I kept only one of my S3+ units, just to put it on the mantle as "one of the first".

While I no longer mine using ASICs, it's certainly a conversation piece.

Strato

Thought I'd Share:

My first Mining Farm:  20 T/hash Mining Farm using (46) Bitmain Antminer S3+ Batch 7 Units.

Just found these photos on an old USB Key.

I also include below the S3+ Rigs some photos of my first Upgrade / Turnover of my S3+ Units, and replacing them with Bitmain's Antminer S5 Units.  The S5 Upgrade boosted our hashrate only by about 20% but the power draw was much lower due to the more efficient ASIC chips in the S5 units.

The farm mined primary on Slush's Pool, and it generated anywhere between BTC0.20 - BTC0.50 depending on network difficulty, which spiked an dropped very low, then recovered, in the 2 years I mined from 2014-2016.

Finding these photos was a blast from the past!





Hope you enjoy!

Cheers!

Strato.

I think this very short video is a fantastic explanation of the Exact Truth of WHY some people achieve wealth, or success, or whatever they want in life...

It's worth watching.

https://youtu.be/qVic3EqUqo8?t=5

The problem is... which is what this short video teaches, is most people have not nor do they ever, or when they do its too late-- identified what they really, I mean truly, wanted and were after...

Cheers!

Strato

Agreed 100%. I can't find the reference I read recently, but an analysis was done and it found that 95% of all bitcoins are controlled by the top 2% of the account holders/users.

Meaning:

18.5 Million Coins Currently Mined - (20% lost BTC forever/lost wallets/dead wallets) = 14.8 Million BTC Likely Left in Circulation * 0.95% = 14.06 Million BTC are held by the top 2% of bitcoin users/holders.

Leaving only BTC740,000 distributed amongst the other 98% of ALL Bitcoin users/holders.

Hard to fathom quite frankly... but it makes sense.

When I started mining BTC in 2014, we started with 26 Antminer S3 units and were making roughly BTC0.50 a day on Slush's Pool in BTC earnings.

But, that was when BTC bounced from $600-$90-$1000 for quite a long time on a bumpy trading pattern, but very cheap. So BTC0.50 / day when it was valued at $200 wasn't a big thing... but we were in it for the marathon.

Cheers!

Strato
 

Something like this would be fairly easy to script using WinAutomation or AutoIt. However it would require a basic server such as "free tier" on Google Cloud Compute, a 1 CPU basic VM that monitored your account, and then posted each new entry to your twitter.

The upside of doing it this was vs. simple RSS/IFTTT is that posts to twitter using IFTTT are many times "somewhat shadowbanned" or less likely to appear in feeds.

Scripting it to where the VM actually checked for new posts on say 5 minute intervals and then formatted the post to twitter specifically how you wanted it to be posted with correct hyperlinks, no IFTTT redirects... it could be setup to search your posts for specific types of keywords you preset in an excel/csv to create # tags or $tags.

Far more customizable and then the twitter posts would appear to be actually "tweeted by a human".

Just my thoughts!

Cheers!

Strato

The concept of having cryptocurrency-driven games, or rather, games which utilized specific cryptocurrency tokens was one of many concepts I had in per-development back in 2014.

But it never went farther than having a number of IRC chats with a few other developers, coders, a cryptographer, and some rough loosely written white papers I drafted.

The concept was ArcadeCoin, which I hold the twitter @ArcadeCoin handle to... as well as the Bitcointalk account username ArcadeCoin, which was used by the few of us who worked a bit on the project.

However it's been dormant for a long time.

If I remember correctly it would have been Cryptonight based, but we honestly moved on to other projects simply because of the game development in conjunction with the cryptocurrency integration (specifically related to the blockchain timing/confirmation issues) was simply too much of an undertaking (at that time).

I have always thought it was a solid concept in theory; however I am not a "game" developer, and game developers we found lacked the understanding of blockchain integration... basically we spoke different languages.

I made the decision in December to pick back up where I left off with a different project-  HALO, which will be a blockchain based dynamic cryptocurrency-- I'll leave the details to that until we release / update the ANN thread / Twitter, Handles for that name...

But ArcadeCoin or some variation / concept based on that idea still intrigues me.

Cheers!

