[How to] fund your cruncher's utility bill OR how to make money using bitcoin

[god_43]

omfg wow this guy lost 25000 bitcoins!!! at the time that was like half a million!!




http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=16457.0

[shoota]

Yeah that's kinda old news, but it was one of the biggest early thefts and served as a pretty good lesson about protecting your wallet.dat file. I doubt many people have even remotely close to that many BTC now though. I can't imagine losing that much money, why in the world was he holding on to that many coins anyway!?

[acebmxer]

Yeah I didnt read the whole thing but I would like to know what kind of hardware did he have to find that many blocks per day. Or was it really that easy back then in 2010?

[shoota]

I think it really was that easy back then

[god_43]

yeah that's crazy...i mean i cant imagine losing all that.

[c22]

Or was it really that easy back then in 2010?

Yeah, it was easy. I started mining earlier than this "boom of bitcoin" showed up, but later than those who started this :P

In december 2010 I was mining with 1,2 GH/s (4x 6950 stock) and could manage to get away with 40-50 BTC per day easily. And for 2 months I was selling them for 0,3-0,5 $ like an idiot

When I imagine I'd save them and sell when they were for 32 $.... I could mine more than 1000 BTC per month with those 4 cards back then... Now I've got 4,2 GH/s and can manage to mine about 60-70 BTC per month.. :| So yes, in 2010 it was easy. The more miners = The harder mining is... Now difficulty is terrible, considering price..

[ggdh]

If the price will not go up the difficulty should stay as it is (judging from bitcoinwatch).

Can you see a correlation between BTC economy and other markets (stocks around the world)? After 2nd August markets plummeted down and BTC followed...

Bottom line: buy - buy - buy!

[Naja002]

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen.....I'm in. Just wanted to say that this "How to" guide is still good. Thanx, jcool!

Currently, I'm in on an old gigabyte, Q9450 and a racing 8800GTS (~30 Mhash/s). Yeah, I know, but it's the only rig that I have running atm...and I use the s-video to connect this pc to the TV. I was just looking to get the details sorted out, but I'm in and it's working.

I just ordered a Sabertooth x58 a few days ago, and still have a 5870 and a 5850....so that will be up and running this coming week. I have everything, except the cards and a MB, for another i7 920 rig, so that maybe coming in short order.

I've just spent 6 hrs or more on the BTC crash course...reading around trying to get my head wrapped around a lot of this. Going to get things setup with the PCs, and then check into probably Butterfly Labs stuff. Seems really inexpensive for output.

I've got to get a bit better gauge on all of this. I'm aware of the coming 50% pay cut, etc, but still need to check out the overall logistics....but, hey, it might be time to build another farm! I'm still running the large res + chiller. Works great.


Seems used 5870s are ~$150 shipped and 5850s are ~$110 shipped...is the output of the 5870 worth the extra $40?

[OldChap]

Wow, long time no see Naja,

I have to say that I dropped out of this due to cost of electricity but have kept track in case things change

[MadHacker]

I dropped out when i got my electric bill of $2730 for 3 months.
no way was i making that much in bitcoins.

Ninja, before you go into bitcoins. i have to ask how much u paying for electricity?
I pay 9¢ per KW but after line transmission fees and stuff its closer to ¢15 a KW.
it wasn't financially viable for me to run my hardware.

still have a bunch of bitcoins though so i'm just waiting for the price to go up a lot higher before i cash out.

[Duh]

I dropped out when i got my electric bill of $2730 for 3 months.
no way was i making that much in bitcoins.

Ninja, before you go into bitcoins. i have to ask how much u paying for electricity?
I pay 9¢ per KW but after line transmission fees and stuff its closer to ¢15 a KW.
it wasn't financially viable for me to run my hardware.

still have a bunch of bitcoins though so i'm just waiting for the price to go up a lot higher before i cash out.

I might be able to pay something like 10 years of electricity with that ( not joking).

[Naja002]

Wow, long time no see Naja,

I have to say that I dropped out of this due to cost of electricity but have kept track in case things change

Yeah, I've been away from the whole crunching scene for a little over a yr. Away from GPUGrid for almost 2. Times flys...

I dropped out when i got my electric bill of $2730 for 3 months.
no way was i making that much in bitcoins.

Ninja, before you go into bitcoins. i have to ask how much u paying for electricity?
I pay 9¢ per KW but after line transmission fees and stuff its closer to ¢15 a KW.
it wasn't financially viable for me to run my hardware.

still have a bunch of bitcoins though so i'm just waiting for the price to go up a lot higher before i cash out.

