Has Anyone in ATS land,, Ever been a Bitcoin Farmer?

Hello..

im looking into plunking down the $2000 i need to buy some Bitcoin crunching machines.

i was asking my friends,, and FEW have Even Heard of bitcoins..


so PLEASE..

I open it up to the Rest of the world, Here on ATS!!

Darrman

reply to post by darrman


I don't know much about bitcoin mining, but I do know people are giving up on it because they are getting harder and harder to come by. One guy that was doing it spent around 2k just on the video cards in his rig for mining.

Video cards are outdated now for bitcoin mining. You need stand alone units built for a specific task.



Cpu and gpu mining dont have the hash rate that the specifically built hardware does. They use much less power than the gpu minting setups also.




If you really want to get into it on the cheap i couple powered usb hubs some mining software and two dozen of these things will get you going.

Amazon

These are application specific integrates circuits built to do a job cheaper and easier than hardware of a different purpose.

You need to spend more time researching to understand how it works before you waste your 2000 dollars. It's not automatic riches. Second good luck with that marginal investment, your 3 years too late to the party.

Yeah I farmed some BT for a while. Made a few bucks.

At one point I had like..300 bitcoins, then sold them, before the market spiked to an all time high...




So you can imagine my enthusiasm at starting that again...

Hell of a power bill too.

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Lets not forget the most important part. After every round of mining the difficulty increases, therefore making your hardware obsolete in months to a year.

Oh how i love the diminishing returns after sinking money into something.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Why did you stop?? TTTP?

reply to post by shaneslaughta


Depends what hardware you use actually. Like for example the 7970's that I have, out perform some of the newer cards in benchmark and retail for about 300$ less. So if you're careful and and patient with your hardware purchases and get the top middle tier cards, they last far longer and are far more efficient over the long term.

reply to post by darrman


The all time high for bitcoin was 230$.

When I had my max it was barely hitting 30$. I sold prior to the price jump and got burnt. My fault of course for being impatient, but I didn't see it gaining any more popularity and there are really large miner pools that tend to take the most of out new blocks.

Considering the power consumption and my butt hurt, it didn't seem worth it anymore.

~Tenth

reply to post by darrman


My husband has done alot of research on it and said it sounds full proof there won't be any money soon and this isn't money he and i are planning on starting mining soo. so we arnt screwed when everything comes down

To be honest, bitcoin is too late to get into. There are other crypto currencies around based on the principle, which use slightly different methods to achieve long term stability etc, like litecoin, and one I was into for a while feathercoin.

They sort of consider it similar to bitcoin as gold, litecoin as silver and feathercoin as bronze, but that's only as valid as the communities behind them pushing their value.

feathercoin has spiked a number of times, and uses an algorithm that at this point restricts the farming to gpu (nvidia) farming - but that is changing as people build specific hardware.. you then meet the obsoletion problem.

bitcoin requires dedicated hardware these days. asic farming has killed crypto coin currencies that rely on the sha-256 algorithm, while you can still mine enough USD in value in litecoin/feathercoin using a dedicated gpu setup to cover your power bill and then take the kids on holiday.

Some of the rigs I've seen set up in the feathercoin community make e cry as a gamer 15-20 58xx's or 79xx's in racks with house fans blowing them all stuck on riser slots from cheap motherboards and 1200watt psu's..

But those guys make a killing. I'm a measly 1 gpu guy and I only ever managed to upgrade my PC once. New cpu, mobo, case, ram.. I still have about 900 ftc, but I'm holding them for the inevitable time it spikes !! haha.. or I'm dreaming.

You can look into that yourself, I'd avoid other coins than the ones I've mentioned. litecoins community is a little off putting, not very open from what I could tell.. but the feathercoin community I was there from the start, and saw grow. I've not been involved in many months now, but keep getting updates in email.

if youre going to put money into it, look around man, dont just go with what google tells you. Unless you're willing to invest it as a learning experience and not care about any returns. It's a very fickle thing, still getting it's bases sorted.

Look at an exchange such as btc-e.com for an idea of how the different currencies fare over time, look at how some people manipulate the market, look at the trends.. it's not just mine a bitcoin, $$$ !

If you make a million dollars, remember the old wino.. I had a website a while ago, homeless guy sitting there with a cardboard sign.. "Need New Video card. Please give a Bitcoin."

They took my website away

I have also researched it. One can spend a considerable amount of money investing in a mining rig but there is a problem. After ordering your non refundable mining rig, also called ASICs, you will have to wait 6 to 8 months or longer to get it. When you ordered your mining hardware you more than likely calculated your return on investment at the time of order, which probably showed a nice profit. After 6 to 8 months a recalculation will show little to no profit. Do what you want but I wouldn't advise wasting your hard earned dollars on it.

There are alternate crypto-coins being developed and released every few months or so and the numbers of new coins being developed are increasing. Each of these coins are touted as being the next big profit maker by their perspective developers and their value is based on a utility proposed by the developer. Upon release these new coins have a value based on percentage of the value of bitcoins.

