Just wanted to share my first week's experience with BTC to help others entering the market and help businesses understand who is now entering your market. My apologies to the forum/mods? and others if I break some rules. These forums make me feel like the RA from my college dorm is here...you know the guy/gal...Has a god complex...
My Background - Older than most here, Use Windows for personal and business, built a website on 1and1, sales, logistics, roofing and former Marine. I started this journey with the expectation of being a part of history and not for the money. (
I can actually mint a currency and turn it into $'s...WOW! That's so hip it hurts.) My formal education consist of a DOS class in the 70's and word processor class in the 80's. I'm truly a "noob" or "newb" to this world. But, I'm a sucker for new experiences and will continue to jump in headfirst whenever possible. If you don't try something you will never know. Anyways, that's a little background on me to stress the point that I knew absolutely nothing about BTC and understood these forums less than most.First piece of advice - If it takes you an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes, then DO NOT enter the BTC world.
Started with watching and reading news stories on BTC Christmas week, then scoured the internet for information, and then...made mistakes.
1. Bought a Red Fury 2.6gh/s on ebay for $300.00. Lesson - That's $120/gh. Not smart!
(currently mining at 2.40 gh/s = about $0.75/day)ROI = 400 days at CURRENT difficulty level. Won't happen.
2. Bought a BFL 60gh/s on ebay for $1,500.00. Lesson - Not Sure
(Awaiting Delivery) Math (60/2.4 = 25) (25*$0.75 = $18.75/day)ROI = 80 days at CURRENT difficulty level. Not sure about how much difficulty will increase and reduce $/day. (Will value of BTC increase?)
3. Used some of the websites for free bitcoins. Lesson - Just don't do it, nothing is free. Lots of crooks.
4. Read one post and made a decision based on that post/forum. Lesson - Read multiple posts from multiple forums for various points of view.
There is no all knowing forum, website or person on BTC. Maybe the guy/gal/group that created this...? Who knows
That entity is actually not known. I mean nothing is actually known about Satoshi Nakamoto. It's all conjecture, which should be enough to tell yourself to stop! If not, then journey on.You need the following:
Laptop or PC - Age does not matter from what I've read and Windows based is the most compatible. My laptop is 2 yrs old and runs Windows7.
Secure Wallet - Use the recommended ones on most of the forums. Read, Read, Read and then read again. Create a different BTC Wallet Address for each website. Use the label section to put the name of the website to keep track.
Mining Equipment - If you are going to purchase mining equipment, then the only US based options I've found have been Ebay and Butterfly Labs. I think Ebay is the most secure, but you're paying too much per GH/s. Google search "Butterfly Labs" / "Eclipsemc" / "Josh" to draw your own conclusions on BFL. Do this for several hours. I've paid $120/gh and $25/gh for mining equipment. Conclusion - I might break even, but that depends on the difficulty increasing at a rapid rate over the next couple of months. Honestly, at this point most of the "salty dogs" are saying spend your money on trading BTC. My hope is to recoup my $$$'s and hold the BTC for an increase in value. I'm also considering selling my recently purchased equipment and start trading, but then I'm ignoring the real reason I started this journey. My opinion on what is currently happening is the salty dog miners are selling their old equipment and buying new, exponentially more powerful equipment, which will make the old equipment obsolete and never provide an ROI. Mining is a losing endeavor without some serious capital and knowledge in my current opinion.
Software for your miner - I found Multiminerapp to be the most user friendly, but you don't have to have it. You can spend a couple of hours to get bfgminer or cgminer to work, which I did, but then I found the Multiminerapp. I like it because it makes my archaic mind feel some level of comfort. It will scan for the hardware and is very simple to enter worker and pool information. Especially for those who don't have a clue as to how write code or any of the other instructions most of the techs put out there. BUT, I appreciate the heck out of the techs...could not have done it without their posts!
A Pool to mine - Solo = NO. Pool mining appears to be the best option. Which Pool? Great question. I tried Eclipse, major failure, waisted 4 days of mining and got nothing in return. Google "Eclipse" and/or "Josh" , "BFL" , "Butterfly Labs" , and read, read, read to make your own determination. I also visited several and just never got a warm and fuzzy feeling. I've chosen what appears to be the Goliath of BTC; BTC Guild. I think it's hated by many "salty dog" miners because it has so much of the market share. BUT, it relieved the stress of uncertainty for me and it actually works. All the other sites I've visited or tried pooling at make me feel like I'm in a back alley trying to buy a 60" tv for $100. My apologies to the other pools, but that's my point of view having no experience and not trusting promises on websites to only find people that have been burned on a forum by that website. Trust is a big issue in business and extremely hard to earn. Guild has at least done that for me so far. If BTC becomes a stable market, then big business will be right around the corner (if not already) and yes, the little guys will lose.
Cloud Hashing - No experience. You have to do the math. How much are you paying per GH/s and what will that produce in BTC for the time frame. Don't forget the difficulty level changes, so long term contract does not seem smart to me.
BTC Calculators -
don't trust most of them, read, read, read. The best I've found is at the genesisblock.Sorry, I have not provided links, but coddling would go against my core beliefs of being self sufficient.
http://www.marineshop.net/prodimg/102463.jpg
Semper Gumby!