Becoming a miner.

[kript0x]

I'd love to get into mining, I've been buying btc like crazy lately and got some free time.
However it seems I should wait for ASIC's as all the current mining methods seem useless.

Now I have a few concerns regarding ASIC's and I'd love if anyone could answer my questions:

-If ASIC's come out the BTC/USD rate will drop right? Theres much more BTC available...

-If ASIC's are released will all the current mining equipment be worthless?

-If ASIC's come out, wont we hit the max BTC amount like instantly? Or will the difficulty rate be adjusted so the current projected amount of BTC will remain the same? This would fuck all the current miners even more though.

-Lets say ASIC's are out and the market is adjusted to them, would it be profitable to mine? Or should I just scratch the idea of becoming a miner and start growing some dope instead?


Thanks guys

[nobbynobbynoob]

The rate of BTC issuance is fixed over the longer term irrespective of the network hashrate.

[kript0x]

The rate of BTC issuance is fixed over the longer term irrespective of the network hashrate.

So even if ASIC's come out the difficulty rates will remain the same, doesn't that mean that we'll hit the max amount of BTC fast? Way faster than predicted?

[yohanstra]

When ASIC's come out, the difficulty will rise so that Bitcoins are being created at the same rate.  This means that GPU and CPU mining will become impractical because the ASIC's will take a much larger share in the mining  and each Hash will go less far.  It's probably a good idea to wait and invest in an ASIC miner.

[MineForeman.com]

-If ASIC's come out the BTC/USD rate will drop right? Theres much more BTC available...

As others have mentioned the network hashrate is not tied to the value of bitcoin, even with the increased network power bitcoins will still be minted at the same rate.  On the other hand the cost to generate bitcoins will go down and be reflected in miners power bills so who knows.

-If ASIC's are released will all the current mining equipment be worthless?

Yep, you may be able to sell your GPU's on ebay or something but they will be worthless for mining.

-If ASIC's come out, wont we hit the max BTC amount like instantly? Or will the difficulty rate be adjusted so the current projected amount of BTC will remain the same? This would fuck all the current miners even more though.

The network difficulty will adjust fairly quickly to new ASIC's.  The target is 2016 blocks every 14 days and we may see those targets being achieved in 10 days for a while but it wont dramatically alter the "lifecycle" of bitcoin.

-Lets say ASIC's are out and the market is adjusted to them, would it be profitable to mine? Or should I just scratch the idea of becoming a miner and start growing some dope instead?

It will be profitable to mine, the days of miners working as a speculation have gone and the big miners keep a close eye on their bottom line (I sure do) and we will adjust our hash rates/consumption accordingly.

Thanks guys

No worries, happy to help .

[Bendur]

Its a real interesting time to take up mining. Your options are to either buy an ASIC now, while they are still vaporware, or wait until they are seen in the wild before buying, in which case you risk ending up way down the bottom of the queue.