Bit coin mining.. Is it worth It? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:08:35 am
content: I was just looking at the numbers and it seems that at the currnet Bitcon values and price of electricty that it might just be worth doing..Thoghts, / experience?

author: alexanderbrevig
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:14:36 am
content: Problem is, if you want to take advantage of local electricity prices, you will need a rig that contributes enough to see any return. This means an investment into some ASIC solution such as an ANTMINER. Which in turn means, no. It won't be profitable.You may get lucky with etherium or some other younger cryptocurrency, but I would not gamble on it.Also, those miners arenoisy!

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:16:13 am
content: Bitcoin is only worth if you have ASICs.Etherium and other altcoins is only worth, if you have access to cheap electricity and multiple AMD radeon 580 or Vega card, cheap, maybe Geforce 1070 (1080 is not good).

author: mairo
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:17:52 am
content: I will say same as the other two replies - basically, you might have a better luck mining other currencies.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:33:45 am
content: If you look at the figures today, no, not by a long shot. Set aside the equipment costs for a moment, just in electricity alone, you end up losing.You're basically taking a gamble that the value you mine will be worth significantly more in the future to pay off the equipment you've purchased, the amount spend on electricity and then some on top to make a profit.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:38:37 am
content: Concur with the others, those days are gone.You are better off just investing the money you'd spend on a mining rig and power into the currency you are interested in.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 11:05:18 am
content: Invest (smartly) in property. Your gains will be much, much greater with far lower risk. At least in Australia, not sure what the property market is like in NZ but I suspect that it's similar to AU.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 11:26:05 am
content: Quote from: Halcyon on September 06, 2017, 11:05:18 amWhether any investment is good depends greatly on the timing. Property prices can sky rocket or go down the drain. In the last couple of years the value of my home varied by 15%.

author: krystian
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 11:41:33 am
content: BTW. In some student's dormitories electricity is free.I heard some stories about it.

author: chickenHeadKnob
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 11:57:35 am
content: Even if your electricity is free and you can take advantage of the heat produced for domestic heating in a cold climate you still have an essential problem for any ASIC mined coin. The supply of ASIC miner rigs is controlled by a company which will first use them in-house while it is still profitable for that type of rig, before selling it to some-one else. It is invariably more profitable for the small investor to simply buy and hold (hodl)coins directly rather than spend the money to invest in a mining rig. ASIC mined crypto coins are not for the small timer anymore unfortunately.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 03:13:23 pm
content: Quote from: krystian on September 06, 2017, 11:41:33 amThat's why Bitcoin mining once was a favorite among college students, but with the newer miners being too noisy to run in a dorm and all ASIC miners being mostly unusable for anything else, they have pretty much all switched to altcoins. Getting a "subsidy" on a nice PC that would be bought anyways is more attractive than buying hardware whose only purpose is to hopefully pay for itself. Getting back merely half the cost of the PC is still a big win.I have an Avalon 4 hosted at my cousin's place with electricity included in rent, but I also mine Curecoin/Foldingcoin, Burstcoin, and various smartphone coins at home. I will never forget the time when Perk mining was profitable and how $40 in smartphones turned into nearly $1000 in gift cards...