Strato
 

Solar is and never will be an option to mine bitcoin... unless the technology to actually mine bitcoin completely changes in terms of the ASIC technology currently used. We're talking a leap of magnitude to the same degree of "Current Computing Power" -> "Quantum"

The newer mining units on the consumer end (90TH/s) draw 3000 Watts.

A 3000 watt solar array (this factoring you live where it's sunny year round, no clouds) is going to run you $20,000, factoring in the battery system, the fact you can only generate AC power during the daytime hours, but need mining power 24/7...

It's not even in the cards. You'd also need a lot of space. A big back yard, or roof top to mount the panels, and this is just for (1) Mining Rig.

Solar power technology will improve, but only a very small amount-- there will never be a major revolution in solar power technology. This is simply due to the basics of the thermodynamic efficiency limit and infinite-stack limit.

Sunlight on the earths surface only produces a certain amount of energy (photons) per square meter. The best panels are very good at capturing a fairly high percentage of those photons... 60%... but they will never reach 100%... and even if they did that's still "not very much power" per square meter of space.

Energy cannot be created out of thin air... we can capture it... but the amount per square meter is limited by the actual amount of energy the sun produces that reaches us though our atmosphere.

You can only draw out what comes in... which is very little.

Cheers!

Strato

Bitcoin mining is a resource war of attrition, so naturally the profit margins will continually dwindle as the network hash-rate continues to increase. This factoring the increasing variable adjusted difficulty to mine BTC.

As the overall bitcoin network hash-rate increases as more mining units are manufactured and added to the network, the mining units being used now become less and less powerful in terms of the amount of bitcoin they can expect to mine on average over their lifespan-- and mining rigs quickly become "obsolete" as faster miners are developed, network hash-rate increases, and difficultly goes up.

Miners are then stuck holding units that are now mining at a loss, a loss which gets deeper and deeper by the day, because the cost of the electricity to power the miner can no longer be offset by the profit the mining rig produces. The price of bitcoin also contributes to this, if it deceases, your profits slide with it.

It's a constant battle.

I started mining bitcoin in mid 2014, receiving batch 7 units of Bitmain's Antminer S3+. With 26 units running overclocked, we were able to get roughly 12 TH/s of mining power combined.

At that time-- (difficulty went up and down and had spikes and drops) but we AVERAGED about 0.50 BTC per day with that setup.

The power consumpution: Roughly 14 kW of Electricity which broke down to roughly 10 kW for the units, 1 kW for ancillary equipment (server mainframe/networking), and then another 3 kW for cooling costs-- as miners output immense amounts of heat.

TODAY:

If you were to run this setup you would would be operating at a loss of about $40/day not even factoring the costs of the equipment/miners/AC Cooling/etc. (Based on $0.12 kWh Electricity Costs).

ONE YEAR LATER:

Our 26 Antminer S3 units were no longer profitable to run. So we purchased 16 Antminer S5 units- giving us 18 TH/s of mining power, which were more effecient power wise, and we were drawing the same amount of power... 14 kW.

ONE YEAR LATER:

The S5 units we purchased were now only breaking even in terms of AC costs.

WHAT I LEARNED:

Mining bitcoin is hard. Mining bitcoin is very expensive. You not only have the upfront costs of the equipment, but the costs to run that equipment.

You are also in an arms race, literally, with all the other miners. The miners you purchased will immediately become less and less effecient/output less BTC per day if difficulty increases.

You will have to constantly be playing the game of replacing your current hardware with new hardware that is more effecient.

ANECDOTE

However, after 2016 Block Halving of Bitcoin, when BTC almost reached $20,000-- suddenly the OLD S3 units were absolutely profitable to run again. So we were able to put some of them back into service (power limitations didn't allow us to run all of them).

This was a small farm, and we were drawing 14 kilowatts of AC every hour. That was, at that time, $1200 in AC costs per month.

