Is it worth investing in USB Block Erupters?

empoweoqwj

hero member

Activity: 518

Merit: 500

Quote from: JohnnyDop3 on January 25, 2014, 07:01:20 AM

I'm considering building a USB mining rig, but I fear that at this point it is too late to make any profit.

If I go about buying, let's say, the Bitmain Antminer, which runs at 1.6 gHs/s, at the cost of $85, would that return my investment?
I would buy one, mine, profit, and then buy more, but I fear that with the current and coming difficulty on the network+the global hashrate, it would be a folly.

What do you guys think? I would buy one of the big ASIC miners, but yeah... Can't make bread without dough! Cheesy

Excuse this blasphemous question, but would it be a better investment to mine litecoins, from my standpoint? I have a 7870 card.

Cheers!

Don't mine bitcoins with a rig - that's a guaranteed loss at the moment. Look at several altcoins, whatever is doing well that week. Be flexible and vigilent.

Caiapfas

member

Activity: 112

Merit: 10

DO NOT BUY USB miners! never get your ROI

Sonny

hero member

Activity: 868

Merit: 1000

Quote from: NecroBones on January 27, 2014, 05:12:34 PM

If you could convince someone to sell you a box full of Block Erupters at about $1 each, then they'd be great. At about $5/each, they'd be so-so (and still about to be obsoleted, cost-wise). Anything more than that, and they're just not worth the cost anymore.

Even for $10/each, you can take all of them, and then sell them on eBay for profits. Wink

Operatr

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www.DonateMedia.org

These ones are just novelty miners at this point. The best you will do today with a USB miner is about 1.6-2.2 Gh/s, paying about $50 per gigahash. It seems like the ASICMiner Erupters are now really expensive even compared to Gen 2 Bitfury and Antminer USB miners for what you get.

Peacefrog

full member

Activity: 213

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Well i was in a similar situation to you. I was gonna get a single usb miner but managed to liquidate my alts at a good enough price to get a cube.

Either way your probably gonna want to mine a multi pool to get the most out of your hash rate.

The way i see it you have 2 choices. USB miner - Chance of not getting return. If you want to mine btc to hold i wouldnt recommend this. If you plan on using the 40k satoshis it would make daily to trade for other coins on cryptsy i could see this being a viable option. most of my funds i made through trades so it figures if theres a steady income (no matter how small) and you trade smart you can get your return much quicker.

or you can wait and gather your .05's until you can get something more efficient. Do lots of math and see what looks profitable

goggles1200

member

Activity: 110

Merit: 10

Anything under a Chili, you might as well get kicked in the nuts and your money taken away from you. You're not going to make anything and probably cap out the number of USB slots you can use on your computer.

Even at the Chili device level, I'm making .01BTC a day which is poo!

freddyfarnsworth

full member

Activity: 238

Merit: 100

I think the point is, we do not have .39b but do have .05 once every two weeks or so, or have you never experienced being broke

With the asic USB at least we get into the game, learn and participate, and if today I had 250gh, I would have all my monthly bills paid for long enuf to buy more gh.
We live cheap, we eat cheap, we survive.

Peacefrog

full member

Activity: 213

Merit: 100

factor this in. antminer u1's hash rate is 2gh/s stable and cost .053BTC
coinwarz states that it will average .0005BTC a day.

so if your lucky and difficulty doesnt rise you can get return on one in over 100 days. then after that you will make about 40cents a day.

An Asicminer Cube can hash between 30-38 gh/s and cost .39BTC
Coinwarz estimate .0069BTC a day
in 61 days at that rate you will make .42BTC at that point you will break even for the miner and priority shipping.

i would not spend .4 on usb miners

IamCANADIAN013

hero member

Activity: 714

Merit: 503

Quote from: NecroBones on January 27, 2014, 05:12:34 PM

If you could convince someone to sell you a box full of Block Erupters at about $1 each, then they'd be great. At about $5/each, they'd be so-so (and still about to be obsoleted, cost-wise). Anything more than that, and they're just not worth the cost anymore.

But people are still willing to buy them, which is where I see the value. I picked up 10 of the .333 asics the other day for $15 each. They are going for upwards of $40 each where i live, sure i could unload for $30 or so.

