Wow. Bitcoin is almost $1,500

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Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
I get disappointed every time I see a story like this, because every new mining operation that gets set up means that it's going to become that much tougher for everyone else to make a profit mining Bitcoin.

We're soon going to get to the point where you'll need to steal your electricity for it to be profitable. I'm sure that the power companies are going to LOVE that.
As it gets more difficult/less profitable some will stop, some will start, and others will continue. There will always be an equilibrium until the last coin is eventually mined. The sooner mining BTC is over with the better.
 
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Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,685
126
I get disappointed every time I see a story like this, because every new mining operation that gets set up means that it's going to become that much tougher for everyone else to make a profit mining Bitcoin.

We're soon going to get to the point where you'll need to steal your electricity for it to be profitable. I'm sure that the power companies are going to LOVE that.

Or just rent a botnet. I wonder how many people our there are minim bitcoin without even knowing it.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
As it gets more difficult/less profitable some will stop, some will start, and others will continue. There will always be an equilibrium until the last coin is eventually mined. The sooner mining BTC is over with the better.

The Bitcoin block reward system doesn't really work that way. It's designed to hand out a coin reward every few minutes until roughly 2140 when we'll have 21 million coins. If more miners join, we aren't going to get to the finish line faster... it just becomes more difficult for everyone to get a coin.
 
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Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
The Bitcoin block reward system doesn't really work that way. It's designed to hand out a coin reward every few minutes until roughly 2140. If more miners join, we aren't going to get to the finish line faster... it just becomes more difficult for everyone to get a coin.
I said as it gets more difficult/less profitable, which doesn't mean it's going to get faster. As far as I understand the more coins mined, the more the difficulty goes up.
 

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,169
2,830
126
Cryptocurrency is taking a turn in the right direction today with the SEC announcement.
 

momeNt

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2011
9,297
352
126
I said as it gets more difficult/less profitable, which doesn't mean it's going to get faster. As far as I understand the more coins mined, the more the difficulty goes up.

Not exactly. As more coins are mined, the payouts gets halved. http://www.bitcoinblockhalf.com/

The difficulty changes on the fly so that regardless of the processing power of the blockchain, the blocks are only solved once every 10 minutes. This is why there has been such a spike in difficulty in 2017 - because tons of hashrate was added and the difficulty adjusted to keep the block rewards steady at 10 minutes.
 
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DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
10,785
136

It's sad to watch the author - as well as nearly everyone he interviews - veer away from salient truths while carping about how much electricity and manpower is consumed by Bitcoin mining operations. Even after (sort of) connecting the dots by observing the changing patterns of social behavior of our newly-minted young adults.

The real question people should be asking is: "Why is it more profitable to mine Bitcoin with hydropower than to produce something?" Even modern datacenter infrastructure is apparently less-profitable to operate than a Bitcoin mining operation.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
There was something about a US Judge ruling that Bitcoin was a commodity, too, under that. I couldn't get to an article, seemed like only a video?

Would that be a good or bad thing?
 

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
7,443
3,004
136

AznAnarchy99

Lifer
Dec 6, 2004
14,705
117
106
How do you guys feel about building a mining rig at this point? Upfront costs are about $4500-$5000 but profit wise it's about $300-$400 a month with this current pricing. Worst case scenario you wanna back out you can always sell the video cards.
 

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,685
126
How do you guys feel about building a mining rig at this point? Upfront costs are about $4500-$5000 but profit wise it's about $300-$400 a month with this current pricing. Worst case scenario you wanna back out you can always sell the video cards.

Can you? Assuming that the reason you "wanna back out" is because of a price collapse, don't you think there will be tons of video cards flooding the market?

Not saying you should or you shouldn't, but I think it would be good to assume that if prices do collapse, you have some risk of loss. So you look at the crypto currency landscape and evaluate if the return is worth the risk.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,413
1,570
126
How do you guys feel about building a mining rig at this point? Upfront costs are about $4500-$5000 but profit wise it's about $300-$400 a month with this current pricing. Worst case scenario you wanna back out you can always sell the video cards.

Having just done this a month ago it's an amusing hobby/time sink and if you have the money to hodl and pray the prices come back up it may be worth it.

