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About two weeks ago a coworker came into my office and told me he bought a cheap motherboard so he could mine bitcoin with his graphics card. Is it theoretical

About two weeks ago a coworker came into my office and told me he bought a cheap motherboard so he could mine bitcoin with his graphics card. Is it theoretically still possible to make a profit with that kind of hardware nowadays? Please someone just tell me. I have no interest to do research into this. I just feel sadness for the crypto-bros.

dleslie 5y ago
Most likely not, unless power is basically free where you are and the hardware they're using was surplus.
Nursie 5y ago
AFAICT yes, but you mine ether or some other coin and either get paid in Bitcoin by a pool like ‘Nicehash’ or exchange it yourself. The others have become a proxy for Bitcoin.
- shimonabi 5y ago
  You were right. I asked him. Thanks!
jmknoll 5y ago
No, it’s not possible. All mining, for probably the past 4 or 5 years, is done on ASICs, typically in places selected for favorable energy or climate reasons.
duskwuff 5y ago
Bitcoin? No. Not even a little bit. Bitcoin mining has been dominated by ASICs since 2012 or so. Some other cryptocurrencies can still be mined on GPUs, but the profit margins are rather narrow.
pcstl 5y ago
You can still mine ETH on a (high-end) GPU and make a profit. BTC mining is way too advanced for that, it's done with mining-specific chips. Mining with a GPU gives you too little hash rate for it to be profitable. Going a bit more in-depth: Mining is a competitive activity. Your chance of being the person to mine a block is proportional to the fraction of the hash rate of all miners you hold. Therefore, if everyone is using super advanced mining hardware and you go in with a GPU, you hold an insignificant fraction of the hash rate and have next to no chance of actually mining a block, while you still spend on power and hardware maintenance - which will probably make mining a net negative for you. Nowadays BTC mining is advanced enough that the only way to make a profit is with big specially-designed rigs located in places with access to very cheap energy sources.

dleslie 5y ago

Most likely not, unless power is basically free where you are and the hardware they're using was surplus.

Nursie 5y ago

AFAICT yes, but you mine ether or some other coin and either get paid in Bitcoin by a pool like ‘Nicehash’ or exchange it yourself. The others have become a proxy for Bitcoin.

shimonabi 5y ago
You were right. I asked him. Thanks!

jmknoll 5y ago

No, it’s not possible. All mining, for probably the past 4 or 5 years, is done on ASICs, typically in places selected for favorable energy or climate reasons.

duskwuff 5y ago

Bitcoin? No. Not even a little bit. Bitcoin mining has been dominated by ASICs since 2012 or so. Some other cryptocurrencies can still be mined on GPUs, but the profit margins are rather narrow.

pcstl 5y ago

You can still mine ETH on a (high-end) GPU and make a profit. BTC mining is way too advanced for that, it's done with mining-specific chips. Mining with a GPU gives you too little hash rate for it to be profitable. Going a bit more in-depth: Mining is a competitive activity. Your chance of being the person to mine a block is proportional to the fraction of the hash rate of all miners you hold. Therefore, if everyone is using super advanced mining hardware and you go in with a GPU, you hold an insignificant fraction of the hash rate and have next to no chance of actually mining a block, while you still spend on power and hardware maintenance - which will probably make mining a net negative for you. Nowadays BTC mining is advanced enough that the only way to make a profit is with big specially-designed rigs located in places with access to very cheap energy sources.