Topic: If Bitcoin is unprofitable to mine & its not a good investment... (Read 1538 times)

The days of small miners making significant profits in pooled mining are probably coming to a close in a few years.   The economies of scale and efficiency will soon take over.

It's sort of the same situation with gold mining.   In 1849, you might be able to find gold nuggets in a creek in California and make a living at it.  Now, modern gold mining involves strip mining a vein of dirt with a high enough concentration of gold to make it worthwhile to refine a dump-truck full of that dirt into a bar of gold.

Before you get started, use one of the bitcoin mining calculators to figure out your potential profit running a rig.   The thing to keep in mind is that your average reward will decrease by 18% every two weeks, if the price of btc doesn't change.   The last difficulty increase was 22%, which reflects the new mining technology coming online.

I did some calculations on my Antminer S1, and if the price of BTC remains the same, I have about 20 weeks until the price of electricity exceeds the mining rewards, assuming an 18% biweekly increase in difficulty.

Bitcoin is arguably not a 'good' investment depending on whether you take the short term or long term view. Short term wise there has always been significant volatility making it hard to judge when to get in or to get out. But as we have seen historically, every low following a high has been met with an even greater high and hence the people who bought when it was $2 have a great investment as of now.

I don't think there are any 'jobs' that would pay you a decent wage completely in Bitcoin, so if you don't like mining, investment would be the best option so long as your willing to sit down and hoard. That's how most of the users have gotten BTC - by buying them.

depends on what u want to build ?

What program(s) are/is necessary to learn to be competitive in the BTC world?

if you don't want others to approve your position(like someone to contract, hire or give space for you to write), then learn to program and do bitcoin related stuff and post here, if you have nowhere else to show. If it is good stuff, sooner or later the quality will speak louder than any pre judgment and you will have your space.

Best answer.

If you regularly accept this invitation from strange men on the Internet, it may be more than your wallet that is at risk.

Destiny always favours the brave. It is true for FIAT, bitcoin or any other asset that holds value. Explore the unexplored and value will come in your way...

Um, I've seen plenty of people say that this is a good time to buy since the price is lower now. Why are you disregarding these people if your basis for the other side of the argument was "some people said…"?

Clearly if the price of a commodity is now low and you expect it to go higher in future then that would make it an excellent investment, no? If you do not expect it to go higher (expect it to continually fall) then it would be a terrible time to invest.

It's a fact that the bitcoin price has fallen significantly since the all time high of late 2013, that we've seen some rough times in the last few months and that there is uncertainty about China, etc. etc. If someone feels that Bitcoin will not recover from all of that then that would make it a bad investment in their opinion, and all we've got is opinions. Not everyone feels that way.

I am not telling you to invest in bitcoin. It's risky and you shouldn't do it unless you accept that and can afford to lose what you invest. That is as true now as it ever was.

So what does being ahead of the curve mean to you?

Is it that you feel you need to own some? If so, can you afford $50? $25? Buy some on LocalBitcoins.

If not, what is it that you feel you need to do to be "ahead of the curve"? You could read the bitcoin wiki, this forum, listen to the Let's Talk Bitcoins podcast archives, etc.

My goal is to be ahead of the curve. I love the idea of the power of wealth/currency back into the hands of the people. I know that BTC has been around for about 5 years now, so many people have not heard or do not even understand what Crypto-Currency is; I feel as though there is still great untapped potiential in "here"

So I would spend $10k on a brand new shiny miner and expect it to have an ROI of a month. Now that would send difficulty to the moon for sure

I think only you have the answer to that question. What can you add to the community?

I hear quite often (here in this forum) that we are on a decline in the value of each BTC. This is what I am referring to when I say its not a good time to invest/buy.

I don't accept the premise that bitcoin is not a good investment, though I would agree that it is a very risky investment.

What are your goals?

Agree. There was someone who just posted on one of the mining threads that mining wasn't worth it because the miner wouldn't pay for itself in 30 days. WTF?!!

Yes, I agree.

And the people that say mining isn't profitable have never owned their own business. Yes it takes time and you'll probably be in the red for a few months, but that's WAY better than most "real" businesses.

Also, you probably have 2 BTC worth of crap sitting around your house you could sell on https://cryptothrift.com/.

Title could be read as a hypothetical

I believe your premise is off. I believe it is a great investment if you are not looking to cash out next week.

Who says its not a good investment?

Get a job working for a bitcoin company
Start a bitcoin company
Invest in a bitcoin company
Write articles, books, etc. (not really profitable but can establish your name and open doors)
Give talks at user group meetings and conferences (not really profitable but can establish your name and open doors)

How does someone (like me) who believes in Bitcoin and all the power/potential it has, get started into the industry?