Has the ship sailed on mining profitability?

[Hugo St Angelo]

I found this cool pooled mining club that allows you to MINE WITHOUT RIGS!!
And helps you stay ahead of the difficulty curve!
The address is www.bit39.com
ref. # 0238-404

[harik]

I found this cool pooled mining club that allows you to MINE WITHOUT RIGS!!
And helps you stay ahead of the difficulty curve!
The address is www.bit39.com
ref. # 0238-404

Hay look another ponzi scheme.   Hint: It's a scam and there's no mining going on.

[Hugo St Angelo]

I found this cool pooled mining club that allows you to MINE WITHOUT RIGS!!
And helps you stay ahead of the difficulty curve!
The address is www.bit39.com
ref. # 0238-404

Hay look another ponzi scheme.   Hint: It's a scam and there's no mining going on.

Hey look, how do you think I got my 3 coins to pledge to begin with you idiot?
Of course there's mining going on, we are just extrapolating our efforts with this club is all.
As far as Ponzi, no one is promising rewards that are not already there and earned you dumb Barney Madoff faggot!

Join me once your brain clears itself of banker propoganda and you begin to see clearly the difference between the power of ancient technology and those that would like to sully your brain with foolishness, fear and mental incapacity. My ref # is 0238-404

 

[helmetedwarrior]

One day validating transactions will become ubiquitous.  Bitcoin miners will become the equivalent of banktellers...they can make a living but not a good one.

I wouldn't be surprised if one day the process of validating transactions is done by the same client that you check your bitcoin balance with.  This would effectively put Bitcoin miners out of work.

Hedghog

[smoothie]

You forgot to mention in your list:

4. Current Difficulty
5. Current amount of bitcoins per block (now is 50, but in a few years it will be 25).

Once it hits 25 i believe the price will have to at least double from its current value at that time.

Twice less bitcoins on top of the difficulty increases, gosh...

Thinks (suit cases of cash and laptops full of bitcoins)

[WillMitchell]

The days of profiting from mining are over. There is still great opportunity in other Bitcoin Methods, you just have to be creative. Ride the wave people.

[kokojie]

I disagree, we will never see 10M difficulty, as long as BTC price stays below $20. You have to remember difficulty is a lagging indicator of BTC price, we already see that difficulty has leveled off, at the current rate, the next difficulty will just be a 10% jump, and then it's possible that we will be seeing a difficulty decrease (IF price stay below $20).

The problem I see in all of this analysis of bitcoin mining is that you cannot predict the price of BTC that you need to sell to pay for your mining costs. I'm mining with 6950s (stock because I ended up with cards I can't unlock the shaders on - oh well ) I'm getting around 355MHash/s each (900MHz which is as high as I can go locked)

Right now at ~$15/BTC and paying .1/kwh in electricity, mining ceases to be profitable at a difficulty of 10000000 for a single stock 6950. That's over 7 times the current difficulty! Are we headed there? Yes we are. Will BTC stay at $15, crash to $1 or go up to $100? Nobody knows. But right now? I'm earning $$$ to pay off my rigs, and at the very least should be able to recoup enough to break even if I sell my stuff used. But if I pay the rigs off, then it becomes a pure equation of power costs.

So will I pay off my rigs? Only time will tell and it all depends on the market and $/BTC.

But lets say difficulty skyrockets in a month's time and profits vaporize. We actually see a drop in network processing. Then BTC jumps to, say $50/BTC. Miners will pile back in.

Bottom line is NOBODY can predict difficulty, GPU advances, or $/BTC. Just like the day traders, mining has risk. As it should be.

[catcherintherye]

I think the ship has sailed but not quite yet. Still some profitability left.

[wamatt]

Definitely think its cyclical. Today Botnets are "winning" cos cheapest to run. As input costs are almost free:

• Stolen electricity
  
• Compromised hardware supply the infrastructure

[lateminer]

I think my username speaks for itself :\

[ahitman]

The problem with starting now is that if the exchange rate stays around where it is now, and even if the difficulty slows its rise, you will still not pay off your rigs. You will get less and less BTC each difficulty increase, which means less $ to pay for your hardware.
If starting today, its possible you will never pay off your hardware. There is always a chance that BTC value will rise, but don't expect difficulty to ever go down, too many people doing this on paid off rigs and as a hobby to make that happen.

[lateminer]

Don't you wish you purchased a godly rig in 2009? Cha-Ching, early adopter status. 

[Gameover211]

You might not be able to retire from BC mining. However, if computers are your hobby and you're buying equipment that you'd use for other purposes (e.g. gaming) where is the downside? Just don't buy equipment that you can't afford, and it'll work out.

This is my approach, stick within your means and it should work out. Plus you get to watch a new form or currency grow and succeed or die.