I discovered a new superior highly complex number. 2^34 × 3^4 × 31^9 has 1,488 factors. Therefore, it is a new superior highly composite number surpassing the previously known highest highly composite number of 6,469,693,230 with 1,344 divisors.
My ASICs mine Bitcoin directly, while my GPUs mine Ethereum but I'm paid in Bitcoin, which is a function of NiceHash. More often than not mining Ethereum directly using something like HiveOS is more profitable, but I opt for NiceHash because the convenience is more valuable to me than the fractional benefit of mining Ethereum directly. Also, I personally would rather hold Bitcoin. But that is just me.
In terms of ETH2, it is already quite profitable to mine ERGO or RVN or other proof-of-work GPU mineable coin algorithms (search for "what to mine" in your preferred search engine). The biggest question is, when ETH2 comes (whenever that is) will the profitability of ERGO and RVN increase or decrease with the influx of miners? Sure difficulty will spike massively, but in my opinion it is also likely that the value of these cryptocurrencies spike as well, however proportional.
The truth is no one really knows. I have an idea, but I could be wrong.
Oh I’m sure I’ve spent a non-trivial amount of time total on maintenance, trial and error, watching videos, reading, etc. The thing is it’s my hobby, I have fun doing that stuff. I work with my hands and use my brain, and the output is money. It’s pretty great!
You are grossly overestimating the depreciation of mining hardware. It’s pretty common to have well maintained mining rigs and farms that last several years. Also, it’s a common strategy to sell mining hardware at or near ROI time to essentially double your initial investment.
Coincidentally my GPUs have not only paid for themselves and then some, but I could sell them used now for more than I bought them for. I’m lucky in that respect.
In the world of cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency mining you really have to wade through the mounds of sh%# and scammers. In terms of trustworthy sources here are a few trusted YouTubers that are very experienced, they taught me a lot about mining, mining safety, and general crypto knowledge: ChumpChangeXD, Red Fox Crypto, Red Panda Mining, brandon coin, Son of a Tech.
I started small, let things pay for themselves before buying more. My initial investment was about $10,000, and that was just for a handful of GPUs, some parts like motherboards and CPUs, an electrician for the 240V 30A line, PDU, etc. Once I made that money back I slowly bought more. My most recent purchase has been the AvalonMiner which will pay for itself in another six months or so. If I include the revenue from all the mining hardware though, the AvalonMiner will be paid for much sooner. It’s funny how that works :)
That’s the plan! But I’m already at 80% maxed out on a 30A 240V breaker. Sure I could add more breakers, but I really don’t want to turn my basement into an industrial mining zone (not to mention the HOA might have a thing or two to say). I’ve already used some soundproofing (Rockwool) in the room that all the mining equipment is in, the noise is real!
Also I need more airflow, I’m exhausting extra heat out a small basement window. If I want to expand I need to consider intake fans from a second window to keep airflow moving seamlessly.
I’m in a peculiar position where if I lease out a warehouse for $3000/month I literally deplete all the profit and break even until I expand more. I’m not sure where to go from here, suggestions welcome! So far the best plan I have is just wait until I can afford a bigger house with a big backyard, so I can build a mining shed out there.
- Where is the heat going? Are you exhausting it out the window? Are you going to burn your house down?
- How are you distributing power? Are you using a PDU and a 240V 30A breaker or are you maxing out several 15A 120V lines?
- Is the humidity dropping rapidly to dangerous levels, risking shock? Are you going to fry that brand new $10,000 ASIC miner because you dried out the air too much?
- Did you short out the GPU pins removing a GPU from the socket? Did you just cost yourself thousands of dollars?
Safety is important not just for yourself and family but you need the hardware to actually survive. If you have a bunch of 3090s that just finally reached ROI 9 or 10 months in but the cards themselves just died, you’ve effectively broken even after all that effort.
Surprisingly GPUs are quite resilient so long as you’re not massively overheating them, and you open them up every now and then to replace the thermal paste and perhaps thermal pads. I have a monitor visible at all times that displays all the temperatures, and I have one eye on a humidistat making sure I don’t suddenly drop below 30% relative humidity on an unseasonably dry day.
There are lots of resources available. If you’ve ever built your own PC you already have like 80% of the knowledge you need.
Bitcoin is highly divisible. When I say $100/day what I really mean is something around 0.0016 BTC per day. This number fluctuates a lot so it’s best to look at the average over a week or month.
The best way to learn IMO is to try it yourself with your gaming computer. I personally use a platform called NiceHash (not sponsored, nor am I advocating for them, there are alternatives) which pays out in Bitcoin. Try it out yourself, depending on your GPU you could be making $3-10 per day. Run it for a month or two, or longer. Transfer that Bitcoin to an exchange of your choice (Coinbase, crypto dot com, etc.) and sell it for cash. Then use that cash to buy more hardware (or beer).
You could say I’m “wasting energy” for “monopoly money”, but that monopoly money gets converted to fiat dollars, which I use to pay taxes and feed my family passively while I’m at my actual job, or sleeping. If instead of mining I were to work a labour intensive job as a side-gig, moonlighting, driving there, how much more or less energy would that “waste” on gas? At least I’m recycling my exhaust heat into heat for my home and not using the natural gas line of my house in the winter.
You’re not wrong, and I’m not saying other actual side jobs waste more energy necessarily, but the gap may not be as large as you think.
I would personally aim for non-LHR cards like the founders edition 3080 which is hard to find these days, or any 3090. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what cards you buy, what matters is your ROI. For example at MSRP a 3090 can pay for itself in six months (or whatever it works out to these days) but at scalper prices that ROI time is more like a year. In the world of ASIC mining a year ROI is actually not bad at all because the big industrial ASICs can last 5-10 years. Then you have helium miners (HNT) that can ROI in 3-4 months. It’s all about the ROI.
Pretty typical $0.1/kWH (on average, there are peaks and valleys like everywhere else). A lot of folks overestimate the actual power cost. Sure I’m pulling about 24A at 240V from the wall (over 6 kW) which costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $320/month. But the actual BTC I receive is worth over $3000/month assuming I sell it as I get it.
What’s super nice about mining is that it’s quite resilient to market trends. For example if crypto crashes 50% the number of transactions on the blockchain skyrockets (everyone either buying the dip or panic selling) which results in more cryptocurrency actually received from mining. The value of the coin can go down, but I get more of it.
As a passive revenue stream it’s actually quite beautiful. Just don’t forget to pay taxes!
I mine cryptocurrency and make about $110/day. I have two L3++s, an AvalonMiner 1246, six RTX 3080s, an RTX 3090 and a couple older cards. It more than pays for the mortgage, and after electricity (residential rate) my profit is about $100/day.
I also have the GPUs in a grow tent (designed for growing marijuana) with an 8 inch in-line fan hooked up to the supply of my home’s HVAC system. I’m heating my whole house with cryptocurrency and saving about $80-100 per month on gas (furnace has been off all winter).