FINAL THOUGHT

ASIC technology in terms of the silicon wafers produced will reach a point at which they can no longer be made to run or clock faster than the silicon circuit allows. So unless an entirely new type of technology is created (

The NEW Antminer S19j Pro not yet even shipped and is already SOLD OUT, will give you 90TH/s of mining power drawing 3000 watts of AC-- meaning you're going to need a 240v 3 Phase circuit to power it... Will give you a YEARLY profit of roughly $8000 (not including the price to buy the unit)

HOWEVER, that's only if you had the unit today; which you don't (hasn't shipped and is sold out)... Also, that's also ONLY IF the difficulty of the bitcoin network does not increase AT ALL for a full 12 months... AND that he price of bitcoin remains at least at it's current price today of $48,000.

The unit costs $5000. You profit $8000... if and only if all of the items directly above happen-- price stays at $48,000, difficulty does not increase... etc.

If the difficulty increases month after month, you will reap less profit, lower each month. If the price of bitcoin drops, you're in real trouble.

END ALL BE ALL your profit after purchase is $3000. If BTC goes down $3000... you break even.

So that's why I got out of the mining game by 2016 after he halving.

It was a full time job keeping everything going, and while we were mining 0.50 BTC a day, the value back then dropped at one point to under $100 per BTC... So all the BTC we mined had lost a lot of value.

It was an expensive investment to make purchasing 26 S3 units, replacing 12 months later with 16 S5 units, all the AC costs, meanwhile, not selling the BTC we were mining... It cost a LOT.

Now the game is too tough to even break into unless you have major money to spend and know what you are doing in terms of implementing the technology, and rolling it over, replacing, and gearing up constantly...

It's War. The ammunition, is Electricity.

The Weapons are the mining Rigs.

Cheers!

StratoBTCitz

Price jumping around, up 120% or so on Citex.me Exchange. What's up with txbit.io?

Cheers,

Strato

Here we go... Nearly unminable at this point, compared to just a few months back.

Nice chart.

https://txbit.io/Trade/BLUR/BTC

I'd like to sell my CAT Core Software License - as I'm not trading at the moment.

Is the Marketplace the best place to post that listing? I've posted it in Digital Goods.

How do I finalize the license transfer to the new buyer once a deal is reached for the terms of sale?

Thanks Sampey!

I'm no longer trading, so I'd be open to selling my license (Lifetime License / Fully Transferable / Works with Most Exchanges) for:

C.A.T. Cryptocurrency Automatic Trading Software

The software sells new here Bitcointalk through user Sampey:   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=507103.0

The license is fully transferable. Includes lifetime upgrades.

You would just need to purchase whatever API licenses for the specific exchanges you want to trade/bot trade on. All major / most smaller exchanges are fully supported.

Please see the above link for more information on the software. Here is information on the license transfer which as simple as me signing over the software to you via SAMPEY:   

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=507103.msg52214273#msg52214273

CAT Current price is 0.065 BTC. That price includes 1 API Key. I cannot include my API key as they are linked to my exchange accounts. API Keys per exchange (you can trade on multiple exchanges at once) is 0.015 BTC.   So the Price "NEW Less the API" is effectively 0.05 BTC.

PRICE:   0.02 BTC. (CAT Retail Price is 0.05 for just the Core Package).

Open to reasonable offers as well.

Thanks!

Recent jump in hashrate / difficulty... roughly 3x from a few weeks ago. Any news on this?

Strato

Price:  $80

I have one unused Adobe Production Premium CS6 License which I haven't used. Purchased from Adobe.

This is a perpetual / permanent install for Adobe CS6 Production Premium.

INCLUDES:

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

After Effects CS6

Photoshop CS6 Extended

Adobe Audition® CS6

SpeedGrade CS6

Prelude™ CS6

Illustrator® CS6

Encore® CS6

Flash® Professional CS6

Media Encoder CS6

Bridge CS6

This is a One Seat Single Install License. For Windows OS

Thanks for looking and feel free to contact me with any questions!

Cheers!

Strato

I agree with the OP's sentiment about the Altcoin: Announcements section here on the forum.

But Vod has a valid point. Cleaning up that thread will not only be a massive undertaking, but establishing the standards of etiquette and procedures for ANN Posts would be an undertaking in and of itself.

Personally- I think a very straight forward, reasonably easy to implement the solution. Moderating this solution (unless Simple Machines Forum can auto-moderate posts as done on Reddit) would be another story.

The ANN Section is challenging to read; it's challenging to find the information one is searching for. It's filled with a lot of bumped up dead threads. Posts that seem to come out of nowhere, and you have to filter through these on top of everything else.

