Too late to start mining?

[Alik]

What do you think? Too late or do you think the value will increase along side the difficulty as it has been doing for the most part?

[benjamindees]

The profitability of mining depends almost entirely on your hardware costs at this point.

[rainingbitcoins]

Worst case, you end up with some sweet computer gear with high resale value if you end up not wanting it

[xaxistech]

At this point, I would reccomend using 6000 series cards. The 5000 series cards will lose ALOT of value if the bitcoin ever fails. The 6000 series can still be used as a gaming card

[meighty]

Like they said above. It all depends on your hardware. I've got Nvidia gear so mining doesn't make sense unless I want to invest in new equipment. Then it's a question of how fast you can make your investment back before the difficulty gets too high and the amount of coins per block decreases.

[Alik]

I'm probably going to start off with 4 rigs. I calculated 2 rigs in best and seemingly worst case situations and 4 rigs would pay off in twice as much time as a 2 rig miner.

[phillipsjk]

It is never too late, but the early adopters have a large advantage: their hardware can be paid for by selling Bitcoin. Long-term, I expect Bitcoin mining to become industrial in scale*. We are currently at commercial scale as far as I can tell.

* If it lasts that long.

[Alik]

It is never too late, but the early adopters have a large advantage: their hardware can be paid for by selling Bitcoin. Long-term, I expect Bitcoin mining to become industrial in scale*. We are currently at commercial scale as far as I can tell.

* If it lasts that long.

I agree. The uphill battle is obvious for bitcoin but I remain confident that bitcoin will do well in over the next year or so. Their will be a fork in the road at some point.

[demoncrest]

At this point, I would reccomend using 6000 series cards. The 5000 series cards will lose ALOT of value if the bitcoin ever fails. The 6000 series can still be used as a gaming card

This is my take on it all.

For example, as a starter I have been a gamer for whenever I am using my computer so I have a GTX480 currently which is amazing for gaming, but sucks for mining (sad how it has to be this way LOL), so anyways I was thinking to sell this card, buy a single 6950 which I would unlock into a 6970, which is pretty much on par with a 5870, but with more headroom, and also higher clocks... AND it is still an excellent card for gaming with as well.

I play games like Aion etc which are more demanding on full settings, and it's also known that crossfire setups with the 5xxx series in Aion have issues and dont even work, so getting a 6xxx series card is a great single card option for me, and as I play games (and mine during any afk time), I will make profits to buy even another card. This will net ~750Mhash/s, AND double as a sick gaming rig AND ALSO retain a lot of it's value if I ever needed to sell out.

Demoncrest has spoken =]  lol

[Slowpok3]

Nope definitely not too late

[Alik]

At this point, I would reccomend using 6000 series cards. The 5000 series cards will lose ALOT of value if the bitcoin ever fails. The 6000 series can still be used as a gaming card

This is my take on it all.

For example, as a starter I have been a gamer for whenever I am using my computer so I have a GTX480 currently which is amazing for gaming, but sucks for mining (sad how it has to be this way LOL), so anyways I was thinking to sell this card, buy a single 6950 which I would unlock into a 6970, which is pretty much on par with a 5870, but with more headroom, and also higher clocks... AND it is still an excellent card for gaming with as well.

I play games like Aion etc which are more demanding on full settings, and it's also known that crossfire setups with the 5xxx series in Aion have issues and dont even work, so getting a 6xxx series card is a great single card option for me, and as I play games (and mine during any afk time), I will make profits to buy even another card. This will net ~750Mhash/s, AND double as a sick gaming rig AND ALSO retain a lot of it's value if I ever needed to sell out.

Demoncrest has spoken =]  lol

lol. I like the way you think sir. I'm not a gamer at all thought.

[dosboss]

I play games like Aion etc which are more demanding on full settings, and it's also known that crossfire setups with the 5xxx series in Aion have issues and dont even work, so getting a 6xxx series card is a great single card option for me, and as I play games (and mine during any afk time), I will make profits to buy even another card. This will net ~750Mhash/s, AND double as a sick gaming rig AND ALSO retain a lot of it's value if I ever needed to sell out.

Yesiree. I bought a second 5770 to xfire and it works fabulous (works perfect in all games I've tried). I have aggressive miners, and then mine while gaming with non-aggressive miners. In just two weeks I'm well ahead - even if bitcoins lost all value tomorrow.  Winning.

Still can't play Crysis though.

[ovoskeuiks]

It's all just a cost benefit thing. work out the cost and the benefit and if the cost out weights the benefit then yes it is too late

[Ian Maxwell]

Since I started mining a few months ago, the difficulty has increased about tenfold, while the market price of a bitcoin has increased about thirtyfold. Doesn't sound too late to me.

That said, if I'd taken that $500 I spent on mining equipment and just bought bitcoins instead, I'd have turned something like a $14,000 profit (on paper), for a lot less effort spent. I haven't mined anywhere near the number of bitcoins I could have bought.

That said, any fool can predict the past. Mining is profitable right now, whereas buying bitcoins requires a lot more 'faith'. It's really up to you.

[sc8nt4u]

Since I started mining a few months ago, the difficulty has increased about tenfold, while the market price of a bitcoin has increased about thirtyfold. Doesn't sound too late to me.

That said, if I'd taken that $500 I spent on mining equipment and just bought bitcoins instead, I'd have turned something like a $14,000 profit (on paper), for a lot less effort spent. I haven't mined anywhere near the number of bitcoins I could have bought.

That said, any fool can predict the past. Mining is profitable right now, whereas buying bitcoins requires a lot more 'faith'. It's really up to you.

I had to use my first 2000 BTC to fund my video card purchases back in January  .

[Morna]

If you have the money to spare, or lose, go for it.

Im still trying to meet ends with it all, have 6 gpus, have met break even on 2.

[Ian Maxwell]

Still can't play Crysis though.

I'm half-hoping I stop turning a profit on mining soon, just so I can finally play Portal 2 without feeling like I'm burning money.

[sciter]

Like they said above. It all depends on your hardware. I've got Nvidia gear so mining doesn't make sense unless I want to invest in new equipment. Then it's a question of how fast you can make your investment back before the difficulty gets too high and the amount of coins per block decreases.

It doesnt matter how much coins per block you get, the coin wil get more rare that way thus getting more valuable.

[Laereom]

Since I started mining a few months ago, the difficulty has increased about tenfold, while the market price of a bitcoin has increased about thirtyfold. Doesn't sound too late to me.

That said, if I'd taken that $500 I spent on mining equipment and just bought bitcoins instead, I'd have turned something like a $14,000 profit (on paper), for a lot less effort spent. I haven't mined anywhere near the number of bitcoins I could have bought.

That said, any fool can predict the past. Mining is profitable right now, whereas buying bitcoins requires a lot more 'faith'. It's really up to you.

I had to use my first 2000 BTC to fund my video card purchases back in January  .

Hahaha...WOW.

It's interesting, the trade off between what amounts to currency speculation in the form of holding your bitcoins, cashing out to reduce USD risk, and purchasing services with bitcoins.

Personally, right now, I'm a currency speculator.  Haven't sold any bitcoins for some time.  I figure I'll hold on to them til they have a value I think is worthwhile, and then I'll spend them in what will then be a more mature market place.

[vanfront]

What do you think? Too late or do you think the value will increase along side the difficulty as it has been doing for the most part?

I think it's never too late. There's still a huge amount of BTCs to be mined. As the general supply of BTCs will grow I think we will see stabilization of exchange rates that will be above the costs.