Did you mine it or buy it?

[Kprawn]

All of the above... tried mining, got in too late and electricity cost killed any profit I could have made... I then tried cloud mining, when it was still fasionable, but it turned out that ROI on cloud mining was a myth.

I since tried everything else ... "Ponzi's / buying & trading / faucets / Signature campaigns / Gambling / Rendering services and selling good / investments etc. etc.." ....You experiment until you find the one working for you. 

I am just enjoying the ride, hoping for the perfect wave. 

[Amph]

I'd like to ask the users here about how you got started in bitcoins and how you acquire bitcoins.

So the two questions are:

1. When you started, did you MINE or did you BUY bitcons?

2. If you are a regular user of bitcoins currently, do you MINE or do you BUY bitcoins?


To start off the discussion, I can only answer question 1. I mined bitcoins when I started. Then I bought and sold bitcoins through an exchange.
I cannot answer question 2 because I'm no longer a regular user of bitcions.

i started with mining, gpu mining to be precise(1 7950, bought for gamining not for mining, but it returned to me 1 btc in two months, not bad)

i prefer to mine sincerely, because with mining you can increase your total sum of bitcoin with buying not, unless you trade, but trading isn't for me and i find it more risky too

[BitcoinNewbie15]

When i first started in bitcoin i bought them. Mining was (and still is) way to complicated for me lol. Maybe one day i will learn about mining and purchase myself some mining hardware

[Furio]

I'd like to ask the users here about how you got started in bitcoins and how you acquire bitcoins.

So the two questions are:

1. When you started, did you MINE or did you BUY bitcons?

2. If you are a regular user of bitcoins currently, do you MINE or do you BUY bitcoins?


To start off the discussion, I can only answer question 1. I mined bitcoins when I started. Then I bought and sold bitcoins through an exchange.
I cannot answer question 2 because I'm no longer a regular user of bitcions.

When I started, I started with mining, with the help of a close friend. For me the investment is much more gradually that way, you just pay more electricity in a year.  I didn´t have the funds to invest at once. Also I´m not in it strictly for profit, my believe is that the current financial and economic system is rotten to the core, bitcoin can be an katelsator for a new system, decentral!!

[crazyivan]

I started with one 7970 GPU a few years ago and I mined my first coins. Now, I both buy and cloud mine my coins. I sold my rigs but I would still like to have a few GPUs, just for fun, to mine some alts. I ll probably get a few of these soon.

[neoneros]

I did not buy or mine my bitcoins. I earned most of them by doing drawings for other people, getting paid in Bitcoin, thus contributing in the good use of the coin, namely to provide a service and start an economy based on bitcoin. Too many people only buy and trade, as if bitcoin is not a coin, but a collectors item. It will take a long while before people will let go of this idea of holding and selling just for the profit. Only then bitcoin will flourish.

If you like a drawing, here's my thread in the services section: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1016226.msg11025408 

[redsn0w]

I'd like to ask the users here about how you got started in bitcoins and how you acquire bitcoins.

So the two questions are:

1. When you started, did you MINE or did you BUY bitcons?

When I am started I mined it but it was more expensive, later I have bought a couple of bitcoins.

2. If you are a regular user of bitcoins currently, do you MINE or do you BUY bitcoins?


To start off the discussion, I can only answer question 1. I mined bitcoins when I started. Then I bought and sold bitcoins through an exchange.
I cannot answer question 2 because I'm no longer a regular user of bitcions.

Now the "bitcoin mining" is very insane (you can mine only if you have free electricity and hardware at good price). If I want bitcoin I buy it or try to offer a service and ask to be paid in bitcoin.

[dothebeats]

I'd like to ask the users here about how you got started in bitcoins and how you acquire bitcoins.

So the two questions are:

1. When you started, did you MINE or did you BUY bitcons?

2. If you are a regular user of bitcoins currently, do you MINE or do you BUY bitcoins?


To start off the discussion, I can only answer question 1. I mined bitcoins when I started. Then I bought and sold bitcoins through an exchange.
I cannot answer question 2 because I'm no longer a regular user of bitcions.

To be honest, I started off my ventures in this world by means of receiving payouts from freebitco.in (if anyone still remembers it). When I first received the coins in my wallet, I was so hyped that I planned on buying it, and so my journey continued. I bought some coins way back February of 2014. It was not much, but i still managed to do something about it, especially the pump of a coin they called Blackcoin. That was the first successful trade I executed in my whole life. It multiplied my holdings to some extent that I can manage to buy a new cheap laptop back in the days. I never mined because I don't have the means to do so, but I tried cloudmining ni cex.io and just got some little profit, not from mining but from trading ghs in their platform.

