So will 2015 be the year that home mining ends?

[Amph]

mining end in 2014, long time ago, just big farm or free power people are mining, those guys can keep mining forever, do not expect them to drop the ball

[chrysophylax]

mining end in 2014, long time ago, just big farm or free power people are mining, those guys can keep mining forever, do not expect them to drop the ball

well - im still going amph ... and it still costs me ...

there is a simple reason for this - i still believe that the coins that are mined will be of use in the near future ... if not near - at least the future ahead ...

its not merely a profiteering plan - but an actual investment into what i believe is a future in transactional situations ...

otherwise - NONE of the governing bodies would even take a second look at these things ...

in any case - mining will be maintained one way or another - and i do agree that eventually - only the 'big' players with deep pockets will be able to afford to keep it all going due to the rising costs of electricity ...

and the freebies - as you suggested ...

#crysx

[FreeJack2k]

I don't really understand why anyone mines at a loss, rather than just turning off their systems, taking the money they'd have spent on power and buying coin with it, instead.

[hdmediaservices]

I don't really understand why anyone mines at a loss, rather than just turning off their systems, taking the money they'd have spent on power and buying coin with it, instead.

I think you have two main sets of people:

1.  Those that look at crypto-currency as a hobby.  Any money made is icing on the cake.  Any money lost is just the cost of the hobby.

2.  Those trying to make money off of it.

[chrysophylax]

I don't really understand why anyone mines at a loss, rather than just turning off their systems, taking the money they'd have spent on power and buying coin with it, instead.

not a loss - at a cost ... it will always cost - even if your electricity is free ...

everything costs - from the costs of the miners to the cost of setup to the cost of storage for farms and operational costs ...

some run at a 'loss' as you say - but you are still comparing to fiat - and not to the coin itself ...

bitcoin was created as an ALTERNATE payment system ( amongst other things ) to move away from fiat altogether ...

instead - most people trade it over FOR fiat - and not use it as a payment system - whether it be lack of suppliers accepting btc or not ...

others accept btc ( and alternate currencies ) for just what they are - currencies ... we USE the coins as a payment form ...

so there is no 'loss' ... not to me anyway ...

i was taught this from the use of the 'bartering system' years ago when i was much younger ...

#crysx

[Equate]

I don't really understand why anyone mines at a loss, rather than just turning off their systems, taking the money they'd have spent on power and buying coin with it, instead.

If everyone will switch off their mining rigs , do you know what will happen to the coins that you buy from exchanges ? Ever heard of network security.

[Bananana]

I don't really understand why anyone mines at a loss, rather than just turning off their systems, taking the money they'd have spent on power and buying coin with it, instead.

If everyone will switch off their mining rigs , do you know what will happen to the coins that you buy from exchanges ? Ever heard of network security.

Well, most alt-coin adjust the difficulty in 1-2 block, so I dont think everyone will switch off at the same time. Just need enough miner switch off and its profitable again. Mining at a loss is not a good idea.

[chrysophylax]

I don't really understand why anyone mines at a loss, rather than just turning off their systems, taking the money they'd have spent on power and buying coin with it, instead.

If everyone will switch off their mining rigs , do you know what will happen to the coins that you buy from exchanges ? Ever heard of network security.

Well, most alt-coin adjust the difficulty in 1-2 block, so I dont think everyone will switch off at the same time. Just need enough miner switch off and its profitable again. Mining at a loss is not a good idea.

o i see ... like trading at a loss? ...

all of the fiat exchanges of the world have people that trade at losses - work for losses and deficits ...

its life - thats all this is ... you suffer the hard times and 'sacrifice' fiat for other things ... for us hardcore miners - those 'other things' are coins ...

whether they go up in fiat price or not - is of no consequence to me ... so its not a loss at all - but a GAIN ... a gain in cryptocurrency that i can use to buy more miners - more parts - more equipment and even pay certain bills with ...

loss? ... not at all ...

you are still comparing it with fiat as fiat being the foundation and all things compared to it ... if that is the ONLY way one looks at it - then almost everything we do is a 'loss' ...

i mine - it costs some fiat ... i gain cryptocurrency - which allows me to do buy and trade ... so ask yourself these simple questions - where is the loss? where is the gain? what is important to ME? ...

what you call a loss - i call a gain ...

#crysx

[Ume]

Yeah i heard that too that this will be the last year for mining but i got some questions in my tiny brain that if there not bitcoins available for mining then !1: price increase or 2: decrease :?

[chrysophylax]

Yeah i heard that too that this will be the last year for mining but i got some questions in my tiny brain that if there not bitcoins available for mining then !1: price increase or 2: decrease :?

what user equate was trying to allude to earlier is simply this ...

if all mining was turned off ( and yes PoS 'staking' which a form of mining ) - if ALL mining was turned off - then it wouldnt be a matter of price - it would be a matter of survival ...

that is - mining = alive coins / alive blockchain ... NO mining = dead blockchain - and coins ...

simple ...

