Cryptocoin Mining?

[techietechnics]

I really dont understand the concept here.

You provide compute cycles.
Someone pays you money.

Where is the money coming from? Is someone buying your compute cycles and what are they doing with them?

Same question mate!

I just started mining myself, I'm using a 7770 vapor-x on my rig. I'm hitting around 198Mhash/s. :|

 

[thilanliyan]

Same question mate!

I just started mining myself, I'm using a 7770 vapor-x on my rig. I'm hitting around 198Mhash/s. :|

If you're in it just for fun, cool...but if you're trying to make money, I doubt you will when taking into account power costs because the difficulty is so high right now.

 

[pm]

Same question mate!

I just started mining myself, I'm using a 7770 vapor-x on my rig. I'm hitting around 198Mhash/s. :|

The money comes from people buying bitcoins. And people buy bitcoins to pay for things.

It's like Disney Dollars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_dollar). Disneyland prints Disney dollars and you can use them as if they were real money within Disneyland. Now why would people want to spend Disney dollars instead of real US dollars - because they are souvenirs, possibly will have some antique value and because they are fun. And you can trade Disney Dollars back to US dollars.

Similarly with Bitcoins, they are minted/mined by people using their computers. People - like you - are using their computers to create new Bitcoins and to authenticate Bitcoin transactions. And then people buy these bitcoins to use to spend on things. As to why people want to buy bitcoins - well, there are some who think that they are a hedge against inflation (ie. the Fed is printing too many dollars but there are only a finite amount of bitcoins), but the majority are buying to use to buy things anonymously. The main thing that makes bitcoins vaguely interersting is that they allow you to pay for things over the internet with a relatively high level of anonymity. So what things can you buy? Mostly shady things - no offense to anyone, I believe it's the truth. You can use them to buy illegal things on Silk Road (google it), you can use them in online gambling, and you can use them to pay for things that you don't want traced back to you - like usenet accounts, and VPN connections (used to bittorrent things... mostly pirating movies and music). And then there are a variety of legal non-shady things.. but I bet that most of the use is for semi-shady things.

So that's it. The one thing that everyone gets stuck on is why they are worth ~$100 each. The reason for this is much more philosophical and gets into why things have value. They are worth $115 today because people buying them are willing to pay $115 for them and the ones selling them are happy that they are selling them for $115. As to whether this is too much or too little, it's debatable... Back it 2008 the price of rice quadrupled in a matter of a month or two because of really flimsy reasons - lots of people wanted it, not many were selling it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_global_rice_crisis ) Things have value because people assign them a value and, as a group, we agree to this value. They have value because people give them value. Right now, if you wanted to buy something on the internet and not have the payment tracked back to you, your easiest solution is to buy some bitcoins to use for this.

So that's where the money comes from.

I will say that I'd be surprised if you could make much money with a 7770 at 200MH/s. Have you done the calculations? Unless your electricity is super cheap or your computer is super efficient, you are probably losing money over time due to the price of electricity.

 

[pandemonium]

In addition to the excellent description pm provided above, take note that we're illusioned about how FIAT money works. It has value because it's been established for a good amount of time. Value is given and accepted for currency. If we wanted to trade in Twinkies, that'd probably be a good idea, since they're finite now.

 

[hawtdawg]

Complete BS. My brother ordered in July of 2012 and still hasn't received his hardware.

I ordered on July 4th and just got my singles only a week ago.

 

[Emulex]

so mondern asic boxes do 100,000 mhash a sec and you do 200mh/sec won't every second essentially kill your chances of ever making anything since gpu speed is not going up as fast as the asic boxes?

next year they will be at 1M hash/sec and you will be at 400?

 

[techietechnics]

If you're in it just for fun, cool...but if you're trying to make money, I doubt you will when taking into account power costs because the difficulty is so high right now.

well, i made calculations before, and yeah, electricity costs will get me, so i only mine when i'm using the PC, like when i'm working or watching a few movies.

 

[techietechnics]

The money comes from people buying bitcoins. And people buy bitcoins to pay for things.

It's like Disney Dollars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_dollar). Disneyland prints Disney dollars and you can use them as if they were real money within Disneyland. Now why would people want to spend Disney dollars instead of real US dollars - because they are souvenirs, possibly will have some antique value and because they are fun. And you can trade Disney Dollars back to US dollars.

