A case study in entry-level mining

[ooeygooeygold]

Have you thought about investing in an asic stock on btct or bitfunder? Probably would get a better return then a CD

[LogicalUnit]

UPDATE!! 2013-08-06

My first CD has matured, and I have paid out all my mining profits. Not as much as I'd hoped, but now I have some liquidity. What will be my next move?

Buy more AMUs? Buy alternative hardware? Another CD? Cash out to fiat? Invest in shares or derivatives?

Give me a suggestion with a rationale and I will consider it!!

[batt01]

I have some BTC in Activemining, and Addiction shares. Right now I am putting the  BTC made by my 5 Block Erupters into Activemining, I also think LabRat mining looks attractive. You can do your own due diligence. I may buy a few more Block Erupters, but It may make more sense to buy mining shares. I have decided to do both, with more fund going to mining shares and a lesser amount into BEs.

[davewr2013]

This is a great thread. You went about it in a logical ordered way.

You might be able to churn some coin in small amounts -- but you really should find some "high horsepower" units. As I said in another thread -- I think the Terra-Hash will be the new starter unit -- probably by December -- certainly by January 2014. The ASIC chips should be there by then.

There will be fewer ASIC/FPGA chip providers and the field will get a little more complex. The ASICS will likely be the only profitable chips -- the slower ASICS will likely be reduced to "Hobby Configurations".

200 GHash/sec should be OK through November -- minimum 400GHash from November on with 600-800GHash possibly being profitable-- with a TerraHash being the starter for January February.

This is based on two weeks of digging though all the technical specs I could find and doing a little work with the difficulty equations as related to Bitcoin mining. Today and for the next few weeks chip supply of Avalon and others will determine market direction -- and it ain't great at this moment -- but that could change by morning -- or not.

Feel Free to remind me of my predictions in January should I prove wrong.

Just my opinion -- YMMMV.

[xTachibana]

its a real shame that you cant mine scrypt with block erupters

[Thylacine]

For all the naysayers whining about how obviously unprofitable this set up is - don't forget that it's not all about profitability for many people.

I'm in a similar situation. I overspent on a couple of USB Erupters that were being sold in my area in-hand, and am comfortably hashing away at a measly 660MH/s. I knew it would never be profitable, and I would barely make my money back on the hardware costs (a Belkin USB hub thrown in as well).

However, I'm interested in the BTC ecosystem and hardware, and wanted to have a try at getting everything set up as a hobbyist. Hobbyists are good for the network, and good for general adoption and uptake by the public. For what it's worth, for a while there I also ran a Tor relay via a small AWS instance at a loss, simply because I think the network has value.

I'm getting so sick of pre-orders and PCB diagrams on websites, the draw of hardware that was actually delivered was too strong!

Solid thread OP...

[xTachibana]

For all the naysayers whining about how obviously unprofitable this set up is - don't forget that it's not all about profitability for many people.

I'm in a similar situation. I overspent on a couple of USB Erupters that were being sold in my area in-hand, and am comfortably hashing away at a measly 660MH/s. I knew it would never be profitable, and I would barely make my money back on the hardware costs (a Belkin USB hub thrown in as well).

However, I'm interested in the BTC ecosystem and hardware, and wanted to have a try at getting everything set up as a hobbyist. Hobbyists are good for the network, and good for general adoption and uptake by the public. For what it's worth, for a while there I also ran a Tor relay via a small AWS instance at a loss, simply because I think the network has value.

I'm getting so sick of pre-orders and PCB diagrams on websites, the draw of hardware that was actually delivered was too strong!

Solid thread OP...

naysayers :O were there some of those? havent read through them all, tbh, its not all about profit, and most of it is just for the fun of it, but making some nice money on the side mining TRC to BTC is <3 (trc on average over 1 month is 20% more profitable, and up to 400+% iirc)

[batt01]

For all the naysayers whining about how obviously unprofitable this set up is - don't forget that it's not all about profitability for many people.