I'm trying to figure out what the re-sale of antminer sticks might be a month, or 3, or 6 months from now. Will their value still hold going forward?

PaintShopPro6

full member

Activity: 150

Merit: 100

To say they are not profitable is wrong, because that ignores resale. Historically, USB miners hold up well in the resale market.

The trick is predicting how long to mine when them before selling.

They are also good learning tools for people entering the mining world.

All that said, I'd ignore block eruptors and go for U1's or better

freddyfarnsworth

full member

Activity: 238

Merit: 100

Quote from: NecroBones on January 27, 2014, 05:12:34 PM

If you could convince someone to sell you a box full of Block Erupters at about $1 each, then they'd be great. At about $5/each, they'd be so-so (and still about to be obsoleted, cost-wise). Anything more than that, and they're just not worth the cost anymore.

6 of USB .333 asics at $60 per pack would be same as 1 USB antminer. Just not nearly as efficient.

What happens when they begin developing sha256 alt coins ?
Or scrypt asics get developed ?
hmmmm, not to far down the path, even if only real purpose is to put something out there for old hardware to do.

GPU's with the high expense, low availability, Heat output and power use, really better for the game industry.
I can still process 20,000 credit card transactions per min on 1992 thru 1998 servers PPRO, PIII xeons quads, hex, and octs. Not sayin I want to - Power costs killed those off.

So I think Asics will be around awhile, for the Po folk to hack on. Always a way...

NecroBones

newbie

Activity: 58

Merit: 0

If you could convince someone to sell you a box full of Block Erupters at about $1 each, then they'd be great. At about $5/each, they'd be so-so (and still about to be obsoleted, cost-wise). Anything more than that, and they're just not worth the cost anymore.

freddyfarnsworth

full member

Activity: 238

Merit: 100

We went to 1 bitcoin every 90days for 80-85 GH. sometime a few weeks ago.
I still want asics, just to have something

Leaned alot about bitcoin and alts using CPU GPU and asics the software also.
Politics are aplenty here, I still wonder why so many try to dash the newbies dreams, let em learn and live.

Most of us do not care about power at this point, I am sure we will, once we start suckin 2000-3000 watts 24/7.
But at my pace it will be quite awhile.

I find the USB ASICS fascinating, just as I found Bethesda's Games development held me for years,
This I am just starting on.
Give ya a hint where it will end up, I have three 10ft wide 40foot long storage bins, full of the server equiptment I built up during the 1990's 2002 era then game dev ,,, now this.

Learning the foundations on how it all works, from the chips up.
Got the network and servers and power down long time ago.
Nailed GPU issues during 5years of game dev.

This is what I am interested in now, that is all.. just this "Bitcoin" thing.
Whatcha think gonna happen

I know.

itamidensha

member

Activity: 75

Merit: 10

I don't understand why people mess around with those things. Even if you overclock to 2.2GH/s with no issues you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting ROI. Maybe if the price was around $15 instead of $85...

Last week BITMAIN sold their last batch of S1s before the Chinese new year. Those went for 1.9BTC each from memory.

1.9BTC for 200GH/s (S1), or 10BTC for 200GH/s (U1)

If you want one as a collectors item go for it but it's a terrible deal as a mining investment, I can't believe they manage to sell at that price.

rammy2k2

legendary

Activity: 1974

Merit: 1003

no, they are good as gadgets only, no profit involved there

Starscream

sr. member

Activity: 364

Merit: 250

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:35:48 AM

LOL, asshwipe, Shut the fuck up, MY MISTAKE! haha

I showed you it, Now be gone bitch! xD

You haven't shown anything.

I heard someone on this forum sells Unicron rigs, go get em while he sells em cheap.
Also, I got a bridge to sell.

U1TRA_L0RD

full member

Activity: 126

Merit: 100

CAUTION: Angry Man with Attitude.

Quote from: Starscream on January 26, 2014, 07:29:28 AM

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:22:02 AM

Quote from: Starscream on January 26, 2014, 07:18:36 AM

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:14:17 AM

Quote from: Starscream on January 26, 2014, 07:08:30 AM

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:03:16 AM

There are some people ordering some TH/s scrypt mining rigs. But I cant find the source anywhere.

