I'm About to Quit Mining

[theonewhowaskazu]

I've decided that I simply can't continue to mine and make money.

Simply put, over the past year I've found my costs & risks (especially for hardware) constantly increasing, while my profits have been dwindling.

Originally with GPU I wasn't earning much, but I didn't have to invest, and it was really low-risk low-stress. Then, I bought my first ASICs, but it took forever to ship. Then when it shipped it hashed well for like 2 days (Believe it or not I "accidentally" solo-mined a block). But after that, even when I joined a pool, it wasn't working very well. I suspect I just got very lucky. Long story short I had to re-sell my miner and immediately bought a newer one. This time, I was on the first wave, but it was even worse. I only broke even because I re-sold my miner, today.

I'd rather not disclose the company who made my miners, because I hold no ill will toward them and don't wish to spread bad publicity, but I'm wondering if anybody could either agree with me that its probably best to just quit while I'm ahead, because I'm really lucky to even broke even on this last one and could have lost a ton, or if its best to go right ahead and buy a terraminer IV. If I did the latter, I'd be investing an amount more than equal to my total miner profits ever (given BTC price at time of mining) in a SINGLE machine. Now, its not quite as bad as that, as the majority of coins I got at really low prices, but I'm starting to think its best to just cut and run, or invest in BTC by just purchasing more, rather than buying increasingly expensive equipment.

[Paladin69]

A 550GH KnC Jupiter only makes 1 btc per day right now at a diff of 270, so you made the right choice.  A HashFast makes less than 1 btc if they launched right now, and they still haven't.  A 2TH CoinTerra and Bitmine will probably make about that much by the time they launch in December/January while Jupiters and HashFast's will earn 0.25 btc at that time.  The Miner Protection by HashFast in 2014 doesn't come until their 400% increase will only make them about the same.

Asking for refunds and buying btc direct is what most sane people should do.

[crocko]

KNC Jupiter will work stable at 500 GH/s, I saw many ppl using extra devices to cool down the miner only to gain < 50GH/s.
I suspect the same problem (the heat) will become common for all ASIC producers.

[hulk]

Thats a good choice, when more and more people quit mining there is when I start

[theonewhowaskazu]

A 550GH KnC Jupiter only makes 1 btc per day right now at a diff of 270, so you made the right choice.  A HashFast makes less than 1 btc if they launched right now, and they still haven't.  A 2TH CoinTerra and Bitmine will probably make about that much by the time they launch in December/January while Jupiters and HashFast's will earn 0.25 btc at that time.  The Miner Protection by HashFast in 2014 doesn't come until their 400% increase will only make them about the same.

Asking for refunds and buying btc direct is what most sane people should do.

1 BTC per day isn't that bad, believe it or not after that one block I solo-mined I haven't even been able to keep up 1 BTC/day. I suppose it all depends on Bitcoin's price at the time. Still, just to break even at $6k for a miner, even if the price per coin were to go all the way up to $300 by that point, I'd have to mine like 20 coins, not even counting for electricity. That means even a couple days late on shipping could screw me royally.

Yea, I think I'm going to have to sit this next round out. If BTC bubbles to $1000, then maybe I'll hop back in. Till then, it seems like a waste of time.

[Lohoris]

If I did the latter, I'd be investing an amount more than equal to my total miner profits ever (given BTC price at time of mining) in a SINGLE machine.

Keep your profits tight.

Wild difficulty increases, so mining is not a sane option, and also problems with securities everywhere, so even investing is too risky.
Keep them for now, invest up to 1/3 of them when the market is safer.

[rascal777]

Better to Buy and hold Bitcoin for a year or more....

I would have made so much more money if I would have simply bought bitcoin with the money I spent on mining equipment.

[Trupik]

Better to Buy and hold Bitcoin for a year or more....

I would have made so much more money if I would have simply bought bitcoin with the money I spent on mining equipment.

so true

[theonewhowaskazu]

If I did the latter, I'd be investing an amount more than equal to my total miner profits ever (given BTC price at time of mining) in a SINGLE machine.

Keep your profits tight.

Wild difficulty increases, so mining is not a sane option, and also problems with securities everywhere, so even investing is too risky.
Keep them for now, invest up to 1/3 of them when the market is safer.

Will difficulty ever stop increasing? In the near future?

Somebody recommended that I buy Difficulty Futures at ICBIT.se. Given that I have a lot of BTC to invest, and currently not doing much with any of it, do you think those would be viable?

[fattypig]

If I did the latter, I'd be investing an amount more than equal to my total miner profits ever (given BTC price at time of mining) in a SINGLE machine.

