Topic: Worth it to buy a block erupter? (Read 4128 times)
I can now get them for $40 or less (I'm hoping $30 per miner) so I think I might get a single miner to use with my Raspberry Pi. Looking the the genesis block's estimates, it'll make around $7 in it's lifetime but I think $23 for a hobby (I guess not adding in USB hub and fan) is alright to me. I'll get back to you guys if I decide to buy it.
Its important to look to the future of things when getting into mining, and what your personal goals would be with it.
Each node no matter how small contributes and diversifies the network, if your desire to mine is based on fun and being an active part of it, and not serious mining operation, the Erupters are perfect for this as barrier to entry is pretty low and setup is minimal. The Erupters are still not ideally suited for a large mine as their density cannot compare to the latest industrial miners nearing release. But if anything, they do carry some cool factor.
The price per mhash is still much too high compared to other offerings on the way to be useful in heavy mining where ROI is a significant factor, which should drive the price down quite a bit soon. With the network hashpower exploding ROI is very marginal until the market is either saturated to taper off of this rise and/or Bitcoin rallies once again higher to restore mining ROI to a better place.
Remember also that Bitcoin has only grown positively overall from day one. They were worth $266 this year at the high point, if it does a similar rally again soon, even a little bit of a Bitcoin could be worth a lot.
Each node no matter how small contributes and diversifies the network, if your desire to mine is based on fun and being an active part of it, and not serious mining operation, the Erupters are perfect for this as barrier to entry is pretty low and setup is minimal. The Erupters are still not ideally suited for a large mine as their density cannot compare to the latest industrial miners nearing release. But if anything, they do carry some cool factor.
The price per mhash is still much too high compared to other offerings on the way to be useful in heavy mining where ROI is a significant factor, which should drive the price down quite a bit soon. With the network hashpower exploding ROI is very marginal until the market is either saturated to taper off of this rise and/or Bitcoin rallies once again higher to restore mining ROI to a better place.
Remember also that Bitcoin has only grown positively overall from day one. They were worth $266 this year at the high point, if it does a similar rally again soon, even a little bit of a Bitcoin could be worth a lot.
just like people that collected gold slivers during the gold rush. They are worth alot when you have a vial full of them.
Mine for the fun and education of it.
Buy BTC direct for the straight-up investment factor.
Give BTC as gift to others to spread the Word and increase General Acceptance.
Buy BTC direct for the straight-up investment factor.
Give BTC as gift to others to spread the Word and increase General Acceptance.
Also, do your part to contribute to the network - and those little slivers of btc may one day be worth far more than you could imagine..
Mine for the fun and education of it.
Buy BTC direct for the straight-up investment factor.
Give BTC as gift to others to spread the Word and increase General Acceptance.
Buy BTC direct for the straight-up investment factor.
Give BTC as gift to others to spread the Word and increase General Acceptance.
if you are looking to make money, get a job, invest in the stockmarket, play the horses. If just want to mine, then yes it is worth it.
Dont buy, it will not pay back.
Look how many units are preordered, if you dont mine the BTC back to the end of this year, you wont mine much next year
Look how many units are preordered, if you dont mine the BTC back to the end of this year, you wont mine much next year
Block erupters are staying positive until the difficulty passes 750 million... At least for me. Power at $0.08, erupter using 2.5 watts, means it lasts a long long time. If you got a few of them, you might be able to make some ROI, it'll just take forever.
EDIT:: By stay positive, I mean that they pay for the power that they consume. This is also assuming BTC stays at $100
EDIT:: By stay positive, I mean that they pay for the power that they consume. This is also assuming BTC stays at $100
Yes, an ASIC miner is quite energy efficient compared to a GPU. However, most people are paying more for the USB miner than they will ever receive from it. That is the real issue right now.
It hasn't been worth it so far at any price point. And by worth it I mean the crazy ROI (300%) per year most bitcoiners picture this to be producing. Keep in mind that even after 750 million there are plenty of people with "free" electricity. The other issue these haven't been hashing long enough to determine if and when they start to break down.
Block erupters are staying positive until the difficulty passes 750 million... At least for me. Power at $0.08, erupter using 2.5 watts, means it lasts a long long time. If you got a few of them, you might be able to make some ROI, it'll just take forever.
EDIT:: By stay positive, I mean that they pay for the power that they consume. This is also assuming BTC stays at $100
EDIT:: By stay positive, I mean that they pay for the power that they consume. This is also assuming BTC stays at $100
Your countries own groupon for bitcoin, coinforest should have a nice deal on these in the next day or so...
See their blog for details
See their blog for details
The important questions are how much BTC do you expect it to mine, and do you care if that is less than you paid for it?
I'm hoping to make back $20 of my investment before difficult of bitcoin goes completely through the roof and you're making absolutely nothing, like you're just barely covering power costs with your mining. Like I'm definitely not expecting to recoup all of my investment with this, but keep in mind I have another miner running making me around $3 a day, which I'm trying to use to buy me the parts needed for this low powered miner.Why would you spend $50 to make $20? Why not just buy ~0.5BTC? Even if difficulty stayed perfectly level, it would take 124 days for you to break even on it.
If you want to get one for fun then that makes sense. But getting one for potential profit is just throwing money away.
The important questions are how much BTC do you expect it to mine, and do you care if that is less than you paid for it?
I'm hoping to make back $20 of my investment before difficult of bitcoin goes completely through the roof and you're making absolutely nothing, like you're just barely covering power costs with your mining. Like I'm definitely not expecting to recoup all of my investment with this, but keep in mind I have another miner running making me around $3 a day, which I'm trying to use to buy me the parts needed for this low powered miner.Why would you spend $50 to make $20? Why not just buy ~0.5BTC? Even if difficulty stayed perfectly level, it would take 124 days for you to break even on it.
