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Topic: Who is quitting mining due to block halving? (Read 5016 times)

sr. member
Activity: 392
Merit: 250
December 05, 2012, 12:09:01 PM
#48
LTC just died in the arse as a bunch of GPU miners jumped on board for a bit and pushed difficulty beyond profitability. I did warn them that the BTC halving would hurt LTC but they saw more people mining as a good thing. The LTC fanboys thought that more people mining would somehow magically drive LTC prices up when there is no such mechanism.


This was very predictable (from September):

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1200541
you and 10,000 other motherfuckers, what do you think is going to happen to litecoin difficulty?   Roll Eyes
I am more interested in what will happen to LTC price...any predictions ?

(just bought an additionally 7970)

What do you expect? 10K odd GPU mofos selling every LTC they mine for BTC. That's a downward pressure. If a number of them decide to hoard, that's an upward pressure. But as a general rule, short-term minded miners who would be expected to flock to LTC are likely to bring the price down. LTC are simply not traded almost anywhere and they don't offer any big advantages over BTC. Basically the core of LTC who just wanted a GPU free environment will see that goal definitively destroyed.

GPU have very little future as mining equipment. The whole project would be pointless now with a GPU-dominated ecosystem and no single meaningful advantage over the coin that has all the traction - except for those with large quantities of LTC.

Anyone could have predicted the demise of LTC -- it's just the latest "me too" blockchain that has NO advantages over Bitcoin. At least not when all advantages/disadvantages are totaled up and weighed.

Bitcoin has an order of magnitude more traction, acceptance, infrastructure than all those alt-blockchains put together.

I'm sure LTC won't be the last, either.
hero member
Activity: 481
Merit: 500
December 05, 2012, 09:47:53 AM
#47
I had everything shutdown but turned one rig back on when I did the math. It's barely worth it though to keep running.
donator
Activity: 980
Merit: 1000
December 05, 2012, 09:39:45 AM
#46
LTC just died in the arse as a bunch of GPU miners jumped on board for a bit and pushed difficulty beyond profitability. I did warn them that the BTC halving would hurt LTC but they saw more people mining as a good thing. The LTC fanboys thought that more people mining would somehow magically drive LTC prices up when there is no such mechanism.


This was very predictable (from September):

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1200541
you and 10,000 other motherfuckers, what do you think is going to happen to litecoin difficulty?   Roll Eyes
I am more interested in what will happen to LTC price...any predictions ?

(just bought an additionally 7970)

What do you expect? 10K odd GPU mofos selling every LTC they mine for BTC. That's a downward pressure. If a number of them decide to hoard, that's an upward pressure. But as a general rule, short-term minded miners who would be expected to flock to LTC are likely to bring the price down. LTC are simply not traded almost anywhere and they don't offer any big advantages over BTC. Basically the core of LTC who just wanted a GPU free environment will see that goal definitively destroyed.

GPU have very little future as mining equipment. The whole project would be pointless now with a GPU-dominated ecosystem and no single meaningful advantage over the coin that has all the traction - except for those with large quantities of LTC.
full member
Activity: 172
Merit: 100
December 04, 2012, 07:30:49 PM
#45
just a 5970 and yep, i shut it down. hope bfl ships soon!
newbie
Activity: 27
Merit: 0
December 03, 2012, 08:03:26 PM
#44
over 3/4 of the value of the coins i mine goes back into electricity. i will keep it going until my ASIC comes Cheesy
sr. member
Activity: 306
Merit: 257
December 02, 2012, 12:12:04 PM
#43
at the end of the day btc will be the determinator for mining profitability unless some other alt chain grows substantially in its influence.
And explain to me why we need an alt-coin? What's wrong with just simply mining BTC and be happy with that?

Because half of all bitcoins have been already mined by early adopters. Now alt chain is a new opportunity to be an early adopter.
sr. member
Activity: 392
Merit: 250
December 02, 2012, 12:45:14 AM
#42
at the end of the day btc will be the determinator for mining profitability unless some other alt chain grows substantially in its influence.
And explain to me why we need an alt-coin? What's wrong with just simply mining BTC and be happy with that?