Keep your profits tight.

Wild difficulty increases, so mining is not a sane option, and also problems with securities everywhere, so even investing is too risky.
Keep them for now, invest up to 1/3 of them when the market is safer.

Will difficulty ever stop increasing? In the near future?

Somebody recommended that I buy Difficulty Futures at ICBIT.se. Given that I have a lot of BTC to invest, and currently not doing much with any of it, do you think those would be viable?

It will, when the cost to manufacturer ASIC is higher then the selling price. Should be mid of next year maybe?

[Xian01]

I'm out of the "Spend Mined Bitcoins to Buy More Bitcoin Miners" game. Will probably spend some fiat in December or January to acquire whatever mining hardware looks most reasonable by then.

[fattypig]

I'm out of the "Spend Mined Bitcoins to Buy More Bitcoin Miners" game. Will probably spend some fiat in December or January to acquire whatever mining hardware looks most reasonable by then.

Thats what im planing to do too..

[frankenmint]

If I did the latter, I'd be investing an amount more than equal to my total miner profits ever (given BTC price at time of mining) in a SINGLE machine.

Keep your profits tight.

Wild difficulty increases, so mining is not a sane option, and also problems with securities everywhere, so even investing is too risky.
Keep them for now, invest up to 1/3 of them when the market is safer.

Will difficulty ever stop increasing? In the near future?

Somebody recommended that I buy Difficulty Futures at ICBIT.se. Given that I have a lot of BTC to invest, and currently not doing much with any of it, do you think those would be viable?

A lot of bitcoin you say?  You should consider Cex.io.  They will be able to give you hashpower to use on the spot for bitcoin mining.  As long as you follow it closely and keep your mining power in sell orders at a gain, you will always see mining income on top of gains from the spread...just make sure to pay attention to the market as if you start to ignore it, it may drop in value and you will face a net loss.  However I did pay attention to it and was able to make 2 almost 3x my money because I was able to mine with accumulated bitcoins then resell them back out...not like physical hardware where you have to list your items for sale and hope that someone buys them with the selling house taking in auction fees or seller fees.

[zvs]

Originally with GPU I wasn't earning much,

!

it was nice when 5830's paid for themselves in two days

[notyep]

Originally with GPU I wasn't earning much,

!

it was nice when 5830's paid for themselves in two days

+1 

[evansearle42]

Originally with GPU I wasn't earning much,

!

it was nice when 5830's paid for themselves in two days

Really? when was that?

[theonewhowaskazu]

If I did the latter, I'd be investing an amount more than equal to my total miner profits ever (given BTC price at time of mining) in a SINGLE machine.

Keep your profits tight.

Wild difficulty increases, so mining is not a sane option, and also problems with securities everywhere, so even investing is too risky.
Keep them for now, invest up to 1/3 of them when the market is safer.

Will difficulty ever stop increasing? In the near future?

Somebody recommended that I buy Difficulty Futures at ICBIT.se. Given that I have a lot of BTC to invest, and currently not doing much with any of it, do you think those would be viable?

A lot of bitcoin you say?  You should consider Cex.io.  They will be able to give you hashpower to use on the spot for bitcoin mining.  As long as you follow it closely and keep your mining power in sell orders at a gain, you will always see mining income on top of gains from the spread...just make sure to pay attention to the market as if you start to ignore it, it may drop in value and you will face a net loss.  However I did pay attention to it and was able to make 2 almost 3x my money because I was able to mine with accumulated bitcoins then resell them back out...not like physical hardware where you have to list your items for sale and hope that someone buys them with the selling house taking in auction fees or seller fees.

So, if I understand this right, its basically a cloudhashing-type scheme, only with the contracts being always tradable? That has some promise. What does the liquidity look like?

[Lohoris]

Will difficulty ever stop increasing?

Yes.

In the near future?

Doubt it.

[hope4me]

I'm out of the "Spend Mined Bitcoins to Buy More Bitcoin Miners" game.

Thats pretty bad strategy indeed, especially these days.
But next year there might be quite fast miners, cheap and effecient. At least I hope ASIC competetion works

[EasyQuest]

I, too WAS about to quit mining when I saw the difficult was increasing rapidly around June of 2013 but then I remember Litecoin back in business baby. I still mine bitcoin with my very small ASIC farm and getting some BFL miners soon but my hope is more on Litecoin more than Bitcoin. My plans when I receive the BFL Miners is mine as much as I can before the hardware is losing just from being on then hold the Bitcoins.

And yes I was bitcoin mining with GPUs from January to June of 2013.