To mine or not to mine

[SWAMP]

So i originally posted this in the newbie area because I'm new, but i figure y'all can help me more than them.
I recently joined up to look into if it is possible to jump into the mining game right now since the difficulty is over 1 billion. Looking back through the years, 2009-2010 would have been great years to jump into it, but i figure better late than never. People are making money off of the mining, trade, and the creation & distribution of mining equipment. I just want to be one of those guys. now I'm new to forums but not really to the concept of Bitcoins, I have a friend who has been with it for a little while, but I was a naysayer. so my questions to all of you who are experienced are:
Is it too late to jump into mining?
How much would need to be spent to see a nice ROI after about 4 months?
What are some good companies to buy equipment from?
And lastly What are some good mining pools to mine with?

Thanks for your time - SWAMP

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[vpasic]

no, it's not to late.
$6000-$12000 minimum investment.
Black Arrow 2TH miner ($6000) and KNC Neptune ($12000).
Eligius, Btcguild, Slush...
Keep in mind that there is no miners worth of buying right now and everything you can order right now will be delivered in about 2-3 months. by that time everything below 1TH of power will be worthless.

[SWAMP]

thanks for replying quickly and answering those questions. so in about 2-3 months it would the miners you listed will not be worth the initial investment?

[vpasic]

Even much sooner if btc stays at this value.

[SWAMP]

Okay, so if in 2-3 months the miners you listed will be obsolete then how is it a good time to jump in? if i buy a miner now, ill get it by the time its no longer able to do what it is listed to do. if that happens then im back where i started back where i started.

[vpasic]

no. you misunderstood me. BA Prospero x3 is 2TH and Neptune is 3TH. below 1TH will be worthless in about 2-3 months.
in about 2-3 months miners I listed will be delivered to you (at least BA) and they will earn you nice amount of BTC. 3-4 months after that your best option is to sell them and get your self nice 5-10TH miner. we will see what will be available on the market.

 

[SWAMP]

My apologies, i didn't follow what you were saying, like i said im sorta new, but now i am looking into getting the $6000 one you listed due to its good reviews. thanks for your help

[Peacefrog]

You can still get in on the game. But I would recommend using a site like www.coinwarz.com to compare the hash rates you would get from an asic miner with the hash you would get from a scrypt mining rig in the same price range

According to coinwarz a 350kh/s scrypt rig would mine a btc in, on average, 800-1000 days before a 1 GH/s asic miner mining the most profitable asic coin (sha-256)

That is if you are mining alt coins. If you would rather stick with bitcoin buy an asic from a group buy here they have the best deals.

Or you could rent hashing power from someone elses rigs

[SWAMP]

what other crypto-currencies are profitable? To me it doesn't matter what kind of miner as long as its profitable and wont break the bank.

A friend and I are going to split the cost of one cointerra IV, and it seems like it will be a good start. the other miners out there are out of my price range. although the KNC Neptune as mentioned above does seem nice.

[iamahappyminer]

When I saw the name of the thread I was sure here would be Shakespeare's fans but I was wrong.
 Pardon me, are you interested in bitcoin mining? don't you take into account altcoins ?

[LMGTFY]

Looking back through the years, 2009-2010 would have been great years to jump into it, but i figure better late than never.

It's all relative! I mined my first block in late 2010, it took me four days (with my CPU!) and when I checked what I could do with my 50BTC all I could find was one exchange (MtGox) which was based in the US (this was before the sale, and the move to Japan) and only handled USD. And 1BTC was 5 cents or something. I suppose I wished I'd got into mining earlier... but to be honest I just thought it was an interesting experiment, and I lost interest.

Fast forward to 2011, and 1BTC was - incredibly - worth more than the dollar. My poor CPU obviously wouldn't be up to the task, but I did some sums and invested in a GPU. I mined solo at first then, as difficulty rose, I mined in pools. I kept mining until GPUs became obsolete (this was long before altcoins) and then took the decision to stop mining - I could justify GPUs because I could sell them when I'd finished with them. At this point I definitely wished I'd got into mining earlier...!

At this point - right now - I wish I'd invested in FPGAs and then ASICs. If I did it now it'd be a huge investment for me, with a whole bunch of risk; if I'd simply kept mining then the cost and risk would have come in manageable chunks.

