bitcoin Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 Hey Fdr ! Bitcoin is something that has been of interest to me for a long time. Though, I have not invested a huge amount, I am under the impression Bitcoin will eventually go way up to the thousands. This is based on my understanding of the technology, the immense benefit it will provide -- particularly to people in poorer and 'undeveloped' nations, and of course for the common individual looking for a secure, P2P means of transacting. I have done a little bit of research, and I think my best option (and the greatest learning experience and fun) would be undoubtedly to invest in a Bitcoin mining rig. I am determined to do so, I am in the process of gaining more information and getting everything else in order. I am wondering if there are any philosophical Bitcoin miners out here? I'd love to have a conversation, ask some questions, perhaps discuss Bitcoin and other technologies and potentially become mining buddies Let me know if you might be interested in discussing Bitcoin, setting up your own mining rig, or helping me set up mine ! Take care !
ribuck Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 Hey JakeN, The viability of Bitcoin mining depends mostly on your cost of electricity. Unless your electricity is amongst the cheapest in the world, you are unlikely to break even. If you think that Bitcoin will eventually go "way up to the thousands", the most profitable strategy is to buy some and hold. 1
BD91 Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 Yeah, it's wayyyyyy late in the game to start mining. You're best means of acquiring bitcoin with an acceptable rate of return is going to be through trading. Unless you've got MAD cash to blow through on a sophisticated mining rig + cheap electricity. Plus, if you mine on your own small setup, if the value of bitcoin goes up into the thousands it'll be more likely that the dollar your comparing it to has become that worthless so you'll just wind up with a tiny amount of bitcoin that doesn't do much for you.
Crallask Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 The professional miners have entire warehouse sized buildings full of specialized hardware dedicated to mining 24/7 with employees who check the fans and fix any equipment that enters into a faulty state. Don't mine Bitcoin IMO. You're looking at a $8-12k investment AT LEAST. And that's just so that you can have one rig that the bigger firms have stacked in rows. You'd make waaaay more money learning to program and work for the Crypto-economic sphere OR develop apps for crypto projects. 1
Alan C. Posted November 6, 2015 Posted November 6, 2015 Don't waste your time on Bitcoin. If you have thousands of dollars to spend on mining equipment, go buy yourself some junk silver instead. 1 1
bitcoin Posted November 6, 2015 Author Posted November 6, 2015 The goal is to at the very least set up a small raspberry pi rig. I am interested more in the learning, than I am to make money in a dozen years. I do understand that there are drawbacks, power costs, etc. I didn't just wake up one morning and decide to mine Bitcoin. I have a fairly strong understanding of what my goals are, what bitcoin is and where its value and potential lies. I apologize if it wasn't clear up front. In any case, I appreciate the comments and feedback everyone ! The professional miners have entire warehouse sized buildings full of specialized hardware dedicated to mining 24/7 with employees who check the fans and fix any equipment that enters into a faulty state. Don't mine Bitcoin IMO. You're looking at a $8-12k investment AT LEAST. And that's just so that you can have one rig that the bigger firms have stacked in rows. You'd make waaaay more money learning to program and work for the Crypto-economic sphere OR develop apps for crypto projects. Hey Crallask, I am learning to code at the moment actually -- so this project is certainly not a career plan . This is mainly a hobby and learning pursuit (instead of playing video games I guess you could say : ) although I do additionally think that the net gain for growing the Bitcoin ecosystem and my financial payoff in a number of years will far out way the costs. I'm thinking about a small raspberry pi project at the moment --- perhaps not an AntMiner. I'd also love to immerse myself far more than I currently am, understand and get experience mining, work on a project with Raspberry Pi; and like most things related to tech -- start with a goal and interest, try to find people who share your passion, and do what you gotta do to get there. Don't waste your time on Bitcoin. If you have thousands of dollars to spend on mining equipment, go buy yourself some junk silver instead. For what its worth, I'm not sure how helpful it is to tell me I am "wasting my time with Bitcoin", nor whether junk silver is a better investment.... That's sort of like telling someone who is working on a startup or seeking a new learning experience, "Don't waste your time on this project. If you have money to spend, work on something else. Your project will ultimately fail." Its not particularly helpful... Either I haven't researched and don't realize that there are many other investments I can make with my time and resources -- and thus I am probably too incompetent to pull this off -- or I have researched and telling me not to waste my time and buy junk silver won't provide me with any new information. I don't mean to be disrespectful, I am actually curious why you would have made such a post and if there is something I am missing? Again, I apologize as I think I was unclear with my original post ! Peace
bitcoin Posted November 7, 2015 Author Posted November 7, 2015 Crallask, I'm curious what kind of stuff you are involved with in the crypto space? (I read your profile)
ribuck Posted November 7, 2015 Posted November 7, 2015 Jake, you mentioned using a Raspberry Pi. It gets a Bitcoin mining rate of around 200,000 hashes per second. The whole Bitcoin network is currently running around 500,000,000,000,000,000 hashes per second, and generates on average 150 Bitcoins per hour. That's 12,000,000,000,000,000,000 hashes per Bitcoin. So your Raspberry Pi could be expected to mine one millionth of a Bitcoin (worth about 1/30th of a cent) every 60,000,000 seconds (which is about 700 days). If that's interesting to you as a cool technical project, then go for it, but it's not financially meaningful. Reference: "What hash rate can a Raspberry Pi achieve?" https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3165/what-hash-rate-can-a-raspberry-pi-achieve-can-the-gpu-be-used
