Is it too late for poor people to start mining? Jan2014

[brokedummy]

Not trolling, just hoping the price continues to go up and I'll have some passive income from storing coins. Not affiliated with them, nor did I research it fully. Just gambling wildy really. I have 10k worth of stuff to sell so I'm not crazy. Now, I'm going to look for a deal on those graphics cards mentioned probably on ebay and buy the rest probably from newegg and mine the alts. Practice my coin-fu and dump before the noobs do. Then buy the coins back for half price.

[Star3Bit]

I guess that mining itself *might* be a waste of ressources which were converted into energy. This energy is used to create a virtual currency, but it doesn't add anything to the "real world". If you chop a tree, you can make a table out of it or you can burn the wood for warmth. Burning away electricity via PC hardware is pretty ineffective.

On the other hand, simply doing some mining in the alternative coins (like Litecoins) might be ok to gain a few dollars. But don't expect too much of it, with decent PC graphics hardware (that you already own, maybe because you're a gamer), you can expect like 2-3 USD per DAY.

Only chance you have is that you "invest" into bitcoins/litecoins/etc. this way and hope that the bitcoins go higher "to the moon". [1]

Star3Bit

[1]: Yes, Dogecoin is another alt-coin...

[2bfree]

How about on a mac would it be profitable to mine some altcoin as part of a pool? I'm trying to download one and see if I can figure it out.

[brokedummy]

I did spend my the paycheck before last buying bitcoins and altcoins. So far it has been a good investment! I'm hooked and panic buying in the only ways I can figure out. Hope I don't get burned. I figure if crypto crashes I can just spend future paychecks buying the coins. Seems logical? I think mining new alts like coinye west could be wildy profitable too so I'm going to try to build a modern rig on credit. How much would you pay for 2x Radeon 7950's on ebay? Up to $600?

[MasterTLT]

How about on a mac would it be profitable to mine some altcoin as part of a pool? I'm trying to download one and see if I can figure it out.

Most all Mac's are built to be compact and I would be take caution to run the GPU at 100% mining as the unit would likely over heat. That being said you can turn the intensity down, and if you want to take the risk try Asteroid (http://www.asteroidapp.com/) but please do read about all the warnings.

[flexie]

doges are still very profitable to mine now despite the drop in price.

[chrisnippz]

How about on a mac would it be profitable to mine some altcoin as part of a pool? I'm trying to download one and see if I can figure it out.

Most all Mac's are built to be compact and I would be take caution to run the GPU at 100% mining as the unit would likely over heat. That being said you can turn the intensity down, and if you want to take the risk try Asteroid (http://www.asteroidapp.com/) but please do read about all the warnings.

As he said. But your kh/s would be nothing and you wouldn't be able to use your mac at the same time. Because it is gpu dependant your screen will lag and make any sort of accessibility pointless. You would need to mine as soon as the coin is released to maximise potential, otherwise you will be getting pennies.

[a19292866]

What is the Alt COINS

[chrisnippz]

What is the Alt COINS

ALT Coins (Alternative coins) other than the main BTC LTC XPM etc. Because Bitcoin is open source, there have been a lot of copy cat coins created and pre-mined purely to make a quick buck in pump and dumps. But there are also a number of coins which are contributing to the community.

[qwe]

Good luck mining. I am posting several sentences here to fulfil the conditions imposed upon new forum accounts. I intend to lurk for now, but would like to have an account available to post if needed. Thanks!

[brokedummy]

I'm going to upgrade my graphics to 6850 in my computer and mine some coinye when it comes out. Then I'll look for a deal on some better gpus in the future to build a sweet rig and go from there. Thanks for the advice. I'm sure one of these investments will pay for the others in the end.

[digitsmith]

What is the Alt COINS

ALT Coins (Alternative coins) other than the main BTC LTC XPM etc. Because Bitcoin is open source, there have been a lot of copy cat coins created and pre-mined purely to make a quick buck in pump and dumps. But there are also a number of coins which are contributing to the community.

Altcoins are "Bitcoin alternatives" (ie, Litecoin, Peercoin, Feathercoin, etc are all Altcoins).

http://www.coindesk.com/top-altcoins-2013/

[EZ Hashing]

like what the others said, mining alt coin is still profitable. check out multipool, it offers peace of mind for lazy miners like me.

[b00m3rang]

I will offer an alternative view.

Being broke (as you are), you don't have money available to buy bitcoin.  Buying bitcoin is not an option as credit card purchases aren't really possible currently.  However, if you can find an ASIC company willing to take CC (KNC used to but hasn't recently) then you could purchase an ASIC on a 0% credit card and pay it off with mining profits before the 0% expires.

You can easily buy BTC with a credit card... I've done it twice this week.  The easiest way is to use VirWox.com, buy SLL (Second Life Lindens) with PayPal (or credit card through PayPal), exchange them for Bitcoin, and withdraw the coins.  The first few transactions you do will require them to do a manual step that has taken 1 day each time, but that's still less than Mt.Gox's 20 days to approve your account that I'm still waiting on.

[tompa555]

you can still mine several good and profitable alt coins. sha256 or scrypt minig , what ever you like. i bought used asic usb miner and i now mine ZetaCoins for fun. it's now great speed , it's around 333 MH/s . there will always be alt coins to mine, you just need to find one for yourself

[JimmyJams]

People are going to be mining for as long as Bitcoin exists. It is never too late.

However, it might be difficult to make a profit right now because too many people are mining at a loss, and they bring down the profits for all miners.

If you want to start mining with little investment, you might try mining alt coins with your graphics card or CPU (depending on the coin).

 I agree, use low hashrate hardware for alt and possible new coins and if you are going to mine btc then go for the highest hashrate you can get etc.

[Kajin406]

I'm thinking about getting into mining altcoins. If I were to throw $10k at it and build 4 computers with 2 vid cards each, would it be worth it?

[sgk]

I have that setup, I've got about $300 in it, makes about $500 a month @ 550kh

Can you please elaborate what coin you're mining. I am using a multi-pool but I can't get more than $250 at 650 khash/sec

[Flashman]

Yeah, that was a November/December average mainly on litecoin with rises in value, you're probably doing good for present prices/difficulty.

[cz_miner]

If we are talking about Sha256 coins, i would recommend to buy some usb sticks to try out the whole mining experience or buy some shares, if you can't afford to buy the whole ASIC equipment. As you gain experience, you will decide for yourself if its worth it to continue with mining.

I know I am kind of late to the party. I never mined any coins before. I was wondering if this is still a possibility for me. I don't have large amounts of capital. I hold less than 1BTC and make 28k a year mining fiat before taxes. How much would I need to get started in this day and age? Either mining established coins or brand new coins. I'm not too concerned about electricity usage not paying for the coin value because I am still bullish on crypto and will hold for a while, plus my roommate will pay half the electric without question. ;-) What setup would you recommend for a newbie to get started without a big investment?