Short answer: You need to calculate the bitawatt (electricity to run the algorithm) costs vs the value of the coin. FWIW Google counts bitawatts. A 1% reduction in power/heat to run an algorithm saves them lots of $$$.
As the computational complexity went up, the amount of electricity needed went up. GPUs and later custom ASICs are attempts to use less electricity. If the cost of electricity goes to zero, the amount of time to calculate is less important. So, if you're using Dad's electricity, Bitcoin mining is Free. There is malware out there that just does Bitcoin mining. If you automate the botnet enough, the labor cost vs the yield makes it worth it to use other people's electricity. On Sun, Jun 18, 2017 at 9:13 PM, Jeffrey Creem <jeffcr...@gmail.com> wrote: > More people mining does not push price down as the difficulty adjusts > (about every 2 weeks) automatically to keep the average rate of discovery > of a block at 10 minutes. > > Also, GPU mining of bitcoin has not really been possible for a couple of > years. > > You need custom ASICS. Cloud mining can be done the cloud provider needs > hardware designed to mine bitcoin... > Not just a really fast computer. > > > > On Jun 18, 2017 5:38 PM, "David Johnson" <dave-gnhlug-l...@davej.org> > wrote: > >> >> Recent article, however it doesn't get into the risks. There is >> clearly capital investment needed if you're going to be somewhat >> serious about it. >> >> https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/an-idiots-guide-t >> o-building-an-ethereum-mining-rig >> >> If it's worth it depends on both electricity cost (which is highly >> variable by geo location worldwide), but also the payback of any >> hardware purchased. If the currency falls in value before you've paid >> back your hardware investment after electricity cost you've lost money >> and potentially lots of it. >> >> My impression is the more people mine, the currency price will be >> pushed back down to find an equilibrium so there's lots of risk if >> you're making an investment. >> >> The alternative strategy would be to use cloud based GPU instances on >> demand when prices spike but not otherwise. That way there is no >> capital investment. Now if cloud based GPU instances ever would be >> cheap enough is a different question. >> >> >> >> >> >> Neil Schelly writes: >> > I have a coworker who makes money mining. His strategy is to mine for >> > the alternative currencies that are still comparatively easy to mine >> > than BitCoin. Whatever value he earns there gets exchanged for value >> > in BitCoin. From what I gather, he makes a decently steady side income >> > from it, though I haven't really probed for details. I suspect it's in >> > the range of a few thousand dollars a month profit. >> > -Neil >> > >> > On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 8:46 PM, Lloyd Kvam <lk...@venix.com> wrote: >> > > Bitcoin did hit a peak value of $3,000 last week, so that would help >> the economics. >> > > >> > > My impression is that you need some edge in cost of bandwidth, >> electric power, or >> > > computer hardware for this to be an attractive business. Just >> tracking the blockchain >> > > can use enough resources to be annoying. >> > > >> > > An alternative approach would be to bet on bitcoins displacing gold: >> short gold and >> > > buy bitcoins. Of course that does not let you play with hardware. >> > > >> > > On Fri, 2017-06-16 at 18:12 -0400, Bill Ricker wrote: >> > >> Bitcoin initially did not require specialized hardware, but as new >> golden >> > >> hashes get harder to find, mining costs more in electricity and >> > >> depreciation without speciality gear (or a huge BITNET running for >> free). >> > >> If scarcity drives up BTC value, maybe, but odds of finding one still >> > >> declining as payoff increases. I haven't checked the calculation >> lately, it >> > >> would be a good exercise: what would an AWS VPS mining cluster big >> enough >> > >> to average 1 BTC mined per week cost to operate? >> > >> >> > >> Which if any of the alt-coins have legit upside is not yet clear, >> and the >> > >> most likely of them already requires a cluster and has had its first >> major >> > >> scam. >> > >> >> > >> / bill >> > >> >> > >> On Jun 16, 2017 5:58 PM, "Greg Rundlett (freephile)" < >> g...@freephile.com> >> > >> wrote: >> > >> >> > >> > >> > >> > My son is investigating crypto-currency mining and seems to think >> it's >> > >> > incredibly lucrative. >> > >> > >> > >> > I've not delved into it at all. >> > >> > >> > >> > Comments? Anyone actually making money mining? >> > >> > >> > >> > From what I've previously gathered, I thought the amount of >> computational >> > >> > power, expense and electricity just about squeezed out anybody but >> those >> > >> > with super-specialized hardware. >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> gnhlug-discuss mailing list >> gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org >> http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ >> > > _______________________________________________ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > >
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