Anyone else mining crypto?

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

I want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly in your initial comments about the PCI-E risers - you won't connect those to USB 3.0 slots.  Each of them will connect to a PCI-E slot, the full length or the shorter ones, both are fine.  As for powering them, they don't really power the GPU.  The black and yellow short cable you have in your picture will connect to the 6 pin slot on the PCIE riser on one end and a SATA plug from your power supply, which will in effect provide the 75W that your card would normally get if it were plugged directly into the PCI-E slot on your motherboard.  This is fine for many cards but for some power hungry ones, like a 1080ti or some older AMD cards, it is advised to avoid using the SATA-6 pin cable, as you can melt the SATA plug and cause a fire.  Using a 6 pin power wire right from the power supply into the PCI-E is the safest option.  In addition to that of course you'll need the 6/8 pin power connectors at the top of the GPU powered by your power supply.  If you have a 450W power supply you can't run too crazy of a card, so be careful.  Fortunately with mining one of the first things you'll do is lower the power of your card, which helps with that.

GTX 1060 6GB for less than $100 is an incredible deal.  With Ethereum prices being high as they are, those GPUs are going for $250-300 these days.  They'll get around 25mH/s on Ethereum each, if I remember correctly.  The 1070 should get 27-28 I believe.

Safest way to start would probably be just plug the 1070 directly in to your computer and start mining with it by itself.  Get comfortable with HiveOS, look up overclock settings, etc.  Give it a day, get a feel for it, then you can try adding cards, although if you're going to run multiple cards you'll need a more powerful power supply.  You can find great deals on eBay on used power supplies sometimes.  I'm at work so my attention is divided right now but please continue asking questions if I didn't help enough!

The last few days have been brutal. Hopefully everyone is still in the black. 

Steve_Jones said:

The last few days have been brutal. Hopefully everyone is still in the black. 

I haven't finished it yet. Stocks are on sale!

I'm trying to update all my old threads and I wanted to update this one. I haven't really added any new graphics cards, been too focused on the baby and all, but so far I've mined about $1650 worth of Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Ravencoin, so that's awesome. Next paycheck I'll try to pick up another GPU if I can find a good enough deal. 

The first part of this hobby is a ton of fun, learning about crypto, about how to mine it, tips and tricks on how to maximize efficiency, setting up the rig, etc. After that it's honestly kinda boring. I have 10 GPUs next to me right now and they're just steadily humming away. About once every 10-15 days I may need to restart a rig, that's about it. But this is money we're talking about, so boring and profitable is good!

Next month I should hit my break even point, where the crypto I've mined will be worth as much as I've put into this. So hey, that's exciting. 

Also with the price of Ethereum up right now, profits are goooooooood.

infinitenexus said:

Next month I should hit my break even point, where the crypto I've mined will be worth as much as I've put into this. So hey, that's exciting. 

Also with the price of Ethereum up right now, profits are goooooooood.

If you haven't broken even yet, there are no profits, so I'm a little confused. 

infinitenexus said:

...profitable is good!

Question:  Are you including electricity use (cost) increase in your overall numbers?  What is that ratio (cost to return) at this point if you know.  I hear it's dropped below 1 for Bitcoin for most everyone.

In reply to aircooled :

My electricity cost is around $30/month, so pretty negligible. I work hard to maximize efficiency, and electricity is cheap in Cleveland.

In reply to Steve_Jones :

I guess I used the wrong term. Profitability overall is up on Ethereum for anyone currently mining it, as the price of Ethereum has gone up. My equipment hasn't changed in the last month, yet the Ethereum in mining is now worth 20% more. 

In reply to Steve_Jones :

No. You are tracking perfectly.   He is continuing to invest (burn) money and time in the operation without actually making a profit. This is typical of entrepreneurs. They get so excited about growing the operation that they ignore the math. 

It sounds like he is doing the math.  The only caveat I see is that unless he is converting (selling) his coins it is all un realized gains (only on paper).  It's only really worth something when you sell it.  
 

Now, the coin market seems pretty strong currently (heck, there are even expensive TV commercials for exchanges), so it's probably not that much of a risk, but it is a very volatile market.

tester (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Steve_Jones :

No. You are tracking perfectly.   He is continuing to invest (burn) money and time in the operation without actually making a profit. This is typical of entrepreneurs. They get so excited about growing the operation that they ignore the math. 

Let's see, so I've almost met my ROI and I spend maybe 5 minutes a day checking on my rigs. Please explain to me how I am continuing to burn money and time. I'm really interested to hear this.

