Ethereum GPU mining?

[IntelUser2000]

Some of us here slot into that category. We early adopters took a gamble buying up tons of hardware (some more than others) but there's a good reason this thread is as old as it is.

I may not be as old as Madpacket for mining, but I got it before the crazy rise of Ethereum. That was mid-2016.

Suffice to say significant majority I mined were back in the days when it was worth ~$10. Yea, that was awesome. If I knew it would rise this much, I would have got many cards. Still, even with 2-3 cards I got 1 Eth every few days. I even regret selling Decred. They are worth $100 now. I had few when it was under a dollar. I had few thousand Siacoin when it was worth $0.0005 and are worth almost $0.05 now.

 

[Fir]

It's not the overall environmental impact that's worrisome.
It's the sharp increase in consumption that could (potentially) outrun generation capacity in some areas.

 

[zinfamous]

I look back at the first post:

($1/coin to almost $6/coin today). The network hashrate has not followed the same uplift and current mining rate on an R9 280x would net more than $100/month in coins

and think, oh: "about 18-20 coins per month at those values...on a 280X. I had a 280X then, and I still do. I was thinking about doing this back in February for shits, maybe for a couple of months, and of course I didn't."

Hah!

 

[Crono]

I look back at the first post:
and think, oh: "about 18-20 coins per day at those values...on a 280X. I had a 280X then, and I still do. I was thinking about doing this back in February for shits, maybe for a couple of months, and of course I didn't."
Hah!

I hate looking back at the first page, it's depressing. A couple pages in and I read this:

I'd suggest everyone consider holding, at least half of what you earn. For up to 2 years or so, when many of the applications that are currently being developed should be ready for the public. Especially since the mining difficulty is going to spike to insanity mid summer (1 year after the launch) before the algorithm switches from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. I hope everyone does realize this is going to happen, because no one else mentioned it yet.

It's not entirely a waste to cash out some ether now in case it becomes valueless at some point in the future, but if there's even half or a quarter the kind of price jump Bitcoin saw a few years ago it might seem unwise after the fact, especially if 1 ether goes to the double or (dare I hope) even triple digits USD. And aside from just holding to gain interest after Casper/Serenity or holding speculatively, it would be cool (for me at least, can't speak for other miners) to try putting Ether into applications/platforms like Augur or others that have yet to come out. Probably don't need much to test or play around with, though, but I'm not sure if other IoT, FinTech, or smart contract applications we haven't heard or thought about yet will fuel demand.

Unfortunately I spent most of my ether too early because I raided my wallet whenever I needed money.

 

[zinfamous]

I hate looking back at the first page, it's depressing. A couple pages in and I read this:



Unfortunately I spent most of my ether too early because I raided my wallet whenever I needed money.

well, those diet cokes weren't going to pay for themselves, were they?

 

[DrMrLordX]

HODLing ain't easy up in here.

 

[Elfear]

HODLing ain't easy up in here.

Got that right. Seeing prices all over the place makes it hard to keep the faith.

 

[DrMrLordX]

When I remember what I went through in 2016, it isn't all bad. I bought into Ethereum at around $12/coin (both coin and mining gear) and I had to watch it take a dump all the way down to $6.72 in Dec 2016. Lots of weak hands folded back then. I just bought more. Wish I had invested more money at the time . . .

Of course, the situation is different now. ETH is at a much higher price, and the pressures are different. Everything started to get weird, so I had to get out. Price levels have far exceeded my expecations. I kinda wish I had held on to ~$1300 before selling but whatever. At moments like that, I remember Steinbeck's The Pearl and I stop stressing so much over it.

 

[thilanliyan]

Of course, the situation is different now. ETH is at a much higher price, and the pressures are different. Everything started to get weird, so I had to get out. Price levels have far exceeded my expecations. I kinda wish I had held on to ~$1300 before selling but whatever. At moments like that, I remember Steinbeck's The Pearl and I stop stressing so much over it.

You got out completely?!

 

[Madpacket]

Tether...

Strong hands will likely be needed for the foreseeable future friends.

I'm still holding out for Proof of Stake.