If you want to get one for fun then that makes sense. But getting one for potential profit is just throwing money away.
The important questions are how much BTC do you expect it to mine, and do you care if that is less than you paid for it?
I'm hoping to make back $20 of my investment before difficult of bitcoin goes completely through the roof and you're making absolutely nothing, like you're just barely covering power costs with your mining. Like I'm definitely not expecting to recoup all of my investment with this, but keep in mind I have another miner running making me around $3 a day, which I'm trying to use to buy me the parts needed for this low powered miner.
Well I do have a contact in the USA that could possibly ship them to me once it arrives at their place.
Then it would cost 0.38BTC for a single erupter from SBB's group buy, or 0.7BTC for two miners from him as well + the shipping costs from the contact to me, which is probably $30 or so just from looking at the price to re-ship a package from northern USA to Southern Canada.
I'm leaning towards buying the miner for $50 cash from Canada - there is no shipping fee or anything else, it's $50 flat rate per miner, just because I find it less of a pain then to gather $40 worth of bitcoins from all my wallets, ship it to my contact and then pay another $30 to get it actually shipped to me in Canada.
Oh - and I have a $10 Amazon gift card, so when/if I buy a USB powered hub and USB fan I'll get $10 off it.
Then it would cost 0.38BTC for a single erupter from SBB's group buy, or 0.7BTC for two miners from him as well + the shipping costs from the contact to me, which is probably $30 or so just from looking at the price to re-ship a package from northern USA to Southern Canada.
I'm leaning towards buying the miner for $50 cash from Canada - there is no shipping fee or anything else, it's $50 flat rate per miner, just because I find it less of a pain then to gather $40 worth of bitcoins from all my wallets, ship it to my contact and then pay another $30 to get it actually shipped to me in Canada.
Oh - and I have a $10 Amazon gift card, so when/if I buy a USB powered hub and USB fan I'll get $10 off it.
Buy a couple from CanaryInTheMine for 0.35BTC each. Have someone in the US ship them to you (even paying for escrow would still probably save you in the long run)
Hi, I'm thinking about purchasing a single block erupter to mine with my Raspberry Pi for a low cost miner. The things I'd need to buy would be these:
-USB Block Erupter ($50 - I'm in Canada and this is the cheapest I can get them)
-Powered USB hub (~$10)
What do you guys think about this? Power draw would be around 7W max on load I figure, so nothing really goes to pay for power. Do you think it would be worth it, even just to run it for fun? Also, any ideas on alt-coins to mine with an erupter that would be more profitable than BTC?
I currently have a 1.06MH/s alt-coin mining rig bringing in around $3 a day after power (450W @ 0.12$ per kW/hr.) and I'm kind of using the money generated from that to pay for these things.
But yeah, what do you guys think about this? Buy now? Wait until a lower price drop? Don't buy?
-USB Block Erupter ($50 - I'm in Canada and this is the cheapest I can get them)
-Powered USB hub (~$10)
What do you guys think about this? Power draw would be around 7W max on load I figure, so nothing really goes to pay for power. Do you think it would be worth it, even just to run it for fun? Also, any ideas on alt-coins to mine with an erupter that would be more profitable than BTC?
I currently have a 1.06MH/s alt-coin mining rig bringing in around $3 a day after power (450W @ 0.12$ per kW/hr.) and I'm kind of using the money generated from that to pay for these things.
But yeah, what do you guys think about this? Buy now? Wait until a lower price drop? Don't buy?
Don't buy or atleast wait for lower price (correct price). They're still selling for too high price.
Agreed, although this is most likely the lowest priced set-up you could put together that actually generates a semi substantial return It would still take quite a long time to see a return if ever but it would be a great amount of fun and experience if this is your first venture into mining. Best of luck with it.
With an Erupter you'll be getting around $0.35 cents US everyday. At current difficulty.
The important questions are how much BTC do you expect it to mine, and do you care if that is less than you paid for it?
As a hobby and/or educational exercise, I'd say go for it. Mining your money back with these things is going to be difficult, but you'll learn a lot and have some fun. 
Hi, I'm thinking about purchasing a single block erupter to mine with my Raspberry Pi for a low cost miner. The things I'd need to buy would be these:
-USB Block Erupter ($50 - I'm in Canada and this is the cheapest I can get them)
-Powered USB hub (~$10)
What do you guys think about this? Power draw would be around 7W max on load I figure, so nothing really goes to pay for power. Do you think it would be worth it, even just to run it for fun? Also, any ideas on alt-coins to mine with an erupter that would be more profitable than BTC?
I currently have a 1.06MH/s alt-coin mining rig bringing in around $3 a day after power (450W @ 0.12$ per kW/hr.) and I'm kind of using the money generated from that to pay for these things.
But yeah, what do you guys think about this? Buy now? Wait until a lower price drop? Don't buy?
-USB Block Erupter ($50 - I'm in Canada and this is the cheapest I can get them)
-Powered USB hub (~$10)
What do you guys think about this? Power draw would be around 7W max on load I figure, so nothing really goes to pay for power. Do you think it would be worth it, even just to run it for fun? Also, any ideas on alt-coins to mine with an erupter that would be more profitable than BTC?
I currently have a 1.06MH/s alt-coin mining rig bringing in around $3 a day after power (450W @ 0.12$ per kW/hr.) and I'm kind of using the money generated from that to pay for these things.
But yeah, what do you guys think about this? Buy now? Wait until a lower price drop? Don't buy?
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