Alt coin chains are so stupid.

They are just a temporary bit of variety for miners, and they provide a short-lived bonus to the first miners to point their resources there.

But the fact is that even Bitcoin is not well-established with places to spend them, etc. so what chance does LiteCoin, SolidCoin, ButtCoin, etc. have of becoming a real currency, rather than a huge, unapologetic flash-in-the-pan?

Talk about a currency that exists solely for speculation , or a pyramid scheme -- any of the "alternate" blockchains fit this description.

At least Bitcoin has some measure of popularity and stability, with a bit of an infrastructure.
legendary
Activity: 952
Merit: 1000
December 02, 2012, 12:09:16 AM
#41
at the end of the day btc will be the determinator for mining profitability unless some other alt chain grows substantially in its influence.
And explain to me why we need an alt-coin? What's wrong with just simply mining BTC and be happy with that?
hero member
Activity: 616
Merit: 500
December 01, 2012, 09:42:04 PM
#40
LTC just died in the arse as a bunch of GPU miners jumped on board for a bit and pushed difficulty beyond profitability. I did warn them that the BTC halving would hurt LTC but they saw more people mining as a good thing. The LTC fanboys thought that more people mining would somehow magically drive LTC prices up when there is no such mechanism.

This is something that is VERY natural and expected to happen. Right after the halving LTC was twice as profitable at current FX rates to mine, so many miners switched over, now that it has evened out some people are switching off or moving to something else until difficulty drops back down again.

at the end of the day btc will be the determinator for mining profitability unless some other alt chain grows substantially in its influence.
-ck
legendary
Activity: 4088
Merit: 1631
Ruu \o/
December 01, 2012, 04:41:53 PM
#39
LTC just died in the arse as a bunch of GPU miners jumped on board for a bit and pushed difficulty beyond profitability. I did warn them that the BTC halving would hurt LTC but they saw more people mining as a good thing. The LTC fanboys thought that more people mining would somehow magically drive LTC prices up when there is no such mechanism.
newbie
Activity: 16
Merit: 0
December 01, 2012, 01:29:51 PM
#38
I don't understand the economic side of LTC right now.  How would switching to ltc be profitable at the moment with such a low price compared to one btc?   Is it based on the speculation that one day LTC will also be worth about the same as BTC?

Not according to my calculations

My gpu farm at current btc prices will only generate about $5 revenue (roughly 3000mh/sec)
Same gpu farm will generate about $10 worth of litecoins.

At least at last night's prices.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
LTC
December 01, 2012, 11:50:03 AM
#37
I don't understand the economic side of LTC right now.  How would switching to ltc be profitable at the moment with such a low price compared to one btc?   Is it based on the speculation that one day LTC will also be worth about the same as BTC?

Anything gets traded as long as it gets attention.
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
December 01, 2012, 11:40:30 AM
#36
I'm quitting tonight, only kept mining because I didn't realize the block reward halved.

2x Ati 5830s 520Mh/s 320w @ $0.15 Kw/h = no profit until bitcoins price greater than $16

It's cheaper for me to buy them, than mine them, right now!  Cry
legendary
Activity: 1638
Merit: 1001
₪``Campaign Manager´´₪
December 01, 2012, 11:00:23 AM
#35
Probably just the lack of mining competition there, which ensures more LTCs to be mined.
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
December 01, 2012, 09:52:57 AM
#34
I don't understand the economic side of LTC right now.  How would switching to ltc be profitable at the moment with such a low price compared to one btc?   Is it based on the speculation that one day LTC will also be worth about the same as BTC?
newbie
Activity: 16
Merit: 0
December 01, 2012, 03:06:38 AM
#33
I am closing my GPU farm and I have made my own calculations to see if I want to do ASIC.  I won't know until mid-Feburary. 

I just did a quick calculation and it appears litecoin as of right now with a ltc price of $.08390 is about twice as profitable as bitcoin mining... which would be where we were prior to the split.

