Realistic Expectations? My entry to mining

[Ritual]

Hi all,

The title may have sealed my fate with this thread I have seen a million people say "Don't go into mining!!!!!!". Well, OK, but I'd like an alternative view, because I also like the hobbiest aspect and would still start even if it's a loser...

I've recently managed to secure the parts for (not set up yet) a mining rig which'll comprise 3 x 6990s. I already have all the other parts, apart from the risers. Total outlay (not including what I paid for the bits I have, but I'm not including those anyhow - paid for a long time ago), $500 approx. I also owe a friend a (1) bitcoin (well, actually I owe him cash, but we settled on a bitcoin a long time ago, when he saw the potential more than me Still, I'll stick to my end).

So priority 1 is: Cover the $500 + 1 BTC.

Priority 2: Make a little cash if I can. To be specific, accumulate some bitcoin.

I'll do this via alt-coins if I can, scrypt mining and then exchange to BTC. I have no plans to get into the heavy-duty world of SHA256 mining.

Realistic?

Rit.

[virtuexru]

Here's my two cents, mine altcoins. You could at least probably break even. BTC is out of the question. The only way to mine BTC is ASIC chips. GPU mining is still fun and a great hobby, but for scrypt alt-coins.

[21solider21]

I was wondering the same question.. Is it possible to earn decent money only with mining and later on speculating with different alt currencies? I also believe that timing is essential. Getting your hands early on some new currency that has a good potential while the diff is low enough is crucial in my opinion. Any thoughts?

[yatsey87]

Hi all,

The title may have sealed my fate with this thread I have seen a million people say "Don't go into mining!!!!!!". Well, OK, but I'd like an alternative view, because I also like the hobbiest aspect and would still start even if it's a loser...

I've recently managed to secure the parts for (not set up yet) a mining rig which'll comprise 3 x 6990s. I already have all the other parts, apart from the risers. Total outlay (not including what I paid for the bits I have, but I'm not including those anyhow - paid for a long time ago), $500 approx. I also owe a friend a (1) bitcoin (well, actually I owe him cash, but we settled on a bitcoin a long time ago, when he saw the potential more than me Still, I'll stick to my end).

So priority 1 is: Cover the $500 + 1 BTC.

Priority 2: Make a little cash if I can. To be specific, accumulate some bitcoin.

I'll do this via alt-coins if I can, scrypt mining and then exchange to BTC. I have no plans to get into the heavy-duty world of SHA256 mining.

Realistic?

Rit.

All depends on what coins you mine. What are you planning on doing?

[Ritual]

Thanks for replies.

At the moment, I've been primarily looking at Litecoin and Doge. It appears that these may actually have a future, but it is ofc so hard to tell.

So the plan is basically to give both a run initially (I will probably do 1 week on/1 week off with both) to see how they go. If I can then trade prudently to BTC, I'll be happy to keep the BTC against possible future prices.

I'll initially trade what I get until I've reached my goal of 1 BTC, and then I'll try to build a small stock of the three currencies (i.e. BTC, LTC, DOG). Hopefully in several months or a year the pricing will rise to the point where I'll cover my $500 or even make a little profit.

Fingers crossed

[bluedude]

Doge to the moon.

[hope4me]

I'll initially trade what I get until I've reached my goal of 1 BTC

Mine at pool chosing the most profitable scrypt coin then and exchange to Bitcoins immediatelly. Also, you need to monitor the rig from time to time, so you do not miss much time if comp freezes

[DepthCharge]

First priority with mining should be to calculate your hash per watt. I don't think 6990 are that effective when it comes to that, especially since it has a huge TDP. 6990 is the dual GPU right?

[Flep182]

Just registered, but been lurking for quite a while now.

When you have GPU capacity use it for example with multipool.us. There you get the most profitable coin for that moment (based on difficulty, price and such).

I myself have three GPU's running there, 1 in Worldcoin (as I see a bright future there with the whole foundation behind it pushing it for use with POS) and 2 on the most profitable option.
For now that's mostly Doge and Lottocoin (and sometimes WDC too), both I move through my wallet to Cryptsy (or Vircurex) and put up for sale about 10-20% higher than the market price. These regularly swing up and down 20% so you'll sell your coins at a better price than projected. About 30% I sell for just above marketprice to at the moment mainly BTC. When I have aquired a nice baseline there I'm probably converting them mostly to LTC.

[Ritual]

Just registered, but been lurking for quite a while now.

When you have GPU capacity use it for example with multipool.us. There you get the most profitable coin for that moment (based on difficulty, price and such).

I myself have three GPU's running there, 1 in Worldcoin (as I see a bright future there with the whole foundation behind it pushing it for use with POS) and 2 on the most profitable option.
For now that's mostly Doge and Lottocoin (and sometimes WDC too), both I move through my wallet to Cryptsy (or Vircurex) and put up for sale about 10-20% higher than the market price. These regularly swing up and down 20% so you'll sell your coins at a better price than projected. About 30% I sell for just above marketprice to at the moment mainly BTC. When I have aquired a nice baseline there I'm probably converting them mostly to LTC.

This is exactly and precisely what I plan to do. I'm starting small and hope to do something like:

50% reinvest to hardware for 3 mos (+ add a small amount of my own money over that period)
30% save toward that 1 BTC to pay my mate
20% keep stock of selected currencies longer term

After I'm happy with the hardware I have (I'd like to push towards about 5-7 Mhash within say 6 months), I'll stop investing in rigs and increase the amount I am converting/saving.