For most of the new coins, utility doesn't bring the huge expected profits and lose value quickly. Many of these coin get put on a crypto-coin exchange were traders can buy and sell the coins for an amount of bitcoins, which is a way of indirectly acquiring bitcoins using another crypto currency. These alternate coins are sold for bitcoins to the point were they eventually become worthless and the exchange they are traded on discards them.

There is a lot of information concerning bitcoins and the people that made the biggest return on their investment were the ones who participated from bitcoins inception. Bitcoins maybe a good investment or a bad investment. IMHO they are just a fad and will fade and be forgotten.

eManym
I have also researched it. One can spend a considerable amount of money investing in a mining rig but there is a problem. After ordering your non refundable mining rig, also called ASICs, you will have to wait 6 to 8 months or longer to get it. When you ordered your mining hardware you more than likely calculated your return on investment at the time of order, which probably showed a nice profit. After 6 to 8 months a recalculation will show little to no profit. Do what you want but I wouldn't advise wasting your hard earned dollars on it.

There are alternate crypto-coins being developed and released every few months or so and the numbers of new coins being developed are increasing. Each of these coins are touted as being the next big profit maker by their perspective developers and their value is based on a utility proposed by the developer. Upon release these new coins have a value based on percentage of the value of bitcoins.

For most of the new coins, utility doesn't bring the huge expected profits and lose value quickly. Many of these coin get put on a crypto-coin exchange were traders can buy and sell the coins for an amount of bitcoins, which is a way of indirectly acquiring bitcoins using another crypto currency. These alternate coins are sold for bitcoins to the point were they eventually become worthless and the exchange they are traded on discards them.

There is a lot of information concerning bitcoins and the people that made the biggest return on their investment were the ones who participated from bitcoins inception. Bitcoins maybe a good investment or a bad investment. IMHO they are just a fad and will fade and be forgotten.

Bitcoins are certainly not a fad....and certainly won't be doing anything but growing unless somehow, the government does something to interrupt that growth.

The fact is, bitcoins are useful for MANY reasons, some of which I can't even mention here (but I"m sure most involved know). Because of that, they won't be going anywhere.


As for mining, if you decide to mine, I suggest you also do your research on mining pools. There was one I was a part of, forget the name.....slush's pool or something. If you are mining efficiently, you can benefit even more so from using a pool

Bitcoins have value because people use them for gambling and buying illegal drugs. There are not many legitimate uses for them. Have not encountered any big retail merchants that accept them.

reply to post by eManym


I have absolutely no skin in the bitcoin game (no experience and virtually no knowledge) but I do maintain a moderate curiousity regarding the crypto currency.

Anyway, I came across this recently and found it interesting:

Bitcoin kiosks coming to five Canadian cities

Bitcoiniacs says it has ordered five Bitcoin kiosks from a Las Vegas-based company called RoboCoin and intends to roll them out across Canada in the coming months, with the first machine expected to land in Vancouver in early October.

Four more kiosks will arrive in December and although their locations are not yet certain, Bitcoiniacs says it's eyeing major Canadian cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa.

"Basically, it just make it easier for people to buy and sell Bitcoins and hopefully will drive the adoption of Bitcoin, and make it more accessible for people," says Mitchell Demeter, the 27-year-old owner of Bitcoiniacs.

I made a small investment in one of the alternate coins that I am holding on to. Maybe they will be worth something in the future, maybe not.

Well I know a lot of bitcoin holders are crapping their pants since the FBI arrested the owner of Silk Road.....the idiot was in the states.

Oh, they just arrested 48 people who bought from that site.

eManym
Bitcoins have value because people use them for gambling and buying illegal drugs. There are not many legitimate uses for them. Have not encountered any big retail merchants that accept them.

There are many, many places that accept bitcoins.

sample list- from here

BTCWebhost.com - BTC Web Host is not just another fly by night web hosting company. We created BTC Web
ModifiedController.com - Modified Xbox controllers.
Pocket Artillery - Miniature REAL Cannons ***BOOM***
Alpaca Products for Bitcoins - alpaca socks
Babbletees - Design Savvy Science/Academic Based T-Shirts. Bitcoin accepted at checkout.
Heatslingers.com - 100% Authentic Nike Dunk SB, Air Force 1's, Air Jordans and Clothing. Accepts Bitcoin
R-Shirt - Accepts Bitcoins for geeky pirate R-Shirts.
7Del.net - Electronic Cigarettes
Pirates of Savannah - Website for historical adventure novel - ebooks and audio books for sale
Video Seconds - New DVD concerts, movies, select CD's and misc eclectic products. Ships International
posters of paintings - Artist Stefan Burger, Academic Painter, Nuremberg, Germany The paintings by the ge
Memory Dealers - Cisco Routers, Switches, Optical Transceivers, Memory, Networking Hardware & Cabl
bitcoinauction.us - Bid bitcoins to get some more bitcoins as a prize.
Happy Tree Cosmetics - Natural hand made cosmetics. Bitcoins are accepted on the main business page for gift
ottonormalo - we offer premium postcard, audio books and outstanding photography. German
cryptoanarchy.com - We sell embroidered polo shirts, bumper stickers, magnets and some computer component

The bitcoin community has it's own Auction House
You can buy a car or a house if you have enough!