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 03:39:44 pm
content: I just wish to add that if you start doing Etherium mining, I will find you and slap you for contributing to the current GPU shortage that makes building decent PCs with mid-range cards impossible and/or way more expensive.Also, this is my 1337th post! If you do not know the significance of the number, there is a certain alphabet that is supposed to mimic the English alphabet, but it's made up of characters that are not letters. This series of letters is called Leet speet, of which the number 1337 comes from with 1 being l, 3 being E, and 7 being T.In short, this is a cool ass forum, you've got here Dave.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 05:21:15 pm
content: It's crossed my mind to do bitcoin mining on a solar setup but if I setup enough solar power for it to be viable I'd be better off just using that energy for stuff I'm already powering.If you heat with electricity then bitcoin mining makes sense as any extra heat generated you would need to generate it through electric heaters anyway.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 08:22:12 pm
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on September 06, 2017, 03:39:44 pmThere's a GPU shortage?! We just ordered something like 20 GPUs at work and the supplier I personally deal with has most stuff in stock, if not, only a few days away.Quote from: Red Squirrel on September 06, 2017, 05:21:15 pmYou're still better off putting that solar to use in your appliances you currently use during the day, that way you're offsetting what you buy from the grid.Just based on back-of-the-napkin maths, I'm better off just feeding solar back into the grid @ 12.5c per kWh than mining cyber currencies. In winter I export about 5-6 kWh per day (that's on a net metering system, so that 5-6 kWh is excess I don't use during the day). So that's 62.5 to 75 cents per day I'm getting back. On a decent mining rig, I might get maybe half that in bitcoin at the current exchange rate and that's not even taking into account equipment and electricity costs.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 09:05:51 pm
content: an S9 Ant Miner is $US1288 and consumes about 1200W procing 14TH/s1200W consumes 201kWhrs per week, which is conversatively about US$23 of power weekly. I am accessing the power market at spot rates, often i can buy it in the sub .07 range.. I need to accoutn for spikes, but i can shut down load if need be.This would return me about $100/week for an invstment of about $1500. can decpreicate the hardware as a tax right off. ( yes, i intend on paying tax on this )..What have i missed.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 09:17:33 pm
content: I'd be taking that with a big grain of salt. I know a couple of guys who have got into mining recently and real-world results are far worse than those estimated by that site.If someone has a decent card, maybe they can run a test over a week and provide some data?

author: Macbeth
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 09:18:55 pm
content: But what if I already have a grow house producing shitloads of weed and I have run the L1,2,3 cables between me and my neighbours without them knowing - all before the meters of course.So I already have more than enough capacity for free. What are the best ASIC miners that can't be detected by the police helicopter looking for infra-red?

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:04:29 pm
content: That's not a bad idea, bitcoin mine on the first floor, weed grow op in the basement.Always want to diversify your investments.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:14:58 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on September 06, 2017, 11:05:18 amFar lower risk, yes, gains much much greater, nope.Even if you invested in Sydney before the current boom you might have doubled or tippled your investment at best (not including expenses & interest etc). In Sydney we are headed toward single digit yearly gains at best.That's chump change compared to how much crypto currencies could have and could still make you. Cryptos have proven to and still hold of promise of order of magnitude better gains.If you try and day/week/month trade the volatility of crypto you could have 10's of percent in a matter of days or weeks, not years.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:18:07 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on September 06, 2017, 09:05:51 pmHow can you possibly buy electricity at 7 cents?I can get "free" electricity in my bunker, but have the problem is the internet. Mining needs so much data that a mobile plan doesn't cover it. I'd have to get a fixed line installed. I have thought about doing this but it just seems like too much effort when I can just buy the crypto.

author: rbm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2017, 10:25:55 pm
content: There is more potential profitability in being able to design, build and market a simple savvy user interface onto Bitcoin to make it attractive to the masses. Until that user interface arrives on the market, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will remain a niche nerd product.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2017, 12:00:40 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on September 06, 2017, 10:18:07 pmin NZ, 90% of our power is renewables, ( hydro and wind.. ) we have a thumping big aluminum smelter here that is here becuase its chepaer to ship bauxite from OZ to NZ, to refine...We recently ( as end consumers ) have been able to access the 'spot electricty' market.. Our electricuity price flucates on a 30 minute basis. At times, we are paying 0.5c for the energy, and 6.5c for the transmisison per kw/hr. This typically will happen when its rained lots, and there is heaps of water in the lakes.. and it also happens at nighttime when demand is low. The flip side of that is that sometimes we can be exposed to very high peak prices.. ( its gone over $1! )... the power retailers factor this all into their pricing model, and charge you for the 'risk' they take on the market.I can access the spot pricing in real time. I do it now for controlling our hotwater heating.. I heat while its cheap and not when its spendy.. Last year we saved nearly $1000 at home doing this.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2017, 12:28:16 am
content: The other thign, never invest more than you can afford to loose. Its about diversification. i have investmetns in lots of things.. If one or two of them fall over, i'll still be able to buy food. This one comes with risk, but also potential reward.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2017, 01:01:51 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on September 06, 2017, 10:18:07 pmBitcoin mining actually doesn't use very much bandwidth. If you can find some ASIC miners for cheap, just add a LTE router and have some fun!Some altcoins, however, use a lot of bandwidth.