Bitcoin Miner does the math, calls it quits

Post by inportb » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 1:45 PM UTC

MichaelApproved wrote: post #7

wccrawford wrote: post #2

This isn't really news. I did the math a month ago and came to the same conclusion. That I could probably make a little money if I don't mind heating up my house (costing more in AC costs) and dealing with the noise of the computers running all the time. The projected profits, at the prices that day, were pretty sad. A week later I learned that the better the machines and programs get at producing bitcoins, the harde…

Why buy a new machine after 3 months? Once it makes back it's cost, wouldn't you still be able to earn money from it so long as it can cover the cost of running and storing it?

Post by tomp » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 1:46 PM UTC

tibbon wrote: post #6

What's interesting, is that this is what should happen. Since Bitcoins are generated at a constant rate (from my understanding) regardless of how many people are working on them, the market should eventually even out so that its a break-even at best. Likely it will be a little worse than break-even, because there are always some people out there willing to attempt to generate coins even if what they are doing doesn't…

Post by clawrencewenham » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 1:47 PM UTC

MichaelApproved wrote: post #7

wccrawford wrote: post #2

This isn't really news. I did the math a month ago and came to the same conclusion. That I could probably make a little money if I don't mind heating up my house (costing more in AC costs) and dealing with the noise of the computers running all the time. The projected profits, at the prices that day, were pretty sad. A week later I learned that the better the machines and programs get at producing bitcoins, the harde…

Why buy a new machine after 3 months? Once it makes back it's cost, wouldn't you still be able to earn money from it so long as it can cover the cost of running and storing it?

Post by eropple » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 1:48 PM UTC

wladimir wrote: post #9

iter8n wrote: post #8

Now that the hype is dying down, maybe people will start thinking more about how to make bitcoin easier and more available and less about how they can profit off of mining and trading.

Start? People have been thinking (and working) on that even before the hype began (see for example the Android client now on the frontpage, or the new client UI being developed, wallet encryption being tested now, and various web payment services), it just gets drowned in all the trolling, mining related talk and price speculation.

Post by DarkShikari » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 1:49 PM UTC

gravitronic wrote: post #14

tibbon wrote: post #6

What's interesting, is that this is what should happen. Since Bitcoins are generated at a constant rate (from my understanding) regardless of how many people are working on them, the market should eventually even out so that its a break-even at best. Likely it will be a little worse than break-even, because there are always some people out there willing to attempt to generate coins even if what they are doing doesn't…

Bitcoins are not generated at a constant rate. The difficulty of generating bitcoins increases exponentially over time, so the number of bitcoins generated by the pool (assuming the pool remains the same size) will decrease accordingly. However the pool didn't remain the same in the past. All the BTC press (and $10 USD rate) substantially increased the number of people mining. This sped up the discovery of bitcoins b…