Hello everyone,
I'm completely new to bitcoin/altcoin mining/investing, this is my first post, so I've no affiliation to any coin and all thoughts (however bad) are my own.
I've read a fair bit about it over the last few months/years and think it's time to get involved. I'm from Scotland and realistically could afford to put a 4 figure sum into this project. I could afford to lose every penny of that money and it wouldn't affect my ability to pay bills or such (obviously I'd be absolutely gutted to lose it though, it's not like I have so much can give it away) but I'd be looking at this as something to slowly grow over a sustained period of time. I'll be honest I'm not the sort that's going to be trading or spending hours with these coins every day, certainly not while I'm still finding my feet (I've never invested in the stock market or anything like that). Maybe in time.
To that effect I've a few questions:
1. I've specced out a mining rig here:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/mTQRGf (for reference the 7950s can be had off eBay for this amount). Is it still worth my time to mine? This rig (or possibly 2 RX470s instead when they're released) I believe should give me something like 60MH. Now I know that I've probably missed the boat on mining Bitcoin but I could use it to mine altcoins and spend the rest of the money buying bitcoins at (hopefully) a point where the value has fallen slightly. Or would you recommend leaving the mining PC and spending the full amount on bitcoins which can then be traded for altcoins in the hope they appreciate in value?
I'm aware that a lot of newer coins like ETH are switching to or are created with Proof of Stake which makes them unmineable so has the tim for mining past?
This brings me to my second point (which may not be suitable for this section so apologies if that's the case).
2. Which altcoin would people recommend? I know "everyone" here talks up their own coin in the hope of a pump and dump so I compiled a list of altcoin that seems like a good idea:
a. Ripple (XRP) - reading that Santander have picked this up and are testing it makes me think this has a chance of going somewhere: banks generally aren't in the business of throwing good money after bad ideas.
b. Nem (XEM) - 100% original code not based off any other coins, Proof of Importance, relationship with mijin.
c. Gulden (NLG) - used in real shops in the Netherlands, seems to have a pretty professional setup with mobile apps in app stores.
d. NXT (NXT) - 100% original code not based off any other coins, POS, will allow me to get a foothold in Ardor.
I've read that really I should diversify into a minimum of 5-10 coins and I had a list of more but have read some things that give me pause on whether to go after them:
d. Ethereum (ETH) - switching from POW to POS in the next year so mining probably won't give me a return on investment, the recent hack/hard fork issue seems to have created an air of instability and seems to be more FUD on the forum each day about it.
e. Waves (WAVES) - large amount of coins withdrawn to escrow, though myselium interest seems positive.
f. Lisk (LSK)
Then there are others that seem to get people pumping, in no particular order: Noblecoin, Mintcoin, Zeit, ZCash, WBB, Decred...
3. Which exchanges are generally reputed to be trustworthy? I've seen (for example) posts on Poloniex being a scammer, or Yobit. What ones does everyone use?
4. Does anyone in the UK have somewhere trustworthy to buy Bitcoins through faster payments? I'm not particularly wanting to pay the ridiculous fee my bank want to charge me for SEPA or SWIFT transactions.
Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this and leave a reply.
Cheers.