Right now, it has finally inched it's way up to $0.10/Kwh, so I am not quite sure how economically viable this is. However, I picked up the sabertooth a few days ago to get back into crunching...and that just costs money, so BTC can't be all bad.

I plan on going back to heating this place with the crunchers during the winter. It costs as much or more just to run the heater, than it does to supplement it with the crunchers. If I can break even, or even turn a small profit than I am ahead of games past.


Oh, BTW, that $0.10/Kwh is Kwh used v total bill.

[MadHacker]

Well when i was running my miners... the heat in the house didn't click on until it was -20 DegC outside.
but it only cost $250 a month to heat the house when its -40 Deg so it doesn't make finantial cents to run mining rigs.

[Naja002]

When I was crunching before...it was all charity. Cash out of my pocket. A one-way street. So, it's not likely that I'm going to get seriously wrapped up in the overall "profitability" of this project. Some financial compensation is a whole lot better than what I'm used to. I ordered the Sabertooth with the intent of doing more charity, so anything is more than what I expected. This thing may have to go the way of the FPGAs (or whatever they are) in order to remain viable.

The biggest question I have about the long-term viability of BTC is: There are only going to be 21 million coins produced, then, according to the project....there will never be another one. So, then what happens? The only incentive that I can see to continue processing hashes would be for a "processing fee". We become "bankers". With a limited currency, and the inability to continue to pay with currency created out of thin air...the only incentive is to pay with already created currency, ie. a "processing fee".

[bitco]

Also, do the mining pools pay out in bitcoins or in hard currency?

It strikes me as odd that people are gambling on a new currency in its infancy by buying bitcoins.

they are paying out on bitcoin , you can sell them to one exchange site for cash

[PoppaGeek]

@ naja002 back!

[tbone8ty]

is the OP still the correct way to start bitcoin mining?

[MadHacker]

nope GPU is now to slow
U need a ASIC miner
http://www.butterflylabs.com/

[ggdh]

nope GPU is now to slow
U need a ASIC miner
http://www.butterflylabs.com/

I strongly suggest buying ASIC miner which is readily available. Do not get into pre-orders. Look for companies which have ready-to-ship products or simply get it on amazon (like block erupter blade).

I guess that the easiest way of getting on BTC train is to actually buy BTC.

[Duh]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Butterfly-La...item2a346a9b9a

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Butterfly-La...item3cd8f55649

[jcool]

Wow... seems like an eternity since I wrote up that guide. So much has changed since then...
Maybe I'll re-write it someday, but for now I'm not sure I would recommend getting into mining to anyone.

I heavily invested in ASICs last fall and it did pay off... but not the way I was hoping it would. As it stands, I will probably have to sell them off soon considering our utilty costs have gone through the roof.
Also one of the major reasons why I don't crunch any more. The other is that my dad passed away last month, so I kinda lost faith in it all

I'll try to be around again though. Maybe when I get a new rig up and running, I'll get my faded interest back.

[Duh]

Wow... seems like an eternity since I wrote up that guide. So much has changed since then...
Maybe I'll re-write it someday, but for now I'm not sure I would recommend getting into mining to anyone.

I heavily invested in ASICs last fall and it did pay off... but not the way I was hoping it would. As it stands, I will probably have to sell them off soon considering our utilty costs have gone through the roof.
Also one of the major reasons why I don't crunch any more. The other is that my dad passed away last month, so I kinda lost faith in it all

I'll try to be around again though. Maybe when I get a new rig up and running, I'll get my faded interest back.

Dang man! Sorry to hear about your loss. I'm really speechless when this tough situations sadly show up.
All my best

Juan

[JAWS]

Wow... seems like an eternity since I wrote up that guide. So much has changed since then...
Maybe I'll re-write it someday, but for now I'm not sure I would recommend getting into mining to anyone.

I heavily invested in ASICs last fall and it did pay off... but not the way I was hoping it would. As it stands, I will probably have to sell them off soon considering our utilty costs have gone through the roof.
Also one of the major reasons why I don't crunch any more. The other is that my dad passed away last month, so I kinda lost faith in it all

I'll try to be around again though. Maybe when I get a new rig up and running, I'll get my faded interest back.

Hey everything gets better with time.

I remember when you created this thread and I started to mine a couple days later. I had so many bitcoins and you now what I did with them......nothing. I reformatted over hard drives that had 50-100 or more. I thought it was a joke when I heard how much money they were going for in December.

I'm over it now but omg I could have used the extra money.

[MadHacker]

I had my bitcoins at MTGOX,
well we can guess, I don't have any now

[JAWS]

I had my bitcoins at MTGOX,
well we can guess, I don't have any now

oh man I heard about that. Is there any chance to recover?