bitfury ASIC Chip? They go for around $25.00 for 1 test chip. I have access to engineers, CAD designers etc. at my job. They could design the circuit board. If need be I can have them etch the circuit board for me as well. I was just wondering though, what components would need to be attached for completing a 5 Gb/s (2 ASIC Chips) miner? The more information I have now, the less time it would take for me to get everything set up. I want to be able to go to the person I have designing it and tell them which parts I would need to be included in the print for the board. I think this would save him time and money on designing.

I will not be mass producing these... This is just for a little experiment to see if I can make it work. So I am not worried about buying thousands of parts or having the board designed overseas for cost cuts.

Even if you know some of the components that would be needed, that would be great.

I have just bought my first 4 erupters and a fan. I am planning on eventually getting the 49 port hub and 45 more erupters. Maybe even a second setup of this. How many USB fans should I have blowing on them for 1 board? Specifically the Arctic Breeze Mobile USB fan. Also is there any way to split a non-modular PSU so that I could use it to power 2 boards? and would a 250W PSU be enough for 2 full 49 slot boards of fans and miners? Just wondering because I already have an extra 250W PSU. It's ancient, early 2000's maybe, but it still works.