Is mining cryptocurrency still a thing?

[cooper69]

i was considering getting back into it, but it seems like all the craze has died down and it may not be so profitable anymore. if i were to mine a cryptocurrency, which one would be most profitable?

also, i had a few bitcoins on a website called mt gox? or something back in 2011/2012. went to their website and found out they're bankrupt. is it possible to access my stored bitcoins?

 

[w0ss]

If the Bitcoins were at Mt Gox then they are gone. I believe the deadline to file a claim has passed as well. I had an empty account but still got all the emails from the bankruptcy.

I don't think Video cards are economical now(at least for bitcoins. I believe it went to FPGA then ASIC. I never really followed any of the other coins but there are a number of them.

EDIT:

looked at my email and it expired a few months ago.

"The bankruptcy trustee decided that the deadline for filing bankruptcy claims using the Online Method will be 12 noon on July 29, 2015 (Japan time)."

 

[jpiniero]

There are now dedicated chips that are way way faster than any GPU now. It wouldn't be economical. I would have to think that any of the other cryptocurrencies would be dead or mostly dead now.

 

[missalaire]

It hasn't been profitable to mine using GPUs for a while now. ASICs are the way to go.

 

[Brekyrself]

GPU's are still economical, just depends on what alternative currency you mine. If you have GPU's why not use them in downtime? Look at it as another way to invest in crypto technology. Choose a chain or two and invest some $$ earned from mining. Don't be narrow sighted.

4x 7950's mining at http://pool.minebitshares.com/ pulls in $2+ usd a day. This pool picks the most profitable coin and pays you in BitUSD via the BitShares chain. BitUSD is always pegged to the USD thus you won't have the major up or downswings typically associated with alt coins.

BitShares project has been running for over a year with version 2.0 coming out in October. This will be a serious contender to overtake BTC. Simply read this thread to see crypto technology is going LONG PAST just being a currency. https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,16447.0.html

Your BTC @ Gox is long gone however this technology is here to stay.

 

[freeskier93]

GPU's are still economical, just depends on what alternative currency you mine. If you have GPU's why not use them in downtime? Look at it as another way to invest in crypto technology. Choose a chain or two and invest some $$ earned from mining. Don't be narrow sighted.

4x 7950's mining at http://pool.minebitshares.com/ pulls in $2+ usd a day. This pool picks the most profitable coin and pays you in BitUSD via the BitShares chain. BitUSD is always pegged to the USD thus you won't have the major up or downswings typically associated with alt coins.

BitShares project has been running for over a year with version 2.0 coming out in October. This will be a serious contender to overtake BTC. Simply read this thread to see crypto technology is going LONG PAST just being a currency. https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,16447.0.html

Your BTC @ Gox is long gone however this technology is here to stay.

4x 7950s would be pulling at least 1kW of power. The average price for electricity in the US is 12 cents per kWh, so at 1kW you'd be spending $2.88 a day to power those cards.

Unless you have dirt cheap power or live in your mothers basement not paying utilities you probably aren't going to break even.

 

[Shmee]

Dash (formerly Darkcoin) and other X11 based cryptocurrencies are also a reasonable bet, for either GPU or even CPU.

 

[Brekyrself]

4x 7950s would be pulling at least 1kW of power. The average price for electricity in the US is 12 cents per kWh, so at 1kW you'd be spending $2.88 a day to power those cards.

Unless you have dirt cheap power or live in your mothers basement not paying utilities you probably aren't going to break even.

I do have dirt cheap power but that's not the point I was trying to make. Block chain technology is still in it's infancy, why not use your video card even if just "breaking even" at this point in time to invest? For a lot of people it's easier to acquire crypto by mining vs purchasing through an online exchange.

These technologies will evolve and eventually a few may take off in price. Just like people who mined BTC back when it was worth peanuts, look at where it is now.

 

[railven]

4x 7950s would be pulling at least 1kW of power. The average price for electricity in the US is 12 cents per kWh, so at 1kW you'd be spending $2.88 a day to power those cards.

Unless you have dirt cheap power or live in your mothers basement not paying utilities you probably aren't going to break even.

I miss the day sof $0.12 p/kWh. My area is up to $0.16

 

[RussianSensation]

I miss the day sof $0.12 p/kWh. My area is up to $0.16

That means even if your entire rig with the monitor is maxing out at 600W, and you game 4 hours a day x 365 days, that works out to $140.16 per year or only $11.68 per month. Most gamer's PCs do not use 600W of power (I specifically used 600W to exaggerate the cost) and most adults with a full time job + social life and friends/family/kids can't game 4 hours a day for 365 days in a year. That means realistically, that monthly $11.68 cost is probably closer to $6-7, if not less. In other words, what 3 coffees cost, or 2 lattes at SBUX. I was at Costco last week and they had 6x 23W light bulbs that are 100W replacements for $4 for the entire pack. The electricity cost of PC gaming in most places in US / Canada is not a factor, especially when considering the average wage/salary in those countries. For bitcoin mining on a GPU though, it wipes out all the profits really. That's the big reason bitcoin mining / cryptocurrency is basically dead on a graphics card today.

I actually did the calculation and even a $160 500GHash/sec ASIC (> 500X faster than any single chip GPU ever made), bitcoin mining doesn't make sense with current North American electricity rates. That beastly ASIC will use almost 500W of power.

 

[MongGrel]

It's a thing of the past.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

GPU's aren't economical since dedicated hardware hit the streets en masse, some people eek out a bit of money with it if they happen to be in circumstances where they don't pay the power bill, generally pretty slow to pay back the investment of the hardware however.

Basically for most people the answer is no.

 

[Brekyrself]

It's a thing of the past.

GPU's aren't economical since dedicated hardware hit the streets en masse, some people eek out a bit of money with it if they happen to be in circumstances where they don't pay the power bill, generally pretty slow to pay back the investment of the hardware however.

Basically for most people the answer is no.

Forget about BTC mining, but if you have a card(s) it's not a bad investment long term. Blockchain technology is still at the ground floor and mining provides a way to invest. Join a multi pool that picks the most efficient alts to mine and let the cards run.

Think bigger, longer term.