Sometimes I feel like I could earn $20K in straight profit and people would still complain and find a reason to nitpick. Pretty typical, I guess.

Also the reason I stopped updating this regularly. Around the end of November I will have paid everything off and will be making plenty of profit, by anyone's definition of the word profit.  But people will still just gripe. 

In reply to aircooled :

You and I are hearing different things. 
 

In a single post, I just heard him say:

- "Next paycheck I'll try to pick up another GPU if I can find a good enough deal."

- "Next month I should hit my break even point, where the crypto I've mined will be worth as much as I've put into this."

and

- "with the price of Ethereum up right now, profits are goooooooood."

All in the same post. 
 

I interpret that to mean:

- He is buying capital equipment with the paycheck from his other job,

- He has not made more money than he has put into it,

- "Profit" means something more like "good cash flow", "revenue", or "potential", but does not actually mean "profit", and

- No profits have been realized at all, because nothing has been converted to dollars. It's all on paper. 
 

As I understand it, if this effort were converted to an actual tax return, the "company" would show significant capital investment, and a financial loss. Not a profit. 
 

I'm not seeing the math or investment. But I AM seeing a fascinating and worthwhile hobby that the OP is enjoying (which makes it very worthwhile)

And also makes this thread interesting to read. 
 

In reply to infinitenexus :

I'm sorry this sounds like griping to you. From my side, it was a totally legitimate attempt to understand what you are doing, and determine if it was something I was interested in pursuing. 
 

If this was "Shark Tank" and you were asking me to invest in your company, my answer would be "I'm out". But that doesn't make it a gripe, or change whether it is a worthwhile endeavor for you. I'm still interested in your efforts, and recognize its value for you. It's just not a good fit for me. 

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

But to play devil's advocate, corporations show profit in mostly the same way infinite is doing it.

Example, a rubber dog toy factory.

Capital cost to build the factory - $10M

Annual sales - $2M

Annual cost to of goods sold - $667k

Annual depreciation on the factory (many ways to do this of course, simplified for example 10M/30 years is $333k per year)

Annual revenue is 2M, annual costs are 1M, this factory would be showing a profit of 1M annually, even during the first 10 years when it hadn't actually repaid the capital investment yet.

In reply to infinitenexus :

Just remember all the poor souls who dumped or lost their bitcoin when it was under $100/coin. And that 90% of stocks are owned by the top 10% wealthiest Americans

Anything to break the cycle is good but considered a threat to the old guard. Particularly an old guard that doesn't like change.

In reply to RevRico :

Uhhhh, who do you think owns 90% of the crypto? 

Also, who do you think owns the exchanges that make $$$ for every crypto transaction?

I think some of you also forget that this is a hobby of mine, not some grand financial endeavor. I'm not going to post excel spreadsheets of every penny and second spent on this. I have a number that is how much I spent on this, and once I surpass that, hell yeah. Maybe I'll buy another GPU in a month. Maybe I won't. I am allowed to change my mind. If people are going to get huffy because I'm not doing this the way they want, they can stop reading the thread. It's as simple as that.

In reply to infinitenexus :

I'm still with you.  I think you're doing great even if some don't understand.

infinitenexus said:

In reply to Steve_Jones :

I guess I used the wrong term. Profitability overall is up on Ethereum for anyone currently mining it, as the price of Ethereum has gone up. My equipment hasn't changed in the last month, yet the Ethereum in mining is now worth 20% more. 

Gotcha, I guess it's more like margins are up, getting you closer to actual profit quicker. That's always a good thing. 

In reply to TravisDan :

Yes, except we are litterally making these out of stuff laying around.

Mine came out of a dumpster and the video cards are borrowed lmao

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to RevRico :

Uhhhh, who do you think owns 90% of the crypto? 

Russian hackers?

In reply to Beer Baron :

Elon Musk Elon Musk Elon Musk in that order. 

This is why I stay away from crypto.

https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/crypto/what-to-do-if-your-bitcoin-ether-or-other-cryptocurrency-gets-stolen/

Not backed by the government. Government really doesn't care when you get ripped off. 

When your bank gets robbed of the dollars in your savings account, they government will send the police and the FBI. 

When your bitcoins get stolen you can call customer service. 

Customer Service?? 

And don't ever lose your password. 

https://www.ign.com/articles/programmer-has-240-million-of-bitcoin-locked-on-a-hard-drive-and-only-2-password-guesses-left-to-access-it

There are FDIC insured echanges out there, like Gemini. Problem is that insurance only applies to any cash you have in your account. So watch yerass and don't invest more than you can afford to lose. That said, I'm pretty happy with the way things are goin'...