Crypto mining

[DRHillier]

I have a friend who used to be in the mechanic trade with me. He's a disabled vet who recently became even more disabled. He's got a lot of free time now and one day bought himself a crypto mining setup. He's got (3) 8 gig video cards which are mediocre and seems to be making a bit of money doing it. He's got 2200 invested since he bought used equipment. My wife is interested and gave me the go ahead to spend 4,000 or so to do the same thing. I've been watching him to see what kind of money he actually earns once he pays for the power bill and any other associated costs. I wonder if I spent that kind of money as an investment, how long would it take me to break even, and once I've broken even will my equipment need to be upgraded. It's not worth it to me if I only break even and have to wait 3 years to recoup my investment. I've decided if he can bring in 300 a month after the power bill I might consider searching high and low to find some reasonably priced video cards and give it a shot. Anyone here have any experience in this area? He's been at it for less than a month, so I don't have the numbers in looking for yet, but it is intriguing to me. I've got a spare room to put everything in, and if I can make a little money with a rig that runs itself once set up, I might be game. Another appealing aspect is that getting paid in crypto, you can always leave it be and maybe just maybe turn a huge profit if the prices skyrocket

[Yonder]

OR you could take the 4 grand and hand it off to a financial advisor, who will invest it and make you a nice, steady continuing return. Crypto mining? And they call the stick market “gambling.” Just my 2 p.

[DRHillier]

OR you could take the 4 grand and hand it off to a financial advisor, who will invest it and make you a nice, steady continuing return. Crypto mining? And they call the stick market “gambling.” Just my 2 p.

My father is a certified financial planner. I use him for just what you suggest. But I'm always interested in outside the box opportunities. It very well may be a bad idea. I'm certainly not sold on it yet. We'll see how it turns out. But I'm asking around for people that have done it for a while. See if they are making money, losing it, breaking even, etc etc. I want to know the ins and outs, most of all, If you could do it over again knowing what you know now... would you do it again

[NormandieStill]

From what I understand of crypto-mining (I'm an ex-programmer and played around with cryptography a lot when I was younger) we are now well into the phase of diminishing returns. The energy cost per block is higher and the equipment required is more costly. The prices are unlikely to skyrocket, if anything you're going to see a steady decrease in value over time.

But I'm somewhat cynical about magical investments. Part of my programming work was in the financial industry and if a 4000 unit investment would net you 300units / month hands off, then I guarantee that the big boys who are playing with hundred thousand, and million unit trades would be all over this. A ROI of 200% of your investment in 26 months without leveraging?

[HDNB]

ask yourself this: if there is so much dough to be made, how can you buy used gear for 4000 bucks that will clear you 300 a month? why didn't the previous owner want to leave it chugging away away for a measly 85% net annualized rate of return?

or to put it another way, if it's so easy, why isn't everyone doing it? if making money were that simple, even the government wouldn't be able to fuck that up.

[malt_lover]

I am doing mining. A typical rig with GPU capable of generating at least $3 per day I what I went for. Multiply that by number of cards you can afford. Power cost ain’t that much considering a unit for 0.12.

It is profitable after 1 year. It can be better ROI if crypto prices go up. There are many websites that publish GPU wise daily earnings.

[DRHillier]

I am doing mining. A typical rig with GPU capable of generating at least $3 per day I what I went for. Multiply that by number of cards you can afford. Power cost ain’t that much considering a unit for 0.12.

It is profitable after 1 year. It can be better ROI if crypto prices go up. There are many websites that publish GPU wise daily earnings.

That's about what my friend is bringing in as well. He uses a program called nice hash. I'm logged in to his account so I can see what he's bringing in and what his rig is doing. Fan speed, wattage, temperature etc.

[tombombadil]

Be careful spending money on new gpu cards for mining.

When eth goes to proof of stake there might be a whole bunch of gpu miners moving over to other algos, competition may go up a lot, seriously reducing returns.

There are some cheaper ASICS out there now that are pretty profitable.

The reason people sell old equipment that's still profitable is they upgrade to new equipment that's more profitable. Miners are annoying. They generate great and noise. Most people only have space for so much of that going on in one house.

Or maybe they're trying to get away from gpu's and in to ASICS before the eth switch.

If you're handy then I strongly encourage it. I'm not a financial adviser, not giving financial advice, but my extra money is going toward mining gear.

Helium miners are quiet and don't make a lot of heat but they're on a pretty big back order. If you don't want to wait you can buy from scalpers buy they're some risk involved in that route.

I've got my gpu cards hashing away, a couple bobcat 300's on order and am in the market for an asic to stick in the garage.

[Stonecutter]

This crypto is kinda weird. The gold, silver and booze that’s locked up in my safe is going to be there even when the power goes out…. What the hell good is a bit of information floating around the eather if you can’t turn your computer on?

[DRHillier]

Be careful spending money on new gpu cards for mining.

When eth goes to proof of stake there might be a whole bunch of gpu miners moving over to other algos, competition may go up a lot, seriously reducing returns.

There are some cheaper ASICS out there now that are pretty profitable.