I'd like to see:

A Standardized Subject Format.

As on Reddit, (Known as Reddiquitte) and other forums, the post must meet strict requirements, or it is typically auto-flagged and never gets posted at all.

A SIMPLE SUBJECT FORMAT OF:    [Post Type] | [Proper Name of Project] - [TICKER]: 80 Character Description [ALGO][POS/POW]

That's a very rudimentary markup I just did. But that alone would make reading that section world's easier.

Secondly, I'd only say if a Thread within the ANN section hasn't been active or replied to within X days (60 perhaps):  Auto Archive it out. . If active again, the OP would have to contact a Moderator for review.

Policing the forums with human moderators or auto-moderating (if possible) or a combination of both would make the Bitcointalk forum - specifically the Altcoin Announcement Section, a much better community for users to post their projects.

Cheers!

Strato

These links should be avoided for obvious reasons. This post removed... for the same.

Cheers,

Strato

Are global forum statistics available for Bitcointalk.org?

I know you can view user statistics but was just curious if a page existed where one could view activity levels per forum / sub-forums / time of day activity / additional stats?

Thanks for any help on this!

Strato

Hey OgNasty,

Have you looked into/read up on High Altitude Wind Generation Technologies?  It's been discussed in very isolated circles dating back to the late 1970s, but never implemented. Only now are companies starting to really look at it's true potential. Some interesting tech startups are emerging with interesting ways of harnessing wind turbine energy generation with the use of kites flown at high altitudes.

Theres a number of projects that seem far fetched, but I think in the not so distant future High Altitude Wind Generation is going to be a huge industry; simply because it makes financial sense on practically every level.

I actually went out to Joshua Tree CA a few years back and drove through the massive Wind Farms on the way near the park. Did a lot of photography, got up close to the massive turbines, pretty crazy. Standing directly under a full sized wind turbine while it's running, you literally feel the shockwave, like a very low sounding thump from a woofer; run through your body as each blade crosses down and over you 20 feet above.

But high altitude concepts are pretty amazing, in terms of what's possible with very basic concepts simply put into place and used.

The two that stand out to me are the Laddermill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laddermill and Angle of Attack Pully systems.

Second; The concept of constructing a large kite which is the shape of a cylinder; The cylinder has vents, similar to how a parachute is able to open vents to turn; which when flown forces the Kite into a fast spinning motion. Tethered with a high strength low weight cable, the kite is flown up to +20,000 feet; and if geographically positioned correctly; you put the kite into the Jet Stream. A fairly constant 200+ MPH wind-stream that never stops. This of course forces the kite to spin very fast, which creates tension on the cable, and the cable spins and turns the generator which is based on the ground. The economics of this are amazing considering that this eliminates much of the costs of ground based turbines; which require large amounts of very heavy materials; the ground pole; the blades, etc, plus lifespan and replacement of such.

Last, but not a favorite;

The Angle of Attach is like a fish on a reel; the kite is pitched back to catch the wind; causing it to reel outwards; which spins a generator, when the kite reaches 50,000 feet; the cable tension is released, and a weight moves towards the nose; pitching it foward. So the kite no longer is being held, and pitched down. After it hits 10,000 feet, the cable is drawn in; (kite is now at low altitude but distance wise very far away); and as the cable is drawn in with the nose down; it maintains low altitude and returns close to the generator. Then the cable is pulled tight, and the weight is moved to the aft of the kite, pitching it back, creating lift, back to 50,000 feet... which as it pulls out drives the generator.

Of course this done on a large scale; thousands of kites like this, would produce massive amounts of energy; at a much more efficient rate; harnessing the 200 MPH winds at high altitudes and not requiring all the heavy steel of today's ground based wind turbines.

Ships could also use them at sea; a generator on a ship, with a kite single 10kw generator on board.

And of course; 100% coordination with the FAA and flight traffic patterns- just to keep all those frequent flyers flying.

But read through this thread; interesting stuff, and good ideas here. Just thought I'd pass this info along; in case you hadnt heard about it, as it's only recently been starting to catch "wind" and still only in small circles. But promising.

Hope you're well,

Cheers!

Strato