Solo Mining profitability

[joae1975]

I'm not sure if this was already answered.  Can't seem to find it anywhere.

How many Gh/s would you need for Solo Mining to make sense for an individual, at current/future difficulty?  And is it practical for a person to do it anymore?  How do you calculate this "sensibility" based upon difficulty?

Thanks!

[-ck]

This is all opinion based...

I estimate based on finding 5 blocks on average per difficulty change to avoid the variance of missing blocks before a diff rise in a way that can never be recovered. That's 5 out of 2016 blocks so you need to be >= .25% of the total network hashrate. At (current) difficulty 26 million, you need to generate 5 * 26 million shares in less than 2 weeks, or 26 million shares every 403 blocks which is ~4030 mins (in reality less time because diff is rising). That's ~6500 shares per minute. You get 1 share per 71.6MH per minute, so you'll need ~6500 * 72 = 470GH. One BFL SC minirig therefore is about the minimum requirement (this week).

Not only do you need a ludicrous amount of hashrate to reach that milestone, it gets increasingly difficult to set up an efficient solo operation as the network hashrate increases. Even the most hardcore miners gave up solo mining for any extended period for the risks are too great with such a large investment.

Summary: Pool mine.

[Trillium]

It depends on how long you can go without potentially receiving any payout. You can estimate the average time of finding a block at the current difficulty with calculators such as: http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

Of course, the average time to find a block that is shown by these calculators can vary greatly with your luck - you could be unlucky over any given period of time - so it a risk you take. If you are spending a lot on electricity to run your miners and you don't find a bitcoin block for 1 year then many people would find that situation to be financially unacceptable.

On the other hand, if you are mining with a pool, depending on your hashrate and the pools payout thresholds (and other things, like pool luck) you could be getting paid to your wallet each and every day.

In my opinion if you are mining BTC you should definitely use a pool.

(If you are mining altcoins then you may be able to solo mine and regularly find blocks, it depends on their current difficulty.)

[joae1975]

Thanks guys.  I appreciate the info.  I like the math ckolivas, thanks for all you do!  Donation sent (yesterday.)