Is it possible to realistically break even mining anymore?

[Bitweasil]

The most readily available ASIC is the Block Erupter USB which hashes @ 336MH/s. I paid BTC 2.6 each, but now you can get them for BTC 0.55 each. It's a much better deal, but you might still have trouble making ROI.

Check out my case study here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=224015.0

I have one, its mining 0.35cents a day. That will still take me 200 days to get my $70 investment back. << Not counting complications

I dont know, do you count increase in difficulty every retarget?

70 / 0.35 = 200 - so no, that calculation assumes difficulty remains static.  In other news, "Hope is not a strategy."  If one assumes about 13 days per difficulty adjustment (target is 14, but we regularly are running well faster than difficulty and ramping up quickly), that's only another 15 difficulty adjustments away!  At... 20-30% per adjustment.

At a 20% jump per step, that's ~15x the current difficulty (1.2^15), so that 0.35/day is actually around 0.02/day.

Does that count as a "complication"?

Or should I just hope more?

[millsdmb]

Personally I believe the best option is to go in strong. If you're serious then spend big, rack up a few avalons, make some coins then sell them off, people pay a lot for them. You'll get what you paid for your avalons back and you've got yourself a little bitcoin nest egg for your trouble.

"If buying one unprofitable miner isn't appealing to you, buy a lot of unprofitable miners!  And then hope you can manage a net profit by selling them off to someone else who can't do the math!"

I did this selling block erupters on ebay, just so I could keep one to hobby mine for free =D

[Viceroy]

Bitcoin mining investment might do well after all in USD terms, despite what D&T said above (absolutely correctly). However, risk/reward in BTC terms is horrible. It almost always was like that in history of Bitcoin.

Buy (and/or exchange for labor/goods/service/etc) and hold BTC long term is by far the best way to play this game.

Says the biggest miner in the universe....

[demzie]

"If buying one unprofitable miner isn't appealing to you, buy a lot of unprofitable miners!  And then hope you can manage a net profit by selling them off to someone else who can't do the math!"

+10000

This is really what happens right now.

[bohdan87]

It is still possible to break even. Take KNC Miner for instance, they offer high hashing power ASICs at good prices. Assuming they deliver by October/November, you can definitely still make a ROI. You can find more information about their ASICs and prices at https://www.kncminer.com/

Good Luck.

Mod note: removed affiliate link

[Bitweasil]

It is still possible to break even. Take KNC Miner for instance, they offer high hashing power ASICs at good prices. Assuming they deliver by October/November, you can definitely still make a ROI. You can find more information about their ASICs and prices at https://www.kncminer.com/

Good Luck.

Cute.  Spamming reseller links.

Also, "Assuming they deliver by October/November" is a big assumption.  So far, all the ASIC vendors have been delayed, some substantially.  If they're delayed a few months, those calculations shift significantly.

[CoinChex]

It is still possible to break even. Take KNC Miner for instance, they offer high hashing power ASICs at good prices. Assuming they deliver by October/November, you can definitely still make a ROI. You can find more information about their ASICs and prices at https://www.kncminer.com/.

Good Luck.

Cute.  Spamming reseller links.

Also, "Assuming they deliver by October/November" is a big assumption.  So far, all the ASIC vendors have been delayed, some substantially.  If they're delayed a few months, those calculations shift significantly.

What I love about this post is "all the ASIC vendors have been delayed, some substantially".  Throughout the forums and on this thread, the concensus seems to be that difficulty will skyrocket to 500m come Dec because of the huge influx of ASICs to the network hashrate.  Guess what, if all the ASIC companies so far have been delayed is it really logical to assume we will see an order of 10x magnitude in 3-4 months?  I seriously doubt Cointerra, Avalon, Butterfly, KnC, Hashfast, Bitfury, ASICMiner and every other little guy will deliver ALL their ASICs on time.  At best I think you see 2-4 vendors deliver solid goods in the next 3-4 months.

Take into account that a 10x magnitude would be roughly a 10x increase in hash rate, putting the network something like 4,000 TH/s in the next 3-4 months.  So 3,600 TH/s get delivered in 3-4 months, sounds like ALOT more happy customers than the ASIC community has been seeing lately....

The fact of the matter is, the assumptions about ROI and difficulty leveling off are also correct.  Once the industry realizes adding machines isn't adding to productivity/returns then orders will start to fall off and the craze will definitely fade back.  Until then, it leaves alot of room for companies to deliver on their ASIC promises.

[zackclark70]

mining altcoins can make a rig pay for its self every 50 days easly  ( as long as you pick a good coin to mine )

[FeedbackLoop]

It is still possible to break even. Take KNC Miner for instance, they offer high hashing power ASICs at good prices. Assuming they deliver by October/November, you can definitely still make a ROI. You can find more information about their ASICs and prices at https://www.kncminer.com/.

Good Luck.

Cute.  Spamming reseller links.

