4 ms·
What does doing it "full time" mean? Is he sitting there watching the machines?
by nodata 13y ago
What does doing it "full time" mean? Is he sitting there watching the machines?
- nwh 13y agoNot casually. I've a little ASIC device sitting in the corner, but it's more a mild curiosity than any actual income. I've made a lot more money reselling the devices than I have mining with then.
- PeterisP 13y agoBitcoin mining is not a "job" (requiring effort) but an investment - requiring capital. So in the long run, it shouldn't be possible to get a return on bitcoin mining much above normal market interest rates, since if the return would be higher (as it was just recently) then an investor can buy/build large amounts of ASICs and drive bitcoin price down.
- nwh 13y agoThere's certainly people who have lucked out and made a considerable amount of money that would, for all intents, be a replacement job for them. Some of the early Avalon machines would have been making hundreds of dollars a day when they were received. Even earlier miners on CPUs would be rolling in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- PeterisP 13y agoThey may have made a great investment with a large, quick return - but it's not a job because: (a) the income from the Avalon machine likely is much less now than initially, and is likely to shrink rapidly - so it's not a sustainable future income; (b) keeping the income at the same level can't be done by spending your time, but by investing lots more money again and again; (c) you (and anybody else) can increase that income hundredfold by buying hundred times more machines - i.e., it is limited by capital, not by time/effort. It sure is income, but with very different characteristics. It's even very different from classic 'passive income' investments like dividend stocks or rental real estate - such 'passive income' investments are with rather sure long-term returns; but bitcoin mining gear produces very volatile short-term returns, and is likely useless in the long run as the device you buy now will after a couple years likely earn less than the electricity cost.
- nwh 13y agoThat's in a literal sense. I meant mining as a replacement for having a job, not so much that the mining itself was a job. You're right in every way though.
- gaius 13y agoIn any gold rush, sell shovels.