Considering to start solo mining, thoughts?

[FlutterPie]

I have been considering mining for a while now. I never took the plunge because of all the people that were (and still are) saying I would be a moron to start now. But I really think it would be cool to just experiment with.

I see these story's about people finding a block solo and that just reassures me it isn't impossible. I have a few questions prior to me starting. If I decide to try and solo mine, does this means I make absolutely no bitcoins unless I find a block, or will I still get miniscule amounts? Another question is, would it be a smarter idea to mine bitcoins directly in hopes of winning the lottery (finding a block), or mine another sha256 coin and just trade that for bitcoins?


The final and one of the most important probably, how should I start? Meaning, what hardware should I buy to start out with. I was thinking I would buy like 20 of those 2Gh/s block erupters and see whats happens there. But financially Im pretty sure I could get quite a bit more Gh/s for the money I would be spending on 20 block erupters and everything I would need to set it up (raspberry pi, ect.)

I anticipate your reply's

Thank you

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[Wolf_Pack]

I'll answer your first question. If you solo mine and don't find a block, you won't get any coins.

[TheRealSteve]

I've got no answers regarding the hardware - that's entirely up to you.  It would be easier of you already had hardware that was just not being profitable and you decided that playing the lottery would be as good a thing to do with it as letting it collect dust.

Wolf_Pack is correct that you get nothing, unless you find a block (in which case you do get the full 25BTC, currently, reward).

I do think it would be smart to 'merged mine'.  There's little reason not to, the overhead is pretty small and you're already not going for top performance anyway.

If you don't want to bother running all the services needed for mining, there are even 'solo mining pools', like http://bitsolo.net/ .  They give you the reward (presumably - nobody's found a block with them yet), take the fees for themselves, and merge-mine NameCoin (of which they take all, though).  Just throwing that out there as an option to consider.

[FlutterPie]

I've got no answers regarding the hardware - that's entirely up to you.  It would be easier of you already had hardware that was just not being profitable and you decided that playing the lottery would be as good a thing to do with it as letting it collect dust.

Wolf_Pack is correct that you get nothing, unless you find a block (in which case you do get the full 25BTC, currently, reward).

I do think it would be smart to 'merged mine'.  There's little reason not to, the overhead is pretty small and you're already not going for top performance anyway.

If you don't want to bother running all the services needed for mining, there are even 'solo mining pools', like http://bitsolo.net/ .  They give you the reward (presumably - nobody's found a block with them yet), take the fees for themselves, and merge-mine NameCoin (of which they take all, though).  Just throwing that out there as an option to consider.

So merge mining is mining 2 coins at once? And what is the point of joining a solo mining pool over just solo mining?

[Groc]

I'd think that you'd want around 10 Ths (10 000 Ghs) to make it worthwhile. also you'd probably want to add a THs  every month or so.

Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App

[SirChiko]

I'd think that you'd want around 10 Ths (10 000 Ghs) to make it worthwhile. also you'd probably want to add a THs  every month or so.

Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App

I wouldn't even bother solo with this hashrate only 20+ if not more.

[FlutterPie]

I'd think that you'd want around 10 Ths (10 000 Ghs) to make it worthwhile. also you'd probably want to add a THs  every month or so.

Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App

I wouldn't even bother solo with this hashrate only 20+ if not more.

What kind of hardware do you suggest?

[5w00p]

100 of these:
https://www.kncminer.com/products/neptune-third-batch

[U.K.-BTC]

Hi, I'm Mike, this is my first post.

I make my money with real and hard work, every day. I am not dependent on Bitcoin. But, the idea fascinated me since a few weeks ...

Meanwhile; I am newbie-Bitcoiner and run as a rookie with the “mainstream”, even with this old USB-sticks :-(

History: One day after I first heard of Bitcoin, my first USB stick was already ordered. And so on …

Today, a few weeks later, the disillusionment.

Meanwhile, I calculate Gigahash and BTC courses and understand the system - more or less - I think, anyway.

Ok, now what? Should I now clean my USB-Sticks in order to donate a Museum?

I see at the moment two real options (view of the Newbie):

- Solo Mining as a lottery (just-for-fun because server and power costs fall anyway) or is then ...

- Find an alternative way for the USB stick. (Are there other Altcoins - maybe even completely new ones that are still with USB sticks to "Good luck" to mines?)

Solo mining interests me. To your question: solo Mining Poool I do not see the advantage. Yes, it is easier to configure. But invest two or three hours of your time to configure your "CORE" and your "bfgminer" and the Transaction Fee's are worth more than the two or three hours for this configuration of solo-mining.

Let's stay in touch? Contrary to all the math I would now like to solo mines.

I would now prefer to play this Solo-Mining-lottery as being with USB-Sticks for 657 years in a pool, because before the transaction is higher than the minimum Withdrawal… and so on…

Should we small-fishes ignore the mathematic and play solo-lottery with solo-mining, or should we waste the electricity for (most time) non-profitable pool-mining?

PS: Respect, this Neptune Third is other leage than my USB-Sticks!

[Groc]

personally, I'm waiting to see what kind of $/Ghs the new AsicMiner chips will offer, but right now I think the Black Arrows are the best $/Ghs... and Knc has a great reputation. 