bitcoin Posted November 8, 2015 Author Posted November 8, 2015 Jake, you mentioned using a Raspberry Pi. It gets a Bitcoin mining rate of around 200,000 hashes per second. The whole Bitcoin network is currently running around 500,000,000,000,000,000 hashes per second, and generates on average 150 Bitcoins per hour. That's 12,000,000,000,000,000,000 hashes per Bitcoin. So your Raspberry Pi could be expected to mine one millionth of a Bitcoin (worth about 1/30th of a cent) every 60,000,000 seconds (which is about 700 days). If that's interesting to you as a cool technical project, then go for it, but it's not financially meaningful. Reference: "What hash rate can a Raspberry Pi achieve?" https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3165/what-hash-rate-can-a-raspberry-pi-achieve-can-the-gpu-be-used An ASIC miner attached to the raspberry pi. Its the same chip used in the Antminer S5. Its gets 8 - 16 GH/s. Not using the Raspberry Pi GPU lol, that would be pretty insane
Alan C. Posted November 8, 2015 Posted November 8, 2015 In my opinion, Bitcoin is not a good money because it's a poor store of value because of its limited non-monetary uses. Its rapid rise in price was caused by demand which was caused by hype. In the event of an economic calamity, you'd be better off with tangible money such as silver, which is why I recommended that you buy junk silver instead of sinking money into mining equipment. Junk silver isn't really junk; it's just called that. It means that is used to be in circulation.
ribuck Posted November 8, 2015 Posted November 8, 2015 Alan: Jake didn't say he was planning for the "economic calamity". He said he is "interested more in the learning", and there's not a lot of learning that centers around old silver. Jake: LOL, I'm glad you're not planning to mine using the Raspberry Pi itself, but by plugging one or more ASICs into the USB. That's viable, and it is also useful for the Bitcoin network. One time in the past I tried mining on my phone, but I didn't do it for long enough to get any coins. Like you, I was doing it out of interest.
Crallask Posted November 8, 2015 Posted November 8, 2015 Crallask, I'm curious what kind of stuff you are involved with in the crypto space? (I read your profile) I've worked more in the realm of journalism/press releases. Digging into stories, studying the features and summarizing them, doing interviews. That sort of thing.
J. D. Stembal Posted November 12, 2015 Posted November 12, 2015 Don't waste your time on Bitcoin. If you have thousands of dollars to spend on mining equipment, go buy yourself some junk silver instead. Junk silver is a great plan. You can never have enough!
neeeel Posted November 12, 2015 Posted November 12, 2015 Junk silver is a great plan. You can never have enough! How do you decide what silver to buy? Is any junk silver good? Or just coins? How can I make sure the coins are genuine silver?
bitcoin Posted November 12, 2015 Author Posted November 12, 2015 Alan: Jake didn't say he was planning for the "economic calamity". He said he is "interested more in the learning", and there's not a lot of learning that centers around old silver. Jake: LOL, I'm glad you're not planning to mine using the Raspberry Pi itself, but by plugging one or more ASICs into the USB. That's viable, and it is also useful for the Bitcoin network. One time in the past I tried mining on my phone, but I didn't do it for long enough to get any coins. Like you, I was doing it out of interest. Yeah haha. And yes, its mainly to learn and to support the network. However, power is included in rent so maybe my 2USD per month will go way up I've worked more in the realm of journalism/press releases. Digging into stories, studying the features and summarizing them, doing interviews. That sort of thing. Oh nice. You have anywhere I can check some of your stuff out? What two or three currencies do you think will end up being the used the most ? How do you decide what silver to buy? Is any junk silver good? Or just coins? How can I make sure the coins are genuine silver? You can buy from a legit dealer -- or coins check for the stamp marks and everything. However, I strongly recommend Bitcoin over silver. Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies -- or digital assets) are still in their infancy. With over 1 billion dollars of capital invested into Bitcoin thus far, it is a deflationary "currency" of the future. Regardless of whether its Bitcoin, P2P cryptocurrencies will be the future -- it cannot be stopped. As applications continue to make it easier for the average person and business to use, the price will sky rocket. It is basically like getting into the internet in the early 90s. People in undeveloped countries who have never had access to a bank are now able to transact, trade goods and services, etc. Regardless of whether you get silver vs crypto (I recommend both -- but Bitcoin first), get yourself informed. Be cynical (towards me and others on this forum), but do your own research and don't invest in either one until you confidently understand and know why you are purchasing. Good luck my friend.
J. D. Stembal Posted November 13, 2015 Posted November 13, 2015 How do you decide what silver to buy? Is any junk silver good? Or just coins? How can I make sure the coins are genuine silver? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toW94M9x-g8
J. D. Stembal Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 Tonight, I bought a roll of these babies for just over one BTC. With the price of silver steadily going down and the price of BTC going up, it is the sensible move right now to start trading your digital currency for silver, the people's money.
J. D. Stembal Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 The Hidden Secrets of Money, Part 6 is out:
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