btc supplemental income

[presidentpicker]

Need help from a math wizard.  My goal is to make $10000 per year supplemental income by mining bitcoins.  My cost per kW is $0.10.  What kind of investment do I need to make to create this much money?  How long will it take to recoup the investment and start generating income?

[qed]

Need help from a math wizard.  My goal is to make $10000 per year supplemental income by mining bitcoins.  My cost per kW is $0.10.  What kind of investment do I need to make to create this much money?  How long will it take to recoup the investment and start generating income?

It's nice to see how bitcoins are something you are interested in and not only a way to make money...
You didn't even bother reading the wiki.

[nster]

Need help from a math wizard.  My goal is to make $10000 per year supplemental income by mining bitcoins.  My cost per kW is $0.10.  What kind of investment do I need to make to create this much money?  How long will it take to recoup the investment and start generating income?

difficulty increases every couple of weeks, in about 2~4 weeks you may not even be able to make ANY profit, let alone 10000$.

Only way to make that much money is to invest into BUYING bitcoin and buy/sell, buy when low and sell when high, ie: speculating

[[Tycho]]

Need help from a math wizard.  My goal is to make $10000 per year supplemental income by mining bitcoins.  My cost per kW is $0.10.  What kind of investment do I need to make to create this much money?  How long will it take to recoup the investment and start generating income?

Since you are already going to invest, then i can assume that you already know who will buy your mined bitcoins and why.
So tell us, when you should sell them and how much USD per bitcoin they will pay you, then we can give you advices on mining.

[molecular]

Need help from a math wizard.  My goal is to make $10000 per year supplemental income by mining bitcoins.  My cost per kW is $0.10.  What kind of investment do I need to make to create this much money?  How long will it take to recoup the investment and start generating income?

I faced a similar problem in January before I started mining.

My goal was to merely break even some time and have some fun in the community, building the hardware and mining (latter part worked out)

I simply made an excel "simulation" sheet with one line every 2 weeks and entered starting values into the 1st line and formulas to go from one line to the next. Worked fine.

The problem with all this is: you need to "guess" 2 values over time: the difficulty and the exchange rate.

I completely underestimated difficulty growth. Calculated 20% every 2 weeks. Now look for yourself at http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-lin-10k.png to see what really happened . (I started in mid-Jan)
Fortunately I also underestimated exchange rate growth, so that I just about could get my investment back if I exchanged my BTC to EUR now.

If you dont care about strengthening the network, you could just buy bitcoin, the price is currently rather low. If I had invested the €600 euro into bitcoin back when I started, I would now have made a profit of around €1000. But note: that's pretty much a gamble and I'm not giving investment advice here.

On the other hand: your power cost is pretty low. I expect a lot of hardware will be sold when earnings are less than power cost in the more expensive places (germany: $0.3). You could buy hardware then. But to make BTC 5000, you'll need a lot of 5970s.

If you project the 2 values (exchange rate and difficutly (need a function over time here, or a growth rate)) for me, I can make you a nice calculation on how much hashing power you would need to reach your goal.

[presidentpicker]

The problem with all this is: you need to "guess" 2 values over time: the difficulty and the exchange rate.

I completely underestimated difficulty growth. Calculated 20% every 2 weeks. Now look for yourself at http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-lin-10k.png to see what really happened . (I started in mid-Jan)
Fortunately I also underestimated exchange rate growth, so that I just about could get my investment back if I exchanged my BTC to EUR now.

thanks for a very thoughtful reply.  Looks like Btc rate is extremely variable due to low trading volume and it's impossible to make any kind of estimate of where the price might be a year from now.  It also looks like generating any meaningful income by mining is an exercise in futility, unless you are one of the few lucky guys who got in the game early.  Slush entire pool is making 1600 BTC per day - let's say it's equivalent of $1500 at 90 Ghps.  Based on this I need 2 Ghash/s of hardware to make $10k in a year - assuming the production rate does not drop (what an unlikely proposition!).   And that is before energy cost is factored in.  So my guess is I need 5 Ghash/s of hardware for starters.  I have no idea how much that h/w might cost.