The reason people sell old equipment that's still profitable is they upgrade to new equipment that's more profitable. Miners are annoying. They generate great and noise. Most people only have space for so much of that going on in one house.

Or maybe they're trying to get away from gpu's and in to ASICS before the eth switch.

If you're handy then I strongly encourage it. I'm not a financial adviser, not giving financial advice, but my extra money is going toward mining gear.

Helium miners are quiet and don't make a lot of heat but they're on a pretty big back order. If you don't want to wait you can buy from scalpers buy they're some risk involved in that route.

I've got my gpu cards hashing away, a couple bobcat 300's on order and am in the market for an asic to stick in the garage.

That's my biggest issue. The scalpers have all the video cards right now. It's discouraging. Unless I can find some at a decent price, I won't do it.

[DRHillier]

This crypto is kinda weird. The gold, silver and booze that’s locked up in my safe is going to be there even when the power goes out…. What the hell good is a bit of information floating around the eather if you can’t turn your computer on?

Been looking at buying some gold and silver as well. My money in the bank is getting diluted by the governments printing. Taking the power away from centralized banking would be awesome. But that market is more volatile than anything else.

[tombombadil]

Be careful spending money on new gpu cards for mining.

When eth goes to proof of stake there might be a whole bunch of gpu miners moving over to other algos, competition may go up a lot, seriously reducing returns.

There are some cheaper ASICS out there now that are pretty profitable.

The reason people sell old equipment that's still profitable is they upgrade to new equipment that's more profitable. Miners are annoying. They generate great and noise. Most people only have space for so much of that going on in one house.

Or maybe they're trying to get away from gpu's and in to ASICS before the eth switch.

If you're handy then I strongly encourage it. I'm not a financial adviser, not giving financial advice, but my extra money is going toward mining gear.

Helium miners are quiet and don't make a lot of heat but they're on a pretty big back order. If you don't want to wait you can buy from scalpers buy they're some risk involved in that route.

I've got my gpu cards hashing away, a couple bobcat 300's on order and am in the market for an asic to stick in the garage.

That's my biggest issue. The scalpers have all the video cards right now. It's discouraging. Unless I can find some at a decent price, I won't do it.

I wouldn't buy a video card at all right now. Look in to asics. There's a good chance the video card mining will be a lot less productive soon, you may never earn you money back.

Vodka Coin is a good YouTube channel for learning more.

[NormandieStill]

This crypto is kinda weird. The gold, silver and booze that’s locked up in my safe is going to be there even when the power goes out…. What the hell good is a bit of information floating around the eather if you can’t turn your computer on?

Been looking at buying some gold and silver as well. My money in the bank is getting diluted by the governments printing. Taking the power away from centralized banking would be awesome. But that market is more volatile than anything else.

In the event of complete failure (Which would be kind of the point of having your money in other assets than bank accounts), what do you really think your gold will be worth? Stainless steel (or just steel) will probably be a more asked for commodity. You can't make tools out of gold.

[DRHillier]

This crypto is kinda weird. The gold, silver and booze that’s locked up in my safe is going to be there even when the power goes out…. What the hell good is a bit of information floating around the eather if you can’t turn your computer on?

Been looking at buying some gold and silver as well. My money in the bank is getting diluted by the governments printing. Taking the power away from centralized banking would be awesome. But that market is more volatile than anything else.

In the event of complete failure (Which would be kind of the point of having your money in other assets than bank accounts), what do you really think your gold will be worth? Stainless steel (or just steel) will probably be a more asked for commodity. You can't make tools out of gold.

Haha so true. I'm a bit of a prepper. I've got a California king bed, the entire underneath is full of ammo. I get antibiotics by the thousands from Mexico. Z packs, penicillin, amoxycillin. I stockpile MRE, canned foods, freeze dried, I vacuum seal lots of different things. Any of these will be good currency in a world where paper money no longer means anything. I'm not talking about a zombie apocalypse, but a natural disaster, an EMP strike on our power grid, etc. Our state is overdue for a 9.0 earthquake followed by a tsunami. I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. That's what got me interested in distilling. There's a bay right behind my house and I can make drinkable water from it if needed. I have a wood stove I can put my still on to run it. I also have a propane burner which would be great until the propane runs out. My wife thought I was crazy when I started buying ammo like it was going to disappear back in 2012. She no longer thinks that. It was a great investment. It's doubled and tripled in value, and all i had to do was store it in a dry low oxygen environment.
But back to your question about gold. That really has nothing to do with an end of days scenario. When the value of the dollar gets diluted by printing more, your money in the bank loses value as well. Commodities such as gold are a good way to hedge your losses. True the value of good could go down, but it's not likely. It's good to protect your wealth (not saying I'm wealthy by any stretch of the imagination) and gold is a fairly safe way to do it. I watch a lot of stuff about economics and have a good grasp on how everything works, but not so good at explaining it.

[Stonecutter]

This crypto is kinda weird. The gold, silver and booze that’s locked up in my safe is going to be there even when the power goes out…. What the hell good is a bit of information floating around the eather if you can’t turn your computer on?