Looking at litecoinpool.org the pool hashrate has gone up 50% since the btc split so its obvious everyone agrees that litecoin is where gpu miners will now be going as bitcoin ASICS won't work with litecoins and litecoin ASICs are not even being developed.

If i'm missing something crucial here someone correct me.. but at this time it appears that ltc is the way to go.
legendary
Activity: 1330
Merit: 1026
Mining since 2010 & Hosting since 2012
November 30, 2012, 06:18:53 PM
#32
I am closing my GPU farm and I have made my own calculations to see if I want to do ASIC.  I won't know until mid-Feburary. 
hero member
Activity: 533
Merit: 500
November 30, 2012, 06:10:30 PM
#31
Already moved my machines out of the office and back to home since they'd barely be breaking even on expenses after the halving.  Will probably keep them running though until ASIC arrives then strip or sell the rigs.

There's still a little bit of profit currently in them so no reason to quit just yet. 
hero member
Activity: 725
Merit: 503
November 30, 2012, 07:43:23 AM
#30
Geez, shale-gas powered bitcoins!
zvs
legendary
Activity: 1680
Merit: 1000
https://web.archive.org/web/*/nogleg.com
November 30, 2012, 06:50:08 AM
#29
my elec cost would have to be about 17c/kwh for it to be unprofitable for me (w/o taking into account possible equipment failure, falling value of equipment).  but, for the last 2 months my elec has been slightly under 7c, for the 3-4 months prior to that it was about 7.9c  (it is adjusted based on price of natural gas in texas, essentially)
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
November 30, 2012, 03:34:19 AM
#28
Still 50/50 ltc/btc, sorry ltc wins atm :p
12 * 7990, heating community in morjärv.

But as mentioned I do hope to see small price increase, been saving for just that.
donator
Activity: 980
Merit: 1000
November 30, 2012, 03:32:33 AM
#27
I wouldn't describe the price as "constantly going up" or skyrocketing.

The 2-day, 25 cent gain is hardly compensating for a halving of bitcoin mining income.


Give it 5-6 months. 

I recon it'll bump up on average 0.2 - 0.5 BTC a week

Heh I hope so.

In any case, I keep most of my coins for the long term and daily prices won't change my outlook. The coins mined in March last year are not worth 5 US$, they are worth just as much as those mined now.

My rig is at this point very far from profitable. I should probably sell a GPU or two in honesty, but it keeps the room warm.
hero member
Activity: 896
Merit: 532
Former curator of The Bitcoin Museum
November 30, 2012, 03:19:59 AM
#26
I wouldn't describe the price as "constantly going up" or skyrocketing.

The 2-day, 25 cent gain is hardly compensating for a halving of bitcoin mining income.


Give it 5-6 months. 

I recon it'll bump up on average 0.2 - 0.5 BTC a week
hero member
Activity: 725
Merit: 503
November 30, 2012, 02:38:40 AM
#25
3, I'm just glad I didn't bet that difficulty would go down like I thought! Now I mine 1/5 of what I did last year! Still profitable with FPGA but for how long?

Edit: So I did the math on FPGA profitability: If difficulty multiplies by 12.5 (same price on BTC and electricity) I have to shut the FPGAs off.
hero member
Activity: 896
Merit: 532
Former curator of The Bitcoin Museum
November 30, 2012, 01:21:45 AM
#24

I'm real curious to know where the additional capacity is coming from.

Yeah, that makes 2 of us
sr. member
Activity: 392
Merit: 250
November 29, 2012, 11:34:11 PM
#23
With the price of Bitcoin constantly growing up, isn't "new" 25 BTC going to be equivalent to "old" 50 shortly?

Yeah! The price has skyrocketed from 12.30 a couple days ago to 12.55 as I type this.
[/sarcasm]

I wouldn't describe the price as "constantly going up" or skyrocketing.