Similarly with Bitcoins, they are minted/mined by people using their computers. People - like you - are using their computers to create new Bitcoins and to authenticate Bitcoin transactions. And then people buy these bitcoins to use to spend on things. As to why people want to buy bitcoins - well, there are some who think that they are a hedge against inflation (ie. the Fed is printing too many dollars but there are only a finite amount of bitcoins), but the majority are buying to use to buy things anonymously. The main thing that makes bitcoins vaguely interersting is that they allow you to pay for things over the internet with a relatively high level of anonymity. So what things can you buy? Mostly shady things - no offense to anyone, I believe it's the truth. You can use them to buy illegal things on Silk Road (google it), you can use them in online gambling, and you can use them to pay for things that you don't want traced back to you - like usenet accounts, and VPN connections (used to bittorrent things... mostly pirating movies and music). And then there are a variety of legal non-shady things.. but I bet that most of the use is for semi-shady things.

So that's it. The one thing that everyone gets stuck on is why they are worth ~$100 each. The reason for this is much more philosophical and gets into why things have value. They are worth $115 today because people buying them are willing to pay $115 for them and the ones selling them are happy that they are selling them for $115. As to whether this is too much or too little, it's debatable... Back it 2008 the price of rice quadrupled in a matter of a month or two because of really flimsy reasons - lots of people wanted it, not many were selling it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_global_rice_crisis ) Things have value because people assign them a value and, as a group, we agree to this value. They have value because people give them value. Right now, if you wanted to buy something on the internet and not have the payment tracked back to you, your easiest solution is to buy some bitcoins to use for this.

So that's where the money comes from.

I will say that I'd be surprised if you could make much money with a 7770 at 200MH/s. Have you done the calculations? Unless your electricity is super cheap or your computer is super efficient, you are probably losing money over time due to the price of electricity.

This clears out things. I'm just mining when I'm doing other things/working. But since electricity doesn't come cheap here, i only mine when i'm using the pc for other purposes.

 

[Zargon]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182257


I am running 5 block erupters on this and a usb fan without issues

I may order a 6th once to test it, but I dont really want to blow it up

makes it good for the price, since its a 3rd the price of the ankers and holds more than half the # of eruptors

 

[Chiropteran]

Better Nate than lever!

Thank you for your order from Butterfly Labs! Your order (#4721) was shipped via USPS, USPS Priority Mail on 9/7/2013. You can track your package at any time using the link below.

 

[Zargon]

congrats!!

I should have my jalapeno in a a few weeks now it looks like

single?

probably never

 

[sweenish]

This clears out things. I'm just mining when I'm doing other things/working. But since electricity doesn't come cheap here, i only mine when i'm using the pc for other purposes.

Those other uses only draw a fraction of the power that mining does.

I kind of see where you're coming from, though.

 

[Chiropteran]

I think the included from BFL power supply died in two days. Not sure, because I don't want to waste a lot of time testing it, but my single stopped working and switching to my PC power supply made it start working again.

As late as it is, the single will absolutely pay for itself, probably offer between double and triple what I invested in it before reaching the point of being obsolete. My other two singles ordered April 1, I'm not so sure about. Might be another couple months before I see them.

 

[pandemonium]

A warning to anyone getting their BFL singles: use another PSU!

The PSU that came with my brother's died in a little less than a week. Now he's in hell with dealing with a return.

They also screwed up his second order made in the later part of July of 2012. He originally ordered 3 60GH/s singles and they sent him 1, then 2 30GH/s singles. So now he has to deal with a return for all 3.

He's livid, to say the least!

 

[Zargon]

I think the included from BFL power supply died in two days. Not sure, because I don't want to waste a lot of time testing it, but my single stopped working and switching to my PC power supply made it start working again.

As late as it is, the single will absolutely pay for itself, probably offer between double and triple what I invested in it before reaching the point of being obsolete. My other two singles ordered April 1, I'm not so sure about. Might be another couple months before I see them.

pics!

 

[Chiropteran]

Okay here is a pic, not all that exciting though:

