I sure hope anyone who's mining Bitcoin isn't also complaining about climate change. Also, electricity costs and various other externalities (depreciation of the machine and inevitable waste handling) are never accounted for.
Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
71–80 of 96 posts
Re: Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
#72For those thinking, "now's a great time to join the party!", the price surge happened from about March to about May of this year, with BTC more than doubling in USD price. However, it's been completely flat for over a month now -- longer than any other point in recent history -- and there are currently some big questions about the future of BTC that are being addressed next month and may result in a loss of value for…
> Smart money right now isn't in BTC, Where is it then ? I too would like to join the 'rich fast' bandwagon !
Lean hogs.
Re: Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is hindsight. He would have been best off staying the fuck away . As I mentioned a billion times cryptocurrencies (which are not currencies either) have zero legal real world use cases, currently the two uses are illegal money transfers out of China and hype. It's the worst sort of gambling: you do not even know the odds.
Crytocurrencies transactions are significantly cheaper than wire transfers. That's a real world use case.
LOL! Congrats to HN for going 24 days without bringing this up. I have written it up last time in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14563751 so let me copy
> Every time I ask, people come and say but... but... international transfers! and I point it out that for that transfer the sender needs to buy bitcoins, transfer and the receiver needs to sell them because there is no legal, useful application of it :) And this is untenable, you can't have the receiver go through hoops to receive money. And when I compare this to how Transferwise combines a fantastic user experience with favorable rates (which I actually compared to an FX company not to a bank) then I am a Transferwise shill despite it's usually not me who brings up the transfer argument so I now I did just so we don't need to have that conversation again and again.
Re: Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to track where large bitcoin mines were. Mostly they're concentrated around cheap hydroelectricity, with major mines in Labrador (2c/kwh), Central China (varies, but Solar panels are not effective for bitcoin mining, because hardware needs to run 24/7 (a shitload of batteries are needed) and the upfront cost is high.
> hardware needs to run 24/7 Why?
Because miners are by far most expensive than electricity, and if you mine at 50% the effective miner's cost is 2x
Re: Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to its Amazon listing, the Antminer S9 consumes 1247 watts at the wall. Assuming he ran it 24/7, over a year he would consume about 11,000 kWh, or about $1,300 at the average U.S. electricity price of $0.12/kWh. Without knowing how much he was paying for power of course we can't know exactly how much he spent, but this certainly doesn't seem like a slam-dunk win, compared to just buying Bitcoins outright. A…
Incidentally, 11K kWh is roughly the average energy consumption of a US household. So given his current return, of 1.01 bitcoins, that means each 2.4 bitcoins mined use around the electricity that a US household does annually. And people wonder why there are those of us who are concerned about the environmental impact...
11MWh average, 0.12 cents/kWh?! Power costs more than twice as much in Europe, and the average household uses half as much. No wonder you guys (in a twisted democratic sense of the word) aren't too fond of climate treaties.
Re: Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Incidentally, 11K kWh is roughly the average energy consumption of a US household. So given his current return, of 1.01 bitcoins, that means each 2.4 bitcoins mined use around the electricity that a US household does annually. And people wonder why there are those of us who are concerned about the environmental impact...
11MWh average, 0.12 cents/kWh?! Power costs more than twice as much in Europe, and the average household uses half as much. No wonder you guys (in a twisted democratic sense of the word) aren't too fond of climate treaties.
I know you're sort of joking, but that doesn't really explain it: the places where power is cheapest in the U.S. are the places where the most renewables are used. Here in Pacific Northwest power is closer to 8 cents/kWh because it's mostly hydro; Texas is cheaper than in the surrounding South because it has more wind power, etc.
Re: Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
#77>Solis bought a Bitmain Antminer S9 on eBay for $2,400. >As of this weekend, Solis has mined 1.01 BTC, worth a little more than $2,584 in his bitcoin wallet. >Solis said: >"When I bought the miner, the price per bitcoin was around $1,200. I thought I’d break even in one year, but actually it’s been about five months." So he would have been much better off just spending that 1,200 on Bitcoin rather than on a mining ri…
This is hindsight. He would have been best off staying the fuck away . As I mentioned a billion times cryptocurrencies (which are not currencies either) have zero legal real world use cases, currently the two uses are illegal money transfers out of China and hype. It's the worst sort of gambling: you do not even know the odds.
>zero legal real world use cases
Except for paying people for services and goods with bitcoin? There are plenty of legal venues to use bitcoin.
>It's the worst sort of gambling: you do not even know the odds.
So...like all investing? lol. Like seriously dude what the fuck do you know? Can you please take your blowhard bullshit somewhere else?
Re: Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
#78Wouldn't there be a big advantage to running a bit coin miner somewhere cold with cheap electricity like Quebec?
Its not cold in the summer, and it probably too cold in winter to not have any interior climate control. With much lower cost of living and cheap electricity, China seems like a much better option, the majority of mining is actually done there.
Mais, in the winter, the waste heat is free heat. Basically, if you deduct the money that you would have spent on heat, the electricity is very cheap.
Another way to think of it: The heat from a bitcoin rig is the same that you would get if you used an electric space heater or an electric baseboard heater. These cost about 2-3x as much to run as a gas or oil furnace. So, if you're able to turn off your heat and just heat with a bitcoin rig, your "cost" is less because you're not spending money on something else.
Re: Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
#79Wouldn't there be a big advantage to running a bit coin miner somewhere cold with cheap electricity like Quebec?
Its not cold in the summer, and it probably too cold in winter to not have any interior climate control. With much lower cost of living and cheap electricity, China seems like a much better option, the majority of mining is actually done there.
Mais, in the winter, the waste heat is free heat. Basically, if you deduct the money that you would have spent on heat, the electricity is very cheap.
Another way to think of it: The heat from a bitcoin rig is the same that you would get if you used an electric space heater or an electric baseboard heater. These cost about 2-3x as much to run as a gas or oil furnace. So, if you're able to turn off your heat and just heat with a bitcoin rig, your "cost" is less because you're not spending money on something else.
Re: Bitcoin's Price Surge Is Making Hobby Mining Profitable Again
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is hindsight. He would have been best off staying the fuck away . As I mentioned a billion times cryptocurrencies (which are not currencies either) have zero legal real world use cases, currently the two uses are illegal money transfers out of China and hype. It's the worst sort of gambling: you do not even know the odds.
Crytocurrencies transactions are significantly cheaper than wire transfers. That's a real world use case.
Cryptocurrencies are not always cheaper. They used to be but not anymore.
In Europe, I split a 0.36 Euro SEPA fee for a 1000 Euro transaction between two different banks in two different countries.
Bitcoin would have cost me $3-5 if not more.