#crysx

[FreeJack2k]

Yeah I mean, I'm not even talking about fiat profit here. People talk about mining because they believe in the coins - but if the difficulty is such that you only earn enough to pay power, or you don't even earn enough to pay for your power, then doesn't it make more sense to spend the money you WOULD have used on power, to buy coins? As it is, you're either donating processing power to the network, or you're paying to help process transactions. I guess I could see how someone might do it as a "hobby" for grins, but otherwise it just makes no sense, if you're looking to accumulate coins.

[chrysophylax]

Yeah I mean, I'm not even talking about fiat profit here. People talk about mining because they believe in the coins - but if the difficulty is such that you only earn enough to pay power, or you don't even earn enough to pay for your power, then doesn't it make more sense to spend the money you WOULD have used on power, to buy coins? As it is, you're either donating processing power to the network, or you're paying to help process transactions. I guess I could see how someone might do it as a "hobby" for grins, but otherwise it just makes no sense, if you're looking to accumulate coins.

what you say makes sense ...

i think its a personal thing - and the way i see it is that im making 'profit' which ever way i go ...

it does cost fiat - and time - and effort ... so unless its value ( and i mean personal value ) is equal to all that - then it wont be worth it for most ...

i do this becuase i see things very differently from most - and thats why im in the postion i am ...

but your point is quite valid if the 'breakeven' level is never reached ...

in that case you are doing it for the sake of doing it and nothing more ...

#crysx

[grendel25]

I really think that lower power GPUs are a huge potential.  I wouldn't be surprised to see performance double and power costs half which would turn GPU farms back on again.

[chrysophylax]

I really think that lower power GPUs are a huge potential.  I wouldn't be surprised to see performance double and power costs half which would turn GPU farms back on again.

hence the optimization in ccminer for nvidia cards ...

#crysx

[MaxDZ8]

I really think that lower power GPUs are a huge potential.  I wouldn't be surprised to see performance double and power costs half which would turn GPU farms back on again.

And be immediately pushed out by themselves.
You cannot have an advantage by using the hardware everyone else is using.

[Equate]

I really think that lower power GPUs are a huge potential.  I wouldn't be surprised to see performance double and power costs half which would turn GPU farms back on again.

GPU mining is not sustainable unless market correction occurs  and altcoin price rise gains momentum.

[bensam123]

Especially when people are selling private kernels with much higher hashrates you don't have access to.

[chrysophylax]

Especially when people are selling private kernels with much higher hashrates you don't have access to.

EVERYONE has the oportunity to access to the kernels and optimized miners ... its just for a fee ...

if evryone actually DONATED to the devs - we ALL would have massive mining hashrates ...

ive seen this written so many times - and not ONE of the people that write these things down seem to understand the simplest of things ... and that is - the developer is writing his OWN CODE ...

which means he / she can do what the hell they want with it ...

im not a dev - but i have a great deal of respect for them ... unlike most of this forsaken 'crypto community' it seems ...

#crysx

[Prelude]

I really think that lower power GPUs are a huge potential.  I wouldn't be surprised to see performance double and power costs half which would turn GPU farms back on again.

Errr... If that happens, you'd be in the same boat. Everyone's hash rate doubles, power consumption halved.. Few difficulty adjustments later and voila, barely off your knees and back down you go.

Face it, GPUs are done. They will never make a comeback, too many idiots willing to clear store shelves in the event of a bump in price thinking they'll become rich plugging risers.

[nachoig]

Yeah i heard that too that this will be the last year for mining but i got some questions in my tiny brain that if there not bitcoins available for mining then !1: price increase or 2: decrease :?

what user equate was trying to allude to earlier is simply this ...

if all mining was turned off ( and yes PoS 'staking' which a form of mining ) - if ALL mining was turned off - then it wouldnt be a matter of price - it would be a matter of survival ...

that is - mining = alive coins / alive blockchain ... NO mining = dead blockchain - and coins ...

simple ...

#crysx

PoS doesn't fix the problems with mining. Yeah, it's a form of reducing the costs and it fixes the problems with wasting of energy, but this comes with hoarding.

3.  Most alt coins are becoming less profitable to mine.

Because devs aren't creating altcoins to innovate, but just to get rich quick.

Any new ideas / technologies to come?  Or is this going to be the end year of home mining (no matter how you do it -- CPU / GPU / ASIC).

Lyra2RE, which is use in Vertcoin after switching from Scrypt-N (in my opinion, switching the hashing algorithm is a bad idea unless there is some serious flaw). From the zero, Lyrabar. We also have NeoScrypt.

I have been interested in the hard drive BURST mining.  It is something different at least, but I guess that could easily be taken over by huge cloud drives as well.  

Yes, it's an interesting concept. But I think their idea is not about home or industrial mining, but about sustentable mining.