5 years from now will you still mine?

[rchapoteau]

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[DiamondCardz]

I only really mine using my horrible computer to do what I can to help bitcoin - i'll never really get anything out of it. My BitMinter balance is incredibly low, I pull in something like 200 khash/sec. I wish these so called "Puddinpop" pools still existed. >.<

The answer to that, depends on the price of electricity. Probably not, by then there will be ASIC's and 200 khash/sec will be even more so insignificant.

[Tungsten]

I've just started mining recently over the past few months as a hobby.  I've ordered a Jalepeno from butterfly more out of the interest in bitcoins, and the idea behind it, but I'm not sure if I'll care over the years.  Do you think that in 5 years you guys will care about bitcoins, and continue to use the currencey, and keep mining.  I hope I do, but I'm not sure .  Do you think anyone will care?

I run PC giving ~80 Mhash/sec, which evolvesto about BTC 0.01 / 12 hours or so @ pre 210,000 block rates.
I do that just to let PC do something useful as it has to be turned on anyways.

I will use this balance to live test bitcoin payment solution i developing right now for Wordpress.
Will announce it once ready.

[2GOOD]

Mining for couple of years now... sure will do for some more 

[nicolasc]

A quick cost-benefit analysis is usually the answer to this kind of question. It depends on the cost of electricity, and the value you get from mining:
- if BTC appreciates significantly, the long-term value of mining may remain attractive despite reward halving.
- if you are a BTC evangelist, the satisfaction you get from participating in a mining pool may offset the monetary cost of mining.
- if you are using BTC for black market purchases, mining coins provides much stronger anonymity properties than purchasing coins off of an exchange.
- if you are a curious party (researcher, for instance), you may get some value from mining by understanding better how the whole process works.

It would be interesting to see a distribution of which category people fall under. I am guessing most miners would consider themselves in the first two categories. The OP would be in the fourth. Disclaimer: I do not mine.

[nicolasc]

There is actually a fifth category that may be even more representative of what a lot of people do: people who mine for business reasons, i.e., that want to entice others to join their mining pool, and perhaps mine cheaply (by getting commissions and such), or people who are selling mining hardware and are testing it.

[dancupid]

Love's young dream.

edit - misread it as "be mine?"

[hashkey]

A quick cost-benefit analysis is usually the answer to this kind of question. It depends on the cost of electricity, and the value you get from mining:
- if BTC appreciates significantly, the long-term value of mining may remain attractive despite reward halving.
- if you are a BTC evangelist, the satisfaction you get from participating in a mining pool may offset the monetary cost of mining.
- if you are using BTC for black market purchases, mining coins provides much stronger anonymity properties than purchasing coins off of an exchange.
- if you are a curious party (researcher, for instance), you may get some value from mining by understanding better how the whole process works.

It would be interesting to see a distribution of which category people fall under. I am guessing most miners would consider themselves in the first two categories. The OP would be in the fourth. Disclaimer: I do not mine.

Great categories you compiled there I think I'll still mine as I believe Bitcoin will be even more popular and profitable after 5 years. I just hope that the ASICs are legit in order for me to buy one too. I tried to mine on a pool using my laptop with around 150MH/s but I just quit doing it as I don't want to accelerate the wear of my primary computer. I just tried to do mining on it for me to get a hang of mining bitcoins. It's just awesome that you get to earn money out of thin air given you don't pay for electricity

[mjc]

If we do not then the network that processes the transaction will stop and Bitcoins will disappear. 

So I hope so. :-)  I intend to be. 

[super3]

My gaming rig is going at about 320 Mhash/sec. At this point its still worth it because I can buy a unix box, vpns, or seedboxes just by mining. Once the reward drops to a point were I can't really buy anything with it I will probably stop mining.

[Atruk]

There's a pretty good chance I'll be mining then. Probably have an Atom or low powered AMD fusion microserver with some ASICs plugged in that will also be running an Electrum server, or something similar.

[bacada105]

It is hard to know what bitcoin will become in 5 years. For the sake of everyone jumping on the ASIC train I hope bitcoin continues to grow and become widely adopted.

[zxyzxy]

5 years from now? i dont know what will be with me next week

[Fcx35x10]

i think hardware will evolve as time go. there'll prob be hardware in the future that surpasses 999TH/s in the size of your palm.

[zxyzxy]

uhm, sure... just not in the near future, not in next 5 years

[wdBTCtrader]

I mine because I believe in what Bitcoins stand for.  If I make a few bucks that's just a bonus, but if I loose a few here an there that's okay.  I just consider it a donation to the cause. 

[mjc]

I mine because I believe in what Bitcoins stand for.  If I make a few bucks that's just a bonus, but if I loose a few here an there that's okay.  I just consider it a donation to the cause. 

+1 This is what will keep it alive!

[BFL_Theo]

Most likely Since i and most people do believe this just might win the Hearts of Millions of people in a New world Currency and Topple the Federal Reserve and all There B.S

[Jessica]

Soon in the future, hardware will be better, you can get much better hashrates with low electricity.

[Fjordbit]

5 years from now would see another halving. I guess it would depend on the profitability of it. I'd still mine if it was close to break even, but it doesn't make sense to mine at large loss.