Bitcoins - Page 17 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

chemgear · 11-26-2013, 04:06 PM

I saw this today:

http://kotaku.com/bitcoin-mining-is-...rol-1471769898

Website Bitell, run by journalist Xiaogang Cao, posted photos of a Bitcoin mining outfit in Hong Kong's Kwai Chung industrial building. According to Bitell (via Hong Wrong), the company behind this mine is called Asicminer, and it owns other mines as well.

photon · 11-26-2013, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure

It is the only way to mine right now.

So the question is how long will those currencies stay profitable? I started to get stuff together for bitcoins but then realized there's no way I'd profit, so stayed out.

The only thing I'd need really is the video cards, do you think it'd be worth doing still? If it took 6 months to recoup the cost of the video cards would the difficulty go up so much that it wouldn't be worth doing?

accord1999 · 11-26-2013, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

The only thing I'd need really is the video cards, do you think it'd be worth doing still? If it took 6 months to recoup the cost of the video cards would the difficulty go up so much that it wouldn't be worth doing?

Right now with the incredibly high Litecoin prices, if you go with this 7950 and sell the games:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814131458

Payoff for the card is about a month... Assuming current prices hold.

Difficulty will rise but even for the current round, difficulty has only increased a little bit despite a several fold increase in Litecoin price. It could be that all available GPU power is already being harnessed for mining.

Azure · 11-26-2013, 08:43 PM

More GPU power will come online, but I think we can assume that the hardcore miners are back in the game, and the overall hash rate won't increase that much per month. It also helps that there are actually alternate coins that generate more profit than LTC, so people going for a quick buck are probably mining those.

But absolutely, if you have a few 7950s lying around, mine LTC with them. You can easily generate about $200/month in profit if you have the hardware anyways. Price is over $21 right now, and my additional 7950 should be paid off in 20 days.

Azure · 11-26-2013, 08:45 PM

Also interesting that all the coins mined with 'scrypt' have insane profit margins right now, while everything mined the way BTC is mined are not that high. You can't mine LTC with anything else besides a CPU or GPU right now, which means there are no huge mining operations coming online in China with 500 ASICs going all out.

It might happen in the future, GPUs are the only way LTC get mined for a long time.

photon · 11-26-2013, 09:49 PM

I'd assume that's because bitcoin seems to use a straight forward hashing algorithm (SHA256) which scales well with processing power only, while scrypt scales memory usage as well.

I've used scrypt style algorithms before for hashing passwords for secure storage, I can make it very expensive to hash a password (say make each attempt take 1/2 a second), and the algorithm can scale up easily as CPU and memory resources increase. So even if someone managed to hack the system and steal the database of password hashes, they won't be able to crack any because rather than passwords stored from SHA1 hashes or something where they can try billions of combinations per second, they can only try a couple per second.

Kelekin · 11-26-2013, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure

Also interesting that all the coins mined with 'scrypt' have insane profit margins right now, while everything mined the way BTC is mined are not that high. You can't mine LTC with anything else besides a CPU or GPU right now, which means there are no huge mining operations coming online in China with 500 ASICs going all out.

It might happen in the future, GPUs are the only way LTC get mined for a long time.

I'd have pretty good ASIC power but everyone I deal with either re-negs or is a scammer (I've been involved with getting the info of a scammer for 5 days because I don't take kindly to scammers).

Honestly if people bought ASICs a month ago when they were depreciating quickly, they'd make a killing just on equipment alone. Everyone is getting into the game despite what ROI is telling them.

That being said, I think it's a more fun hobby than playing stocks, but stocks are also a known rigged game; this is more speculative.

Thor · 11-27-2013, 02:52 AM

So x4 7850's should be something I could pay back in a few months? If I go litecoin I would be focusing on long term mining anyhow, see how it pans out.

Kelekin · 11-27-2013, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor

So x4 7850's should be something I could pay back in a few months? If I go litecoin I would be focusing on long term mining anyhow, see how it pans out.

x4 7950s.

