Is Mining REALLY worth it?

[Einewton]

I see people post videos on youtube about how they paid off thier equiptment in the first month, and i see the uploaded date in youtube saying it was just 1 month ago.... Right now, I have about the same specs as that guy, and I don't see me paying this equiptment off for at LEAST 4 months if not more as the Diff level increases.

1.) The guy posted, and had well over 300 BitCoings for 1 month of mining..
2.) He showed the Mt. Gox website at $28 per Bitcoin.


I know this doesn't exist anymore... Just really discouraged today i guess... Wanted to get everyones input on the future of mining.

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[Welvis]

imo if it stays near $20 a coin then its profitable for me, otherwise if it keeps dropping to 13 or less then i'd think about stopping. I hear a lot that it will be going up in the future, this doesn't help me now if my power bill exceeds my cash flow

[HappyGuy]

Bitcoin offers several things right now - a way to easily send, to send money discretely, and a few others.  It does not offer free money.  If you want to invest in Bitcoin (under the assumption that it will go up in price and you will make money) you can do that by putting money into equipment and mining at a loss for the time being, or buy simply purchasing and holding bitcoins.  It is not a free money give away.

[atomictornado]

At this point you should be doing it for fun because the profit level just really isnt there.

[bitcon]

yea, if you want to make some money, wait until it drops down to $10 again and buy a bunch of coins. or you can buy some now at $15 and hope it goes to $30, but i think it will be a while before we see that again.  prices seem to be averaging at around $15 over the last few weeks.  ask yourself how much is it going to cost to get your rig going, and how many bitcoins you estimate it will mine in its lifetime minus electricity costs.. and then ask yourself how many bitcoins could i own if i used that rig / electricity money to buy them on the market.

[MtRev]

I say depends which country you live in

[NYConsultant]

Of course it's worth it; if you're a pool operator at least.   

[hsf_context]

Worth it if you have a great mining rig,
But it wouldn't hurt to earn bitcoins by other means. 

[Catharsis]

Christ, difficulty already at 156 while the price stays the same

Is the system designed to go up in difficulty along with price or with the amount of mining going on?
Because if the amount of miners is what changes difficulty it doesn't seem logical that so many new people get into mining with the difficulty spiraling upwards as it is.
I'd imagine mining right now for any individual is a net-loss, all things considered.

[abtcus]

Mining success depends on the current difficulty rate.

My understanding is that miners do a check every two weeks on how many blocks were solved, and adjusts the difficulty to reach a consistent rate of six blocks per hour. Mining can be worthwhile when either the price of btc are high or the difficulty is low.

[abtcus]

Christ, difficulty already at 156 while the price stays the same

Is the system designed to go up in difficulty along with price or with the amount of mining going on?
Because if the amount of miners is what changes difficulty it doesn't seem logical that so many new people get into mining with the difficulty spiraling upwards as it is.
I'd imagine mining right now for any individual is a net-loss, all things considered.

No, difficulty can drop. Miners strive for an average of 6 blocks solved per hour.

EDIT: reading your post more carefully: the system is designed to go up in difficulty with the amount of mining going on.

[John (John K.)]

Number of miners increase, difficulty increases 

[Catharsis]

That's what I thought, and that's why I'm confused as to why so many people keep getting into mining with it seemingly being a net loss at the moment.
I don't think that many people are as concerned with long term results as with short term profit, and short term profit wise it doesn't seem like the best choice to mine.

[deebug]

I am able to use some facilities (room, electricity, AC) from the firm where I work (IT), they are aware that I stock some "experiments" but that doesn't bother them a bit.  I consider it as an extra bonus. Other than that, I wouldn't recommend investing in a rig right now. The electricity consumer prices where I live are simply outrageous!

[rnd0000]

Hobbies are expensive sometimes. 

[mtbitcoin]

As a hobby and a participant of something bigger = Yes!

[Einewton]

I'm currently mining at a little over 1 Gh/s and it just feel's discouraging i guess.. I'm trying to think of products/services I can provide for people willing to pay in BitCoin. I guess I shouldn't put all of my eggs in one basket (mining)...

[skadoosh00]

I'm currently mining at a little over 1 Gh/s and it just feel's discouraging i guess.. I'm trying to think of products/services I can provide for people willing to pay in BitCoin. I guess I shouldn't put all of my eggs in one basket (mining)...

Over 1Gh/s? Think about us poor folk who can only manage to mine at 1/5 of that 

[mybitcoins]

I lose money by mining, but I still do it anyway because I find it gratifying. I'm certainly not investing in specific pieces of equipment to do it either. For me it's much easier to sell products and services instead since mining a single coin for me takes over a week now.

[Math Man]

I see people post videos on youtube about how they paid off thier equiptment in the first month, and i see the uploaded date in youtube saying it was just 1 month ago.... Right now, I have about the same specs as that guy, and I don't see me paying this equiptment off for at LEAST 4 months if not more as the Diff level increases.

1.) The guy posted, and had well over 300 BitCoings for 1 month of mining..
2.) He showed the Mt. Gox website at $28 per Bitcoin.


I know this doesn't exist anymore... Just really discouraged today i guess... Wanted to get everyones input on the future of mining.

I know how you feel.  I put together my rigs right after the last difficulty increase that made mining profitability decrease significantly.  Oh well, I never thought I'd make a significant amount of money on this hobby anyway.