In 2017, Is a $400 ASIC miner still profitable?

[Captimiz]

Just wondering, maybe I'll start now, better late than never I guess.

[unamis76]

If you have dirt cheap electricity, maybe yes. There's a mining section for these questions.

[Captimiz]

Indian power grid 

[pedrog]

Just wondering, maybe I'll start now, better late than never I guess.

You can check mining profitability calculators, but home mining has been a losers game since 2012, I seriously doubt you can make profit, it is much cheaper just to buy bitcoin.

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

Even mining at an industrial scale is really difficult to turn profit and some well funded companies went out of business.

[quake313]

Just wondering, maybe I'll start now, better late than never I guess.

You can check mining profitability calculators, but home mining has been a losers game since 2012, I seriously doubt you can make profit, it is much cheaper just to buy bitcoin.

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

Even mining at an industrial scale is really difficult to turn profit and some well funded companies went out of business.

This is not true, I was making good profit up to the end of 2013 on home asic.

[andyatcrux]

Assuming you are talking about an SHA256 miner, yes it can be profitable if you have the patience and don't mind entering the morally grey territory of mining ninja launched SHA256 altcoins. One out of 100 of those may end up being legit, most are just short lived shitcoins. Unless you have very cheap electricity it is doubtful that mining BTC with it will gain you your ROI.

[Qartada]

Usually no, but super cheap or free electricity might let you get away with it.  It might even be a bit profitable now but is unlikely to continue that way due to difficulty changes in the future.

[franky1]

This is not true, I was making good profit up to the end of 2013 on home asic.

asics were only introduced PUBLICLY in october 2013..

so you only made a couple months of good profit..

[FlamingFingers]

Unless you have a dirty–cheap (free) electricity, I don't think it will be any profitable.

[7788bitcoin]

This is not true, I was making good profit up to the end of 2013 on home asic.

asics were only introduced PUBLICLY in october 2013..

so you only made a couple months of good profit..

Things are changing also. Advances in mining technology has slowed down and the increase in hash rate is not as fast as 3 years ago. Andreas gave a great explanation. View his video to understand more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGwHIHBsjbU&feature=youtu.be&a

[quake313]

This is not true, I was making good profit up to the end of 2013 on home asic.

asics were only introduced PUBLICLY in october 2013..

so you only made a couple months of good profit..

It was very good  

Edit: BTW, Avalon was the first to sell to end users in January of 2013.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/avalon-ships-bitcoins-first-consumer-asics-1358905223/

[pedrog]

Just wondering, maybe I'll start now, better late than never I guess.

You can check mining profitability calculators, but home mining has been a losers game since 2012, I seriously doubt you can make profit, it is much cheaper just to buy bitcoin.

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

Even mining at an industrial scale is really difficult to turn profit and some well funded companies went out of business.

This is not true, I was making good profit up to the end of 2013 on home asic.

If instead of buying ASICs you used the money to buy bitcoins would you've ended up with more or less bitcoins?

[el kaka22]

This is not true, I was making good profit up to the end of 2013 on home asic.

asics were only introduced PUBLICLY in october 2013..

so you only made a couple months of good profit..

It was very good  

Edit: BTW, Avalon was the first to sell to end users in January of 2013.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/avalon-ships-bitcoins-first-consumer-asics-1358905223/

It was limited supply though, I don’t mean you didn’t have it, you maybe one of the people who was lucky enough to buy one but it wasn’t available to everyone. Whoever got in early January 2013 than they may made some profits.

It got worse afterwards for other users, not a profitable time for everyone.

[quake313]

Just wondering, maybe I'll start now, better late than never I guess.

You can check mining profitability calculators, but home mining has been a losers game since 2012, I seriously doubt you can make profit, it is much cheaper just to buy bitcoin.

http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator

Even mining at an industrial scale is really difficult to turn profit and some well funded companies went out of business.

This is not true, I was making good profit up to the end of 2013 on home asic.

If instead of buying ASICs you used the money to buy bitcoins would you've ended up with more or less bitcoins?

Less BTC for sure. There was a frenzy for asics in 2013, I had an offer of 10k for mine, considerably more than I paid for it and this was after I had ROI with it. Those were crazy times.

It was limited supply tough, I don’t mean you didn’t have it, you maybe one of the people who was lucky enough to buy one but it wasn’t available to everyone. Whoever got in early January 2013 than they may made some profits, it got worse afterwards for other users, not a profitable time for everyone.

Most people who bought asics in 2013 made a profit. The difficulty jumps were just insane as new hardware hit the network and yes, supplies were limited, demand was VERY high.

[swogerino]

It is only if you live in a country where the cost of electricity is almost free like China,Venezuela or India. In fact in some other developed countries during the night hours the energy is free, so if you keep the miner on only during these hours it is profitable too.

[Amph]

sure it's not that good anymore, if for profitable you mean mining few mbtc a day, which i find it a waste of time and money, and can only be considered good for introducing yourself in the mining world maybe...

This is not true, I was making good profit up to the end of 2013 on home asic.

asics were only introduced PUBLICLY in october 2013..

so you only made a couple months of good profit..

It was very good  

Edit: BTW, Avalon was the first to sell to end users in January of 2013.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/avalon-ships-bitcoins-first-consumer-asics-1358905223/

wan't the jalapeno the first asic for bitcoin or i'm missing something? i remember all the drama and scam about BFL

[isoneguy]

Yeah, those sexy little $300 jalepeno's!

I think that in the right conditions, if you run the calculations correctly and account for a variance...You could make profit from a $400 asic.

But it depends on which $400 asic. and power/internet costs...and a few other variables that must be unknown because you haven't encountered them as of yet.

[Qartada]

Yeah, those sexy little $300 jalepeno's!

I think that in the right conditions, if you run the calculations correctly and account for a variance...You could make profit from a $400 asic.

But it depends on which $400 asic. and power/internet costs...and a few other variables that must be unknown because you haven't encountered them as of yet.

It's pretty much just not, unless you have free electricity which is unlikely.  Mining is for people with a serious investment these days, even a normal Antminer S9 costs over $2000 new.

[isoneguy]

I think proper planning goes a long way.

If you are clever you can make great things from not very much.

It is profitable if you are either:

1. Not dumb
2. Lucky

[leowonderful]

I think proper planning goes a long way.

If you are clever you can make great things from not very much.

It is profitable if you are either:

1. Not dumb
2. Lucky

Personally I've stopped actively mining for bitcoins with ASICs seriously as it's pretty clear now that the margins for profit are getting smaller and it's harder to make profit. I'd suggest getting a few GPUs and a cheap build to mine altcoins if you're serious about profit.