I guess my answer is - it probably isn't too late! But it will heavily depend on your circumstances - how much you have to invest, how much you can afford to lose. And as long as I can remember, people have been advising potential miners that you'll get the best ROI by simply buying BTC. That's probably true, but it's not nearly as much fun (and isn't always possible, anyway: when I started mining you could buy BTC relatively easily - if you lived in the US. There are plenty of countries where there's still no easy way to buy BTC). Whatever you decide - good luck!

Edit: iamahappyminer makes a good point with altcoins - you can always exchange altcoins for BTC if BTC is your goal.

[SWAMP]

When I saw the name of the thread I was sure here would be Shakespeare's fans but I was wrong.
 Pardon me, are you interested in bitcoin mining? don't you take into account altcoins ?

Well i am a Shakespeare fan.

But back on topic, as i said above, altcoins are fine, better yet whatever can be obtained and exchanged without much hassle and can generate some income on the side is perfect. So I'm not biased to any coins be it scrypt or sha-256.

However if the vaule is low or Roi isn't there then of course I would be hesitant to mine the lesser appealing coins. With bitcoins if you have the money to risk then you have the potential to generate more income just due to the fact that one coin is roughly $600 but even when bitcoins were $20 a piece it was worth it in my book because thats $20 generated without me putting effort, its money generated on the side, However Between school and work and other poor business ventures i never got into it, and now im here referencing Shakespeare while asking if mining bitcoins is still profitable.

Looking back through the years, 2009-2010 would have been great years to jump into it, but i figure better late than never.

It's all relative! I mined my first block in late 2010, it took me four days (with my CPU!) and when I checked what I could do with my 50BTC all I could find was one exchange (MtGox) which was based in the US (this was before the sale, and the move to Japan) and only handled USD. And 1BTC was 5 cents or something. I suppose I wished I'd got into mining earlier... but to be honest I just thought it was an interesting experiment, and I lost interest.

Fast forward to 2011, and 1BTC was - incredibly - worth more than the dollar. My poor CPU obviously wouldn't be up to the task, but I did some sums and invested in a GPU. I mined solo at first then, as difficulty rose, I mined in pools. I kept mining until GPUs became obsolete (this was long before altcoins) and then took the decision to stop mining - I could justify GPUs because I could sell them when I'd finished with them. At this point I definitely wished I'd got into mining earlier...!

At this point - right now - I wish I'd invested in FPGAs and then ASICs. If I did it now it'd be a huge investment for me, with a whole bunch of risk; if I'd simply kept mining then the cost and risk would have come in manageable chunks.

I guess my answer is - it probably isn't too late! But it will heavily depend on your circumstances - how much you have to invest, how much you can afford to lose. And as long as I can remember, people have been advising potential miners that you'll get the best ROI by simply buying BTC. That's probably true, but it's not nearly as much fun (and isn't always possible, anyway: when I started mining you could buy BTC relatively easily - if you lived in the US. There are plenty of countries where there's still no easy way to buy BTC). Whatever you decide - good luck!

Edit: iamahappyminer makes a good point with altcoins - you can always exchange altcoins for BTC if BTC is your goal.

since you mentioned Mtgox, since their fall where else can you exchange bitcoins easily?

as far as money to invest i planed on splitting the cost of a miner with a friend or two, that will not only lower the cost per person, but also lower the risk involved. My current mindset is if i get a miner now(with all companies wanting pre-purchases) by the time i get one of the beefy 2th/s or 3th/s miners will the difficulty rise to where its no longer worth the initial investment

[Groc]

I'd wait for ASICMiner to release their new products

[LMGTFY]

since you mentioned Mtgox, since their fall where else can you exchange bitcoins easily?

as far as money to invest i planed on splitting the cost of a miner with a friend or two, that will not only lower the cost per person, but also lower the risk involved. My current mindset is if i get a miner now(with all companies wanting pre-purchases) by the time i get one of the beefy 2th/s or 3th/s miners will the difficulty rise to where its no longer worth the initial investment

I'm UK-based, so MtGox was never an option for me (in terms of selling or, more recently, buying - I did a spot of trading on MtGox in 2011). I've used OTC trades to sell - this was in 2011, and mostly through bitcointalk. (I have sold on an exchange, but it was UK-based - and it's now closed).