I think the key here will be to keep up to date with market pricing, and be quick. For that reason I've build a number of widgets which stream to me from the machine I will use to monitor this from the major exchanges.

@Depthcharge - yep, the 6990 is the dual GPU. I know it's not great for hash/watt but I'm getting it quite cheaply second-hand and I'm using it with my existing components. At the moment that includes a 750W gold PSU, so I can't push it much further than a single 6990 without upgrading that too (I dunno if I would feel too good about 2 of them on this PSU). I had planned to start out quite alot bigger this month, but naturally Murphy's Law struck and my car blew up, so that's gotta take priority over a hobby for now.

As time goes on I'd hope to grab more efficient cards, and build better hash/watt rigs and then sell on the 6990. I should easily enough make a profit on it, I think. If I break even on it I am happy too.

I'll take any advice from any angle on how I can improve this plan, and thank you all for replies, feedback and advice so far!

Rit.

[DepthCharge]

Ah I see, so it's a low investment 6990 Good luck with mining then! I'm currently mining SKC (skeincoin), and hoping that it will become more popular in the coming weeks, and cryptsy will accept it
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=322828.0 

Doge does look promising to, so I do have a few of those, but the difficulty has been skyrocketing last week. I wouldn't go for LTC atm, to high difficulty.

Good luck mining, and it's definitly fun as a hobby

[stokecrypto]

Stay away from doge its just damaging bitcoin

LTC may have a high difficulty but at least it wont die like all the new scam coins, LTC is stable with price so its a guarantied income.

you can jump between profitability of coins when mining but your mining when the price is high, by the time u mined the coins the price has dropped so u may aswell have mined ltc with a stable price and probley earnt more.

you wont earn as much with ltc mining but its a safer option and you wont get caught out with pump and dumps that comes with chasing profitability.

 

[Ritual]

Advice appreciated, Stoke. I actually tend to agree.

Eventually, I would like to have 3 rigs going. 2 for switcher pools, and 1 for full time LTC. It certainly appears LTC is going to be with us for quite some time.

But starting small, so the switcher pool seems the quickest way atm.

Rit.

[Flashman]

Holy crap, your genius isn't in mining, but for getting 3 6990s together for under $500... if you can do that all day, sell 'em to the suckers on eBay for $400 a pop and you'll be making more than mining them.

[pungopete468]

Honestly if you want to mine for fun you should solo mine. Consider it a lottery...

This way you actually benefit the network as a node whereas adding another pool miner adds no benefit to the network.

[mintzone]

At the moment, I've been primarily looking at Litecoin and Doge. It appears that these may actually have a future, but it is ofc so hard to tell.

Both of them have futures, but I'm pretty sure they are going to be substantially different.
I don't really see Doge anywhere a year from now. Just the thought of any big time store atm picking it up is unfathomable.

It's future is much short, very fluxuation, so wow

[DepthCharge]

I don't think u will make anything if u mine with 6990's on LTC (at this diff). Best if u calculate it first, think u will be making a loss on your usage.

[kylekartan]

At the moment, I've been primarily looking at Litecoin and Doge. It appears that these may actually have a future, but it is ofc so hard to tell.

Both of them have futures, but I'm pretty sure they are going to be substantially different.
I don't really see Doge anywhere a year from now. Just the thought of any big time store atm picking it up is unfathomable.

It's future is much short, very fluxuation, so wow

You made me lol.....and you're so right.

[Ritual]

@Flashman - deal fell through :/ Still getting 1 x 6990 for $140, but am pissed about not getting the 3. Apparently the guy had made a deal with about 3 people. I was second in queue, so I got one and the "first" guy got 2 of em. Grr. But yeah, reselling em immediately did cross my mind hehehe. Second sale to fall through on me....I had a deal for 6 x 5970s from my cousin, but his brother wanted them instead. For exactly the same reason as me, ofc. So he game em to his brother, which I guess I understand. Still, finding cheap hardware is a pain in the arse

@pungopete - While I can truthfully say that I am not solely out there just to make money, I have to admit that the profit/hobby ratio at the moment (in light of my 1BTC debt) is about 80/20. So while I completely appreciate your point, and I agree with you regarding the health of the network, I need to cover myself as well.

Been doing a bit of reading, and it seems I can (with a bit of clever trading) achieve an expected output of approx 0.01 - 0.013 BTC per day with a 1Mhash setup (which will be my initial rig). Does this seem over the top? If this is wildly optomistic, someone please tell me

Rit.

[mintzone]

If you're going to mine coins and get back a profit, I'd suggest looking at some of the more promising coins out there...
Let me list a few.

Worldcoin: Nice looking logo, appears to be doing very well. Difficulty is at a level where it is feasible to make a profit.
Feathercoin: Lots of people might disagree here, but I like feathercoin. It's got a pretty active community behind it and it's on BTC-E, with always high trade volumes
Digibyte: Just releases, very low premine. Difficulty is at around 10 or 11 at the time of this post. I'm mining this currently, but who knows where it will go, or if it will even get on exchanges.

Litecoin has exploded quite a bit, so it will probably be quite difficult to mine and break a profit from. You should still be able to, it just seems like you'd be able to make more off different coins.
Stay away from the junk coin crap though. You could have a billion doge or kittehcoins and die poor.