Your opinion: Is mining still profitable?

[mwizard]

No mining is profitable IMHO be it sha256, scrypt or other algo's.

I've recently sold my sha256 mining gear and gpu's because I was barely breaking even with the cost of electricity and I already owned the gear outright. In fact some days depending on pool luck I was actually mining at a loss.

I'd be very surprised if anyone can invest in equipment either new or used and ROI at current difficulty and btc value. Perhaps with free electricity it might be possible.

Just for interest what was your cost of electricity?

[hedgy73]

No mining is profitable IMHO be it sha256, scrypt or other algo's.

I've recently sold my sha256 mining gear and gpu's because I was barely breaking even with the cost of electricity and I already owned the gear outright. In fact some days depending on pool luck I was actually mining at a loss.

I'd be very surprised if anyone can invest in equipment either new or used and ROI at current difficulty and btc value. Perhaps with free electricity it might be possible.

Just for interest what was your cost of electricity?

My electricity costs approx. £0.15 per kw/h ($0.25) + standing charge. This is domestic pricing and very similar price across all suppliers here in UK.

[Morguk]

Mining at home, no. Cloud scrypt, currently yes.

[mwizard]

No mining is profitable IMHO be it sha256, scrypt or other algo's.

I've recently sold my sha256 mining gear and gpu's because I was barely breaking even with the cost of electricity and I already owned the gear outright. In fact some days depending on pool luck I was actually mining at a loss.

I'd be very surprised if anyone can invest in equipment either new or used and ROI at current difficulty and btc value. Perhaps with free electricity it might be possible.

Just for interest what was your cost of electricity?

My electricity costs approx. £0.15 per kw/h ($0.25) + standing charge. This is domestic pricing and very similar price across all suppliers here in UK.

Don't feel badly done by.  It appears $0.15 to $0.25 USD per KWh is typical of not just the UK but most of the developed world.  At those prices bitcoin mining is no longer economic.

It is only the areas like Iceland, northern Sweden, Washington State in US or parts of China where bitcoin mining is profitable.  There is no way the rest of the world can compete with areas where electricity is around $0.05 per KWh.  Even $0.10 looks expensive when your competitors are paying half that.  

Interestingly the areas with cheap electricity are also some of the coldest inhabited areas on earth - good for cooling those racks of miners, especially if you are near the sea with nice stable temperatures.

[cat2]

Profitable, no. Interesting, yes.

[g-uid]

Profitable, no. Interesting, yes.

Used to be fun back in 2010, don't think it works now

[hedgy73]

No mining is profitable IMHO be it sha256, scrypt or other algo's.

I've recently sold my sha256 mining gear and gpu's because I was barely breaking even with the cost of electricity and I already owned the gear outright. In fact some days depending on pool luck I was actually mining at a loss.

I'd be very surprised if anyone can invest in equipment either new or used and ROI at current difficulty and btc value. Perhaps with free electricity it might be possible.

Just for interest what was your cost of electricity?

My electricity costs approx. £0.15 per kw/h ($0.25) + standing charge. This is domestic pricing and very similar price across all suppliers here in UK.

Don't feel badly done by.  It appears $0.15 to $0.25 USD per KWh is typical of not just the UK but most of the developed world.  At those prices bitcoin mining is no longer economic.

It is only the areas like Iceland, northern Sweden, Washington State in US or parts of China where bitcoin mining is profitable.  There is no way the rest of the world can compete with areas where electricity is around $0.05 per KWh.  Even $0.10 looks expensive when your competitors are paying half that.  

Interestingly the areas with cheap electricity are also some of the coldest inhabited areas on earth - good for cooling those racks of miners, especially if you are near the sea with nice stable temperatures.

You're exactly right its the same across most of the developed world. There is no way to compete with $0.05. Nice if you've got that and live somewhere cold .

[Medow]

Do you think mining scrypt coins with 2.5 cents /kw is profitable.
I am going to buy many scrypt rigs and i am looking for more thoughts.

[puwaha]

Do you think mining scrypt coins with 2.5 cents /kw is profitable.
I am going to buy many scrypt rigs and i am looking for more thoughts.

Uh.... that's a great electric rate.  Yes, you could get some good cheap GPU buys on ebay and probably make ROI very easily.

[syfy323]

Profitable, no. Interesting, yes.

Add plenty of fun too! Ultimately, although it's been tough lately, it's the fun that sells it for me.

For me it's the same. It's not money... Sure, I want ROI for the hardware but I am not going to BTC/€ - maybe in exchange for goods or other digital things.