 bfgminer version 3.2.0 - Started: [2013-09-11 11:25:58] - [  1 day  22:32:35]
 [M]anage devices [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options  [H]elp [Q]uit
 Connected to stratum.btcguild.com diff 32 with stratum as user odyn_asic
 Block: ...e0fb05d4 #257747  Diff:86.9M (622.3Th/s)  Started: [09:55:38]
 ST:5  F:0  NB:409  AS:0  BW:[ 57/ 52 B/s]  E:262.85  U:26.6/m  BS:8.59M
 1/16   64.0C | 60.94/60.60/60.66Gh/s | A:74182 R:389+0(.50%) HW:3834/.16%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 BFL 0: 64.0C | 61.21/60.60/60.66Gh/s | A:74184 R:389+0(.50%) HW:3834/.16%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [2013-09-13 09:56:58] Accepted 029cf56d BFL 0f Diff 97/32
 [2013-09-13 09:56:59] Accepted 02706268 BFL 0b Diff 104/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:06] Accepted 06258f03 BFL 0p Diff 41/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:15] Accepted 07c4082c BFL 0e Diff 32/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:15] Accepted 03840d5a BFL 0a Diff 72/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:20] Accepted 03f4470f BFL 0h Diff 64/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:20] Accepted 078e07fb BFL 0b Diff 33/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:22] Accepted 020d15db BFL 0i Diff 124/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:24] Stratum from pool 0 requested work update
 [2013-09-13 09:57:28] Accepted 00cd81f1 BFL 0p Diff 318/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:30] Accepted 001f1d3a BFL 0m Diff 2.11k/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:30] Accepted 047c7e4c BFL 0l Diff 57/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:31] Accepted 02e73c1b BFL 0k Diff 88/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:32] Accepted 02f3ce1b BFL 0o Diff 86/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:33] Accepted 066bf26c BFL 0g Diff 39/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:37] Accepted 045618f9 BFL 0o Diff 59/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:38] Accepted 038eb196 BFL 0d Diff 71/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:39] Accepted 0406fe4d BFL 0a Diff 63/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:39] Accepted 0145704c BFL 0p Diff 201/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:44] Accepted 045e3db6 BFL 0j Diff 58/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:45] Accepted 0592b050 BFL 0n Diff 45/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:45] Accepted 051e10c5 BFL 0k Diff 50/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:47] Accepted 0535fdcd BFL 0c Diff 49/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:53] Accepted 03202580 BFL 0i Diff 81/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:54] Stratum from pool 0 requested work update
 [2013-09-13 09:57:54] Accepted 00ead16f BFL 0k Diff 279/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:56] Accepted 02b6f9f0 BFL 0m Diff 94/32
 [2013-09-13 09:57:59] Accepted 035e1dcc BFL 0b Diff 76/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:00] Accepted 04c3af67 BFL 0i Diff 53/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:02] Accepted 01b0099f BFL 0k Diff 151/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:07] Accepted 05174e32 BFL 0d Diff 50/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:09] Accepted 04e1a2a9 BFL 0e Diff 52/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:09] Accepted 030a94b9 BFL 0g Diff 84/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:11] Accepted 04398ae7 BFL 0h Diff 60/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:12] Accepted 034f83a4 BFL 0p Diff 77/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:13] Accepted 00b0ca65 BFL 0g Diff 370/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:19] Accepted 0531bfcc BFL 0j Diff 49/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:19] Accepted 033cae4c BFL 0n Diff 79/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:23] Accepted 0523d620 BFL 0j Diff 49/32
 [2013-09-13 09:58:24] Stratum from pool 0 requested work update
 [2013-09-13 09:58:25] Accepted 020270e8 BFL 0j Diff 127/32

 

[Batmeat]

Im done. Tired of fighting Saphire over my 7950. Bought it on 4/8/13. Rear fan has failed twice on it. Selling all my bitcoins. Anyone want to save me the search hassle of going through this thread, and tell me the best place to sell them? I've got a video of it. HERE

 

[Zargon]

wemineltc is reporting weird khash for my card

card shows running at 560 but I keep seeing 10kh or 6kh on their site.....blargh

 

[Zargon]

I now have 6 block eruptors on a rosewill usb hub, running for 12+ hours

had 5 for the last few weeks

and a usb fan

I will add a seventh in another day or so, to see how well the advertised 3.5A PSU holds up


at 20 bucks compared to 60 so far it seems like a hell of a deal

 

[Chiropteran]

at 20 bucks compared to 60 so far it seems like a hell of a deal

Yeah I feel like a fool for buying them at full price a few months ago. Made some bitcoin in the meantime, but they won't ever return what I paid for them.

Some guy selling them for like $17 each on Amazon now.

 

[Zargon]

17 is really cheap vs .15 btc

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Wow... today is the first time I've checked the BTC difficulty since shutting down in July. 132 million estimated for the next increase!

How are the alt coins doing for GPU mining profitability these days?

 

[24601]

Wow... today is the first time I've checked the BTC difficulty since shutting down in July. 132 million estimated for the next increase!

How are the alt coins doing for GPU mining profitability these days?

http://dustcoin.com/mining

Litecoin is holding steady.

I hope the new AMD cards coming out will have same or less compute ability compared to 7970 so that my investment doesn't degrade.

 

[Durvelle27]

Anybody having problems with BTCGuild

 

[Chiropteran]

Anybody having problems with BTCGuild

Yeah BTCguild is being ddosed.

"The pool is still under attack. You can contact webmaster@btcguild.com to request access to a special private server."


I actually switched my ASIC over to mining PPcoin for a bit, slightly lower profit than bitcoin currently but I have a feeling it may jump in value soon- if others start mining it with ASIC difficulty will skyrocket and that may push up the value.

It's also a lot more exciting to mine 110 PPC per day rather than .25 bitcoins, even if the relative value is similar.