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March 09, 2018, 04:49:56 AM |
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So I've been (gpu) mining (altcoins) for a year or so, bought two s9s for btc mining (thankfully these run free elsewhere thanks to some friendly folks), and have noticed the increase in difficulty much more in the past few weeks.
It got me thinking... when miners mine, they HAVE to re-invest back into their operation, right? If they stand still and don't expand, they'll get swallowed up by the difficulty. In my case, expanding from 6 to 9 1070s wasn't enough. I am making over the electricity cost but in some months I am not so sure I will be (after about 14-17 months of operating, ROI'd a while ago). I've had the rig cover its own electricity by selling what has been needed to do so.
What is needed to stay in the mining business long-term? I imagine many mine for a bit and stop while others continue on. I imagine some are able to mine/operate at a loss (holding on to the crypto for the future/better prices and paying with electricity with fiat obtained elsewhere), others are able to eat into past profits to maintain, but is maintaining (just paying the bills) enough?
It seems that "to maintain" means to "cover the bills and always expand" to seemingly no end and the moment the expansion stops, you started losing.
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