[4+ EH] Slush Pool (slushpool.com); Overt AsicBoost; World First Mining Pool

[gourmet]

I agree. During the gold rush those making the most money were those selling the tools. With difficulty shooting for the moon the 10 GH/s blades I'm running will be obsolete soon. Anyone paying more than $10 a G/Hs is sure to loose money.

You know this thinking is fundamentally flawed, right? "Anyone paying more than $10 a g/his is sure to lose money". Under-schooled message forum economists have been saying that for months now, but the truth is nobody knows the future value of BTC, which if trending upwards blows your entire theory out of the water. Buying in BTC is one thing, and mining versus trading carry opportunity costs as any decision does, but you put it in terms of dollar returns and it's entirely based on a future value unknown. The misinformation is so widespread here I know it's pointless to try to enlighten folks, but if BTC goes up in value a lot of people will find themselves wearing The Emporer's New Clothes, hope you like the fit.

I'll concede that you may be correct. But only as far as wishing for a miracle. Even if BTC starts trading at $10,000 there is so much hashing power being added any ASIC we can buy will never reach ROI. Do you think the >20% increase in difficulty every 2k blocks is from people buying ASIC's on eBay? There are one or more entities out there pumping up some serious data centers full of ASICs. My theory is it is the outfit that was selling the ASICMiner Erupter Blades and Cubes. I can't remember who that was, one name leading the group was Friedkat or something, supposedly they started selling these units because they reached 30% of hashing power and for the health of the network stopped building and sold units instead. Supposedly they stopped selling them now because they "are working on a new model" Yeah, right, stop selling a profitable unit...my arse. GHash.IO exploded on the scene, so these guys stopped selling chips and resumed building. The two of them and probably others are in an arms race for the most coin, squashing us with these rises in difficulty, whatever the cause is I am far from being fundamentally flawed.

It's a nice fairy-tale to speak about taking into account furure BTC exchange rate.
But you buy the equipment today, for today's price. The equipment can mine limited amount of BTC during its life (before the difficulty eliminates any reasonable output). If you can buy the same amount of BTC for less $$ than the equipment today, it's sure better way to do it. The possible future growth of exchange rate is then your gain. In the case of the minig alternative, successful waiting for exchange rate increase would only be lowering your existing loss.

[edit]
Conclusion: (At least) the small USB minig devices that are available online now for delivery are overpriced, sometimes even several times their real value.

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[Savaron]

I have like 0.004 btc left in my account (beer money is always good), but can't pay it out. Can I send funds to my account to circumvent the minimum payment requirement?

Set your payout limit very high
Run some miners till you have more than the minimum payout
Then reduce your payout to the actual amount in the account

or sell your account details to a friend

I haven't mined in two years, so thats not an available options. No friends interested in bitcoin and I doubt anyone is interested, as it's only like three fiddy. Are those my only options?

[manubar82]

another option:

you could buy some hashing power via ebay and let them mine until you reached the payment limit.


OR let the bitcoins they have mined sit and gamble if bitcoins grow in their value.


have you tried contacting the pool supprt and asking if theiy could make an exception and just send you the BTC?

[Savaron]

I did, but didn't receive an answer yet. The higher value in fact was the reason I checked my old accounts on different mining pools as I would've thought they had lowered the minimum payout, but they probably like having those smaller amounts (which I guess are quite a few in total) tied up to their pool.

[Sir Alan]

... they probably like having those smaller amounts (which I guess are quite a few in total) tied up to their pool.

It's more likely to be the practical concern of not having to make vast numbers of tiny payments.  Some people would be sure to claim a few pence-worth of satoshi as soon as they earn them, which might overwhelm everything.

[gourmet]

... they probably like having those smaller amounts (which I guess are quite a few in total) tied up to their pool.

It's more likely to be the practical concern of not having to make vast numbers of tiny payments.  Some people would be sure to claim a few pence-worth of satoshi as soon as they earn them, which might overwhelm everything.

I think so too.
Maybe one could be allowed to ask for an arbitrarily low payout say once a month?

[shazo]

Just started to get into bitcoin mining.  I ran for about 5 hours using an old ati 5750 and was seeing nothing in one pool till I came to Slush.  I saw a little bit and decided to get an antminer after seeing someone post about it on here.  It is working great and I have been thinking about ordering 4 more off of amazon along with a USB fan for the hub I have.  Thing that bothers me is I have read on other sites that this is now pointless in doing, and that you will never see a profit from bitcoin mining even if you were to spend thousands of dollars on equipment.  So has this just become a hobby for people or is it something that a profit can be made from?  I didn't plan on ever making enough to retire from work, but I thought I would be able to at some point make a little.  I had hoped that eventually I would be able to get 1.5 coins with out spending much on equipment so I could get me a nice new graphics card.  After that maybe find a site that I could buy more equipment with bitcoins let it run and cash in.