I've been buying BTC recently, and I stuck with the OTC approach and used Localbitcoins.

It seems to me that OTC trades are more expensive than exchange trades, but for me it's my only option (at the moment) and honestly I'm OK with paying slightly more, because I'm investing for the medium- to long-term. YMMV!

[GreedyBoy]

It depends on what are you going to mine! If it is btc than as I think it's a lit bit late but you can try it (if you have enough money and time and skills) , if it's altcoin than it's of sauce not late.

[Trongersoll]

To answer this question, one must know why you want to mine. Different people have different reasons for mining.

• As a fun Hobby? Then anytime is a good time.
• To get rich? Fo'get about it.
• To break even? many feel that is unlikely
• To support Bitcoin and the BTC Network? Yeah, again anytime is good.
• To get BTCs without using an exchange? Some would argue there are better ways such as local BTC sellers.

[jeppe]

It depends, if you are new and doing it for the money its not worth it. However, if you have a large budget it will be possible to earn some  BTC but not near your investment in profit maybe 20-30% MAX. Best thing to do is to find an area with the cheapest power ever and rent a place with 3 phase power. Max out everything with antminers s1. and Wait for it to pay for itself (remember good cooling). This is only if you have a large budget.
JT

[BG4]

To answer this question, one must know why you want to mine. Different people have different reasons for mining.

• As a fun Hobby? Then anytime is a good time.
• To get rich? Fo'get about it.
• To break even? many feel that is unlikely
• To support Bitcoin and the BTC Network? Yeah, again anytime is good.
• To get BTCs without using an exchange? Some would argue there are better ways such as local BTC sellers.

I would like to add to this list...

If you want to mine coins for your retirement.....Any little bit of dust could be worth Thousands 20 years from now...
Then even the USB Antminer for $50 on ebay could generate millions ......

(all based on MY 20 year hypothetical plan)

[jamesc760]

"People are making money off of the mining, trade, and the creation & distribution of mining equipment. I just want to be one of those guys."

OP wants to be one of the people making money off of the mining, trade and the creation & distribution of mining equipment.

He has no idea what he's talking about.

Good luck to him.

[SWAMP]

"People are making money off of the mining, trade, and the creation & distribution of mining equipment. I just want to be one of those guys."

OP wants to be one of the people making money off of the mining, trade and the creation & distribution of mining equipment.

He has no idea what he's talking about.

Good luck to him.

aside from the misinterpretation of what i said, yeah man thats what I'm getting at. did you not read the questions? lol
anyways, let me clear that statement up- People are making money off of mining, trade, (pretty simple, mining and trading bitcoins) AND the creation & distribution of mining equipment( once again a simple concept, people are also making money off of the equipment used). "i just want to be one of those guys"( once again a simple statement to read and understand, both things i listed: mining and trade, and creation and distribution of the equipment make people money). I'm simply stating that the field is profitable to some, and that id like to be one of those guys.

it wasnt a hard concept to grasp man. you literally misinterpreted a basic sentence and said "yeah op is an idiot"

To answer this question, one must know why you want to mine. Different people have different reasons for mining.

• As a fun Hobby? Then anytime is a good time.
• To get rich? Fo'get about it.
• To break even? many feel that is unlikely
• To support Bitcoin and the BTC Network? Yeah, again anytime is good.
• To get BTCs without using an exchange? Some would argue there are better ways such as local BTC sellers.

your comment made me think, because its not some "get rich quick" thing in my mind, its like a cash on the side. because aside from the difficulty, mining is as easy as plugging the miner in, starting the program, and letting the rig do the work (sorry if its oversimplified). it seemed really profitable a few years back and i was hesitant(as you see now) and when i think about it to me its more of have the mining rig run, and create me a little bit of extra $$ so that im not living purely off of my paycheck. so i don't really see my situation as one you listed.

It depends, if you are new and doing it for the money its not worth it. However, if you have a large budget it will be possible to earn some  BTC but not near your investment in profit maybe 20-30% MAX. Best thing to do is to find an area with the cheapest power ever and rent a place with 3 phase power. Max out everything with antminers s1. and Wait for it to pay for itself (remember good cooling). This is only if you have a large budget.
JT

so from what you are saying, its go big or go home.


thanks to all who replied- Swamp