The 2-day, 25 cent gain is hardly compensating for a halving of bitcoin mining income.
legendary
Activity: 1118
Merit: 1002
November 29, 2012, 10:31:12 PM
#22
With the price of Bitcoin constantly growing up, isn't "new" 25 BTC going to be equivalent to "old" 50 shortly?


that's assuming that price is going to keep going up
Stn
full member
Activity: 227
Merit: 100
November 29, 2012, 10:27:28 PM
#21
With the price of Bitcoin constantly growing up, isn't "new" 25 BTC going to be equivalent to "old" 50 shortly?
newbie
Activity: 26
Merit: 0
November 29, 2012, 09:48:16 PM
#20
It's cold, I'll probably keep my 2x 5850s running for a little bit longer.

I'm going to sell my Single in a couple weeks, someone else can trade it in towards a Single SC  Grin and I'll buy a little single or jalapeno
legendary
Activity: 1386
Merit: 1004
November 29, 2012, 08:12:56 PM
#19
I turned off 6GH/s of miners the day of the reward drop. It won't be profitable to mine until a shitload of people stop mining or the ASICs come out and drop in price, in other words, a very long time from now.

I am turning off my least efficient rigs.  I have 3 single card machines to shut down as they are no longer profitable.  Half of mine would be unprofitable if the waste heat was not useful.   The other half are BFL Singles and they will stay on until they are replaced by ASIC upgrades.  
member
Activity: 79
Merit: 10
November 29, 2012, 08:12:02 PM
#18
Using GPU processing power for heating my place right now. It's 24.5 inside (-10 outside) and there are no other heater than my two Pcs Smiley

I still make around 0.25 bitcoin a day with around 1Gh/s so I guess it's not that bad.
legendary
Activity: 1118
Merit: 1002
November 29, 2012, 05:55:35 PM
#17
switched them to something else yesterday
legendary
Activity: 2184
Merit: 1056
Affordable Physical Bitcoins - Denarium.com
November 29, 2012, 05:48:14 PM
#16
I have fixed electricity costs (included in the rent) so I'm basically not even close to the quitting point. I will quit when ASIC's have arrived, then GPU mining is basically useless even with free electricity when you take into account the noise, wear and tear from running them and the decreasing resell value.
sr. member
Activity: 350
Merit: 250
Trust me, these default swaps will limit the risks
November 29, 2012, 01:41:57 PM
#15
I switched to mining Litecoin until the rest of my cards sell. I've been enjoying gaming again...these 7xxx series cards are excellent!
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
November 29, 2012, 12:51:32 PM
#14
Never could mine. All I have is a CPU and an "Intel Graphics Accelerator HD" aka, useless mining stuff. I wanted to, but I can't afford it >_<, so yes, I am quitting, before I even started Tongue
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1010
November 29, 2012, 12:48:44 PM
#13
It won't be profitable to mine until a shitload of people stop mining

And that doesn't look like it is happening.  I see reports of many Ghashes of capacity that have quit, and I see the stats going up for hashing done on some alts but there's no drop in the Thash/s mining Bitcoin:
 

 - http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-lin-2k.png

I'm real curious to know where the additional capacity is coming from.
legendary
Activity: 2156
Merit: 1393
You lead and I'll watch you walk away.
November 29, 2012, 12:13:56 PM
#12
I turned off 6GH/s of miners the day of the reward drop. It won't be profitable to mine until a shitload of people stop mining or the ASICs come out and drop in price, in other words, a very long time from now.
hero member
Activity: 481
Merit: 500
November 29, 2012, 08:43:02 AM
#11
I turned 3 rigs off. According to the bitcoin profitability calculator I would make little to nothing. One rig will be turned on again (sans video cards) when the ASICs arrive or I'll use Raspberry Pi's if that works out.
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
November 29, 2012, 07:40:25 AM
#10

But I still want to support bitcoin so I setup a full bitcoin node today!  :-)

-Wave

Running a full node on such a device would be low cost, a mildly interesting learning experience, and quite useful as well (I'd like to support bitcoin as well).


When you guys say run a "full bitcoin node", what do you mean exactly?  Are you just running a Bitcoin client 24/7 or is there something else to it?
Thanks,
Sam

Different clients function differently, in order to send/receive bitcoins you do not need to be a node, or have the full blockchain.

