Now that you're not mining anymore, was money in - money out a positive or negative number? Now that it's not based on how much you are up in one day, week, hour, etc. but almost a year invested, was it worth it?
In reply to Steve_Jones :
I mined enough to pay off all the things I bought, and now I'm starting to sell some of my cards. Overall it'll probably be about $1500-$2k in profit, so not bad for a fun, weird hobby.
In reply to infinitenexus :
That's not bad, plus you leaned stuff and had some fun. Coulda been worse.
The price of crypto peaked back in November and has continually gone down since then. At the same time, due to how crypto works, the mining difficulty has continued to increase, meaning you'll earn less per day compared to earlier times. I got into mining at probably the very last time it was still profitable, and got out in time. Honest, I wish I had gotten into it a year before I did; I'd probably have made $40 grand.
A friend of mine still mines, although I think he's stopping now. He went from earning $40-50 per day to earning about $8/day. Electricity costs have remained around $10/day, so it's no longer profitable. I've sold a few of my cards; I probably should put more effort into it but oh well. If nothing else, I have a handful of good graphics cards if I want to build up some old computers and donate them to charity.
I don't remember the exact numbers, but I paid roughly 2 grand for all my mining equipment and graphics cards, and mined somewhere around 3 grand total (I think, I'm probably way off haha). On top of that, I've made about $800 selling some graphics cards. I have probably another $5-600 worth of graphics cards here, I just need to find the time to sell them.
It was a fun way to spend some time and learn more about computers and Linux, but the time for profitable mining appears to be over. I sold all my crypto a while ago, lost a little but still made a solid profit.
It's hard to say what the future will be. I would be inclined to say that we could see a resurgence of crypto and prices will go up once the economy goes in a different direction, but the IRS is taxing mining pretty heavily so that kinda screws it. I imagine it'll continue to go down, probably have a few ups and downs but I don't think we'll see $60K bitcoin again, at least not for a long, long time.
I think crypto in general has had a bit of a reveal lately. One of the main pitches of crypto is that it's not related to the stock markets, it's an entirely different thing, which recent developments has shown it very much is not.
The primary problem as I see is that people where treating it as an investment, not a currency, and as such, it has to ride the wave of all investments. Even as a currency, the way it has been going, it's currently pretty highly inappropriate (wild volatility is not something you want in you currency)
There is certainly a place for crypto and especially block chain technology (essentially proof of purchase), but crypto will probably be the wild west until something changes (or evolves).
(Doesn't mean you still can't make money off "the bigger fool" though)
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:Hard to believe we are actually running out of fools.
No worries, they will be back in droves come Nov 2024.
In 2 days this thread will be 1 year old. Reading through it now is entertaining at least. Anytime people asked questions about profit, they were told "wait and see". Didn't have to wait long...
As a hobby, probably fun to do and learn, as a retirement plan, not so much.
Bitcoin is currently sitting at around $20.5K. Compared to 5+ years ago, it's still been a good investment. For anyone that bought a year ago, well, they lost a lot. Sometimes I think about how Elon Musk bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin. That's gotta sting.
I still think crypto could have been something more than it currently is, but multiple governments cracked down on it. China banned the mining of it and the US started taxing it a hefty bit (mining is taxed as high as 40%, if I remember correctly). Of course, we also have to factor in inflation and the current economy we live in, where everything is a little wacky.
In the end, I made profit, learned a lot, and got out in time, so I'm glad I did it.
In reply to infinitenexus :
Compared to 5+ years ago, bitcoin has grown incredibly. I am still leary of calling it a "good" investment. It's really close to gambling. Even you have said you never point more in then you were willing to lose. That is nearly the definition of gambling.
Here is what Bitcoin has done since 2013:
That's REALLY volatile. I would do that with play money (money I am prepared to lose), but I expect growth when I invest, and that level of volatility is too much for me to call a "good" investment.
I'm really glad it worked out well for you, and have enjoyed your detailed info. Thank you.
There are two factors causing the crypto crash, one is the stock market and interest rates creating a "E36 M3 just got real" moment for investors who are now pulling out of their highest-risk investments, and the other is governments waking up to how these things can do easy end-runs around rules preventing money laundering and criminal finance plus the incredible energy waste involved. As long as a cryptocurrency has some utility for criminal finance it will have a small positive value, what exactly it will be is hard to predict. It could end up having a tiny, rapidly fluctuating value with criminals making many tiny transactions that are cashed out as quickly as possible to minimize the risk of losses. I've heard some cybercriminals have already started switching back to WU+money mules and giving more preference to gift cards recently.
I also heard one of the main causes of the general crypto collapse was the collapse of the so called "stable coins". The stable coin, as might be obvious, is supposed to be far more stable the typical crypto because they are tied to actual assets. Having them collapse obviously causes a serious lack of confidence with the crypto market in general.
Basically, there was a run on the bank. Over the course of a weekend in May, there were a series of large withdrawals from Anchor Protocol, a sort of crypto bank set up by TerraUSD creator Terraform Labs for cryptocurrency investors, and that knocked TerraUSD below its $1 peg. That created a downward spiral where investors withdrew their UST coins from Anchor, spooking other investors, who followed suit.
https://news.yahoo.com/stablecoin-cryptocurrency-crash-explained-094010822.html
Anyone see the Coinbase thing from a few weeks ago?
To paraphrase their quarterly financial statement "if we go bankrupt we could use our customer's assets to pay our debts".
The rational person thinks "duh, ain't no FDIC for Bitcoin accounts, you signed an unregulated deal with the devil" but this seemed to come as a shock to a lot of people who have been sold crypto as an "investment".
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:Anyone see the Coinbase thing from a few weeks ago?
To paraphrase their quarterly financial statement "if we go bankrupt we could use our customer's assets to pay our debts".
The rational person thinks "duh, ain't no FDIC for Bitcoin accounts, you signed an unregulated deal with the devil" but this seemed to come as a shock to a lot of people who have been sold crypto as an "investment".
How is this any different than what Bernie Madeoff went to prison for?
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:Anyone see the Coinbase thing from a few weeks ago?
To paraphrase their quarterly financial statement "if we go bankrupt we could use our customer's assets to pay our debts".
The rational person thinks "duh, ain't no FDIC for Bitcoin accounts, you signed an unregulated deal with the devil" but this seemed to come as a shock to a lot of people who have been sold crypto as an "investment".
How is this any different than what Bernie Madeoff went to prison for?
There are laws against what Bernie Madeoff did?
That's why financial predators love these new and unregulated territories. I'm not saying everyone in crypto is a financial predator, but those who are financial predators do LOVE crypto.
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:Anyone see the Coinbase thing from a few weeks ago?
To paraphrase their quarterly financial statement "if we go bankrupt we could use our customer's assets to pay our debts".
The rational person thinks "duh, ain't no FDIC for Bitcoin accounts, you signed an unregulated deal with the devil" but this seemed to come as a shock to a lot of people who have been sold crypto as an "investment".
How is this any different than what Bernie Madeoff went to prison for?
There are laws against what Bernie Madeoff did?
That's why financial predators love these new and unregulated territories. I'm not saying everyone in crypto is a financial predator, but those who are financial predators do LOVE crypto.
Basically you take money from investors and promise to invest it, then use it to pay your own bills. No difference, except for the fact that cryptocurrency is unregulated.
Charles Ponzi would be proud.
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