[hedgy73]

I'm thinking about getting some more efficient hardware for the short term because I miss the mining buzz. Even if it breaks even for a few months that will do me .

[Zelek Uther]

If you are (or were) a miner, surely you won't use a normal heater in winter time?

Even the most inefficient miner is more efficient that a heater. Those things are literally 0 GH/s.

[chrismaster]

Im from Germany.

I pay for a kWh 0.24 cents (euro cents € 0.24)
But i do it for fun:-)

[Medow]

Do you think mining scrypt coins with 2.5 cents /kw is profitable.
I am going to buy many scrypt rigs and i am looking for more thoughts.

Uh.... that's a great electric rate.  Yes, you could get some good cheap GPU buys on ebay and probably make ROI very easily.

I am going to buy about 15 chinese scrypt rig which produce about 510 MH/s with total power 16.5 Kw .

How many heat do you think those rigs can produce? Because i live in a very hot place .

3 cooler unit with the total of 24,000*3=72,000 i think will be good to deal with that amount o heat, right?

The total consume of rigs power and cooling power will be 10 USD for rigs power + 7.5 USD for cooling power = 17.5 USD per day.

Do you think this will still be very profitable?

[JorgeStolfi]

bash> units
Currency exchange rates from 2012-06-06 
2414 units, 68 prefixes, 64 nonlinear units

You have: 16.5 kW
You want: btu/hour
   * 56300.337
   / 1.7761883e-05

So your air conditioner will have to pump ~57'000 BTU/hour out of your house.  Here "btu" or BTU is British Thermal Unit, a unit for amount of heat (like the joule or the calorie) that is used in the air conditioning and heating industry.

I suppose that the capacity of an air conditioner depends on the temperature outside and the temperature that you want to keep inside the house.

[Medow]

bash> units
Currency exchange rates from 2012-06-06 
2414 units, 68 prefixes, 64 nonlinear units

You have: 16.5 kW
You want: btu/hour
   * 56300.337
   / 1.7761883e-05

So your air conditioner will have to pump ~57'000 BTU/hour out of your house.  Here "btu" or BTU is British Thermal Unit, a unit for amount of heat (like the joule or the calorie) that is used in the air conditioning and heating industry.

I suppose that the capacity of an air conditioner depends on the temperature outside and the temperature that you want to keep inside the house.

So i am good with three units the give me 72,000 BTU.

[JorgeStolfi]

So your air conditioner will have to pump ~57'000 BTU/hour out of your house. [ ... ]
I suppose that the capacity of an air conditioner depends on the temperature outside and the temperature that you want to keep inside the house.

So i am good with three units the give me 72,000 BTU.

You should ask an air conditioning technician, I have no idea.  For one thing, even if your miners are turned off, the AC would have to pump some heat out, in order to keep the temperature inside lower than that outside.  That is the heat that seeps into the house through walls, roof, doors, windows, etc., driven by the temperature difference.

[JorgeStolfi]

The owner of LTCgear.com has been designing FPGA Mining Hardware for the last 15 years and is also an experienced Developer of Alt-coins. The company has evolved from initially producing and selling Mining Hardware equipment to the general public to now becoming an established Multi Algorithmic Cloud Mining Provider. [ ... ]  To get this fantastic offer simply click on the referral link in my signature below and then select ASIC share1K6X – Anniversary then enter this code at checkout: anniversary1yr Then set up your wallet addresses and enjoy the weekly BTC payments.

Quite impressive, considering that Bitcoin is only 5 years old...

[fewcoins]

The owner of LTCgear.com has been designing FPGA Mining Hardware for the last 15 years and is also an experienced Developer of Alt-coins. The company has evolved from initially producing and selling Mining Hardware equipment to the general public to now becoming an established Multi Algorithmic Cloud Mining Provider. [ ... ]  To get this fantastic offer simply click on the referral link in my signature below and then select ASIC share1K6X – Anniversary then enter this code at checkout: anniversary1yr Then set up your wallet addresses and enjoy the weekly BTC payments.

Quite impressive, considering that Bitcoin is only 5 years old...

Oh more scammers tied to BTC?? No kidding.......

[mgio]

It never was. You're all dreaming.

Very true!

As someone who has been mining the past few years, it NEVER has been profitable to mine except in a few rare cases which include:

- Getting lucky and being able to order a batch 1 Avalon
- Being a very early customer of KNC


Everything else was a big money loss.