BitCoin mining - Is there any point in trying?
Discussion
Hi all
On my lunch break i was reading up on a story on BitCoin mining and it got me thinking. Could i not start?
So having a quick look online, a pre-built mining box (Antminer S9) is around 1.3k
This is lunchtime man math workings...
Bitcoin price is 5.5k USD
Electric for the year running the S9 rig is 1.5k
That means if i were to mine 1 bitcoin a year, it could be worth 5.5k, leaving 2.2k profit.
Someone please tell me its not that simple.
I know its harder ever second to mine....
On my lunch break i was reading up on a story on BitCoin mining and it got me thinking. Could i not start?
So having a quick look online, a pre-built mining box (Antminer S9) is around 1.3k
This is lunchtime man math workings...
Bitcoin price is 5.5k USD
Electric for the year running the S9 rig is 1.5k
That means if i were to mine 1 bitcoin a year, it could be worth 5.5k, leaving 2.2k profit.
Someone please tell me its not that simple.
I know its harder ever second to mine....
The more coins that are mined and more people are mining it gets harder to mine - more processing power needed.
The mining rigs with the best processors are sold out months in advance to high end mining companies that do this on a huge scale. With the rigs the average joe can buy off the shelf you don’t really stand a chance as you are effectively competing against companies running these rigs on free electric in places like Iceland. They are using the latest and greatest set ups that get superseded every 6 months.
The mining rigs with the best processors are sold out months in advance to high end mining companies that do this on a huge scale. With the rigs the average joe can buy off the shelf you don’t really stand a chance as you are effectively competing against companies running these rigs on free electric in places like Iceland. They are using the latest and greatest set ups that get superseded every 6 months.
I would say that Mr Average Joe can no longer mine bitcoin, as it would cost far too much (in the UK) in terms of energy prices, to make any profit, especially after buying the kit.
It may be better to mine a lesser valued coin, that's easier to obtain, and hope that the value will increase over the coming months/years.
I tried to mine Litecoin, when they were about $2 a coin, a few years back. I should have kept mining as they are now worth up to $70 a coin. I swapped over to mining FeatherCoin instead, which was a mistake. I could be sitting on a few hundred quid now.
It may be better to mine a lesser valued coin, that's easier to obtain, and hope that the value will increase over the coming months/years.
I tried to mine Litecoin, when they were about $2 a coin, a few years back. I should have kept mining as they are now worth up to $70 a coin. I swapped over to mining FeatherCoin instead, which was a mistake. I could be sitting on a few hundred quid now.
768 said:
Even then, the trick isn't to mine them, it's to just buy them before they go up 35x in value.
Indeed. Mining them is pointless because you'll never compete with the Chinese farms, and at this point on regular home kit you'd spend more on electricity than you'd actually make.Durzel said:
you'd spend more on electricity than you'd actually make.
This is the main point these days - mining is still possible but the cost of power eclipses any value achieved. Hence why so many zombie botnets do nothing sinister except use CPU cycles on infected machines to mine bitcoin - someone else pays the electric.4x4Tyke said:
No you will be beaten to every block, start a new block and get beaten to that.
This is not how it works, It would be if you mined by yourself, but no one does that, they join pools. When your pool gets a block, you get paid for your contribution, all be it a meaninglessly small amount your are likely contribute. 
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