Deleted

[kingcolex]

.

[TheRealSteve]

There's few ASIC companies left around that can deliver quality chips to base 'home mining' miners on, several of them design and manufacture their own full mining gear, that mining gear is typically loud, runs hot, etc. so not suited for 'home mining' which means they either cater to the people who can set up a small farm, or try to sell as upgrades to existing farms, sell to cloud mining companies who have money to throw around because lots of people are getting in on that even if there's some major question marks to be placed, or... run operations with the gear themselves.

To be honest though, there really weren't that many miners produced as it is ( https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison ) .  Sure, plenty were announced, but then-as-it-is-now, plenty failing to materialize/deliver as well.  Just take a recent addition (which gets removed, then re-added, then removed, then re-added) to that list; Achilles Labs' offerings.  Also note that a good chunk of the companies listed there are currently in legal if not monetary trouble even if they delivered products in the past, so they probably wouldn't be in a position to announce new gear anyway

[raskul]

One has to realise that once difficulty gets beyond a certain level, no miners will be profitable to run. At a guess that difficulty is not far off and we are all hoping upon hope that BTC price makes an upward jump. Personally, i welcome the time when all those big farms are running at a loss because this is the only scenario which will put mining back, where it belongs.

[philipma1957]

 well a true home miner has limited power.

I am usa based with a 200 amp service.  so if I really wanted to mine like mad I can run 10kwatts nonstop.

So for arguments sake  5k to 10k = a big home miner  So lets say you fill your home with s-3's  380 watts each means 20 to 27

S-3's and you are done.   lets make it easy 30 s-3's max   so 30 x 500gh =15th 

 yeah if you have four sp30's     maybe you push 18th  .  this is what kills the home miner  he can't get a lot of the network in his house.

18th earns .2285 btc a day  and you are pulling 10 maybe 11-kwatts

when I had all gpu's in fall of 2012  I peaked at 21gh used  about 6k-watts  but I earned 2.2 coins a day 


I can't do that in my home I would need 1.8ph  I would need 1100 kwatts. I simply can't do much in house.

[xstr8guy]

well a true home miner has limited power.

I am usa based with a 200 amp service.  so if I really wanted to mine like mad I can run 10kwatts nonstop.

So for arguments sake  5k to 10k = a big home miner  So lets say you fill your home with s-3's  380 watts each means 20 to 27

S-3's and you are done.   lets make it easy 30 s-3's max   so 30 x 500gh =15th 

 yeah if you have four sp30's     maybe you push 18th  .  this is what kills the home miner  he can't get a lot of the network in his house.

18th earns .2285 btc a day  and you are pulling 10 maybe 11-kwatts

when I had all gpu's in fall of 2012  I peaked at 21gh used  about 6k-watts  but I earned 2.2 coins a day 


I can't do that in my home I would need 1.8ph  I would need 1100 kwatts. I simply can't do much in house.

Very well explained!

So many people get starry-eyed when dreaming about home mining, especially those with "free electricity". They don't realize that their electrical service is going to max-out way before they can plug in enough miners to earn significant income.

I gradually maxed out my circuits during the spring/summer with 10THs of mining equipment @1w/GHs. Even then, I didn't earn much BTC. And I'm one of the many unlucky ones... I actually have to pay my electric bill. Now I'm lucky to earn 1 BTC per month after expenses. That's really just pocket change.

I earned WAY more in fall/winter of 2013 with a few Bitfury rigs, a KNC Mercury with additional modules, 3 S1s, some AM Blades and USBs and some BFL Singles. I see the writing on the wall and have pretty much avoided this current generation of ASICs other than a few S3s and a couple of pre-ordered Monarchs. It's a losing battle trying to continue this race to the bottom.

[elduderino]

LOL... This hasn't been discussed before, has it?

Yeah, essentially, the difficulty has made it almost impossible for the 'average' home miner to make any significant amount of bitcoin per day, never mind achieving positive ROI... It's a tough go, and if you wade into the waters, you need to have some sort of edge, ie. facilities available, cheap or free juice, and be prepared in any case for a tough slog...

The thing that makes it really tough is competing against those who are selling you your hardware (at a price that may barely allow you to make your investment back, if you're lucky). In addition, they are not only mining with the loads of the same hardware (at a significantly lower price); at the same time, they are increasing the previously mentioned difficulty WITH THE MONEY YOU JUST PAID THEM.

This is based on the assumption that you actually receive your mining gear in the agreed upon time frame and there are no issues with it, which is not, by any stretch, a sure thing.

[Phildo]

The fact that they are mining for themselves just shows how foolish it was to buy miners from them in the first place.

If they had a machine that would make 5 bitcoins, why would they sell it to you for less than 5 bitcoins? When it cost them more money to make a miner than it would generate, they sold it to you to make money. When they found a way to make one for less than it would generate, they did the smart thing and plugged it in.

It never made sense to mine and sell miners, every miner makes every other miner less valuable. They got other people to pay for their R&D and give them enough of a cushion of cash to go it on their own.

[philipma1957]

LOL... This hasn't been discussed before, has it?

Yeah, essentially, the difficulty has made it almost impossible for the 'average' home miner to make any significant amount of bitcoin per day, never mind achieving positive ROI... It's a tough go, and if you wade into the waters, you need to have some sort of edge, ie. facilities available, cheap or free juice, and be prepared in any case for a tough slog...

The thing that makes it really tough is competing against those who are selling you your hardware (at a price that may barely allow you to make your investment back, if you're lucky). In addition, they are not only mining with the loads of the same hardware (at a significantly lower price); at the same time, they are increasing the previously mentioned difficulty WITH THE MONEY YOU JUST PAID THEM.

This is based on the assumption that you actually receive your mining gear in the agreed upon time frame and there are no issues with it, which is not, by any stretch, a sure thing.

The key for the home miner is to realize big riches are not for us in home.  I now have 10 s-3's with 2 on order.  I have 1 sp20 on order.
It is cold in NJ and winter power rates are back in effect.  so my 16 cent drops to 13 cent and the welcome heat makes it more like 9 cents.  
With diff jumps under 5 % I can mine from now until April. I won't make a lot of money but they will profit over power  cost for:

DEC
JAN
FEB
MARCH
APRIL  

Come APRIL they will have some resale value.
Lastly S-3's are easy to run.
So what will my  machines earn net profit most likely 1k or 200 usd a month.  


No fix for the home miner other then a huge BTC price jump.  Which the bigger companies may not be as mobile to catch on to as quickly as I can.

Put in other words I can go from my 12 s-3's and 1 sp20 (7th) to 14th faster then a 2ph farm can go to 4ph

  so if coins jump from  375 usd to 1000 usd in 1 week I will 2x my gear faster then he will.  but in 30 days time he will pass me again. 

I will also be flatlined at 14th.