Mine, or Buy?

[ncsupanda]

I have free electricity, and will for another two years. So I'm contemplating buying some S1s and mining, but can't help but think it would be better to buy and hold the BTC.

Any advice?

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[joae1975]

Mining is for suckers.  Buy, unless you want to do it for fun.

[Meman]

Mining = pure speculation, while starting with a big fat loss
Holding Bitcoins = pure speculation, but you won't start with a loss

Mining can be an interesting hobby, but don't expect to get your initial costs back.

The only exception is, when you have the skills, knowledge and equipment to construct
and build your own, high efficient miners at low costs. You can sell them per pre-order
to collect money for your material costs and mine with them. Once your machines are
hardly profitable anymore, you can ship those preorders. THAT'S how you make money.

[jamesc760]

If you have free electricity, you may break even in 9 months or so.

Never buy a pre-order, though.

Just buy btc directly and hold.

[ncsupanda]

If you have free electricity, you may break even in 9 months or so.

Never buy a pre-order, though.

Just buy btc directly and hold.

Even with S1's? It just doesn't seem like it based on their stats.

[wanna4fun]

Those guyz are posting in mining speculation and they tell you to don't mine. Don't listen to them. Do your maths and enjoy.

[Ardenyham]

I cannot mine in summer even with free electricity. The heat generated is too high and I dont want invest in better climatization just to run minners 

[rodimed_0815]

I bought a 600 gh/s rig last year. I got it two weeks ago. ( It was a pre ordered thing) If I would now spend this money then I'll get about 7-8 BTC. In 10 month mining I suppose to get the same.  In the end it is the same money. If you want to be a miner - mine, if you want to have coins - buy.

[PangPang]

I bought a 600 gh/s rig last year. I got it two weeks ago.

Sounds like another victim of BFL.

[PangPang]

I have free electricity, and will for another two years. So I'm contemplating buying some S1s and mining, but can't help but think it would be better to buy and hold the BTC.

Any advice?

You can do your math with a profit calculator. Just set the electricity cost as zero, and check if you can get profits.
IMO, it is better to buy bitcoin directly.

[tzortz]

Mining is for suckers.  Buy, unless you want to do it for fun.

So nobody should mine?

I wonder who's securing the transactions then.

[pastet89]

It depends on current situation. If you want to buy more than you can mine of course you should buy.
Mining is safer once you have pulled out of it the initial investment.

[ChuckBuck]

When price of BTC is low, you just buy it outright.

When price of BTC is high, you mine the shit out of it.

Easy enough to remember.

[ncsupanda]

I am looking to buy 3 Antminer S1's, and I don't have any electricity costs - Just gauging, do you guys think it would be worth setting up a group buy in order to get more of them?

Thanks

[Dalkore]

Only mine if you have deep pockets and can wait 1-2 years to see real gains.     If that is not you, buy and hold is my opinion if I were evaluating the options.

[taipo]

I doubt there are many that after being mining for long enough, would then go to trading bitcoins as a means of making money. There is something slightly anti establishment about having a server in your house that 'turns electricity into bitcoins', whereas trading is just boring plain old conventional capitalism.

Small to medium miners are more likely to switch their gear back to solo mining when pool mining income drops below power costs, than concede to the obvious. Then all miners need to do is come up with a mantra that justifies running a few Antminer S1s with no income for months. Something along the lines of lotto ticket buyers who spend $50 a week on the off chance they hit the jackpot.

On that other point, the downturn in the price of bitcoin comes in a large part from mined bitcoins being traded for more hash power by miners, and mining manufacturers dumping their coins on the market at the lower rates in order to get fast returns. Same goes for miners who have forked out thousands to upgrade, then dump their freshly mined coins from their new high powered rigs to try and recover their investments as soon as possible, once recovered, then save their BTC to buy more gear, and the cycle continues.

IF an EBay type site that only takes bitcoins kicks off anytime soon, a legit version of the silk road if you will, this may offset this type of activity, as there would be a greater need for bitcoins to purchase non-mining equipment rather than it being a one way flow from miners to cash.

Other than that, prepare to watch this craziness continue.

There is no talking sense to us miners, if it were the case, mining would be over long ago.

And on that note, to the OP, if you have free power then do both, but rather than the Antminer S1, go for something thats at least 1 watt per gigahash or less.

[GodfatherBond]

Buy own mine

[LostDutchman]

I have free electricity, and will for another two years. So I'm contemplating buying some S1s and mining, but can't help but think it would be better to buy and hold the BTC.

Any advice?

Buy.

Don't bother trying to mine.

My $.02.

[saurabh]

If you want to mine do it with this power otherwise no fast returns.

[TinyBBC]

In the current market, it is certainly more cost effective to buy directly, unless you want to dig for fun,
but you have to hold it, do not sell too early