Been looking at buying some gold and silver as well. My money in the bank is getting diluted by the governments printing. Taking the power away from centralized banking would be awesome. But that market is more volatile than anything else.

In the event of complete failure (Which would be kind of the point of having your money in other assets than bank accounts), what do you really think your gold will be worth? Stainless steel (or just steel) will probably be a more asked for commodity. You can't make tools out of gold.

My retirement is tied up in the market. That being said.
Currently there are numerous reasons why a person wouldn’t want to use a bank for financial transactions or securing their valuables….
Regarding money and assets, for the most part banks and credit unions are nothing more than a magician’s smoke and mirror trick and the world financial systems sit atop a house of cards at best. I’m very aware that guns, tobacco, wheat and booze will, by far, become more valuable than gold in the event SHTF. But we digress. The OP was asking about crypto. And my point is that if you simply lose power (a common occurrence and one far removed from what we think as apocalyptic) your crypto is worthless. Just my opinion.

[Big River]

Stay away from Bitcoin - even if in a mining pool. There's just way too much hardware competing against you.

You should look at other cryptos. Some are gpu heavy and a few are CPU heavy - decide which way you want to go - do your research.

If I remember correctly - All the coins can be tracked (although still anonymous) except Monero.

It makes perfect sense to include crypto in your financial diversification if that's what you want.

[DRHillier]

This crypto is kinda weird. The gold, silver and booze that’s locked up in my safe is going to be there even when the power goes out…. What the hell good is a bit of information floating around the eather if you can’t turn your computer on?

Been looking at buying some gold and silver as well. My money in the bank is getting diluted by the governments printing. Taking the power away from centralized banking would be awesome. But that market is more volatile than anything else.

In the event of complete failure (Which would be kind of the point of having your money in other assets than bank accounts), what do you really think your gold will be worth? Stainless steel (or just steel) will probably be a more asked for commodity. You can't make tools out of gold.

My retirement is tied up in the market. That being said.
Currently there are numerous reasons why a person wouldn’t want to use a bank for financial transactions or securing their valuables….
Regarding money and assets, for the most part banks and credit unions are nothing more than a magician’s smoke and mirror trick and the world financial systems sit atop a house of cards at best. I’m very aware that guns, tobacco, wheat and booze will, by far, become more valuable than gold in the event SHTF. But we digress. The OP was asking about crypto. And my point is that if you simply lose power (a common occurrence and one far removed from what we think as apocalyptic) your crypto is worthless. Just my opinion.

Lol I am the OP I have a 401k, a couple of life insurance policies, I trade crypto, have stocks, a savings, and I also have invested in the shtf scenario where all of the mentioned monetary assets may become useless or worthless. Mining crypto is interesting to me, however the initial investment is a big deal to me. I'm not rich and putting out 4 or 5 thousand dollars is a big deal to me. I also know that there's going to be a learning curve which translates to possible further loss of money. I'm fortunate enough to know someone who is currently doing it so I can learn by watching him. Someone else mentioned the shift from GPU to an ASICS type setup which I know nothing about. I've been reading about it for about an hour now so I definitely don't have a firm grasp on what it is yet. I posted this question to hopefully gain some insight to crypto mining, and from the replies I've received it seems to me that most everyone shares the same skepticism that I have. My father is a CFP and he doesn't think crypto is the wave of the future either. It's all theoretical money, and it's only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. I'm still undecided about it.

[Stonecutter]

Oh for sure man. Get in where you fit in. There’s definitely money to be made.

[NormandieStill]

My retirement is tied up in the market. That being said.
Currently there are numerous reasons why a person wouldn’t want to use a bank for financial transactions or securing their valuables….
Regarding money and assets, for the most part banks and credit unions are nothing more than a magician’s smoke and mirror trick and the world financial systems sit atop a house of cards at best. I’m very aware that guns, tobacco, wheat and booze will, by far, become more valuable than gold in the event SHTF. But we digress. The OP was asking about crypto. And my point is that if you simply lose power (a common occurrence and one far removed from what we think as apocalyptic) your crypto is worthless. Just my opinion.

Believe me I understand all that. I would very much have liked it if the banks had not been classified as Too Big To Fail and bailed out during the sub-prime crisis. I think that if banks want to play at being daring entrepreneurs, and not stable depositories, then they should also be subject to the market like everyone else. What's truly terrifying (and this observation is from first hand experience), is how little maths and risk analysis the average financial trader actually understands.

If you lose power and it comes back, then crypto will just carry on where it left off. If you lose power and it doesn't come back, then I think you're very rapidly in an apocalypse-type situation.

[Stonecutter]

Very true Normandie. The dependence on electricity is incredible

[DRHillier]

Very true Normandie. The dependence on electricity is incredible

And the internet as well as cellular phones. I've been working on my ability to generate electricity. I have a generator, but that only works as long as you have gasoline. I haven't tried making my own fuel, but I guess that's always a possibility. I have some acetylene lamps as well which are really cool. They run off of calcium carbide and water. I need to get some solar panels on the roof of my fifth wheel. My grand kids think I'm joking when I tell them that I'm older than the internet.