Which Direction to Take in Light of Pending ETH Change?

[bugzy3188]

Hey all,

Pretty new to cryptocurrency, read a few books and am getting the fundamentals down. I had been planning to gear my mining endeavors toward ETH to start since at the moment it seems to be the most profitable, however, it seems that they will be switching to a POS platform soon and mining will no longer be viable, if what I am reading is correct. So now I am wondering whether it would be better to gear my first rig toward ZCash with the 10xx cards or some other coin with the x70/x80 cards. It is my understanding that Zcash is also making some big moves with JP Morgan, could this help or hurt the mining prospects? I know that none of this is concrete, but I am just curious on getting some thoughts on these matters from some folks with a bit more experience than myself.

Thanks!

[kisk]

So what will happen is when ETH goes to POS is all that hashing power will distribute to the other Ethash algo coins -- ETC, EXP, MUSIC. This will lower the profitability on those coins BUT with the way coin values are rising right now I'd still say RX cards are still the way to go now. I think we have half a year at least left before ETH POS hits.

The 10xx cards are expensive and use more power -- you'll get your RIO much sooner now gearing towards Ethash.

Also, thinking about the new Vega cards coming out... that should drop the price of RX cards much lower as well.

[h311m4n]

So what will happen is when ETH goes to POS is all that hashing power will distribute to the other Ethash algo coins -- ETC, EXP, MUSIC. This will lower the profitability on those coins BUT with the way coin values are rising right now I'd still say RX cards are still the way to go now. I think we have half a year at least left before ETH POS hits.

The 10xx cards are expensive and use more power -- you'll get your RIO much sooner now gearing towards Ethash.

Also, thinking about the new Vega cards coming out... that should drop the price of RX cards much lower as well.

Meh. Eth have been talking about POS for ages. I'm not sure it is a direction that they really want to take. There's a lot a stake for the ETH network and switching to POS will mean that all the miners are going to switch over to something else like you say. To me POS sound more like the death of ether, then again that's just my opinion and I might be simple minded on this.

I mean lets be honest, every miner is in this for the money, not the coins themselves.

Some tend to say they're just trying to scare of asic makers by threatening to switch over to POS.

RX are pretty much the only way to go in terms of price/performance. I have my doubts about Vega. Rumors have the price point starting at 500-600$, that's a lot for a mining rig. I think your assumption that Vega will make the price on the RX cards drop is misguided. Too many people are getting into mining and stocks are drying up very fast everywhere. The demand is very high but supply seems low (at least where I live) having the effect to drive prices up. Depending on the price of the Vega cards, it's very likely the same thing will go on.

[gwestcot]

So what will happen is when ETH goes to POS is all that hashing power will distribute to the other Ethash algo coins -- ETC, EXP, MUSIC. This will lower the profitability on those coins BUT with the way coin values are rising right now I'd still say RX cards are still the way to go now. I think we have half a year at least left before ETH POS hits.

The 10xx cards are expensive and use more power -- you'll get your RIO much sooner now gearing towards Ethash.

Also, thinking about the new Vega cards coming out... that should drop the price of RX cards much lower as well.

Meh. Eth have been talking about POS for ages. I'm not sure it is a direction that they really want to take. There's a lot a stake for the ETH network and switching to POS will mean that all the miners are going to switch over to something else like you say. To me POS sound more like the death of ether, then again that's just my opinion and I might be simple minded on this.

I mean lets be honest, every miner is in this for the money, not the coins themselves.

Some tend to say they're just trying to scare of asic makers by threatening to switch over to POS.

RX are pretty much the only way to go in terms of price/performance. I have my doubts about Vega. Rumors have the price point starting at 500-600$, that's a lot for a mining rig. I think your assumption that Vega will make the price on the RX cards drop is misguided. Too many people are getting into mining and stocks are drying up very fast everywhere. The demand is very high but supply seems low (at least where I live) having the effect to drive prices up. Depending on the price of the Vega cards, it's very likely the same thing will go on.

Have you seen the latest ROI on a GTX 1070 mining zcash? It is fluctuating in the 80-90 day range so no I think Nvidia is the way to go and for sure ETH will have to do something about that ever increasing DAG file. Zcash also has a much longer mining cycle left than any major altcoin which means a reasonable amount of stability with the difficulty staying relatively flat in comparison to the massive increase that has happened with ethereum of late. That added with the fact that by next year ETH will only be mineable by 8GB cards. I am not sure what the real solution will be because POS seems kind of unlikely but it is indeed a possibility.

[uray]

... That added with the fact that by next year ETH will only be mineable by 8GB cards...