As far as simply trading btc - that would be a pure speculation on a highly volatile currency. it might appeal to some but not me

[Grinder]

If the difficulty level stopped at the next estimated difficulty level (78 000) and the exchange rate stays the same, you would need 5-6 x 5970. Unfortunately it probably won't. My guess is that you need at least 20 x 5970 to get $10 000 this year after electricity but excluding initial costs.

[presidentpicker]

If the difficulty level stopped at the next estimated difficulty level (78 000) and the exchange rate stays the same, you would need 5-6 x 5970. Unfortunately it probably won't. My guess is that you need at least 20 x 5970 to get $10 000 this year after electricity but excluding initial costs.

I've heard $2k for a dual 5970 setup.. does that sound right?  I see the subject changed from "mining is profitable" to "mining is marginally profitable".  I suggest the next title: "mining is no way in hell profitable" 

[LMGTFY]

I've heard $2k for a dual 5970 setup.. does that sound right?  I see the subject changed from "mining is profitable" to "mining is marginally profitable".  I suggest the next title: "mining is no way in hell profitable" 

Already exists: MINING IS NOT PROFITIBLE!

Mining is profitable and Mining is marginally profitable are two separate threads, by the way... As far as I can tell, no one's created "Mining is not marginally profitable" (yet) :-)

[TurdHurdur]

As an experimental currency, using experimental hardware/software I think Bitcoin is a fascinating project and would work on it for the pure geekery. Opportunists will quickly loose interest, and by the time it is out of beta they will find themselves well behind the curve. That doesn't mean people shouldn't profit off it for all the effort put into Bitcoin. Solving the problems of sustainability are, after all, part and parcel of any continuing business/community venture.

I'm no opportunist, for my interest is tightening.

[molecular]

If the difficulty level stopped at the next estimated difficulty level (78 000) and the exchange rate stays the same, you would need 5-6 x 5970. Unfortunately it probably won't. My guess is that you need at least 20 x 5970 to get $10 000 this year after electricity but excluding initial costs.

I've heard $2k for a dual 5970 setup.. does that sound right?  I see the subject changed from "mining is profitable" to "mining is marginally profitable".  I suggest the next title: "mining is no way in hell profitable" 

You could probably build one for a little cheaper, not much, though. maybe 2000 BTC.

[bitjet]

If the difficulty level stopped at the next estimated difficulty level (78 000) and the exchange rate stays the same, you would need 5-6 x 5970. Unfortunately it probably won't. My guess is that you need at least 20 x 5970 to get $10 000 this year after electricity but excluding initial costs.

I've heard $2k for a dual 5970 setup.. does that sound right?  I see the subject changed from "mining is profitable" to "mining is marginally profitable".  I suggest the next title: "mining is no way in hell profitable" 

You could probably build one for a little cheaper, not much, though. maybe 2000 BTC.

I built my dual dual 5970 setup for ~800.

[molecular]

You could probably build one for a little cheaper, not much, though. maybe 2000 BTC.

I built my dual dual 5970 setup for ~800.

How? One 5970 costs $600 last time I checked. Let alone two of them!

[nster]

You could probably build one for a little cheaper, not much, though. maybe 2000 BTC.

I built my dual dual 5970 setup for ~800.

How? One 5970 costs $600 last time I checked. Let alone two of them!

used 5970s can be found at 400$

[presidentpicker]

used 5970s can be found at 400$

still does not compute no pun intended

[nster]

used 5970s can be found at 400$

still does not compute no pun intended

I wasn't arguing about the 800$ dual 5970 thing...

I was just saying that you can find used 5970, responding to the 600$ per 5970

[edric]

OP, here's how you make your $10k.

1. Code virus like program that upon infecting target computers, adds them to your personal botnet.
2. Have your zombie minions run multipurpose mining programs during idle cycles (cpu, gpu)
3. ?
4. PROFIT!

Oh, and don't get caught

[mrb]

How to make about $10k with Bitcoin:

1. Pick a cool handle... something like "Baron"
2. Bruteforce mtgox account passwords, find 2 of them!
3. Withdraw the maximum amount of BTC per day
4. DON'T GET CAUGHT (some often forget this step)
5. Profit!