Lol no they aren't.

There's no ASIC for Scrypt mining except for this hybrid.

LOL, YES THERE ISSSS!!!!!!!!!!

Jk, There is some companies out there that build mining rigs like, Care to do some research before saying a invalid reply? Wink

Care to show some proof? Some images with hashrates and such? Oh, you can't? Oh, you mean Alpha-T is making? Like BFL was? Like, they are taking pre-orders?
I see.
Got'cha Wink

Eat this boy, Its healthy for that gap in your brain. Wink

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/alpha-technology-viper-scrypt-miner-list-of-orders-398504

Eat what exactly? First, those are 5MH/s and 25MH/s, NOT TH/s.
Secondly, Alpha-T... LOL, okai. Like they ain't a scam, go pre-order and come back crying a few months from now when you realized you got scammed.
Thirdly, see secondly.

Come back when you got real proof of existing ASIC for scrypt and not some scam sites with pretty pictures.

LOL, asshwipe, Shut the fuck up, MY MISTAKE! haha

I showed you it, Now be gone bitch! xD

Starscream

sr. member

Activity: 364

Merit: 250

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:22:02 AM

Quote from: Starscream on January 26, 2014, 07:18:36 AM

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:14:17 AM

Quote from: Starscream on January 26, 2014, 07:08:30 AM

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:03:16 AM

There are some people ordering some TH/s scrypt mining rigs. But I cant find the source anywhere.

Lol no they aren't.

There's no ASIC for Scrypt mining except for this hybrid.

LOL, YES THERE ISSSS!!!!!!!!!!

Jk, There is some companies out there that build mining rigs like, Care to do some research before saying a invalid reply? Wink

Care to show some proof? Some images with hashrates and such? Oh, you can't? Oh, you mean Alpha-T is making? Like BFL was? Like, they are taking pre-orders?
I see.
Got'cha Wink

Eat this boy, Its healthy for that gap in your brain. Wink

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/alpha-technology-viper-scrypt-miner-list-of-orders-398504

Eat what exactly? First, those are 5MH/s and 25MH/s, NOT TH/s.
Secondly, Alpha-T... LOL, okai. Like they ain't a scam, go pre-order and come back crying a few months from now when you realized you got scammed.
Thirdly, see secondly.

Come back when you got real proof of existing ASIC for scrypt and not some scam sites with pretty pictures.

U1TRA_L0RD

full member

Activity: 126

Merit: 100

CAUTION: Angry Man with Attitude.

Quote from: Starscream on January 26, 2014, 07:18:36 AM

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:14:17 AM

Quote from: Starscream on January 26, 2014, 07:08:30 AM

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:03:16 AM

There are some people ordering some TH/s scrypt mining rigs. But I cant find the source anywhere.

Lol no they aren't.

There's no ASIC for Scrypt mining except for this hybrid.

LOL, YES THERE ISSSS!!!!!!!!!!

Jk, There is some companies out there that build mining rigs like, Care to do some research before saying a invalid reply? Wink

Care to show some proof? Some images with hashrates and such? Oh, you can't? Oh, you mean Alpha-T is making? Like BFL was? Like, they are taking pre-orders?
I see.
Got'cha Wink

Eat this boy, Its healthy for that gap in your brain. Wink

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/alpha-technology-viper-scrypt-miner-list-of-orders-398504

Starscream

sr. member

Activity: 364

Merit: 250

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:14:17 AM

Quote from: Starscream on January 26, 2014, 07:08:30 AM

Quote from: U1TRA_L0RD on January 26, 2014, 07:03:16 AM

There are some people ordering some TH/s scrypt mining rigs. But I cant find the source anywhere.

Lol no they aren't.

There's no ASIC for Scrypt mining except for this hybrid.

LOL, YES THERE ISSSS!!!!!!!!!!

Jk, There is some companies out there that build mining rigs like, Care to do some research before saying a invalid reply? Wink

Care to show some proof? Some images with hashrates and such? Oh, you can't? Oh, you mean Alpha-T is making? Like BFL was? Like, they are taking pre-orders?
I see.
Got'cha Wink

Topic: Is it worth investing in USB Block Erupters? (Read 1924 times)