If, at today's rates, your entire mining rig cost you $1500 with 4 7950s (might be a little more), you would ROI in 50 days. Even at the slow depreciation of your machine, it's not bad.

Rathji · 11-27-2013, 08:11 AM

at 50 days ROI, I would do it. Worst case you end up with some extra hardware that you can sell to recoup your costs (or use personally)

Kelekin · 11-27-2013, 08:19 AM

Yeah, exactly.

And there are so many scrypt coins, that you can diversify quite easily. There are profit-switching pools out there.

Thor · 11-27-2013, 10:18 AM

Thanks guys, I'll take the plunge.

Thor · 11-27-2013, 10:22 AM

Snap, its like $500 CAD per piece here, FU ICELAND

http://www.tl.is/product/msi-amd-hd7...-boost-edition

Bend it like Bourgeois · 11-27-2013, 11:24 AM

If I want to play around with the user experience and different use cases, what do the bright minds at CP suggest I start with for a wallet, exchange etc? iPad/iPhone is best.

Azure · 11-27-2013, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

at 50 days ROI, I would do it. Worst case you end up with some extra hardware that you can sell to recoup your costs (or use personally)

This.

You can sell 7950s for around $180 per card on bitcointalk.

Sure its not original cost, but its not like you lose a lot of money in the end.

Azure · 11-27-2013, 11:55 AM

For an exchange I'd go with these guys. Calgary run company.

https://www.cavirtex.com/home

They only trade BTC though.

Other BTC-E has been pretty stable. Russian run site though. They have lots of alternative currencies to trade back and forth.

Kelekin · 11-27-2013, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure

For an exchange I'd go with these guys. Calgary run company.

https://www.cavirtex.com/home

I haven't been able to buy BTC from them because they said they won't accept my passport as ID. But if they are Calgary-based, maybe I can just...show up.

I missed out on 4 deals for some better miners due to not having bitcoin on hand.

Miniac · 11-27-2013, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kelekin

I haven't been able to buy BTC from them because they said they won't accept my passport as ID. But if they are Calgary-based, maybe I can just...show up.

I missed out on 4 deals for some better miners due to not having bitcoin on hand.

Ya the ID must be a driver's license.

MrCallahan · 11-27-2013, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure

For an exchange I'd go with these guys. Calgary run company.

https://www.cavirtex.com/home

They only trade BTC though.

Other BTC-E has been pretty stable. Russian run site though. They have lots of alternative currencies to trade back and forth.

These guys have been brutal with my verification! I have had a ticket open with them for over a week to address my verification (I was trying to buy some BTC when they were $300, and I'm still waiting for verification), and I still haven't received a phone call or email. I think it's a one-man shop, and he's been super swamped.

Since he's been taking so long, I've decided to try out Vault of Satoshi instead (was verified in a few hours), which also trade in Lite/Peer coins. The upside to Virtex, is you can tie your bank account to it, and transfer money fairly quickly. Apparently VoS is in progress to add that feature, but you can at least run to a BMO, and deposit money that way as well.

topfiverecords · 11-27-2013, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrCallahan

These guys have been brutal with my verification! I have had a ticket open with them for over a week to address my verification (I was trying to buy some BTC when they were $300, and I'm still waiting for verification), and I still haven't received a phone call or email. I think it's a one-man shop, and he's been super swamped.

Since he's been taking so long, I've decided to try out Vault of Satoshi instead (was verified in a few hours), which also trade in Lite/Peer coins. The upside to Virtex, is you can tie your bank account to it, and transfer money fairly quickly. Apparently VoS is in progress to add that feature, but you can at least run to a BMO, and deposit money that way as well.

Virtex would have been better off had they gotten their trading fees in line with the other major exchanges. They could have 10x the volume and thus way more earnings even with lower fees (about 40%). A lot of trading is happening elsewhere and Virtex is only good for getting money in.

They are more than a one man operation though. I have had no issues with any deposits, withdrawals, or requests but they definitely need to put some work into their trading interface and increase their support team. It's not as bad as BTC-e at least.