For anyone wondering whats going on with the price right now.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...itfinex-tether-said-to-get-subpoenaed-by-cftc

 

[DrMrLordX]

You got out completely?!

Yeah I dumped everything I had back in Dec 2017, except for some oddball ERC20s that got airdropped on me (which I should have sold also, but I really don't want to mess with the exchanges that I would have to mess with to liquidate tokens like that). All I have left are some mining proceeds, and that ain't much.

I wanted to hold out for PoS but they took too long and the prices rose too quickly. Things got too rich for my blood!

For anyone wondering whats going on with the price right now.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...itfinex-tether-said-to-get-subpoenaed-by-cftc

I knew it! Just because people think the crypto market is unregulated, doesn't mean that you get to claim your token is backed by USD and lie about it!

The scary thing is that Tether Ltd. appears to have printed another 100 million USDT in the last week or so. 2.3 billion USDT, good grief. Do they not know when to quit?

 

[thilanliyan]

Tether...

Strong hands will likely be needed for the foreseeable future friends.

I'm still holding out for Proof of Stake.

For anyone wondering whats going on with the price right now.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...itfinex-tether-said-to-get-subpoenaed-by-cftc

Yep I'm holding out for PoS as well. Hope the price goes up at that point!

 

[Madpacket]

Yeah I dumped everything I had back in Dec 2017, except for some oddball ERC20s that got airdropped on me (which I should have sold also, but I really don't want to mess with the exchanges that I would have to mess with to liquidate tokens like that). All I have left are some mining proceeds, and that ain't much.

I wanted to hold out for PoS but they took too long and the prices rose too quickly. Things got too rich for my blood!



I knew it! Just because people think the crypto market is unregulated, doesn't mean that you get to claim your token is backed by USD and lie about it!

The scary thing is that Tether Ltd. appears to have printed another 100 million USDT in the last week or so. 2.3 billion USDT, good grief. Do they not know when to quit?

Congrats on cashing out. That must have been a tough decision. I only cashed out enough to pay off my debt. This Tether thing will be a good long-term if true (probably is). It'll likely force stronger regulations on the centralized exchanges while increasing the demand for decentralized exchanges which is what we really should be striving towards. Airswap and ZRX have momentum which will help a ton.

 

[thilanliyan]

Congrats on cashing out. That must have been a tough decision. I only cashed out enough to pay off my debt. This Tether thing will be a good long-term if true (probably is). It'll likely force stronger regulations on the centralized exchanges while increasing the demand for decentralized exchanges which is what we really should be striving towards. Airswap and ZRX have momentum which will help a ton.

How bullish are you on ethereum for 2018?
When is PoS coming??!!

 

[Madpacket]

How bullish are you on ethereum for 2018?
When is PoS coming??!!

I'm still very bullish on Ethereum. The on chain scaling solutions are taking longer than I want but advances in the existing PoW chain and nodes have kept things moving along pretty smoothly.

Most of the on-chain scaling solutions are basically done, they just need serious testing before being adopted/implemented.

I'm most excited about Sharding (this on chain scaling should give us a 10x improvement which will be awesome for new DAPPs) and then Casper. When they'll come who knows (likely this year) but probably in that order. Proof of Stake is the hardest to implement and no existing Blockchain technology has got it right yet so expect a phased approach. Side chains have a place but will be limited to more niche areas.

I expect the price to keep keep climbing as more and more adoption happens which seems to be increasing on frequency however, I think the price will really start to skyrocket once we can actually stake coins as that'll take out a huge amount from active circulation.

We're just getting started.

https://youtu.be/gZEmaSbqfYQ

 

[thilanliyan]

We're just getting started.

https://youtu.be/gZEmaSbqfYQ

I went to a "Blockchain for Engineers" (I'm an engineer) seminar and it was pretty interesting. I finally understand what the ethereum blockchain can be used for lol. Although, I think I will be keeping my day job in the meantime!

 

[IntelUser2000]

I'm still very bullish on Ethereum. The on chain scaling solutions are taking longer than I want but advances in the existing PoW chain and nodes have kept things moving along pretty smoothly.

