Remember the days of the Block erupter?

[thebfldoctor]

Ah, the days of the block erupter, were you didn't have to worry about your electric bill and you could just simply mine.

[guitarplinker]

Or the days before that, when a single GPU could easily make 0.01 BTC per day. That was kind of nice.

[DrG]

Or the days before that, when a single GPU could easily make 0.01 BTC per day. That was kind of nice.

No before that a single GPU was mining 1 a day, so 50BTC + fees from a 5870.  Of course if you bought Bitcoin instead of the 5870 back then you would have had thousands of BTC 

Unless you have a time machine you can't go back to those days - you can only focus on the current time.

[guitarplinker]

Exactly, but those were some of the best mining days. I don't think we'll ever see something like that again unfortunately.

[os2sam]

Ah, the days of the block erupter, were you didn't have to worry about your electric bill and you could just simply mine.

How much did you earn with those BE's?

[CharHill]

Ah, the days of the block erupter, were you didn't have to worry about your electric bill and you could just simply mine.

It was so long time ago, can you to remember me how does it work??

[Ayers]

Or the days before that, when a single GPU could easily make 0.01 BTC per day. That was kind of nice.

yeah and the value was like what 1 dollar? not really comparable, but we can say that the difficulty is too high for the current price

[stryker]

Mining is going to be very interesting to watch.... right now the charts show its not for the enthusiast any more, so much for decentralisation.  However I think there is a chance it can come crashing down when these bone-heads spending millions on massive operations finally realise their operations will not work in the long term.... then it might become the domain of the enthusiast again 

And all this is going on while the number of full bitcoin nodes dwindles almost unnoticed.... 

[stryker]

Or the days before that, when a single GPU could easily make 0.01 BTC per day. That was kind of nice.

No before that a single GPU was mining 1 a day, so 50BTC + fees from a 5870.  Of course if you bought Bitcoin instead of the 5870 back then you would have had thousands of BTC 

Unless you have a time machine you can't go back to those days - you can only focus on the current time.

Good point... we all look back saying ooh those were the days.... frankly if I had a time machine and went back a couple of years I'd buy bitcoin, hell mining didn't work as a profit generator back then if you think about it, it was still better to buy coins.

To be honest I have to remind myself too that mining fees are only a temporary fix to help get bitcoin going.... I think what satoshi had in mind was mining costs being covered, not that mining should be a profit generator.

In the mean time I may buy an old miner, something fairly efficient but of a size meaning it only uses around 2-300 watts and then run it as me doing my bit    I already run a full node as my contribution.

[cloverme]

Ah, the days of the block erupter, were you didn't have to worry about your electric bill and you could just simply mine.

Those were the days for sure, I had many of those humming along mining away and generating some nice dough. Now you're more likely to be able to cook a pop tart with your miner than you are to get a bitcoin out of it.

I put my block erupters on ebay, what did you guys do with yours?

[os2sam]

I put my block erupters on ebay, what did you guys do with yours?

I'm pointing one at deepbit and one solomining.  Pretty much the same thing I guess.

[cloverme]

I put my block erupters on ebay, what did you guys do with yours?

I'm pointing one at deepbit and one solomining.  Pretty much the same thing I guess.

You might hit that bitcoin loto and get the 25 coin reward... maybe   They don't use too much power so it's kind of like a self-scratching lottery ticket I guess heh. Not too shabby of an idea there.  A buddy of mine has a couple running, one his basement that his cat has taken a liking to as a night warmer.

[Barnabe]

Remember the good ol' days when we could mine at least 100BTC with only a CPU ? 

In a few years people will also tell on forums : "remember when we could simply mine with Asics ?" 

Evolution dosn't care of nostalgia 

[DrG]

Remember the good ol' days when we could mine at least 100BTC with only a CPU ? 

In a few years people will also tell on forums : "remember when we could simply mine with Asics ?" 

Evolution dosn't care of nostalgia 

I'm pretty sure ASICs are the end of the evolution since their very name means that it is a circuit made for hashing.  The only next possible evolution would be something that isn't a circuit... a hashing lifeform like a SHA-256 bacteria 

[Barnabe]

Nah there is no end of evolution. People will always find new ways.
Next step could be quantum processors. Many people expect it to be the next big step in computering (maybe in a few decades/centuries Bitcoin would have to be reinvented because this technology has too much computing power  )

[seedtrue]

Still have mine. I bought it off btcguild for 1 btc. Someday I will donate it to a crypto museum.

[finlof]

still wish i would have listened to my co-worker back in 2011 and gotten into BTC and LTC mining.  took me over a year to come around...

[timewave0]

I think I mined about 0.05BTC on my Q6600 CPU. I should have gotten into the GPU scene back then.

As for the next step from ASICs, anything as dramatic as the GPU/FPGA to ASIC shift would imply equally revolutionary advances in lots more semiconductor applications than just bitcoin mining.

[RawDog]

Ah, the days of the block erupter, were you didn't have to worry about your electric bill and you could just simply mine.

How much did you earn with those BE's?

Earn?  You can't earn money mining!!!  That's impossible.

[lightfoot]

No, it's impossible to make a *profit* on mining. It's a perfect marketplace and while it's possible to make some money in the short term, long term profits are impossible.

My BE are used as little heat generators. Eventually they will be scrap or something.

As for the past, back then bitcoins were worthless, if you want to relive that, mine some silly altcoin or doge or something on that order. :-)