Newbies please read: ASIC miners, cloud mining and potential profit

[trl55238]

Just a quick fyi for those out there thinking about starting their bitcoin mining experience by purchasing an ASIC system, PLEASE DON'T; that ship has sailed.

If you were one of the few who bought into a future delivery from a fabricator in 2012 AND received it on the initial delivery date then great for you --you've made some good money. If you were one of the many that received their ASICs mid-2013 then you've already run the numbers and probably pawned it off on some poor sucker who will never see 10% return on investment.

Unless you have millions of USD $ to invest in an ASIC farm and deep roots in the community, you're never ever going to make a return on buying hardware present day.

In short, don't buy ASICs. Don't buy into cloud mining either. Those outfits are (mostly) offering to lease you their no longer mining-profitable hardware to squeeze every last dime out of a bad investment.

If you're looking for solid returns/profit involving crypto then look to mining scrypt-based altcoins(LTC, WDC, DOGE, etc), or simply buy a few BTC to sit on or trade on one of the many established exchanges.

If you're looking for get-rich-quick returns then look into the riskier so-called next generation coins/currencies(Nxt, eMunie, etc). Who knows --they could make you the next crypto millionaire. But don't throw caution to the wind as many scam currencies exist. Do keep in mind that potential for great profits require equally great risk. Don't invest more than you're able and willing to lose.

[True___Blue]

This is great advice

[Jzilla]

Great post - I have recently been scammed of all my bitcoins due to my own foolishness, so I am feeling pretty bitter about the whole thing right now, but I did calculate, that with the increase in difficulty coming in the next six months, the "rigs" i purchased would have been useless within that period.

Within six months the increase in difficulty will be so huge that I cannot see how computing power will be able to keep up. Does that then mean however, that people will stop bothering to mine as the cost of running asics will be greater than the yield and the difficulty will decrease?

[fasteddie9987]

The whole mining debate is quite interesting to me as wasn't mining at some point in the past not that profitable when bitcoin was trading for very little? Then the price increased and mining was more profitable again.  Using one of those online calculator things it says with 7gh/s i would currently get 0.003 in 24 hours.  If you believe the price of bitcoin could rise to $100,000 then that 0.003 is now worth $300.  This view of course depends on your belief in the future of bitcoin but if you think it's going to fail then you probably wouldn't even be concidering mining to begin with.

[grimlock]

I think this is good advice, except I think if a person is very diligent, reads up, talks to a lot of people, and finds a group buy/finds just the right opportunity, one can get in and profit.  I don't think it's quite so black and white.  But for most people who won't put in the time, this is good advice.

[cp1]

The whole mining debate is quite interesting to me as wasn't mining at some point in the past not that profitable when bitcoin was trading for very little? Then the price increased and mining was more profitable again.  Using one of those online calculator things it says with 7gh/s i would currently get 0.003 in 24 hours.  If you believe the price of bitcoin could rise to $100,000 then that 0.003 is now worth $300.  This view of course depends on your belief in the future of bitcoin but if you think it's going to fail then you probably wouldn't even be concidering mining to begin with.

Sure, but why don't you just take $3 and buy 0.003 BTC instead of paying whatever 7 GH/sec costs?

[fasteddie9987]

The whole mining debate is quite interesting to me as wasn't mining at some point in the past not that profitable when bitcoin was trading for very little? Then the price increased and mining was more profitable again.  Using one of those online calculator things it says with 7gh/s i would currently get 0.003 in 24 hours.  If you believe the price of bitcoin could rise to $100,000 then that 0.003 is now worth $300.  This view of course depends on your belief in the future of bitcoin but if you think it's going to fail then you probably wouldn't even be concidering mining to begin with.

Sure, but why don't you just take $3 and buy 0.003 BTC instead of paying whatever 7 GH/sec costs?

Yeah but a lot of people also mine coins because they enjoy it and would list it as a hobby.  It's something new to learn and you'll get a better practical understanding of bitcoin and alt currencies in general.  Thats my motivation to start anyway and I'm planning to get a couple of usb miners at some point soon.  It'll cost me around £100 but and it's also something cool to use my raspberry pi for. 

I agree with you if it's solely for future profit but it's a shame that people who have a genuine curiosity over mining can get put off with people saying its a waste of time and money etc. 

[Jzilla]

But surely if you want to mine because it's interesting then you could be mining something else, such as perhaps dogecoin which is still comparatively virgin territory?

[bolus7]

if I buy or spend a bitcoin I mine for a while on a gpu.  I know it does not count for anything really, but it helps a little to keep the blockchain going. 

[elrugrim]

I dunno, if cloud mining let you direct the mining towards coins of your choice, I think it would be a more attractive option then it is today.

[fasteddie9987]

But surely if you want to mine because it's interesting then you could be mining something else, such as perhaps dogecoin which is still comparatively virgin territory?

Yeah you could, that would probably be the most sensible thing to do and then you could trade some for bitcoin.

I dunno, if cloud mining let you direct the mining towards coins of your choice, I think it would be a more attractive option then it is today.

It depends on your preference and motivation for mining I guess. Running costs may factor too.  My rent covers electricity luckily so mining wouldn't cost me anything extra on top of the initial outlay. 

[NotYet]

i tried cexio good to start off bitcoin mining.