I'm in a similar situation. I overspent on a couple of USB Erupters that were being sold in my area in-hand, and am comfortably hashing away at a measly 660MH/s. I knew it would never be profitable, and I would barely make my money back on the hardware costs (a Belkin USB hub thrown in as well).

However, I'm interested in the BTC ecosystem and hardware, and wanted to have a try at getting everything set up as a hobbyist. Hobbyists are good for the network, and good for general adoption and uptake by the public. For what it's worth, for a while there I also ran a Tor relay via a small AWS instance at a loss, simply because I think the network has value.

I'm getting so sick of pre-orders and PCB diagrams on websites, the draw of hardware that was actually delivered was too strong!

Solid thread OP...

naysayers :O were there some of those? havent read through them all, tbh, its not all about profit, and most of it is just for the fun of it, but making some nice money on the side mining TRC to BTC is <3 (trc on average over 1 month is 20% more profitable, and up to 400+% iirc)

Prices are really dropping on Asic Miiner gear. I have just order a few more for .38 BTC. I am into more for the hobby. I am really temped to get a Blade with the new pricing I am seeing.

[xTachibana]

For all the naysayers whining about how obviously unprofitable this set up is - don't forget that it's not all about profitability for many people.

I'm in a similar situation. I overspent on a couple of USB Erupters that were being sold in my area in-hand, and am comfortably hashing away at a measly 660MH/s. I knew it would never be profitable, and I would barely make my money back on the hardware costs (a Belkin USB hub thrown in as well).

However, I'm interested in the BTC ecosystem and hardware, and wanted to have a try at getting everything set up as a hobbyist. Hobbyists are good for the network, and good for general adoption and uptake by the public. For what it's worth, for a while there I also ran a Tor relay via a small AWS instance at a loss, simply because I think the network has value.

I'm getting so sick of pre-orders and PCB diagrams on websites, the draw of hardware that was actually delivered was too strong!

Solid thread OP...

naysayers :O were there some of those? havent read through them all, tbh, its not all about profit, and most of it is just for the fun of it, but making some nice money on the side mining TRC to BTC is <3 (trc on average over 1 month is 20% more profitable, and up to 400+% iirc)

Prices are really dropping on Asic Miiner gear. I have just order a few more for .38 BTC. I am into more for the hobby. I am really temped to get a Blade with the new pricing I am seeing.

as fun as it is for a hobby, you know it would be nice if you made a profit i suspect BTC price will keep rising after a short dip below 100, so even if we arent making profit now, all the btc we save up will be worth it when the prices go to 150+

[Xodust99]

How much does this set up actually bring in weekly at the current difficulty?

Looking to set this up myself as a hobby/experiment but wondering how much of a loss I'll be facing 

Figure it's more interesting than just buying coins all the time haha. 

[xTachibana]

How much does this set up actually bring in weekly at the current difficulty?

Looking to set this up myself as a hobby/experiment but wondering how much of a loss I'll be facing 

Figure it's more interesting than just buying coins all the time haha. 

it depends on what you mean by this setup, do you mean the same amount of block erupters, or do you mean the amount of block erupters you could get with the 13 he used on erupters (he only as 5)


5 erupters on bitminter would get you around .02 or so btc per day right now, on the other hand, 13 btc worth of erupters (34 of them) would get you .13~ btc per day

the math is based on how much i get with my 1 keep in mind that you get less and less per day (but the price of btc goes up and up lately so it doesnt matter)

[Trongersoll]

How much does this set up actually bring in weekly at the current difficulty?

Looking to set this up myself as a hobby/experiment but wondering how much of a loss I'll be facing 

Figure it's more interesting than just buying coins all the time haha. 

I made BTC 0.00360783 in the last 24 hours on one Erupter. Yeah, i have one erupter pointed at it's own account on one of the major pools.

[xTachibana]

How much does this set up actually bring in weekly at the current difficulty?