I guess the real question is how many miles will you get from this transaction? I got $17.50 back from Amazon for my video card purchase haha.
 

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2002
6,483
2,352
136
How do you guys feel about building a mining rig at this point? Upfront costs are about $4500-$5000 but profit wise it's about $300-$400 a month with this current pricing. Worst case scenario you wanna back out you can always sell the video cards.
Don't do it. Your current rate of return is 7.5% per month, and difficulty only goes up. I have had a small rig since sometime 2016. If I put all the money I've spent on gear into buying ETH outright I would have ended up with about the same profit minus all the hassle of setting up the rig, dealing with flaky risers, cables, and whatever problems. I don't regret my decision, it's been fun, but realistically, I would have done just as well just buying coins outright.
 

AznAnarchy99

Lifer
Dec 6, 2004
14,705
117
106
Having just done this a month ago it's an amusing hobby/time sink and if you have the money to hodl and pray the prices come back up it may be worth it.

I guess the real question is how many miles will you get from this transaction? I got $17.50 back from Amazon for my video card purchase haha.

LoL I was planning to put it on my AA Plat card since they're giving me 0% interest til the end of the year. If I want maximize, I could put it on my Amex Blue Plus for 2x points or my SPG card.

Don't do it. Your current rate of return is 7.5% per month, and difficulty only goes up. I have had a small rig since sometime 2016. If I put all the money I've spent on gear into buying ETH outright I would have ended up with about the same profit minus all the hassle of setting up the rig, dealing with flaky risers, cables, and whatever problems. I don't regret my decision, it's been fun, but realistically, I would have done just as well just buying coins outright.

What do you mean by difficulty going up? Does the yields go down over time?
 

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2002
6,483
2,352
136
What do you mean by difficulty going up? Does the yields go down over time?
Yes. To simplify it for most algorithms rewards/per day stay the same, the more people mine, the less reward you get per person. Sounds like you're totally new to this, I would definitely recommend to stay away and just buy outright. If you're still undeterred, start mining with whatever card you have in your primary PC just to get an idea what it is and how it works before jumping in head first.
 
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AznAnarchy99

Lifer
Dec 6, 2004
14,705
117
106
Yes. To simplify it for most algorithms rewards/per day stay the same, the more people mine, the less reward you get per person. Sounds like you're totally new to this, I would definitely recommend to stay away and just buy outright. If you're still undeterred, start mining with whatever card you have in your primary PC just to get an idea what it is and how it works before jumping in head first.

Yeah a buddy of mine floated the idea yesterday since he just setup a rig himself. I've just been trying to crunch the numbers to see if it's worth it or not. Actually just setup nicehash last night on my main PC with a 1070 to get a feel.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,413
1,570
126
LoL I was planning to put it on my AA Plat card since they're giving me 0% interest til the end of the year. If I want maximize, I could put it on my Amex Blue Plus for 2x points or my SPG card.

we're basically playing the same game. do it it you've got FOMO, don't do it if you want to make money in the short term.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
I'm fairly lucky, in that I have my electricity included in my rent, because I have electric heat, so the heat from the PCs and GPUs offsets the heat needed from the electric heaters. (Basically, they don't come on.)

Once it gets warmer out, though, I think that I probably won't mine, on anything older than a 14nm card, due to power-consumption issues, and needing to run the A/C. Which will probably cut revenue in half.

Thus far, though, I've basically paid for my GTX1070ti, and 8GB RX 570 Gaming X that I picked up, and partially paid for my prior RX 570 4GB card and HP Power Gaming pre-built PC. (That included a GTX1060 3GB card, in Dec., for $500 + tax B&M.)

I figure I'll continue through April on most of my cards, and possibly into May, on the GTX1070ti and maybe the RX 570 cards. Then I'll probably have made ROI.

I may not have become rich, but hey, a few "free" (well, it took some work) GPUs isn't bad. Of course, by then, NVidia will have new cards out, so even if I wanted to sell them, they wouldn't be worth much, I expect.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
10,785
136
How do you guys feel about building a mining rig at this point?

Not recommended. One of mine went down (two different cards suffered fan failures) and I haven't even bothered replacing the cards with spares I have sitting around. It just isn't that profitable anymore.