[Trongersoll]

Just started to get into bitcoin mining.  I ran for about 5 hours using an old ati 5750 and was seeing nothing in one pool till I came to Slush.  I saw a little bit and decided to get an antminer after seeing someone post about it on here.  It is working great and I have been thinking about ordering 4 more off of amazon along with a USB fan for the hub I have.  Thing that bothers me is I have read on other sites that this is now pointless in doing, and that you will never see a profit from bitcoin mining even if you were to spend thousands of dollars on equipment.  So has this just become a hobby for people or is it something that a profit can be made from?  I didn't plan on ever making enough to retire from work, but I thought I would be able to at some point make a little.  I had hoped that eventually I would be able to get 1.5 coins with out spending much on equipment so I could get me a nice new graphics card.  After that maybe find a site that I could buy more equipment with bitcoins let it run and cash in.

Ever since the block erupters came out people said they were a wait, that people would never make their money back. Then the exchange rate went up 10 times the initial price. Nobody knows what the future holds, they only have guesses. I see the USB Ants as the current Erupters. On paper you'll probably lose, but paper doesn't know what the future holds. Just remember, As the difficulty goes up each piece of hardware you have will earn a bit less. But the price per Gh/s of new equipment should drop as the difficulty goes up.

Only you can decide what is worth it.

[eleuthria]

Just started to get into bitcoin mining.  I ran for about 5 hours using an old ati 5750 and was seeing nothing in one pool till I came to Slush.  I saw a little bit and decided to get an antminer after seeing someone post about it on here.  It is working great and I have been thinking about ordering 4 more off of amazon along with a USB fan for the hub I have.  Thing that bothers me is I have read on other sites that this is now pointless in doing, and that you will never see a profit from bitcoin mining even if you were to spend thousands of dollars on equipment.  So has this just become a hobby for people or is it something that a profit can be made from?  I didn't plan on ever making enough to retire from work, but I thought I would be able to at some point make a little.  I had hoped that eventually I would be able to get 1.5 coins with out spending much on equipment so I could get me a nice new graphics card.  After that maybe find a site that I could buy more equipment with bitcoins let it run and cash in.

Ever since the block erupters came out people said they were a wait, that people would never make their money back. Then the exchange rate went up 10 times the initial price. Nobody knows what the future holds, they only have guesses. I see the USB Ants as the current Erupters. On paper you'll probably lose, but paper doesn't know what the future holds. Just remember, As the difficulty goes up each piece of hardware you have will earn a bit less. But the price per Gh/s of new equipment should drop as the difficulty goes up.

Only you can decide what is worth it.

One fun thing to note is the argument people will always make:  You'd have been better off buying BTC than buying a miner.  This is mostly true, if the person doing the investing is rational, patient, and holds true to their investment decision.

I have first hand evidence of friends who I recommended not purchase miners at a certain point for that same reason.  They did so anyways.  And they made more off the miners than they would have buying BTC.  Not because of any failure in my math, but a failure in assumptions.  The "buy BTC instead" argument doesn't work if somebody would have cashed out their coins after a reasonable rise.  Such as cashing out the coins they purchased after a 30% gain.  My friends absolutely would have done that, and been happy with a $300 profit after a month.  Instead, they had to sell their coins slowly as they mined them.  They ended up more than doubling their investment because even though they sold coins continuously, they ended up selling at significantly more than a 30% gain over the price when they had purchased their miners.

So a wise, patient, and true believer, investing in BTC would be better off putting their money directly into coins, and following a strict selloff plan.  But those types of investors are rare (though many believe they are that type).  Human emotion is an extremely large factor in trading, especially on highly volatile markets like Bitcoin.

[organofcorti]

One fun thing to note is the argument people will always make:  You'd have been better off buying BTC than buying a miner.  This is mostly true, if the person doing the investing is rational, patient, and holds true to their investment decision.

However, if you're trying to figure out what a fair price for an ASIC is/has been, comparing to buy and hold is the only useful way to assess your return.

[aurel57]

Just started to get into bitcoin mining.  I ran for about 5 hours using an old ati 5750 and was seeing nothing in one pool till I came to Slush.  I saw a little bit and decided to get an antminer after seeing someone post about it on here.  It is working great and I have been thinking about ordering 4 more off of amazon along with a USB fan for the hub I have.  Thing that bothers me is I have read on other sites that this is now pointless in doing, and that you will never see a profit from bitcoin mining even if you were to spend thousands of dollars on equipment.  So has this just become a hobby for people or is it something that a profit can be made from?  I didn't plan on ever making enough to retire from work, but I thought I would be able to at some point make a little.  I had hoped that eventually I would be able to get 1.5 coins with out spending much on equipment so I could get me a nice new graphics card.  After that maybe find a site that I could buy more equipment with bitcoins let it run and cash in.

