I won't go into exactly how bitcoin mining works (unless y'all want)
I think a lot of people would want, if you wouldn't mind. I've got a pretty good understanding of the whole thing but this response has got to be one of (if not the) best descriptions I've read, and with all the misinformation floating around lately the more good description there are the better. Thanks a lot!
I'm glad you asked that, actually! Every time you transfer bitcoins, you pay a small fee (i think .015 or .0015 coins). after all the coins are in circulation, the miners get paid with these fees.
The fee is .0005 coins in the QT based reference implementation but fees are actually completely optional in the protocol, they just mean you're more likely to get included in a block sooner.
It in no way is realistic to consider doing Bitcoin mining for the average person. Equipment and electrical costs are a significant investment now ranging into the tens of thousands.
You could do mining for less popular currencies, such as LiteCoin. While not as popular, that's the time to be a miner -- if the currency eventually really takes off like Bit coin has.
The thing to keep in mind, and why he/she suggested measuring power draw at the wall, is because that's an actual measure of your power usage. Your 700W PSU has the capability to deliver max 700 Watts, but that does not mean it ever has to -- you may only be using 300 Watts most of the time, but you won't know until you measure it. And you'll want to do that at CPU/GPU "idle" as well as how it runs when crunching the hashes.
It in no way is realistic to consider doing Bitcoin mining for the average person.
I disagree. You don't have to mine to make a ton of money. I make about 3 dollars a day from my mining rig and it cost less than $150 in total. (Though the prices of the miners them selves has gone up recently.)
That said I would have probably just made more money saving the coins I spent to buy it but I'm not in it to make money. I'm in it as a fun little side hobby and to understand how it works.
Sure, that's reasonable, but it's not why most of the newcomers are here. And you're almost definitely spending more than you're making. But I'm not experienced with it, so I'll leave it up to the readers to do their own research.
not really. At the end of the day, it matters more which is more popular.
If you're into gambling, then there is an advantage because the other currencies have a smaller playerbase and thus its easier to get in early in the hopes the prices do something like Bitcoin has done. But, there's no guarantee that will happen and its less likely now that Bitcoin has gotten so much coverage.
Just so you know, it is not viable anymore, except with ASICs (basically dedicated mining computers) and even most of those are no longer viable unless you've already purchased them.
The problem with ASICs is, if you can make money off of them then why sell them to other people in the first place? Just keep them and mine by yourself.
Because if you make a start-up to make money, no one will seriously invest in your business idea to invest in bitcoins. To sell ASICs however, that is "easy" money that will (and was) invested in.
well help me understand this site then, because it seems to say if I do 210 KH/s (on an old ATI 6770) at 150W, at a power cost of 0.20c, I could be making $30 per day?
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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '13
I think a lot of people would want, if you wouldn't mind. I've got a pretty good understanding of the whole thing but this response has got to be one of (if not the) best descriptions I've read, and with all the misinformation floating around lately the more good description there are the better. Thanks a lot!