4 ms·

Ok but given current pricing of GPUs, is it profitable to mine the coins, given I have access to free electricity (my office building does not charge for that).

Retric 14y ago
They are cutting the rate of bit-coin generation in half in January. (The total bit-coin's always stay under 21million but they don't use an exponential curve just cutting the rate in 1/2 every few years.)
- nullc 14y ago
  You probably know this, but for people that don't— "They are" is the wrong pairing. The subsidy halves every 210,000 blocks (~4 years) as part of the innate core rules of the system enforced by every participant. So it would be more accurate to say "They cut" (past tense as this was established years ago), or "The system will" (no human actor). Also it looks like the halving will be early December to late November. (The block number is fixed, not the time, and because the difficult updates lag rapid increases/decreases in computing power can shift the date around a bit)
petemc_ 14y ago
http://www.butterflylabs.com/order-form-bitforce-sc-mini-rig/ http://www.butterflylabs.com/order-form-bitforce-sc-mini-rig... This might make a lot of GPU setups obsolete. Edit to add more info: I'm told the expected generation output, from 1000000 Mhps, at current difficulty 1751454.53534068, is 574.2818 BTC per day or 23.9284 BTC per hour.
- sp332 14y ago
  $4,000/day at current exchange rates, it should pay for itself in less than 8 days. Of course the rate of BTC generation will go down over time, but it looks like these rigs would easily pay for themselves for several years yet.
  - nullc 14y ago
    The bitcoin system adapts itself to keep the rate of coin creation constant. So it's impossible to say what their return will be in the future. Perhaps a few monts later someone puts out a run of 28nm ASICS at 1/4 the price with 4x the performance and they're bought in massive waves.
    - sp332 14y ago
      Yes... and maybe a supervolcano under Yellowstone will destroy half the USA. But there's no evidence that will actually happen anytime soon.
- andrewla 14y ago
  Haven't looked more closely at the numbers here, but there are only 50 * 6 = 300 BTC created per hour. If each of these is averaging 24 BTC per hour, then that's practically 8% of the total computing power in the bitcoin network. That would mean that 13 of these would have more power than the entire network. Even if this were the case, the gains from such a scheme would be short-lived, though, as the difficulty adjusted to compensate. Then you're competing with everyone else who has bought these, and fighting over the marginal cost of electricity vs. the upcoming reduction in the reward.
jere 14y ago
Probably the best resource to answer these kinds of questions: http://www.bitcoinminer.com/ http://www.bitcoinminer.com/ >Before investing significant amounts in mining equipment those operators who rent and plan to take advantage of utilities being included might wish to review the lease documents to become aware of any “commercial use” exclusions. Also they should be aware of the potential that a month-to-month lease could suddenly change where utility submetering or other cost transfer might be imposed.

Retric 14y ago

They are cutting the rate of bit-coin generation in half in January. (The total bit-coin's always stay under 21million but they don't use an exponential curve just cutting the rate in 1/2 every few years.)

nullc 14y ago
You probably know this, but for people that don't— "They are" is the wrong pairing. The subsidy halves every 210,000 blocks (~4 years) as part of the innate core rules of the system enforced by every participant. So it would be more accurate to say "They cut" (past tense as this was established years ago), or "The system will" (no human actor). Also it looks like the halving will be early December to late November. (The block number is fixed, not the time, and because the difficult updates lag rapid increases/decreases in computing power can shift the date around a bit)

petemc_ 14y ago

http://www.butterflylabs.com/order-form-bitforce-sc-mini-rig/ http://www.butterflylabs.com/order-form-bitforce-sc-mini-rig... This might make a lot of GPU setups obsolete. Edit to add more info: I'm told the expected generation output, from 1000000 Mhps, at current difficulty 1751454.53534068, is 574.2818 BTC per day or 23.9284 BTC per hour.

sp332 14y ago
$4,000/day at current exchange rates, it should pay for itself in less than 8 days. Of course the rate of BTC generation will go down over time, but it looks like these rigs would easily pay for themselves for several years yet.
- nullc 14y ago
  The bitcoin system adapts itself to keep the rate of coin creation constant. So it's impossible to say what their return will be in the future. Perhaps a few monts later someone puts out a run of 28nm ASICS at 1/4 the price with 4x the performance and they're bought in massive waves.
  - sp332 14y ago
    Yes... and maybe a supervolcano under Yellowstone will destroy half the USA. But there's no evidence that will actually happen anytime soon.
andrewla 14y ago
Haven't looked more closely at the numbers here, but there are only 50 * 6 = 300 BTC created per hour. If each of these is averaging 24 BTC per hour, then that's practically 8% of the total computing power in the bitcoin network. That would mean that 13 of these would have more power than the entire network. Even if this were the case, the gains from such a scheme would be short-lived, though, as the difficulty adjusted to compensate. Then you're competing with everyone else who has bought these, and fighting over the marginal cost of electricity vs. the upcoming reduction in the reward.

jere 14y ago

Probably the best resource to answer these kinds of questions: http://www.bitcoinminer.com/ http://www.bitcoinminer.com/ >Before investing significant amounts in mining equipment those operators who rent and plan to take advantage of utilities being included might wish to review the lease documents to become aware of any “commercial use” exclusions. Also they should be aware of the potential that a month-to-month lease could suddenly change where utility submetering or other cost transfer might be imposed.