Ever since the block erupters came out people said they were a wait, that people would never make their money back. Then the exchange rate went up 10 times the initial price. Nobody knows what the future holds, they only have guesses. I see the USB Ants as the current Erupters. On paper you'll probably lose, but paper doesn't know what the future holds. Just remember, As the difficulty goes up each piece of hardware you have will earn a bit less. But the price per Gh/s of new equipment should drop as the difficulty goes up.

Only you can decide what is worth it.

One fun thing to note is the argument people will always make:  You'd have been better off buying BTC than buying a miner.  This is mostly true, if the person doing the investing is rational, patient, and holds true to their investment decision.

I have first hand evidence of friends who I recommended not purchase miners at a certain point for that same reason.  They did so anyways.  And they made more off the miners than they would have buying BTC.  Not because of any failure in my math, but a failure in assumptions.  The "buy BTC instead" argument doesn't work if somebody would have cashed out their coins after a reasonable rise.  Such as cashing out the coins they purchased after a 30% gain.  My friends absolutely would have done that, and been happy with a $300 profit after a month.  Instead, they had to sell their coins slowly as they mined them.  They ended up more than doubling their investment because even though they sold coins continuously, they ended up selling at significantly more than a 30% gain over the price when they had purchased their miners.

So a wise, patient, and true believer, investing in BTC would be better off putting their money directly into coins, and following a strict selloff plan.  But those types of investors are rare (though many believe they are that type).  Human emotion is an extremely large factor in trading, especially on highly volatile markets like Bitcoin.

so true! I bought 30 BTC at $130 each to buy 15 BE from Canary at 1.99 BTC each.... Then when the price of BTC hit over a $1000 and all I had was 3 BTC because I spent my  earned coins on more BE's.... I thought if I only had held onto them 30  coins instead of buying the miners... But then I would have sold the coins at ? I really don't think I wold have held out till $1000 or more before selling. It's easy to look back and think what if... But it's hard when you don't know what tomorrow brings.

[ccualumni]

I am just curious what kind of money people are making on Slush's pool and whether or not I am on track for what I should be making.


I have been mining for a couple of days or so using a USB antminer and a block eruptor and have made the following:

Total reward: 0.00092755 BTC




Average hashrate in last 10 rounds: 1851 Mhash/s

Thanks

[gourmet]

One fun thing to note is the argument people will always make:  You'd have been better off buying BTC than buying a miner.  This is mostly true, if the person doing the investing is rational, patient, and holds true to their investment decision.

However, if you're trying to figure out what a fair price for an ASIC is/has been, comparing to buy and hold is the only useful way to assess your return.

That's it.
Maximum reasonable price for an ASIC is the (current!) price of the amount of BTC that it would mine before its power is exhausted by difficulty growth.

[shazo]

Thanks for the input.  I think I will end up buying the other 4 antminers.  About how long do they last as I have read that at best you will get 0.02 out of one.  I'm guessing after that they no longer work.  I have been running mine for about 30 hours and last I looked I was getting about 1.49Gh/s.

I am just curious what kind of money people are making on Slush's pool and whether or not I am on track for what I should be making.


I have been mining for a couple of days or so using a USB antminer and a block eruptor and have made the following:

Total reward: 0.00092755 BTC




Average hashrate in last 10 rounds: 1851 Mhash/s

Thanks

As I said above I only have the one antminer and running for about 30 hours and it has bounced from 1.49 to 1.8.  My numbers currently look like:

Estimated:  0.00004579 BTC
Unconfirmed:  0.00018750 BTC
Confirmed:  0.00035310 BTC
Total:  0.00054060 BTC

Average hashrate in last 10 rounds: 1451 Mhash/s

About 0.000006xx was from my graphics card before I got my antminer.  If that is good or not I'm not sure.

One more question.  I saw a comment on one forum saying that the antminers are going for around 20 bucks each.  The cheapest I have been able to find a 1.6Gh/s one is 50 and that was on eBay.  What is a good price for them?

[J_Dubbs]

Just started to get into bitcoin mining.  I ran for about 5 hours using an old ati 5750 and was seeing nothing in one pool till I came to Slush.  I saw a little bit and decided to get an antminer after seeing someone post about it on here.  It is working great and I have been thinking about ordering 4 more off of amazon along with a USB fan for the hub I have.  Thing that bothers me is I have read on other sites that this is now pointless in doing, and that you will never see a profit from bitcoin mining even if you were to spend thousands of dollars on equipment.  So has this just become a hobby for people or is it something that a profit can be made from?  I didn't plan on ever making enough to retire from work, but I thought I would be able to at some point make a little.  I had hoped that eventually I would be able to get 1.5 coins with out spending much on equipment so I could get me a nice new graphics card.  After that maybe find a site that I could buy more equipment with bitcoins let it run and cash in.