The 2GB limit will be hit around mid-December 2016
The 3GB limit will be hit around mid-April 2018
The 4GB limit will be hit around mid-September 2019

[gwestcot]

... That added with the fact that by next year ETH will only be mineable by 8GB cards...

The 2GB limit will be hit around mid-December 2016
The 3GB limit will be hit around mid-April 2018
The 4GB limit will be hit around mid-September 2019

Even taking that into account, which I think its actually December of 2018 for the DAG, ZEC is still far more profitable to mine right now and the difficulty is still far more constant than the exploding difficulty of Ethereum.

[uray]

... That added with the fact that by next year ETH will only be mineable by 8GB cards...

The 2GB limit will be hit around mid-December 2016
The 3GB limit will be hit around mid-April 2018
The 4GB limit will be hit around mid-September 2019

Even taking that into account, which I think its actually December of 2018 for the DAG, ZEC is still far more profitable to mine right now and the difficulty is still far more constant than the exploding difficulty of Ethereum.

that might be true... but wise miner does not mine the most profitable coin right now but a bit in the future

[gwestcot]

... That added with the fact that by next year ETH will only be mineable by 8GB cards...

The 2GB limit will be hit around mid-December 2016
The 3GB limit will be hit around mid-April 2018
The 4GB limit will be hit around mid-September 2019

Even taking that into account, which I think its actually December of 2018 for the DAG, ZEC is still far more profitable to mine right now and the difficulty is still far more constant than the exploding difficulty of Ethereum.

that might be true... but wise miner does not mine the most profitable coin right now but a bit in the future

I think Zcash will be more profitable from here on out for sure. But everyone has an opinion of course. 

[KaydenC]

Rx cards - Etash, Cryptonight
Nvidia - Equihash, Lbry, Lyra2rev2 and more.

Rx cards ROI in 2 months now, Nvidia in 3 months. Take your pick 

[gwestcot]

Rx cards - Etash, Cryptonight
Nvidia - Equihash, Lbry, Lyra2rev2 and more.

Rx cards ROI in 2 months now, Nvidia in 3 months. Take your pick 

This is with my residential electricty costs of .11 kwh but the ROI on a 1070 mining zcash is less than 60 days.

http://whattomine.com/coins/166-zec-equihash?utf8=%E2%9C%93&hr=480&p=137&fee=0.0&cost=0.11&hcost=367.99&commit=Calculate

[h311m4n]

So what will happen is when ETH goes to POS is all that hashing power will distribute to the other Ethash algo coins -- ETC, EXP, MUSIC. This will lower the profitability on those coins BUT with the way coin values are rising right now I'd still say RX cards are still the way to go now. I think we have half a year at least left before ETH POS hits.

The 10xx cards are expensive and use more power -- you'll get your RIO much sooner now gearing towards Ethash.

Also, thinking about the new Vega cards coming out... that should drop the price of RX cards much lower as well.

Meh. Eth have been talking about POS for ages. I'm not sure it is a direction that they really want to take. There's a lot a stake for the ETH network and switching to POS will mean that all the miners are going to switch over to something else like you say. To me POS sound more like the death of ether, then again that's just my opinion and I might be simple minded on this.

I mean lets be honest, every miner is in this for the money, not the coins themselves.

Some tend to say they're just trying to scare of asic makers by threatening to switch over to POS.

RX are pretty much the only way to go in terms of price/performance. I have my doubts about Vega. Rumors have the price point starting at 500-600$, that's a lot for a mining rig. I think your assumption that Vega will make the price on the RX cards drop is misguided. Too many people are getting into mining and stocks are drying up very fast everywhere. The demand is very high but supply seems low (at least where I live) having the effect to drive prices up. Depending on the price of the Vega cards, it's very likely the same thing will go on.

Have you seen the latest ROI on a GTX 1070 mining zcash? It is fluctuating in the 80-90 day range so no I think Nvidia is the way to go and for sure ETH will have to do something about that ever increasing DAG file. Zcash also has a much longer mining cycle left than any major altcoin which means a reasonable amount of stability with the difficulty staying relatively flat in comparison to the massive increase that has happened with ethereum of late. That added with the fact that by next year ETH will only be mineable by 8GB cards. I am not sure what the real solution will be because POS seems kind of unlikely but it is indeed a possibility.

Your ROI depends also on the price you pay for electricity and is based on the assumption zcash will stay or go above it's current price of ~250$. ZEC's price has a tendency to fluctuate hard compared to other coins.

I really like nvidia as a brand, but, and this is just my opinion, unless zec hits 500$ or more, I would still stick with ATI. The cards are cheaper, you can tweak and flash them and they're good for ETH, XMR, ZCASH etc. nVidia just don't have the same amount of flexibility.