Most of the on-chain scaling solutions are basically done, they just need serious testing before being adopted/implemented.

Because of what happened with the DAO, I like they are taking their time. Code can't be perfect. The more that's worked on the better. Some setbacks will surely exist in the future, but as long as there isn't a fundamental issue with the code like with the DAO it'll be ok.

Are you looking at staking for Pools? I think I will likely wait until it goes down low enough, so I can solo stake. It's one thing having temporary stolen like with Nicehash, its another with staking your entire holdings and that being stolen.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Anyone know of any good safe, reliable online wallets? Been mining to a local wallet but i just don't know how to get the money out. eth.getBalance is always zero. I thought I had managed to sync the blockchain but now it says it's synced but don't think it actually is. I just want to cut my losses and move to an online wallet that has a nice web interface to make it easier to transfer to the exchange. I can google for it but I rather know of one people can vouch for vs picking a random result.

 

[Crono]

Anyone know of any good safe, reliable online wallets? Been mining to a local wallet but i just don't know how to get the money out. eth.getBalance is always zero. I thought I had managed to sync the blockchain but now it says it's synced but don't think it actually is. I just want to cut my losses and move to an online wallet that has a nice web interface to make it easier to transfer to the exchange. I can google for it but I rather know of one people can vouch for vs picking a random result.

MyEtherWallet. Although I've never had a problem using Mist (official wallet) or Metamask (browser extension).

 

[Madpacket]

Because of what happened with the DAO, I like they are taking their time. Code can't be perfect. The more that's worked on the better. Some setbacks will surely exist in the future, but as long as there isn't a fundamental issue with the code like with the DAO it'll be ok.

Are you looking at staking for Pools? I think I will likely wait until it goes down low enough, so I can solo stake. It's one thing having temporary stolen like with Nicehash, its another with staking your entire holdings and that being stolen.

I'm also good with them taking their time. It hasn't slowed adoption down much but there should be many more use cases once scaling is in place. If Sharding is implemented first, proof of stake can be implemented even more gradually.

I'm pretty confident of the proposed PoS implementations but don't really like the idea of pool staking. There are ways to protect a pool if a bad actor within the pool misbehaves but it can introduce additional risk/complexity to the other pool members. Rocketpool is already looking at this problem before PoS is even implemented.

That being said, if I can still afford it, I'll be staking my own pool. Yes I'm worried about hacks but that's inevitable and true of any technology that doesn't stand still. Sure it's risky but this whole endeavor has been thus far. No risk, no reward in this game.

 

[bbhaag]

MyEtherWallet. Although I've never had a problem using Mist (official wallet) or Metamask (browser extension).

I can second the myetherwallet recommendation. I use myetherwallet to transfer the eth I mine over to my coinbase account and it works well.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Just checked out myetherwallet. It even let me import my private key (though it says it's not recommended) and gave me access to my funds, so at least it's not lost. I just did a transfer to the exchange I'll see how that goes.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow that was fast. Balance shows up on exchange now.

Is it really bad to use private key to access the wallet? The file that starts with UTC is kinda useless on it's own without the password right?

 

[Crono]

Wow that was fast. Balance shows up on exchange now.

Is it really bad to use private key to access the wallet? The file that starts with UTC is kinda useless on it's own without the password right?

You generally want to limit access to private key since that pretty much is your wallet. Your backup file, though (a JSON file with timestamp, which is what the UTC is) is encrypted (can't remember if there's an unencrypted option as there is with other cryptos, but it's usually encrypted) and needs the password to unencrypt.

MEW recommends not using the private key since they (rightfully) caution against anything even slightly risky, and they are a target of phishing domains and such given how many people use them now. They are relatively safe, but as always it's safest to only use a paper wallet and import your wallet only when you absolutely need to do a send transaction. For balance viewing or transaction monitoring you only need your public address/key, anyway, using a blockchain explorer.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah was using blockchain explorer before to check it out. . So guess it's safe to use that file then just to do transfers but don't store it anywhere. I can probably just put it on a USB stick or something. I have it in my password manager too, I just copied the whole block of data.