Nobody said that you have to own a machine all by yourself, but, maybe, you should, if you can afford to spend $2000.
It is different around the world, but having $2K does not make you a rich person in OECD countries.

@jjg...dude, it was all in my original post.
You were referring to a period from 2014 to now and my simple answer is this:

you are talking about investing (dcaing) $47K (nine years) during that period to accumulate 45 btc.
I did not invest anything close to that particular number, but if I take my investments (unevenly spread from 2014-2023) as X and calculate from there, then, in proportion, I got 113-114 BTC accumulated (surely, the actual number is completely different because 47K is a random number as well).
113 is a much bigger number than 45, is it not?
I don't profess an investment acumen, mostly it is due to bulk purchase earlier than later.

mining vs dcaing part is just a cherry on top.

TL;DR dca=average return, buying at the lows OR early (in bitcoin)=better return and if you think that you cannot put yourself to buying at the lows, then do some mining, for crying out loud.
People who bristle at mining have no clue about bitcoin. Bitcoin's heart is block validation via mining. Anything else, and it is NOT the same.

@jjg...why so angry?

mining (starting when price is low and machines are cheap) beats dcaing hands down-as shown in my example.
bulk purchase does the same if you apply some brain power.

I don't really divide people into "normies' and , what, super-normies?
It is obvious to anyone than the earlier you bought, the better.
Going forward, I still submit that mining beats dca hands down (and provided the numbers to prove it).

Some people prefer investing in index funds and for majority it is better not to dart in and out of stocks, but some people (smaller %) can make more money in concentrated positions.
Same for bitcoin: dca is a valid strategy that is inferior for a smaller number of people and superior for most (but not all) people.
I, personally, found it (dca) tedious, but that's just me.

$jjg...As promised, here are some numbers:

If i had bulk invested $47K instead of DCA since 2013-2014, using buys at exactly my actual timing, I would have gotten about 113-114 BTC vs 45btc (dcaing by your estimate).
Please...I did not invest 47K (could be any other number), so don't start counting it as my "basis", I simply used the number in your example.

But, here is a more pertinent number: with mining started in Nov 2019 and lasting until about March 2022.
2.3 btc mined with the average price of $18.17K/btc. Revenue about 41.8K
If, instead, you would have spend the exact same $$ (say, 42K) on DCA during the same time period, doing it on a weekly basis, then Excel gives me a weekly average for btc of $29.2K and, therefore, 1.43 BTC accumulated.
2.3 is >>1.43
btw, my previous assertions for averages were all based on weekly btc prices put into Excel (sorry, don't care about dcabtc website).
You can ask me: how come the btc mined price average is lower. It is because when you mine, you always mine more in the beginning and less later (due to difficulty increase).

TL;DR bulk purchase earlier wins (obviously), but don't neglect mining, especially if you start a new round when btc price is low and price of machines is low as well. Imho, peeeps should listen to what phil is saying about when is a good time to start mining and or purchase mining machines.

One reason is that in Q4 there were a lot of cc offers with 18 mo no interest, extending into May-June 2024.
People treat it as, essentially, "free money" and forget that they would have to pay, eventually.

Hmmmm...da f-k?

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4574872-bitcoin-new-war-beginning

^^^first try..."Buy by the barrel gorilla ladders?"    

second "ape into bitcoin ladder by the barrel"

@jjg..sorry, I am too "beat up" at work this week to post numbers, will try to sum it up sometime during the weekend and/or on Fri...

economics? 19798 vs 20000 is about 1.1% difference, so, if you don't perform many additional calculations, approximation is fine.
For example, my thesis was that "If in about 5 years (early 2028) bitcoin is 25.5k (now it is 23k vs 20K in Dec 2017, so a similar small rise with lots of down and up volatility in between), would you be content?"

if you replace 20K by 19798, then the appreciation since Dec 2017 until 23K (which was the price at the time of original post) would be 16.17% vs 15% in my calculation.
Perhaps, i should have wrote $26.7K instead of 25.5K in 2028, but it is still within 5%.
The main point was not the exact number , but how we would perceive the situation if it repeats itself in the next 5 years.
BTW, bitcoin price is not an absolute and it did hit 20K and slightly above on some major exchanges.
@jjg thinks that we somehow made an explicit promise to only quote bitstamp, but I don't acknowledge it (no promise on my part).

@jjg..well, $19,798 is pretty much 20K in my book (according to rounding rules), but it is a minor point....that you seem to be awfully sensitive about.

BTW, the average price of btc between Dec 2017 and today is also quite surprising (not!) $20.3K...how does this reflect on DCA vs bulk purchase debate?
Basically, you could have DCAed weekly since 5 years ago (or 260 weeks) and your average would have been more than btc price just a month ago (only 4wk or 1.5% of the putative DCA time).
This shows, in my opinion, that better strategy in bitcoin is to have a large stash of cash and to wait for more than 60-70% decline from the recent ATH, then pounce at once or in a few big "gulps".

well, we are trying to ignore this inconvenient 'truth" because admitting it or rather submitting to it would mean that we are under their foot, maybe forever.
I don't want say that it is an ultimate truth, but acknowledge some nonzero possibility of this, just as you do, apparently.

it's a funny little snippet considering that rant about vests and governors, ain't it, phil?

i kid, i kid 

I have a question...

If in about 5 years (early 2028) bitcoin is 25.5k (now it is 23k vs 20K in Dec 2017, so a similar small rise with lots of down and up volatility in between), would you be content?
I might be, but would be very surprised at such stability.
Honestly, I just cannot comprehend why we are still below a $tril in mcap, considering everything that happened already (gigantic money printing, 500tril assets market cap, etc, etc.).

Perhaps, bitcoin diffuses into the collective psyche quite slowly, but afterwards stays permanently entrenched in someone's mind.

it depends...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-universe-made-of-math-excerpt/

watched first 6 episodes of Andor...pretty, pretty good (1st is the weakest, don't let it discourage you)..the vibes of ww2 french resistance movies, "The Guns of Navarone", etc....in space.

bitcoin derped here a bit..no matter.

There is no wall.

most certainly, and I am not even kidding.

wild, if not a fake.

EDIT: inflation in 1923 was 1.79%. If steady for 100 years, it results in 5.89 denominator for the currency real value.
However, official inflation since 1923 was 2.9% on average, which results in 17.43 denominator, meaning that each current $ is worth (has buying power) of 6c in 1923.
eggs were 25c/dozen in 1923 (at least one reference).
therefore, dozen eggs "should" be 0.25X17.43=$4.38 vs the "dream" value of $10.
I can find eggs at $3.6-4 per dozen if you buy 36 (not jumbo), so it is quite remarkably accurate.

Custodia bank (the one focused on bitcoin, etc.) is denied fed reserve membership;
https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/custodia-bank-fed-membership-application-denied-federal-reserve-board

I am not sure what this is all about.
Fed is protecting their turf?
Shows that bureaucracy can always prevent something just by being slow...instead of the typical 5 days, the application was, apparently, pending for 18 mo.
They don't want competition to NY fin center from Wyoming?

hopefully, some bs...but somewhere there I found this linky:

https://www.yahoo.com/now/why-more-physicists-starting-think-045308127.html

"All is One"....hmmm
so...bitcoin and us is the same or we are bitcoin (in a way)...groovy!
Ordering the book...should be a fun read.