[bitwarrior]

I started getting BTC through faucets and then began mining through gpu cards.
It did not faired well for a long time with my mining due to electricity cost and concentrated my mining through litecoins and other altcoins. Just traded my altcoins with bitcoins on some exchanges and that's how I get hold of my very own BTC.

[kpitti]

I started with mining just for fun to see how it works. I used CPU, GPU and Cloud mining too. When difficulty raised up I bought my first USB ASIC, then couple of Bitmain`s S1. Run them for three month and then sell with descent profit. Bought new Bitmain`s ASICs and again. I stopped mining by end of 2014.

My BTC are from Mining and Business with miners.

[b-trading]

i bought it....never mined it

[Lauda]

Thanks for the tip, I forgot about the ignore function.  It's much easier to follow now.
Did you repurpose your GPU miners for altcoins?  I mined via middlecoin.com for a while with my GPUs as well which converted the mined coins into Bitcoin and deposited them to your Bitcoin address daily.  It was profitable for a little while

I've reported only 1 post and it looks like he's gone. Hopefully they've banned him, if not then there is something wrong with the staff.

Anyhow back to the topic. When I had found out about Bitcoin I've tested CPU mining on a pool. I have to confess, I didn't really have an idea of what was going on. I saw the balance slowly climbing up over the days, but my understanding was not there yet. A few months after I've accumulated enough knowledge and my plans were there. I bought out the equipment and set up my miners to mine Bitcoin for a few days to test it.
I knew that mining altcoins was much profitable back then and switched after those days had passed. I've mined CGB and 2 more coins. I can't remember their names.
My estimation resulted in ~10 months ROI. I've actually achieved ROI about 3-4 months after my investment.

[1Referee]

I have tried to mine with the resources I had, but without success. I had to buy my coins in order to get them.

I bought my first coins in early 2013 and have experienced the SilkRoad close down, the +$1000 peak, etc. It was a turbulent year for sure 

[countryfree]

I tried mining more than 2 years ago, but it was already too late for hobbyists. I gave up after 24 hours, it was just useless. I then tried faucets for a while, but that didn't prove to be an effective way to get BTC, so there was no other choice but to buy, and that's what I did.

[Lauda]

I tried mining more than 2 years ago, but it was already too late for hobbyists. I gave up after 24 hours, it was just useless. I then tried faucets for a while, but that didn't prove to be an effective way to get BTC, so there was no other choice but to buy, and that's what I did.

It was too late 2 years ago? Did you try mining with a Pentium 4 or something? Yes the difficulty was a few millions, but mining was quite possible if you knew what you were doing.
If you wanted to earn some cash you only had to invest a few thousand not more.

[Amph]

I tried mining more than 2 years ago, but it was already too late for hobbyists. I gave up after 24 hours, it was just useless. I then tried faucets for a while, but that didn't prove to be an effective way to get BTC, so there was no other choice but to buy, and that's what I did.

It was too late 2 years ago? Did you try mining with a Pentium 4 or something? Yes the difficulty was a few millions, but mining was quite possible if you knew what you were doing.
If you wanted to earn some cash you only had to invest a few thousand not more.

diff was around 7M to be precise, i remember it because it was around the time i started mining, with one gpu you could do 1 btc every two months(i got some luck with p2pool)

but we should remember that bitcoin was worth less than 100 at that time

[ChuckBuck]

Both of them.  Mining and buying.

Started off on faucets like any noob, just to see what a Bitcoins "look like".  Started mining, joined slush's pool, played around with CG miner, got fucked by Black Arrow pre order, ordered an Antminer S1 instead, and off I dove into the mining biz.

Soon after, made my first person to person exchange on LocalBitcoins, then opened a Coinbase account, and started messing around on BTC-E and Crypsty for my trading fix.

Now, I'm retired from the mining scene and active trading scene.  I just do it Grandma style, BUY AND HODL.

[thejaytiesto]

1) I started with mining altcoins.. then exchanged them for BTC.
2) I never mined BTC, only buy them monthly. Unfortunately mining is not affordable business for me.

[Q7]

I started pretty late so my only option was to buy and then at the same time earn some by providing services. I did consider trying my luck on cloud mining services but after reading so much negative stories, in the end, it still goes back to getting my supply from exchangers.

[lucullus]

I never have researched how to start a mining operation  because the general consensus I have read about is that it is not profitable unless you invest 100,00$ or more. So I have only been a buyer.