In this context to be a "full bitcoin node" you need to have the Full BlockChain on your machine and be actively receiving and transmitting bitcoin transactions/block finds from many peers, assisting in dispersing blockchain information to as many people as fast as possible.

I perhaps make it sound complicated, but it can be as simple as you suggest, running a bitcoin client like Bitcoin-qt 24/7 on a machine that has open access to the internet (has an open port that isn't firewalled for listening for peers).
legendary
Activity: 3583
Merit: 1094
Think for yourself
November 29, 2012, 06:41:08 AM
#9

But I still want to support bitcoin so I setup a full bitcoin node today!  :-)

-Wave

Running a full node on such a device would be low cost, a mildly interesting learning experience, and quite useful as well (I'd like to support bitcoin as well).


When you guys say run a "full bitcoin node", what do you mean exactly?  Are you just running a Bitcoin client 24/7 or is there something else to it?
Thanks,
Sam
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
November 29, 2012, 05:10:49 AM
#8
$0.058 KWH here...

Can I *borrow* your rigs for just a bit?

Wink

I actually traded up, and focused on 7970s/6950s at the end... I miss the 5970s but I knew trading them out for 7970s was a smart thing to do.

Wish I knew how fast ASIC is getting here...


As I recall from my days long ago, 5970s were far more efficient devices for $/Mhash and even Mhash/J than 6950s, and I assume by extension 7970s. Or are the 7970s a lot more power efficient? I haven't kept up on cards in a while.
full member
Activity: 172
Merit: 100
November 29, 2012, 05:06:51 AM
#7
3* 6870 - very hungry rig Sad
4*6770 - not so hungry but nearly umprofitable..
switched to LTC for some time..

heat from the rigs is valuable for me during winter..
sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
November 29, 2012, 01:55:02 AM
#6
$0.058 KWH here...

Can I *borrow* your rigs for just a bit?

Wink

I actually traded up, and focused on 7970s/6950s at the end... I miss the 5970s but I knew trading them out for 7970s was a smart thing to do.

Wish I knew how fast ASIC is getting here...
member
Activity: 112
Merit: 11
November 28, 2012, 10:06:36 PM
#5
I set all my 5870s and 5970s to run at 600MHz, 0.95v. More efficient and (just) profitable.

During the winter, I'll keep them going because, even at break-even, the heat has value.

Come warmer weather and I'll quit mining.
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 500
November 28, 2012, 09:38:23 PM
#4
I'm considering it given:

4.5 GH/s with electricity at $0.14 per KW/H  I'm looking at a profit of maybe $20 USD per month.  I.E. not worth my time and I want my gaming rig back, lol.

But I still want to support bitcoin so I setup a full bitcoin node today!  :-)


-Wave

Kudos to you sir. And you've given me a good idea too. I've long been thinking about getting one of those cheapie little low-power computing devices like a BeagleBone or RaspPi, to play with, and potentially run future mining operations on, but I never really could think of anything entirely USEFUL I'd actually want to do with them. Running a full node on such a device would be low cost, a mildly interesting learning experience, and quite useful as well (I'd like to support bitcoin as well).

member
Activity: 105
Merit: 10
November 28, 2012, 09:29:58 PM
#3
I'm considering it given:

4.5 GH/s with electricity at $0.14 per KW/H  I'm looking at a profit of maybe $20 USD per month.  I.E. not worth my time and I want my gaming rig back, lol.

But I still want to support bitcoin so I setup a full bitcoin node today!  :-)


-Wave
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1010
November 28, 2012, 08:26:01 PM
#2
Just curious who is going to quit running their mining rigs.  Also tell us what kind of rig you run.

Here's one story of it:

Spent a long afternoon with my Air Compressor
 - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/spent-a-long-afternoon-with-my-air-compressor-128282
legendary
Activity: 1304
Merit: 1015
November 28, 2012, 06:48:47 PM
#1
Just curious who is going to quit running their mining rigs.  Also tell us what kind of rig you run.
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