New to the Bitcoin/Mining trend and have a few questions

[Skept1k]

Hey there, new to the whole crypto deal! Seems to be a fair bit of helpful info here, been lurking for a few weeks. Anyways-

In short, I'm looking to get into the bitcoin and mining deal (Also looking into forging NXT coins too, but this isn't the place for that) . I have absolutely no idea whether or not it's worth my time, where I should pool, and what I should use to mine. I'm looking to purchase about 5 of the Antminer U2 USB miners and just have them run 24/7 (I will OC them from 2.0 GH/s to 2.4 GH/s, and equate to a total of 12 GH/s). These will cost me about $71, a powered USB strip (nice brand) about $40-$50, and the energy  and PC is free (I have my own personal gaming rig, good components but I refuse to GPU mine). My hope for this is that I can make about $3-$10 a day depending on the pool I join (A guesstimation, I have no idea if I'll make anywhere above or below that). Problem is, this is all 100% new stuff to me. I've had my eye on Bitcoin mining for a few months now and I finally have decided to get a little serious about it. I'm a little confused about all this currency and program has to offer and would like for someone to explain to me how I can begin using this seemingly great service. Thanks in advance! I'm open to all suggestions, but I don't want your advertising about your all-powerful mining pool and why it's the best. Just a newbie looking for some help. I'll take pool suggestions of course but I would like an explanation on why I should join it, don't just drop a link and leave. I'm a pretty techy person so understanding isn't a hard thing at all, I just need seasoned guidance to start.

[Bharat]

usb miners for mining bitcoin is now not even worth of that 71$ investment

you need Th/s asics

[Glizlack]

Yes, unless your doing it strictly for fun the usb miners and you already have them are a bad choice. Check out the rockbox its 32gh/s and around $70. They might not roi but they will come much closer than the usb asics you mentioned.

Steve

also I noticed you said you wanted a bit more info so i pluged in your 5 miners to a profit calculator coinwarz.com and at 14Gh/s and no power cost you would make about 35 cents .35 per day.  More information you may want to provide so we can help you more. Is whats your budget? How much do you pay per kilowatt hour. Is heat or noise and issue where you place the miners.

[Skept1k]

Haven't heard of the rockbox but I searched it and returned nothing on it :/

As for energy, as I said I don't have to pay for electricity and heat and noise are not an issue either.

I'm not looking to spend over $125 if possible either.

[opcoin]

newb here.

[Glizlack]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=632947.0 read this thread they seem legit to me with long term members relating their experience with the rockbox. I am interested in their new one coming out around the 25th of this month but to keep your costs down just check their original rockbox again i believe its around 70 dollars.

Any more questions? Going to bed soon but i will respond later when i get up if i see any.

Steve

[Skept1k]

Ok, I was finally able to look at it, looks nice! I can't see any way to buy it in just USD though. Is it worth the purchase? Would I make anything worthwhile back in the next few months?

[Lieji]

Is it worth the purchase? Would I make anything worthwhile back in the next few months?

IMO, no and no.

You can check the profitability yourself here. https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/calculator

[ranochigo]

Hey there, new to the whole crypto deal! Seems to be a fair bit of helpful info here, been lurking for a few weeks. Anyways-

In short, I'm looking to get into the bitcoin and mining deal (Also looking into forging NXT coins too, but this isn't the place for that) . I have absolutely no idea whether or not it's worth my time, where I should pool, and what I should use to mine. I'm looking to purchase about 5 of the Antminer U2 USB miners and just have them run 24/7 (I will OC them from 2.0 GH/s to 2.4 GH/s, and equate to a total of 12 GH/s). These will cost me about $71, a powered USB strip (nice brand) about $40-$50, and the energy  and PC is free (I have my own personal gaming rig, good components but I refuse to GPU mine). My hope for this is that I can make about $3-$10 a day depending on the pool I join (A guesstimation, I have no idea if I'll make anywhere above or below that). Problem is, this is all 100% new stuff to me. I've had my eye on Bitcoin mining for a few months now and I finally have decided to get a little serious about it. I'm a little confused about all this currency and program has to offer and would like for someone to explain to me how I can begin using this seemingly great service. Thanks in advance! I'm open to all suggestions, but I don't want your advertising about your all-powerful mining pool and why it's the best. Just a newbie looking for some help. I'll take pool suggestions of course but I would like an explanation on why I should join it, don't just drop a link and leave. I'm a pretty techy person so understanding isn't a hard thing at all, I just need seasoned guidance to start.

Your mining rewards does not depend fully on the pool, you will get more payout frequency but smaller payouts per block in pools that are bigger(With more hashrates) while you get lesser payout frequency and higher payouts per block in smaller pools(Lesser hashrates). In the long run, both make the same amount. It isn't really a good idea to buy those USB miners, they are quite over priced and you also have to consider about the heat generated. It is impossible to ROI depending on the rate of difficulty increase. As more ASIC miners are shipped, the difficulty will increase very fast.

[Lieji]

Your mining rewards does not depend fully on the pool, you will get more payout frequency but smaller payouts per block in pools that are bigger(With more hashrates) while you get lesser payout frequency and higher payouts per block in smaller pools(Lesser hashrates). In the long run, both make the same amount.

The pool you use does slightly affect your mining profit.

Your expected mining profit depends on the pool fee, the presence of merged mining and profit-switching features.
Your actual mining profit depends on the pool luck.

[ranochigo]

Your mining rewards does not depend fully on the pool, you will get more payout frequency but smaller payouts per block in pools that are bigger(With more hashrates) while you get lesser payout frequency and higher payouts per block in smaller pools(Lesser hashrates). In the long run, both make the same amount.

The pool you use does slightly affect your mining profit.

