Topic: Who mines for a living? (Read 4352 times)

No, not any more and irrespective of your needs.

That is what I wanted to point nou with my post.

I mined for a few months.  I might start back up, but it was basically just converting electricity into bitcoins at the same exchange rate that I could buy bitcoins for...

It was a fun hobby, but it was too loud and the humming started driving me nuts.  If I lived in a colder environment then I would definitely start it back up and just keep the rig in the garage or something.

Since you start 2 years ago, you must be billionaire by now.

Why to give up on job? Mining doesn't take that much time so I dont see point of leaving day job. And what if suddenly BTC collapses?
I look at all this as a bonus, small or big doesn't matter it's for me just a bonus.

I would do that if I knew Bitcoin few years back. I would buy 10000000 GPU and I would so busy that almost everyday something go spoiled.

I'm from 3rd world country and I've meet several retired expats and they live off $2500 USD pension. And it gave them a very decent home, 1.2 cars, and a good life. It depends where you are and the cost of living.

I would say there a few already that are mining for a living.

if you're a single person, no kids, in the US you could earn a living off of mining, sure

not me but i live on 2k and still have money to stash in bitcoin

speaking as an american, i'm right there with ya. (and so are my miners!)

it's about the planet and humanity as a whole, not individual nations.

I would call a living enough to live on, pay bills , have some spare for entertainment, this is different in different countries and even different ppl have different ideas on what are essentials and what are luxuries, people with children usually need more income than single people etc etc.....
if a person is making enough to not need other employment/sources of income they are making a living no matter what country they live in.
I wish the Americans could see there is a whole world outside of their borders - I live in a vain hope that this worldwide Bitcoin thing will open some eyes

I believe the correct answer is Butterfly Labs employees.

I am using ASICMiner Blades. And I got a few KnCMiner Jupiter coming in a few weeks time.

This is absolutely true. I have a family with a númber of kids, two in college. I am paying taxes, health-care (25% thanks to Company benefits), VAT. If you have a house, #3 cars (no Porsch or Flying Emily)  you cannot be anywhere below unless you want to be drizzled by liquid sunshine or lodge in Rainier valley.

Actually this was just a reasonable assumption for typical north-western US household (Pacific Coast, I left Walla-walla County). I don't believe that anyone here in my neighbourhood manages below, and this is middle - class, its not Queen Anne, Kensington or Beverly Hills.

So question remains unanswered: What do you call a living?

Also so far the key point in the post is missed. In mining you are always competing with a number of People. To maintain the rquired income a substantial part of the income has to be re-invested. As I said you have to have a certain share of the total hash rate to maintain the income. Now it may be quite easy to deduct 10% of the income and reinvest it into mining.

10% of 10k gives you 1k for Investment, I am not greedy lets make it 2k (So I only earn 8k$ for a living - Farewell Crystal mountain & Acapulco). Now you need 800 ppm of the total Investment not to loose anything:

2,000$ x 1,000,000 / 800 = 2,500,000$.
So thats the monthly Investment to be brought up from the other miners to drive me out of my premises. Given its 100,000 People out there and they buy 3-4 USB miner each month on the average, I can file for bankruptcy soon.

$10k/month in the US doesn't sound so far from truth.  After health care and taxes (paying both sides), it goes pretty quickly.

I get where he is coming from - the avg worker (college and afterwards) would probably see a median salary around 120K a year which is 10K a month.  I know that if i were pulling in a mere 50K a yr from mining in 2013 that it would be expected to only see potentially 5k the next year unless I'm throwing my profits into fortifying my hashrate year after year - the money isn't retained as income.  That is why its a hobby now (it may have been a great once in a lifetime project had it been pursued back in 2009 - the other flipside to this though is you were mining bitcoins and if you sold them at 50 bucks a pop it was looking like a huge win-win, only winners here are the avalon batch ones I'd say)

Out of touch much?

Hi,

sorry to ask, but what do you call for a living?

In India - $ 1,000 a month may be a high income.

Here in the US it is more like $ 10,000 per month to make a living, unless you dont have kids that go to Harvard or other Ivy league Schools (you need more bucks than). Also quite a difference whether you are living in downtown NY or somewhere in Kansas.

For a living in the US you will approx. need 800 ppm of the actual hash rate throughout a year ($120 per BTC, 60,000 blocks per year, 40 blocks or 1,000btc earned per year). So after all not more than 1,000 People can live from mining under US Standards and 10,000 acc. to chinese. Given that the three major pools have more than 10,000 miners and that there may be 100,000 miners out there mining Atlantis, nobody seriously can state that he can can make a living from mining.   

At the moment nobody can make a living from mining, or he will spend more then he earns. So consider it a nice hobby.

quit my job ~18months ago after ~12months off work due to health issues
various Bitcoin based projects support me now - not just mining though

That's It!

Maybe I'll Mine For A Living!

Todd Hoffman 

i hope to eventually...

I believe you mean "next year I hope to upgrade to Monarchs".

I had a huge array of GPUs last year. Was running at about 14 gh/s. Mined about 2,500 BTC last year. Switched to BFL ASIC and block erupters this year. Next year I upgrade to Monarchs.
I have to upgrade hardware every year, but it beats the hell out of working for a living.

what sort of rigs are you high rollers using 

I suppose I am mining for a living, since I am unemployed and can't work due to ill health.

I lol'd at that.

I cashed out a ton of BTC in April at about $200 each. I quit my job right before the crash. I had BFL gear on pre-order, so I was counting on that, but I am still in the black enough to live off it.

 I earn a very expensive an 'anniversery' type of deal dinner from mining , it was about half of my monthly salary but thats about it.

I didn't quit my day job, but since 2012, every month I am earning more from mining than from my day job   

just curious, has anyone given up their day job and actually mining as a living ?