To each his own opinion ^^

[Arek]

AMD has better option when it comes to mining software and usually when new algo shows up amd is the first one to get miner for it.
Nvidia has lower power consumption so if you have high electricity cost nvidia might be better for you.

[Jatnid]

AMD has better option when it comes to mining software and usually when new algo shows up amd is the first one to get miner for it.
Nvidia has lower power consumption so if you have high electricity cost nvidia might be better for you.

Things might change when Vega is out.

[sundownz]

I am building Nvidia and AMD systems as a nice hedge... the 1070 has impressed me with what it can do. Just have to find them at a good deal =)

[gwestcot]

I am building Nvidia and AMD systems as a nice hedge... the 1070 has impressed me with what it can do. Just have to find them at a good deal =)

Ya I have some of both types of rigs. I have about 540 Mh/s pointed at ETH while they dual mine DCR at 14000 MH/s. I only have one Nvidia rig that does about 2820 h/s but I am going to load up on 3 more Nvidia rigs in lieu of the price increase on zcash and overall because they are easier to work with in my experience. 

[QuintLeo]

Rx cards - Etash, Cryptonight
Nvidia - Equihash, Lbry, Lyra2rev2 and more.

Rx cards ROI in 2 months now, Nvidia in 3 months. Take your pick 

This is with my residential electricty costs of .11 kwh but the ROI on a 1070 mining zcash is less than 60 days.

http://whattomine.com/coins/166-zec-equihash?utf8=%E2%9C%93&hr=480&p=137&fee=0.0&cost=0.11&hcost=367.99&commit=Calculate

 1070 doesn't do 480 sol - more like 450 if you push it or get VERY lucky in the memory sweepstakes, and 400-420 if you tweek it for more EFFICIENT mining.
 It's still VERY profitable at this point though on quite a few coin options - as are ANY current-generation card.
 
 AMD ROI has been getting hammered the last week, as the RX 4xx cards run out FAST and are getting price-jacked bigtime on the few remainders, while the RX 5xx haven't had their production ramped up enough yet to make up the shortfall and are ALSO getting priced at a premium as a result.

 Newegg doesn't have that crazy-low deal on the Zotac mini running any more, but they commonly have at least ONE decent 1070 model on sale at 379 and usually a few to choose from.


 If you want WIDE price and network hashrate variations, look at the smaller cap coins like DGB and GAME and such. 50% bounce in profitability from one block to the next is COMMON down there.

[gwestcot]

Rx cards - Etash, Cryptonight
Nvidia - Equihash, Lbry, Lyra2rev2 and more.

Rx cards ROI in 2 months now, Nvidia in 3 months. Take your pick  

This is with my residential electricty costs of .11 kwh but the ROI on a 1070 mining zcash is less than 60 days.

http://whattomine.com/coins/166-zec-equihash?utf8=%E2%9C%93&hr=480&p=137&fee=0.0&cost=0.11&hcost=367.99&commit=Calculate

 1070 doesn't do 480 sol - more like 450 if you push it or get VERY lucky in the memory sweepstakes, and 400-420 if you tweek it for more EFFICIENT mining.
 It's still VERY profitable at this point though on quite a few coin options - as are ANY current-generation card.
 
 AMD ROI has been getting hammered the last week, as the RX 4xx cards run out FAST and are getting price-jacked bigtime on the few remainders, while the RX 5xx haven't had their production ramped up enough yet to make up the shortfall and are ALSO getting priced at a premium as a result.

 Newegg doesn't have that crazy-low deal on the Zotac mini running any more, but they commonly have at least ONE decent 1070 model on sale at 379 and usually a few to choose from.


 If you want WIDE price and network hashrate variations, look at the smaller cap coins like DGB and GAME and such. 50% bounce in profitability from one block to the next is COMMON down there.

I can guarantee you that you can get 470-480 with the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1070 Windforce and it is perfectly stable. I have heard of some people getting more than that but to be honest I haven't been that lucky myself. Obviously the profitability is lower than during the initial price hike but the ROI is still sitting at 90 days which is absolutely terrific. All of my rigs are paid off right now anyways so I don't care so much about ROI. I am maxed out in my home and I will be moving to a warehouse by the beginning of next year. I think I will wait until January though so I know what my tax bill will look like.  

[QuintLeo]

So what will happen is when ETH goes to POS is all that hashing power will distribute to the other Ethash algo coins

 It won't be that limited - most ETH is being mined by AMD cards, but those cards also work well on quite a few other algos.
 I expect to see probably the majority of those cards switch to ZEC, with a scattering to other algo coins like XMR that AMD cards are good on.

 I figure most of the NVidia cards on ETH (probably not very many, it's NOT even close to being the highest profit coins for most NVidia cards to mine) will move to ZEC, and a few to "all over".