Looking to set this up myself as a hobby/experiment but wondering how much of a loss I'll be facing 

Figure it's more interesting than just buying coins all the time haha. 

I made BTC 0.00360783 in the last 24 hours on one Erupter. Yeah, i have one erupter pointed at it's own account on one of the major pools.

i get a bit more on bitminter on a good day

[wot_guppy]

UPDATE!! 2013-08-06

My first CD has matured, and I have paid out all my mining profits. Not as much as I'd hoped, but now I have some liquidity. What will be my next move?

Buy more AMUs? Buy alternative hardware? Another CD? Cash out to fiat? Invest in shares or derivatives?

Give me a suggestion with a rationale and I will consider it!!

This is probably way too late but what the heck ...     

Since you seem more on the hobbyist level (like me), you may want to consider doing something different than what you've already done, to increase your learning.

You have some mining hardware, and you're mining BTC, so you've "done that".

You made the loan, and had it work out well.

So maybe the securities, or mine another SHA256coin other than Bitcoin, or possibly even start building a non-SHA256 mining setup?

Curious to hear what you do ..


-wot_gup

[xTachibana]

UPDATE!! 2013-08-06

My first CD has matured, and I have paid out all my mining profits. Not as much as I'd hoped, but now I have some liquidity. What will be my next move?

Buy more AMUs? Buy alternative hardware? Another CD? Cash out to fiat? Invest in shares or derivatives?

Give me a suggestion with a rationale and I will consider it!!

This is probably way too late but what the heck ...     

Since you seem more on the hobbyist level (like me), you may want to consider doing something different than what you've already done, to increase your learning.

You have some mining hardware, and you're mining BTC, so you've "done that".

You made the loan, and had it work out well.

So maybe the securities, or mine another SHA256coin other than Bitcoin, or possibly even start building a non-SHA256 mining setup?

Curious to hear what you do ..


-wot_gup

what exactly do you mean by a non sha256 mining setup, and as for mining other coins, atm the only sha close to bitcoin in profit is ppcoin, which is at 80~% of bitcoin, and Terracoin is doing god awful

[daemondazz]

Non-SHA would be any of the Scrypt based coins. You'll need to use a GPU though, as none of the SHA ASICs will work on those coins.

[xTachibana]

Non-SHA would be any of the Scrypt based coins. You'll need to use a GPU though, as none of the SHA ASICs will work on those coins.

at the current price of asics, you can get 1980 mhash for the same price of 500khash (7950), also, according to coinwarz AND dustcoin, bitcoin is the most profitable coin right now

(although when its gpu vs gpu mining, scrypt makes more profit, what im saying is that you would make more mining with asics on bitcoin rather than investing in graphics card)

[daemondazz]

I'm not sure what all the fuss about current profitability of one coin versus another is on these forums, unless you are selling the coins at the instant you generate them. Surely you'd hold on to them and then choose a time to sell them when it is profitable to do so? Or just hold on to them an speculate the price will take off like BTC has over the last 6 months.

If you were mining BTC back in 2009/2010 and they were worth a few cents each (where most of the altcoins are now) they wouldn't have looked so profitable then either!

[Trongersoll]

I'm not sure what all the fuss about current profitability of one coin versus another is on these forums, unless you are selling the coins at the instant you generate them. Surely you'd hold on to them and then choose a time to sell them when it is profitable to do so? Or just hold on to them an speculate the price will take off like BTC has over the last 6 months.

If you were mining BTC back in 2009/2010 and they were worth a few cents each (where most of the altcoins are now) they wouldn't have looked so profitable then either!

Some of us actually spend them, like you know, Money.

[daemondazz]

Some of us actually spend them, like you know, Money.

Yes, but you don't spend them the instant they are generated do you? The point I'm trying to make is that I've seen people saying "I work out the most profitable coin on a minute to minute basis and mine that". That makes no sense to me - it makes more sense to me to mine each coin for a day, week, whatever and spend or sell when the exchange rate makes it worth while.