Is it worth investing in USB Block Erupters?

[NecroBones]

If you could convince someone to sell you a box full of Block Erupters at about $1 each, then they'd be great. At about $5/each, they'd be so-so (and still about to be obsoleted, cost-wise). Anything more than that, and they're just not worth the cost anymore.

[freddyfarnsworth]

If you could convince someone to sell you a box full of Block Erupters at about $1 each, then they'd be great. At about $5/each, they'd be so-so (and still about to be obsoleted, cost-wise). Anything more than that, and they're just not worth the cost anymore.

6 of USB .333 asics at $60 per pack would be same as 1 USB antminer. Just not nearly as efficient.

What happens when they begin developing sha256 alt coins ?
Or scrypt asics get developed ?
hmmmm, not to far down the path, even if only real purpose is to put something out there for old hardware to do.

GPU's with the high expense, low availability, Heat output and power use, really better for the game industry.
I can still process 20,000 credit card transactions per min on 1992 thru 1998 servers PPRO, PIII xeons quads, hex, and octs. Not sayin I want to - Power costs killed those off.

So I think Asics will be around awhile, for the Po folk to hack on. Always a way...

[PaintShopPro6]

To say they are not profitable is wrong, because that ignores resale. Historically, USB miners hold up well in the resale market.

The trick is predicting how long to mine when them before selling.

They are also good learning tools for people entering the mining world.

All that said, I'd ignore block eruptors and go for U1's or better

[IamCANADIAN013]

If you could convince someone to sell you a box full of Block Erupters at about $1 each, then they'd be great. At about $5/each, they'd be so-so (and still about to be obsoleted, cost-wise). Anything more than that, and they're just not worth the cost anymore.

But people are still willing to buy them, which is where I see the value.  I picked up 10 of the .333 asics the other day for $15 each.  They are going for upwards of $40 each where i live, sure i could unload for $30 or so. 

I'm trying to figure out what the re-sale of antminer sticks might be a month, or 3, or 6 months from now.  Will their value still hold going forward?

[Peacefrog]

factor this in. antminer u1's hash rate is 2gh/s stable and cost .053BTC
coinwarz states that it will average .0005BTC a day.

so if your lucky and difficulty doesnt rise you can get return on one in over 100 days. then after that you will make about 40cents a day.


An Asicminer Cube can hash between 30-38 gh/s and cost .39BTC
Coinwarz estimate .0069BTC a day
in 61 days at that rate you will make .42BTC at that point you will break even for the miner and priority shipping.

i would not spend .4 on usb miners

[freddyfarnsworth]

I think the point is, we do not have .39b but do have .05 once every two weeks or so, or have you never experienced being broke
With the asic USB at least we get into the game, learn and participate, and if today I had 250gh, I would have all my monthly bills paid for long enuf to buy more gh.
We live cheap, we eat cheap, we survive.

[goggles1200]

Anything under a Chili, you might as well get kicked in the nuts and your money taken away from you. You're not going to make anything and probably cap out the number of USB slots you can use on your computer.

Even at the Chili device level, I'm making .01BTC a day which is poo!

[Peacefrog]

Well i was in a similar situation to you. I was gonna get a single usb miner but managed to liquidate my alts at a good enough price to get a cube.

Either way your probably gonna want to mine a multi pool to get the most out of your hash rate.

The way i see it you have 2 choices. USB miner - Chance of not getting return. If you want to mine btc to hold i wouldnt recommend this. If you plan on using the 40k satoshis it would make daily to trade for other coins on cryptsy i could see this being a viable option. most of my funds i made through trades so it figures if theres a steady income (no matter how small) and you trade smart you can get your return much quicker.

or you can wait and gather your .05's until you can get something more efficient. Do lots of math and see what looks profitable

[Operatr]

These ones are just novelty miners at this point. The best you will do today with a USB miner is about 1.6-2.2 Gh/s, paying about $50 per gigahash. It seems like the ASICMiner Erupters are now really expensive even compared to Gen 2 Bitfury and Antminer USB miners for what you get.

[Sonny]

If you could convince someone to sell you a box full of Block Erupters at about $1 each, then they'd be great. At about $5/each, they'd be so-so (and still about to be obsoleted, cost-wise). Anything more than that, and they're just not worth the cost anymore.

Even for $10/each, you can take all of them, and then sell them on eBay for profits. 

[Caiapfas]

DO NOT BUY USB miners! never get your ROI

[empoweoqwj]

I'm considering building a USB mining rig, but I fear that at this point it is too late to make any profit.

If I go about buying, let's say, the Bitmain Antminer, which runs at 1.6 gHs/s, at the cost of $85, would that return my investment?
I would buy one, mine, profit, and then buy more, but I fear that with the current and coming difficulty on the network+the global hashrate, it would be a folly.

What do you guys think? I would buy one of the big ASIC miners, but yeah... Can't make bread without dough! 

Excuse this blasphemous question, but would it be a better investment to mine litecoins, from my standpoint? I have a 7870 card.

Cheers!

Don't mine bitcoins with a rig - that's a guaranteed loss at the moment. Look at several altcoins, whatever is doing well that week. Be flexible and vigilent.