n00b question about mining economics

[bigmeta1]

Hi,

I'm brand new to the boards.  I'm wondering about the potential of mining and whether it's economically viable... my understanding is that the cost to get hardware plus the electricity to run it is increasing in order to be competitive.  While older hardware is reduced in price, its reduced viability to "produce" as the difficulty increases means the same rig will produce diminishing returns over time... but the price is also increasing along with the difficulty rate  My question is: Is it beneficial to someone just getting started this late in the game to get into hardware mining? How long before one can reasonably expect to recoup startup costs and turn a profit?  Should one mine BTC or are you better off chasing the promise of highly volatile alt coins?  With limited capital to get off the ground, it seems a little on the entry-prohibitive side....thoughts?

[asr]

Hi,

I'm brand new to the boards.  I'm wondering about the potential of mining and whether it's economically viable... my understanding is that the cost to get hardware plus the electricity to run it is increasing in order to be competitive.  While older hardware is reduced in price, its reduced viability to "produce" as the difficulty increases means the same rig will produce diminishing returns over time... but the price is also increasing along with the difficulty rate  My question is: Is it beneficial to someone just getting started this late in the game to get into hardware mining? How long before one can reasonably expect to recoup startup costs and turn a profit?  Should one mine BTC or are you better off chasing the promise of highly volatile alt coins?  With limited capital to get off the ground, it seems a little on the entry-prohibitive side....thoughts?

I honestly think it would be very hard to turn a profit by mining bitcoins if you are just starting.  You would need specialized equipment and the money to pay for the electricity costs.  I think that if you are willing to take some risk, you could make more by purchasing coins from a trustworthy exchange in the hopes that they will increase in value.

I think some of the altcoins looks somewhat shady and I don't really know that even if you mined many of them that they would be worth anything in the end.  Investing your money in these types of coins could be highly speculative and may not yield much.

[bigmeta1]

Hi,

I'm brand new to the boards.  I'm wondering about the potential of mining and whether it's economically viable... my understanding is that the cost to get hardware plus the electricity to run it is increasing in order to be competitive.  While older hardware is reduced in price, its reduced viability to "produce" as the difficulty increases means the same rig will produce diminishing returns over time... but the price is also increasing along with the difficulty rate  My question is: Is it beneficial to someone just getting started this late in the game to get into hardware mining? How long before one can reasonably expect to recoup startup costs and turn a profit?  Should one mine BTC or are you better off chasing the promise of highly volatile alt coins?  With limited capital to get off the ground, it seems a little on the entry-prohibitive side....thoughts?

I honestly think it would be very hard to turn a profit by mining bitcoins if you are just starting.  You would need specialized equipment and the money to pay for the electricity costs.  I think that if you are willing to take some risk, you could make more by purchasing coins from a trustworthy exchange in the hopes that they will increase in value.

I think some of the altcoins looks somewhat shady and I don't really know that even if you mined many of them that they would be worth anything in the end.  Investing your money in these types of coins could be highly speculative and may not yield much.

Thanks for the input.  I gotta say I'm really on the fence about it all.  On the one hand, mining will theoretically continually produce, so as long as the price increase outpaces the diminished mining returns, so as long as the initial investment can be recouped, the rest is pure profit.  Playing the market is essentially gambling, and drumming up potentially worthless altcoins is also where the largest % increases are.  So in a way i suppose it's gambling either way....

[neoteky]

Mining altcoins with GPUs can still be profitable (depending on how much you need to spend and your power costs), but the days of profiting from mining BTC using GPUs are over.

[Nattum]

Bitcoin mining is useless unless you are a developer or professional who has whole rooms dedicated to mining and the cost of electricity is worth your time. Going solar power? Useless too because even with free energy you can't beat the difficulty. Don't get me wrong its better to have something than nothing but it's not about hardware anymore its about the markets volatility and easy of use. It's been legally adopted in German get thinking in market terms and not computer terms. Unless you are into it for a hobby...then have at it I do it for fun and even though your neighbors don't quite get the picture yet atleast you're making a move to change the future 

[sportcoatsyes]

I agree with Nattum, mining isn't really meant to turn a profit for new miners anymore. The start-up costs and power consumption for just a modest coin farm will dig you into a very deep financial hole, and you will most likely struggle to ever make up the initial investment costs. Don't get me wrong though, small scale mining can be a great hobby and has it's advantages. The best thing about mining IMO is that it takes the trust/human aspect out of the equation. No worries about getting hustled, scammed, buying coins at a bad time. Just a nice and reliable flow of coins!

[nate008]

Bitcoin mining is useless unless you are a developer or professional who has whole rooms dedicated to mining and the cost of electricity is worth your time. Going solar power? Useless too because even with free energy you can't beat the difficulty. Don't get me wrong its better to have something than nothing but it's not about hardware anymore its about the markets volatility and easy of use. It's been legally adopted in German get thinking in market terms and not computer terms. Unless you are into it for a hobby...then have at it I do it for fun and even though your neighbors don't quite get the picture yet atleast you're making a move to change the future 

Common , stop spreading FUD.
Look in the mining thread , look in the group buys.
People are buying mining equipment for bitcoins , people are running those gears in their houses.
I am one of those doing it and I started mining in August and got new mining gear in November.
The first Neptune batch from knc has already been sold out and it wont be live before march.