Your expected mining profit depends on the pool fee, the presence of merged mining and profit-switching features.
Your actual mining profit depends on the pool luck.

It doesn't depend much on the pool luck since it will eventually even out, if you mine at least 6 months. Other than fees, merged mining and profit switching, there isn't much affecting a mining pool.

[Lieji]

Your mining rewards does not depend fully on the pool, you will get more payout frequency but smaller payouts per block in pools that are bigger(With more hashrates) while you get lesser payout frequency and higher payouts per block in smaller pools(Lesser hashrates). In the long run, both make the same amount.

The pool you use does slightly affect your mining profit.

Your expected mining profit depends on the pool fee, the presence of merged mining and profit-switching features.
Your actual mining profit depends on the pool luck.

It doesn't depend much on the pool luck since it will eventually even out, if you mine at least 6 months.

Theoretically, yes. But the reality is is cruel.

BTCGuild has a 89.531% luck for the past 3 months.
Even for the all-time luck, it is at 97.873%. (BTC Guild starts in May 2011)
https://www.btcguild.com/index.php?page=pplns

[ranochigo]

Your mining rewards does not depend fully on the pool, you will get more payout frequency but smaller payouts per block in pools that are bigger(With more hashrates) while you get lesser payout frequency and higher payouts per block in smaller pools(Lesser hashrates). In the long run, both make the same amount.

The pool you use does slightly affect your mining profit.

Your expected mining profit depends on the pool fee, the presence of merged mining and profit-switching features.
Your actual mining profit depends on the pool luck.

It doesn't depend much on the pool luck since it will eventually even out, if you mine at least 6 months.

Theoretically, yes. But the reality is is cruel.

BTCGuild has a 89.531% luck for the past 3 months.
Even for the all-time luck, it is at 97.873%. (BTC Guild starts in May 2011)
https://www.btcguild.com/index.php?page=pplns

It is hard to predict the luck isn't it? How do you even predict the luck and choose the correct pool? The luck may be even lower after you join the pool.

[Lieji]

It is hard to predict the luck isn't it? How do you even predict the luck and choose the correct pool? The luck may be even lower after you join the pool.

Of course.
That's why I explicitly use "expected mining profit" and "actual mining profit" in my above post.

With 1 TH/s, 0% pool fee, no merged mining, no profit switching, I can expect to get 0.04235 a day now.
But I may get an actual revenue of 0.05 or 0.03, depending on the pool luck.

[DannyHamilton]

At the current exchange rate, $71 will get you about 0.11735537 BTC.

That means that, if you purchase the bitcoins instead of mining for them, you could have 0.11735537 per $71 today.

If you mine at current difficulty, you'll earn about 0.0001 BTC per day per unit.

It's not clear to me if you are getting a set of 5 for $71 total, or if you are paying $71 each.

If they are $71 each (and if difficulty doesn't increase), then it will take you:
0.11735537 / 0.0001 = 1,173.5 days to mine the 0.11735537 bitcoins that you could have just purchased today instead.

If it is $71 for the set of 5 (and if difficulty doesn't increase), then it will take you:
0.11735537 / 0.0005 = 234.71 days to mine the 0.11735537 bitcoins that you could have just purchased today instead.

Note that over those timeframes, difficulty will almost certainly increase.  Therefore it will take even longer to mine the same number of bitcoins as you could just purchase today.  If they are $71 each, then I can say with some confidence that you'll end up with less bitcoins by mining.  You won't be able to mine 0.11735537 bitcoins with just one of those units.  If they are $71 for the set of 5, then you'll have to figure out how quickly you expect difficulty to increase over the next few years to be able to calculate how long it will take to earn the 0.11735537 bitcoins that you could otherwise have had today.  I'd expect it to take more than a year, and if difficulty increases fast enough, it's possible that you'll never mine 0.11735537 bitcoins even with 5 of those units.

[Skept1k]

Lots of good info that keeps coming in, I appreciate it people!

Now, as for what you just calculated for the USB miners profit, let's I buy that rocketbox miner that goes for $85 and mines at roughly 34 GH/s (obviously a better choice than the 5 USB ASIC's. Would I see a better return?

Is any form of mining even worth getting into at this point in time? Do you have any suggestions?

[Instamatic]

Is any form of mining even worth getting into at this point in time? Do you have any suggestions?

Maybe not if all you want is immediate profit.  But there's other reasons to mine:  to gain the experience, spread the word about crypto and the many ways to obtain coins, to support a particular coin that you wish to see succeed, etc..

If you find a coin you think has real value beyond that which Bitcoin already offers then by all means, start mining it with an investment cost you can afford to lose and then hold it.  If others see it as valuable as you do then profit will be gained when the coin starts to exchange for more (and not currently reflected on profit calculator sites like coinwarz). 

Cryptocurrency may not be as new as it was 6 years ago but the average person on the street still knows nothing of it.  I see a lot of folks advising against anybody getting into mining at all these days but for many it's the first way they can see the actual process in effect.  Buying bitcoin with straight up fiat currency to play with on the exchange, hold on to, or spend at an online retailer alone doesn't give you a full understanding of how it works and why it's important for miners in the process even long after the last Bitcoin is rewarded for discovering a new block.

Just my noob take on it.

[ranochigo]

Lots of good info that keeps coming in, I appreciate it people!

Now, as for what you just calculated for the USB miners profit, let's I buy that rocketbox miner that goes for $85 and mines at roughly 34 GH/s (obviously a better choice than the 5 USB ASIC's. Would I see a better return?

Is any form of mining even worth getting into at this point in time? Do you have any suggestions?

I used a calculator and set the difficulty increase rate to very low. Even so, you need at least 103 days to ROI, your electrical cost may be higher and the difficulty might increase faster, there's a lot of factors to consider about. It would be better to use the money to buy some bitcoin.