Mining AND DC, can one pay for the other?

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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I was just contemplating, instead of just mining, or just DC work, with a bunch of GPUs...

If you have enough space, and thermal capacity, why not do both? If you can afford the cards, get enough cards, such that mining on half of them, will pay for the electricity, to run all of the cards.

Of course, you've got the initial outlay for the cards, and the ROI for mining.

But I feel, there may be some way to make this work. Or perhaps with mining profits down, that day already came and went, I don't know.
 
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ao_ika_red

Golden Member
Aug 11, 2016
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@Ken g6 has already done that in Folding@Home (curecoin or folding coin, idk) and as a result his name on F@H becomes super long "KenG6_ALL_1L2FCFF7KQozWduokvBMCAKvurAbj2rwnC".

For me at least, as long as your DC points are still donated to The TeAm, it doesn't matter.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Well, I was more thinking of people like @Markfw, who posted once about a $500 electric bill. If he were mining on half of his cards, and making $500/mo, that would pay for the electricity for the rest of the fleet for F@H.

Unfortunately, profits are down, but GPU prices aren't down enough to make it worthwhile anymore.
 

ao_ika_red

Golden Member
Aug 11, 2016
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Back to personal preferences, I guess. If one could afford to donate some $$ per month in a form of power bill to advance science further, so let it be. Lots of DC'ers are seasoned crunchers who already started doing this long before the advent of cryptocurrency, so I believe they already used to the expense (hardware and power bill-wise).

Personally, I was encouraged to do what Ken has done, but earlier this year, my government decided to clampdown any crypto-trading, so it's no good for me.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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Is the question in the thread title a rhetorical one?

You can plan expenditures in DC and in cryptocoin mining. But you cannot plan revenue from cryptocoin mining. It's purely speculative. To get anything out of cryptoins, the requirement is to try to end up nearer the top of the pyramid than the bottom.

If he were mining on half of his cards,
he would make nothing but cryptocoins, for which he can buy nothing, especially can't pay the electricity bill. Cryptocoins are only good for selling to speculants and to money launderers. After that you can proceed to pay bills.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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he would make nothing but cryptocoins, for which he can buy nothing, especially can't pay the electricity bill. Cryptocoins are only good for selling to speculants and to money launderers. After that you can proceed to pay bills.

Look, I know that this may be a touchy subject. But not everyone that invests in CC is a "money launderer". Plenty of ordinary folks trying their luck. I agree, a large portion of the market is speculative.

All I know is, I mine (casually), it's going to make me nearly $290 USD before power costs in Feb. Just a short while to go before I make ROI on my cards and equipment. (Bought two graphics cards in Jan., just before prices shot way, way up.)
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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But not everyone that invests in CC is a "money launderer".
I didn't say they were. I said there are no other buyers besides speculators (misspelled in my post) and launderers. But my main point was simply that the seller can't plan the revenue.
 

biodoc

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
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The coin thing is not my cup of tea. To join, you have to change your username or team or both. Then you have to keep track of your "wallet" and such.

I'm surprised the costs of GPUs are still very high. It doesn't seem the coin related "teams" have increased their output that much so perhaps manufacturers are hesitant to increase manufacturing output?
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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We can trust that the distributors and shops will keep prices up for a while even after demand went down (if it went down, which I am not sure of).
 

ao_ika_red

Golden Member
Aug 11, 2016
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[H]Coleslaw

Member
Apr 15, 2014
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Well, it can be done and it really depends on what your goals and time frame are. Right now is really a bad time to buy cards for mining due to the inflation and low coin values unless you find a super good deal. However, the idea is "when" is it capable of paying for your hobby. The ROI is very important in the gamble. However, it depends on your strategy. If you are buying cards that you would normally plan on DC'ing on regardless of mining, then mine on them until you hit ROI. If the coins keep going down and you think it is pointless to keep going, switch them back to DC and continue where you left off. However, I think you will find that long term investment can very well be profitable. My 2 970's make about $3.50/day on NiceHash. Not going to get rich on those. However, that is my estimated profit. So, that can pay for $105 worth of DC'ing from my other hardware each month. That is just one system that DC's on the CPU's. Now, here is something else to consider. I also stream ads on various Android apps using cheap $10-$20 cell phones that are never activated. They pay for themselves within a month to three months depending on the month/year. I've done this a lot over the last 3'ish years. I just picked up 4 Octocore phones for just under $20 each this past week. One will be for a family member but the other 24 ARM cores will be DC'ing along with running those apps. I will also get a cast off quad core phone in the exchange. Those phones will last a minimum of a year for me. So, since about 9-10 months of the year are profit, they not only pay for the electric use but other DC upgrades. ARM CPU's are some of the most efficient crunching. They won't impress a lot of people on their own but in large numbers add up. We have a member in our group recently came over from the mining side willing to contribute his GPU's for a couple days at a time each month. Most likely helping with Formula BOINC. We are talking like 40+ GPU's potential. Even just for a few short days, he will probably outpace my lifetime contributions at various projects. So, can mining make it worth it? Depends on perspective.
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
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My 2 970's make about $3.50/day on NiceHash.
FoldingCoin doesn't pay that well. My 1060 gets about $1 a day, and sometimes that's before electricity costs. But it should still pay for its own electricity and then some. If I joined the CureCoin team I'd get maybe 50% more, but then I wouldn't get F@H points for this TeAm.
 

[H]Coleslaw

Member
Apr 15, 2014
157
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Well.. that is both 970's combined and the price fluctuates day to day. NiceHash is essentially just buying the Hashing power but you will find it correlates quite a bit with current coin prices. However, I don't get any Folding or DC'ing points whatsoever for those while they do it. However, in theory I could save that money up for 3 or 4 months and buy another GPU outright. Then either use that solely for DC'ing as my profits pay for its electricity usage or put the profits toward yet another GPU upgrade. However, that would mean waiting for the right deals to come up. I also earn another ~$3 per day streaming video from my laptops/desktops/VM's which yes lessens my PPD but also offsets the cost of running them a bit. I try to look at the bigger picture. If I can DC longer or [H]arder by finding alternative incomes, then it is smarter for me. When they stop paying out, I will return to business as usual and cut costs where I have to in order to keep the hobby afloat. Luckily the cell phones use very little power...lol.
 

[H]Coleslaw

Member
Apr 15, 2014
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Another thing to consider are the taxes on cryptos. This past year is the first year I did anything with them. So, the tax side of it will be interesting. In theory, I can now start writing off that hardware that is mining even if it is DC'ing as it is an expense to apply towards the income generation. Electricity costs, office space, etc... Mining might be an avenue even if not profitable to still reclaim some of the expenses we experience in this hobby....
 
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