Also, "Assuming they deliver by October/November" is a big assumption.  So far, all the ASIC vendors have been delayed, some substantially.  If they're delayed a few months, those calculations shift significantly.

What I love about this post is "all the ASIC vendors have been delayed, some substantially".  Throughout the forums and on this thread, the concensus seems to be that difficulty will skyrocket to 500m come Dec because of the huge influx of ASICs to the network hashrate.  Guess what, if all the ASIC companies so far have been delayed is it really logical to assume we will see an order of 10x magnitude in 3-4 months?  I seriously doubt Cointerra, Avalon, Butterfly, KnC, Hashfast, Bitfury, ASICMiner and every other little guy will deliver ALL their ASICs on time.  At best I think you see 2-4 vendors deliver solid goods in the next 3-4 months.

Take into account that a 10x magnitude would be roughly a 10x increase in hash rate, putting the network something like 4,000 TH/s in the next 3-4 months.  So 3,600 TH/s get delivered in 3-4 months, sounds like ALOT more happy customers than the ASIC community has been seeing lately....

The fact of the matter is, the assumptions about ROI and difficulty leveling off are also correct.  Once the industry realizes adding machines isn't adding to productivity/returns then orders will start to fall off and the craze will definitely fade back.  Until then, it leaves alot of room for companies to deliver on their ASIC promises.

...unless someone just bypassed the customers and is now producing chips in mass for own consumption:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=272548.0  

[GSnak]

70 / 0.35 = 200 - so no, that calculation assumes difficulty remains static.  In other news, "Hope is not a strategy."  If one assumes about 13 days per difficulty adjustment (target is 14, but we regularly are running well faster than difficulty and ramping up quickly), that's only another 15 difficulty adjustments away!  At... 20-30% per adjustment.

At a 20% jump per step, that's ~15x the current difficulty (1.2^15), so that 0.35/day is actually around 0.02/day.

Does that count as a "complication"?

Or should I just hope more?

On the bright side, you'll probably only be out about $35.

mining altcoins can make a rig pay for its self every 50 days easly  ( as long as you pick a good coin to mine )

[Viceroy]

If we are going to be smoking weed and imagining things... "I have a litecoin miner that paid for itself in 144 hours".

[zackclark70]

If we are going to be smoking weed and imagining things... "I have a litecoin miner that paid for itself in 144 hours".

lol if you pick the right altcoin you can make your rig costs back very quickly

[millsdmb]

If we are going to be smoking weed and imagining things... "I have a litecoin miner that paid for itself in 144 hours".

lol if you pick the right altcoin you can make your rig costs back very quickly

[zackclark70]

If we are going to be smoking weed and imagining things... "I have a litecoin miner that paid for itself in 144 hours".

lol if you pick the right altcoin you can make your rig costs back very quickly

It is true if you had mined IFC for the first week the rig you used would have paid for its self if you sold it now

( a 4x7950 rig getting 2500kh would have got you well over 1,000,000,000 IFC in 7 days right now that would be over 750LTC / $2,250 so the rig would have paid for its self in under 7 days )

its true as I have done it there are plenty of other new coins that will do the same I have 1 rig on paycoin I can see that making a fair bit

[albyva]

With all the difficulty increase, is it possible to even break even when buying miners anymore?

 Break Even?   Don't hold your breath.


https://blockchain.info/charts/miners-operating-profit-margin

[GSnak]

It is true if you had mined IFC for the first week the rig you used would have paid for its self if you sold it now

( a 4x7950 rig getting 2500kh would have got you well over 1,000,000,000 IFC in 7 days right now that would be over 750LTC / $2,250 so the rig would have paid for its self in under 7 days )

its true as I have done it there are plenty of other new coins that will do the same I have 1 rig on paycoin I can see that making a fair bit

One time bets that follow a specific hindsight path do not pay for a rig every few days. I "paid for my cpu" with XPM and QRK that doesn't mean I expect that to continue or ever happen again.

Right now 2500KH earns about $4.50 on a good day with the wind behind it's back.

[Amph]

no

[-ck]

If we are going to be smoking weed and imagining things... "I have a litecoin miner that paid for itself in 144 hours".

lol if you pick the right altcoin you can make your rig costs back very quickly

You sir and GSnak, I salute thee for giving me one of the finest bitcointalk laughs ever.

[voxelot]

You could try building a rig like these brave souls!  Fairly easy to ROI when you make your own shiz =)

Bkkcoins!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190731.0

BURNING!!!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179769.0

The Quarter Stick! (May be dead)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161715.0

List of all of the start up company and open source devs...
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=192860

Good luck! Have fun! Learn a bunch!

[Viceroy]

You could try building a rig like these brave souls!  Fairly easy to ROI when you make your own shiz =)

Bkkcoins!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190731.0

BURNING!!!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179769.0

The Quarter Stick! (May be dead)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161715.0

List of all of the start up company and open source devs...
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=192860

Good luck! Have fun! Learn a bunch!

Except that none of those designs work because Avalon is a scam and never sent their 1/2 million chips to the designers or end users.