Topic: Your opinion: Is mining still profitable? (Read 7072 times)

Its high risk to invest into alt-coin. It can crash anytime..

Arithmetic isn't subject to someone's opinion. It is hard to generate bottom-line profits with mining *in the short term*, and that's even if you're very good. You need very cheap electricity, and enough capital to invest in the best hardware. Mining might be profitable for some, and unprofitable for others.

But long-term, mining is an investment in the transaction volume of the bitcoin network, not in your machine's ability to out-pace the electricity/difficulty/hasrate trifecta. Difficulty could be 10x what it is now, but if transaction volume is 1000x higher, then even those old Antminer S1's might be profitable again.

scrypt - HBN, ULTC
x11 - EXCL, XC
sha256 - UNO, BTC

http://fuk.io/october-2014-report-best-altcoins-and-cryptos-to-mine-and-invest-in-for-high-profits/

Which coin you are talking about?

You will still get back more then if you buy a miner instead.. Many miner already hit break-even point when the price crash to $350..

What are you talking about, man? Bitcoin is consistently the most profitable SHA coin to mine. Take a look at multipool.us, they show which coins they've been mining.

if you choose right coins - it sure is!

Indeed they don't; as I said, "with no controls".  But if perchance they find out...

I am not exggerating. I am sure that most employers would not consider mining a "personal use", and would not tolerate it, as a matter of principle.

Technically true, however most companies are not going to be tracking supply usage this closely. Also companies are not going to be tracking the purpose of the taking of office supplies.
Your example involves someone who used millions of dollars worth of equipment that was supposed to be used exclusively for research purposes that was used explicitly for personal gain.

If you take action against an employee who "takes" a few dollars (or a few hundred dollars) worth of "company" electricity for somewhat personal use then you would essentially be rules with fear, which is a very poor way to manage your business. Any time you make an example out of someone you will be giving many other employees a reason to look for other work even if they are not breaking any rules as they will fear that the employer will find a reason to take action against them.
This is true, however it does not mean this cannot be exploited. Also if you live in a house this kind of limitation would probably not apply. Also if your apartment were to have a washer/dryer hookup that you are not using you would probably have an outlet that has the capacity of using a lot of electriciy

There was a story once, of a rather large grow op, in some secluded area. They got caught because they were stealing electricity and the electric company tracked them down to the grow house. I think it's actually fairly common, after doing a search.

Another man was busted for running a mining op, and the cops thought he was growing. (Because he used to.)

Mining is not "personal use", but a commercial activity.

Most companies would not mind if the employee uses their printers/copies for occasional  personal use, but would be very unhappy if someone uses them to make money on the side.

Most places I worked, public and private, would leave at least some supplies for employees in a self-serve cabinet, with no controls.  Taking a stapler home and letting kids use it at school would be a petty violation.  Taking any supplies to sell them, or to use them in a private business, would be grounds for dismissal.


It is not safe to assume that... On the contrary, the company would probably want to make an example of the employee, to deter all the others  from doing the same.  I am pretty sure that the companies I worked for would do that.  The other employees would not see that as an injustice.

You must have seen the news about that prof who used a cluster at his university to mine bitcoins.  I don't know how it ended, but the univ wanted to fire him, and the govt agency that paid for the cluster wanted to sue him.


One must read the contract carefully, it may have limits on usage, or it may forbid commercial activities. Besides, each apartment surely has a separate circuit breaker box that limits the power consumption to a few kW.  One must also worry whether the wiring of the power outlets will support the load. 

This is not necessarily true. Many employers often have policies that allow employees to use their electricity for their personal electronic devices (for example for charging them). Even though using a miner would not fall under the spirit of this, it would likely still qualify as being within policy. Also if the employee's electric usage really does only make a small impact on the company then it would likely not be advisable for the company to take action against the employee as this would hurt employee morale as they would be seen as going after employees over very small/petty violations.

I would also argue that many situations when a person has "free" electricity is when they are leasing an apartment or a house that is paid by the landlord and that the estimated price of electricity is factored into the rent. This is really a viable option if the landloard has many tenants they can "spread" the electric usage around.

"Free electricity" often means mining at one's workplace, with one's employer paying the bill.  That is definitely theft from the company (or from its shareholders).  The extra drain from the miner may be small compared to the company's normal consumption, and the chances of it being detected may be very small; but if the theft is discovered, the employee will probably be fired, and perhaps criminally charged.

acckkkkk 10000 KW hours this month. $620 bill

Most of the time, free electricity come from parents paying them.. So nah...

free electricity for sure but you have to buy miners and it's still gona take time to break even.

I hope Venezuela government stop subsidy electricity charges then we would see difficulty from all crypto to drop at least 10%...

Now left only to believe in price rise

you can be still profitable, if you find the way not to pay for electricity.

What about import tax?  I don't think you can get around that part, unfortunately.