New to Mining - Help Please

[smartest_smarty]

Hello all,

I've just discovered mining and am at present using Asteroid - Mining Bitcoin through Slush's Pool. I'm currently seeing speeds of about 70MH/s.

I'm guessing this isn't very much - i'm not using dedicated hardware at the moment.

What I want to know, is how do we find out the current difficulty level, and what type of speed we need to achieve to mine a decent amount of coins.

What type of cheap external devices are recommended for mac if you wanted to mine solo?

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm eager to start learning!

=)

[P4ndoraBox7]

The easiest method would be with GAW, since they all do the hosting and scrypt and let you in the most profitable pool. If you have any question ask me without trouble I'm with them since a week and I dont regret it.

[byt411]

The easiest method would be with GAW, since they all do the hosting and scrypt and let you in the most profitable pool. If you have any question ask me without trouble I'm with them since a week and I dont regret it.

What a nice explanation, lol.

Hello all,

I've just discovered mining and am at present using Asteroid - Mining Bitcoin through Slush's Pool. I'm currently seeing speeds of about 70MH/s.

I'm guessing this isn't very much - i'm not using dedicated hardware at the moment.

What I want to know, is how do we find out the current difficulty level, and what type of speed we need to achieve to mine a decent amount of coins.

What type of cheap external devices are recommended for mac if you wanted to mine solo?

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm eager to start learning!

=)

You would have to invest hundreds and thousands in mining equipment, and have cheap electricity, to hope for profit.
The current difficulty level can be found at https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty.
The speed you want depends on what "a decent amount of coins" is to you.

[P4ndoraBox7]

lol byt411, I know, I dont have to say in 5 000 words that it would be the best investment in mining, anyway, I'm sold to them xD

[smartest_smarty]

So maybe mining bitcoin would be difficult now, but what about the other cyptocurrencies out there?

Is there a multiple mining software for mac? Something that can switch between currencies?

Also, a pool which supports this?

[byt411]

So maybe mining bitcoin would be difficult now, but what about the other cyptocurrencies out there?

Is there a multiple mining software for mac? Something that can switch between currencies?

Also, a pool which supports this?

Again, I repeat my statement.
You would have to invest hundreds and thousands in mining equipment, and have cheap electricity, to hope for profit.

[P4ndoraBox7]

Same opinion too... Zenhashlet

[smartest_smarty]

Current figures for litecoin:

Hashrate(?):   892,522 MH/s

Block Generation Time(?):   
1 block: 2.3 minutes
12 blocks: 27.8 minutes
24 blocks: 55.6 minutes

Does this mean with a 1TH/s Asic you could be cracking a block in 2.3 minutes? I don't get why that would be hard?

[byt411]

Current figures for litecoin:

Hashrate(?):   892,522 MH/s

Block Generation Time(?):   
1 block: 2.3 minutes
12 blocks: 27.8 minutes
24 blocks: 55.6 minutes

Does this mean with a 1TH/s Asic you could be cracking a block in 2.3 minutes? I don't get why that would be hard?

No, 1TH/s Bitcoin ASICs cannot be used on Litecoin. Bitcoin is on the SHA-256 algorithm and Litecoin is on the scrypt algorithm.

[notlist3d]

Current figures for litecoin:

Hashrate(?):   892,522 MH/s

Block Generation Time(?):   
1 block: 2.3 minutes
12 blocks: 27.8 minutes
24 blocks: 55.6 minutes

Does this mean with a 1TH/s Asic you could be cracking a block in 2.3 minutes? I don't get why that would be hard?

No it will take you A LOT more to get a block.  Look up coinwarz for a simple how much currently 1T can make it is sha for bitcoin.

Keep in mind this does NOT include difficulty change.  I still think ROI can be possible, but it does need to be a difficulty level not to big, and you also need space and cheap electricity, or a host.

Always do your own ROI math and include different difficulties.  This difficulty rise is looking like it isnt too bad in a day but we will see.  I consider 10 not bad on increase. 20 or so is where personally i don't like.

[philipma1957]

Current figures for litecoin:

Hashrate(?):   892,522 MH/s

Block Generation Time(?):   
1 block: 2.3 minutes
12 blocks: 27.8 minutes
24 blocks: 55.6 minutes

Does this mean with a 1TH/s Asic you could be cracking a block in 2.3 minutes? I don't get why that would be hard?

okay let us say you are a real person asking new questions.

making money at this is not easy.

ltc or any scrypt coin uses gear with a lessor counting system..    A  thunder zeus x6 is a scrypt miner

http://oneminer.com/  if they still have this it is an okay price.

300 usd  and lets say you buy it  pay the 300 get the bonus with it.  which is worth about 40-50

lets say you sell the bonus for 40.

   you now have spent 260  this gear will burn around 460 watts   lets say you have a spare psu  and you are smart enough to set it up.

this gear stands to earn back around  200 usd  worth of ltc after power if your power is 10 cents a kwatt so you would lose about 60 bucks.

recently doge coin has been added to ltc so you may mine about  75 in doge coin.   so just maybe this deal would make a 25 dollar profit.

on the other hand your loss is about 260 usd  so that is all you would lose.

you can get lucky and have both coins  jump in price and make more money then the 25 usd I think you may earn with this.  assuming 10 cent power free psu and free internet.

[jdany]

I disagree that you need 100,000's of dollars.
But, your investment needs to be proportional to your return expectations.
Power is definitely a consideration, and is usually a big chunk of your balance sheet.

Throw some numbers into a calc and see where you're at before you spend money.
Assume difficulty will average around 15% every 10 days.
And see how close you get to your goal.

[byt411]

I disagree that you need 100,000's of dollars.
But, your investment needs to be proportional to your return expectations.
Power is definitely a consideration, and is usually a big chunk of your balance sheet.

Throw some numbers into a calc and see where you're at before you spend money.
Assume difficulty will average around 15% every 10 days.
And see how close you get to your goal.

Assuming that you have a spare PSU lying around, and you have an electricity price of $0.07/kwh, you wouldn't profit, not even being optimistic and assuming 20% difficulty increase/month.
So no, give up already, unless you can get millions in hardware in bulk, and then get access to really cheap electricity.

[notlist3d]

I disagree that you need 100,000's of dollars.
But, your investment needs to be proportional to your return expectations.
Power is definitely a consideration, and is usually a big chunk of your balance sheet.

Throw some numbers into a calc and see where you're at before you spend money.
Assume difficulty will average around 15% every 10 days.
And see how close you get to your goal.

Assuming that you have a spare PSU lying around, and you have an electricity price of $0.07/kwh, you wouldn't profit, not even being optimistic and assuming 20% difficulty increase/month.
So no, give up already, unless you can get millions in hardware in bulk, and then get access to really cheap electricity.

It's hard to tell on difficulty we got one that was not bad last week.  I'm hoping to see more like that but i think will be slightly over 10 this week, but i could be wrong.  Time will tell.

Sep 13 2014    29,829,733,124    8.75%    213,529,547 GH/s
Aug 31 2014    27,428,630,902    15.03%    196,341,788 GH/s
Aug 19 2014    23,844,670,039    20.86%    170,686,797 GH/s
Aug 08 2014    19,729,645,941    5.30%    141,230,307 GH/s
Jul 25 2014    18,736,441,558    8.08%    134,120,673 GH/s