Ideally, paying $1.50/Ghs with power  consumption at 0.5w/Ghs would be excellent.

Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App

[xstr8guy]

I'd think that you'd want around 10 Ths (10 000 Ghs) to make it worthwhile. also you'd probably want to add a THs  every month or so.

Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App

I wouldn't even bother solo with this hashrate only 20+ if not more.

Right! And he'll only need 10,000 of those 2GHs Block Erupters to get to 20THs. Sounds like a great plan!

[xstr8guy]

personally, I'm waiting to see what kind of $/Ghs the new AsicMiner chips will offer, but right now I think the Black Arrows are the best $/Ghs... and Knc has a great reputation. 

Ideally, paying $1.50/Ghs with power  consumption at 0.5w/Ghs would be excellent.

Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App

Great advice... for October 2013! It looks like someone hasnt been keeping up with hardware developments, lol. Why not tell him to order from HashFast, AMT and VMC while you're at it.

Black Arrow is VERY late on delivering preorders and continues to struggle to get a working design.  And KNC does NOT have a great reputation anymore.

[xstr8guy]

Hi, I'm Mike, this is my first post.

I make my money with real and hard work, every day. I am not dependent on Bitcoin. But, the idea fascinated me since a few weeks ...

Meanwhile; I am newbie-Bitcoiner and run as a rookie with the “mainstream”, even with this old USB-sticks :-(

History: One day after I first heard of Bitcoin, my first USB stick was already ordered. And so on …

Today, a few weeks later, the disillusionment.

Meanwhile, I calculate Gigahash and BTC courses and understand the system - more or less - I think, anyway.

Ok, now what? Should I now clean my USB-Sticks in order to donate a Museum?

I see at the moment two real options (view of the Newbie):

- Solo Mining as a lottery (just-for-fun because server and power costs fall anyway) or is then ...

- Find an alternative way for the USB stick. (Are there other Altcoins - maybe even completely new ones that are still with USB sticks to "Good luck" to mines?)

Solo mining interests me. To your question: solo Mining Poool I do not see the advantage. Yes, it is easier to configure. But invest two or three hours of your time to configure your "CORE" and your "bfgminer" and the Transaction Fee's are worth more than the two or three hours for this configuration of solo-mining.

Let's stay in touch? Contrary to all the math I would now like to solo mines.

I would now prefer to play this Solo-Mining-lottery as being with USB-Sticks for 657 years in a pool, because before the transaction is higher than the minimum Withdrawal… and so on…

Should we small-fishes ignore the mathematic and play solo-lottery with solo-mining, or should we waste the electricity for (most time) non-profitable pool-mining?

PS: Respect, this Neptune Third is other leage than my USB-Sticks!

Save your money and just buy actual lottery tickets. Your odds on winning the lottery are better than solving a block while solo-mining with Block Erupters.

Newbies are fun! 

[FlutterPie]

So I really need at least 10TH/s for it to be at least remotely a good idea to solo mine?

[xstr8guy]

So I really need at least 10TH/s for it to be at least remotely a good idea to solo mine?

No, with 10THs you're still playing the lottery by solo-mining. If you are hashing with less than several hundred THs these days it's much wiser to pool mine. Why the fascination with solo-mining?

[FlutterPie]

So I really need at least 10TH/s for it to be at least remotely a good idea to solo mine?

No, with 10THs you're still playing the lottery by solo-mining. If you are hashing with less than several hundred THs these days it's much wiser to pool mine. Why the fascination with solo-mining?

Imagine waking up one day to 25 BTC in your wallet.

[TheRealSteve]

Imagine waking up one day to 25 BTC in your wallet.

At several hundred Thash/s, as proposed, you'd probably have to spend so much that you might as well buy 25 BTC

You'd really have to decide if you want to be mining for some manner of reasonably guaranteed BTC mined - in which case you'll either need crazy amounts of hashing power if going solo, or you'll just have to join a pool like most people - or whether you'd really just go for the unlikely but thrilling idea of getting the BTC mined while using very little hashing power (like playing the lottery) - essentially more for fun than anything else.

[5w00p]

A L T C O I N S

[FlutterPie]

Imagine waking up one day to 25 BTC in your wallet.

At several hundred Thash/s, as proposed, you'd probably have to spend so much that you might as well buy 25 BTC

You'd really have to decide if you want to be mining for some manner of reasonably guaranteed BTC mined - in which case you'll either need crazy amounts of hashing power if going solo, or you'll just have to join a pool like most people - or whether you'd really just go for the unlikely but thrilling idea of getting the BTC mined while using very little hashing power (like playing the lottery) - essentially more for fun than anything else.

Yeah I just thought it was something cool to think about. But Im not going to spend that much money. What coin do you suggest I mine for to at least be a little profitable?

Just a few weeks ago I was planning on buying like 5 or 6 sapphire R9 290x to mine with. But with all the asic scrypt miners, GPU's arent going to be profitable anymore are they?

I want to get started mining something, but am just very confused what to do.

[FlutterPie]

A L T C O I N S

Thats what I figured, can you give me tips.