Ever since the block erupters came out people said they were a wait, that people would never make their money back. Then the exchange rate went up 10 times the initial price. Nobody knows what the future holds, they only have guesses. I see the USB Ants as the current Erupters. On paper you'll probably lose, but paper doesn't know what the future holds. Just remember, As the difficulty goes up each piece of hardware you have will earn a bit less. But the price per Gh/s of new equipment should drop as the difficulty goes up.

Only you can decide what is worth it.

One fun thing to note is the argument people will always make:  You'd have been better off buying BTC than buying a miner.  This is mostly true, if the person doing the investing is rational, patient, and holds true to their investment decision.

I have first hand evidence of friends who I recommended not purchase miners at a certain point for that same reason.  They did so anyways.  And they made more off the miners than they would have buying BTC.  Not because of any failure in my math, but a failure in assumptions.  The "buy BTC instead" argument doesn't work if somebody would have cashed out their coins after a reasonable rise.  Such as cashing out the coins they purchased after a 30% gain.  My friends absolutely would have done that, and been happy with a $300 profit after a month.  Instead, they had to sell their coins slowly as they mined them.  They ended up more than doubling their investment because even though they sold coins continuously, they ended up selling at significantly more than a 30% gain over the price when they had purchased their miners.

So a wise, patient, and true believer, investing in BTC would be better off putting their money directly into coins, and following a strict selloff plan.  But those types of investors are rare (though many believe they are that type).  Human emotion is an extremely large factor in trading, especially on highly volatile markets like Bitcoin.

so true! I bought 30 BTC at $130 each to buy 15 BE from Canary at 1.99 BTC each.... Then when the price of BTC hit over a $1000 and all I had was 3 BTC because I spent my  earned coins on more BE's.... I thought if I only had held onto them 30  coins instead of buying the miners... But then I would have sold the coins at ? I really don't think I wold have held out till $1000 or more before selling. It's easy to look back and think what if... But it's hard when you don't know what tomorrow brings.

Well said. I make this point a lot, about the psychological forces associated with trading and cost basis. Decision when to lock profit can often be more stressful than covering a loss. Mining has a whole different set of hardware purchase addiction. As Mises said in Profit and Loss, "In retrospect, all fools become wise."

[gourmet]

There's a continuing/repeating issue with the graphs.
I can't speak about System daily reward, but Your daily reward is falling behind the reality by one day.
Fortunately, the reward values are associated with the right dates, but they together are lagging one day. Today, the reward for January 29^th have occured after midnight UTC, while the last completed day, yesterday, was January 30^th.

[ccualumni]

My multiminer says I am making about $0.50 per day, which is about what slush's pool shows.

It would seem like you could make more than that.

I paid about $60 for mine, but did not do a ton of searching.

[gourmet]

I think I will end up buying the other 4 antminers.  About how long do they last as I have read that at best you will get 0.02 out of one.  I'm guessing after that they no longer work.  I have been running mine for about 30 hours and last I looked I was getting about 1.49Gh/s.

(...)

One more question.  I saw a comment on one forum saying that the antminers are going for around 20 bucks each.  The cheapest I have been able to find a 1.6Gh/s one is 50 and that was on eBay.  What is a good price for them?

If at best you will get 0.02 out of one then the highest reasonable price for it is about $20. I've also only seen offers several times higher. But... looks like there are still some people willing to spend it...

[ccualumni]

I think I will end up buying the other 4 antminers.  About how long do they last as I have read that at best you will get 0.02 out of one.  I'm guessing after that they no longer work.  I have been running mine for about 30 hours and last I looked I was getting about 1.49Gh/s.

(...)

One more question.  I saw a comment on one forum saying that the antminers are going for around 20 bucks each.  The cheapest I have been able to find a 1.6Gh/s one is 50 and that was on eBay.  What is a good price for them?

If at best you will get 0.02 out of one then the highest reasonable price for it is about $20. I've also only seen offers several times higher. But... looks like there are still some people willing to spend it...

Where are you finding the USB antminers for $20?

[gourmet]

I think I will end up buying the other 4 antminers.  About how long do they last as I have read that at best you will get 0.02 out of one.  I'm guessing after that they no longer work.  I have been running mine for about 30 hours and last I looked I was getting about 1.49Gh/s.

(...)

One more question.  I saw a comment on one forum saying that the antminers are going for around 20 bucks each.  The cheapest I have been able to find a 1.6Gh/s one is 50 and that was on eBay.  What is a good price for them?

If at best you will get 0.02 out of one then the highest reasonable price for it is about $20. I've also only seen offers several times higher. But... looks like there are still some people willing to spend it...

Where are you finding the USB antminers for $20?

Where can you see I'm finding USB antminers for $20?