Is it profitable to mine?

[Berghoff]

I jumped into mining with a purchase of a $15 AntMiner USB chip.  I'm not and never had any belief I'd make much of a profit on it, it was mostly for learning.  But I'm wondering if it's even possible to make any profit.  

I'm currently getting 1.75 GHash/Sec.  From what I have received over the past few hours, as well as projects from various web sites, the lifetime earnings of this will be about $5.  That's earnings, not profit.  Cost+shipping will be about a $25 loss).  That's assuming BTC price remains stable, I'm not using any electricity, and a few other factors in favor of some kind of a profit.  

If that projection is accurate, than if I were to get a 1 THash unit at about $2,100 then I might expect a lifetime earnings of $2,800 or so.  Again, assuming BTC price is stable and not factoring in expenses like electricity, time spent working with the unit, etc.  

Is this about  right? Has mining become such a commodity right now that you might hope to recoup only a few percentage profit over time on a capital investment?

[bitcoinmarketmaker]

I am currently doing a cloud mining test to see if this is still profitable. Results: http://bitcoinmarketmaker.com/bitcoin-mining.php

[Nerazzura]

$15 for 1,75 GHS is too expensive, you never make ROI with them
many users use Antminer S1 for learning how to mine, since it is outdated users will go to 1 TH/s hardware
my opinion, if you want to make profit, it's better you buy bitcoin and hold it, sell when price rising
but if you want enjoy learn about mining, i think you should buy 1 TH/s hardware, choose the best one

[JohanM]

Is this about  right? Has mining become such a commodity right now that you might hope to recoup only a few percentage profit over time on a capital investment?

Simply: yes

The only ones who are making real money with mining are the company's that produc mining equipment.
They first use it to mine themselves and when the return starts to slow down, they ship it to their customers. That's why all the pre-orders on the latest mining equipment exits.

[debuni]

Is this about  right? Has mining become such a commodity right now that you might hope to recoup only a few percentage profit over time on a capital investment?

Simply: yes

The only ones who are making real money with mining are the company's that produc mining equipment.
They first use it to mine themselves and when the return starts to slow down, they ship it to their customers. That's why all the pre-orders on the latest mining equipment exits.

+1 Yes

And there is another type of companies which make profit - like cex.io with their overpriced GHs and very very high fees (about 0.26$ Ghs/month).
Nowadays this is the only way to have a decent profit, more than just very few percentage.

SHA-256 mining lost its high profile potential a long time ago.

Also check this calculator and see it for yourself:

https://tradeblock.com/mining/

[AdamSmith]

Competition is high among producers.

Profit is mostly in negative territory for ASIC and GPU mining.

[bitmarket.io]

It isn't when you deal with shady fucks on the forum.

You want profit, vertically integrate. Don't deal with anyone but the chip designers and manufacturers themselves.

[AdamSmith]

It isn't when you deal with shady fucks on the forum.

You want profit, vertically integrate. Don't deal with anyone but the chip designers and manufacturers themselves.

Even then,the RoI is in negative territory for new ASIC miners.

[DannyElfman]

For a casual miner getting in now? Gut answer is no. Unless you are scrypt mining and speculating on low difficulty coins, that is.

[Gianluca95]

No, if you don't have much power in your farm and the electric energy is expensive, your mine is not profitable.

[AdamSmith]

For a casual miner getting in now? Gut answer is no. Unless you are scrypt mining and speculating on low difficulty coins, that is.

Cheaper to buy low difficulty coin.

Normally, when a new coin launch, the developers give coin away to promote it.

[Berghoff]

Simply: yes

The only ones who are making real money with mining are the company's that produc mining equipment.
They first use it to mine themselves and when the return starts to slow down, they ship it to their customers. That's why all the pre-orders on the latest mining equipment exits.

This makes sense.  The people who got rich in the 1849 gold rush were the companies who produced the equipment to mine the gold.

I bought the USB miner just on a lark to just chug away and see what kind of return I got. A 1 THash miner would probably give me about 100% ROI if it can last for a few months.  But as more and more miners come online, the rewards are going to decrease rapidly.  And come next halving day, I sincerely doubt that transaction fees will increase sufficiently to make up for the 12.5BTC drop per block. 

[AdamSmith]

Simply: yes

The only ones who are making real money with mining are the company's that produc mining equipment.
They first use it to mine themselves and when the return starts to slow down, they ship it to their customers. That's why all the pre-orders on the latest mining equipment exits.

This makes sense.  The people who got rich in the 1849 gold rush were the companies who produced the equipment to mine the gold.

I bought the USB miner just on a lark to just chug away and see what kind of return I got. A 1 THash miner would probably give me about 100% ROI if it can last for a few months.  But as more and more miners come online, the rewards are going to decrease rapidly.  And come next halving day, I sincerely doubt that transaction fees will increase sufficiently to make up for the 12.5BTC drop per block. 

Either coin price has to double to make up for loss income, or difficulty has to cut in half to maintain the RoI.

[bitmarket.io]

It isn't when you deal with shady fucks on the forum.

You want profit, vertically integrate. Don't deal with anyone but the chip designers and manufacturers themselves.

Even then,the RoI is in negative territory for new ASIC miners.

Ummm. No it's not, dumbdumb.

[DannyElfman]

Maybe, maybe not. I can't wrap my head around difficulty and how to speculate on it, so I prefer to speculate just on BTC price.

[ArbatDeli]

It depends on the hash rate made available by your hardware and the network difficulty. I think difficulty is moving up too fast to get into mining now.

[JerryCurlzzz]

It depends on the hash rate made available by your hardware and the network difficulty. I think difficulty is moving up too fast to get into mining now.

Are there any resources available, or places where people discuss speculation on the network difficulty? Seems you'd have to time it well to make good money if you are not a massive mining farm.

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

Competition is high among producers.

Profit is mostly in negative territory for ASIC and GPU mining.

GPU miners have long been unprofitable to even run.

You can now run ASICs profitably (mining revenues exceed electricity costs) but most market prices of miners are too high to ever reach ROI

[_Miracle]

This is a very easy to use calculator

http://www.evolyn.net/bitcoin/mining_calc.php?version_major=2&version_minor=4&presents=none&h=180&MinerPowerDrain=350&MinerCosts=0&MinerDeliveryTime=0&NetworkBlockHeight=302160&Difficulty=8853416309.1278&DifChange0P=%2B25&DifChange0A=0&MiscUSDBTC=600&MiscUSDBTCChange0P=%2B0&MiscElectricityCosts=0.09&MiscCalculationLength=360&MiscShownIntervalLength=7&btn_startcalculate=true

[AdamSmith]

It isn't when you deal with shady fucks on the forum.

You want profit, vertically integrate. Don't deal with anyone but the chip designers and manufacturers themselves.

Even then,the RoI is in negative territory for new ASIC miners.

Ummm. No it's not, dumbdumb.

Kindly let us know which ASIC miner gives positive ROI?