Is there really any money in this?

[Optiskate]

I've read through a bit of threads on here and I'm not totally convinced that there's any really money in this. How did you guys start off and begin to make any real money?

Honestly I'm afraid to invest in a computer to specifically mine, even though I the idea sounds cool to me. I'm running 2 overclocked 4890's and they don't seem to work that great in comparison to what other people are running. I'd be happy if this funded a couple of new video cards eventually. That would make this totally worth it in my mind. However, if I were to build a system I'm afraid it would just forever break even and I'd spend all my bc's on upgrading to pull in more hashes when things got harder. Couple that with fluctuating exchange rates and there's a lot of what if's. I've heard of people building systems to do this with their bc's and not paying a dime out of pocket and then pulling in even more, but is it possible still?

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Historically, buying bitcoins has been more profitable than mining.

[Garrett Burgwardt]

Bitcoins are not meant to just get free money. Do some research into the reason it was developed and decide if you support the monetary system that we're trying to build. If so, build a mining rig, and you /might/ make some money.

[smooth]

You can make enough to pay for one or two nice video cards easily enough, or at least cover most of their cost.  If that's what you're trying to do, go for it.  As far as making "real money" at it no one really knows.  Do your own homework and decide for yourself.

[bittrader]

Dispite the coolness associated with the idea of "mining money" through buying hardware and running your computer, it's not something that's easy. Depending on what hardware you currently have, it might take months before your investment in new hardware shows any profit.

Check out the mining rig comparisons on the wiki and use those numbers to estimate how much money you could make. Don't forget to account for the fact that mining difficulty increases every week or two.

[smooth]

Check out the mining rig comparisons on the wiki and use those numbers to estimate how much money you could make. Don't forget to account for the fact that mining difficulty increases every week or two.

Technically mining difficulty just resets every couple of weeks but it doesn't necessarily increase.  In the past it has increased, especially the recent past.  But there is no guarantee that will continue to be the case.

[BitterTea]

It doesn't reset, it is adjusted based on the time taken to find the past 2016 blocks. If that time is less than two weeks, the difficulty increases; more than two weeks, it decreases. It can only increase or decrease by a factor of 4. There seems to be a correlation between exchange rate and difficulty - as the exchange rate increases, mining becomes more profitable so more people mine, which increases difficulty.

[Basiley]

BTC isn't purposed to get "real" money, but new kind of money, more Real than usual in offline.

[smooth]

It doesn't reset

Yes, right.  I should have said adjusts.  But the point being that it's not guaranteed to go up.  As with everything else past performance is no guarantee...

[bittrader]

Right. But I meant empirically the difficulty has done almost nothing but go up every few weeks: http://bitcoin.sipa.be/

[xenon481]

The difficulty level has gone down twice in the past.

[Optiskate]

You can make enough to pay for one or two nice video cards easily enough, or at least cover most of their cost.  If that's what you're trying to do, go for it.  As far as making "real money" at it no one really knows.  Do your own homework and decide for yourself.

As I said, if it allowed me to eventually get a pair of new video cards, then I'd more than likely be happy. In all reality, I work and I'd never expect to make the kind of money that I do in my real job. It would be nice to have a tiny extra bit of income though. I'd never expect much though, unless I build and invested in a mining operation of my own.

[Optiskate]

Dispite the coolness associated with the idea of "mining money" through buying hardware and running your computer, it's not something that's easy. Depending on what hardware you currently have, it might take months before your investment in new hardware shows any profit.

Check out the mining rig comparisons on the wiki and use those numbers to estimate how much money you could make. Don't forget to account for the fact that mining difficulty increases every week or two.

Yeah, with the hardware I have now it will be awhile before I'd make any sort of progress. My 2 4890's only push ~200mhash/s.

[MoonShadow]

Historically, buying bitcoins has been more profitable than mining.

Yeah, there are better ways to earn bitcoins, just as there are better ways to save US $ than clipping coupons.  Start a business.  We need more economy, not more miners.

[smooth]

As I said, if it allowed me to eventually get a pair of new video cards, then I'd more than likely be happy.

Play with the profitability calculator and do your own homework, but most likely with reasonable assumptions (even with difficulty going up) you can pay for video cards in a few months.

If you have ideas for how to start a business to use bitcoins that's great too (and probably a better way to make "real money"), but there is nothing wrong with mining as a way to pay for video cards you want anyway.  Miners support the network.

[Optiskate]

Historically, buying bitcoins has been more profitable than mining.

Yeah, there are better ways to earn bitcoins, just as there are better ways to save US $ than clipping coupons.  Start a business.  We need more economy, not more miners.

Yeah... I agree with you. Mining wouldn't be a way to make substantial money. I'm not necessarily looking for a substantial pay out, just a way to participate and support my computer habit a little.


However, my wife would argue on the coupon point. She does the whole extreme couponing thing and hardly spends any money. Her saving are usually 90% or greater. I've sen her spend $8 on a trip that totaled over $200 and I've also seen her make money on trips. Craziness.

[Ian Maxwell]

The best reason to get into mining, IMO, is because you want a new GPU anyway. Look for a used HD 5970 on Craigslist or something. I got mine for $400. At that price, and at current difficulty and exchange rate, you can expect it to pay for itself within the first month. Of course, difficulty won't stay constant, but even at double the current difficulty it'll only take two months. And of course the exchange rate won't stay constant either.

I'd say go for it. Whether to buy one or two cards is really up to you---I stuck with one, but only because it was all I could fit in my existing PC and I didn't want to go all-out dedicated rig building.

[redicarus]

It depends on your confidence in bitcoin. Whether or not you'll pay for your videocard in a reasonable amount of time depends on how you expect bitcoin's value against other currencies to behave.

[minerX]

I'm expecting a 60% difficulty increase next week.   A lot of people who bought in the last two weeks are just getting their mining rigs upgraded.

[minerX]

There is much less risk in buying gear then coins.  You can easily sell the equipment from mining.    So in reality all one needs to do is mine 10-20% of the total cost to break even. (Assuming resell at -20% cost.)  That is very feasible.