Biggest con going.

Maybe... maybe not. There's certainly enough scams out there, and if you're not smart, you'll get burned so very easily. That whole world is still the wild west, and you have to be careful.

You say that, yet you fell for this?
There is more to the concept of money than some computer generating random numbers and saying you got this many new '1s' and '0s' which have been labeled 'bitcoin'.
Hope you don't git bitten to badly by this.

There's been a lot of talk about what makes money worth something lately. There are people such as yourself that don't believe bitcoin has value because it's not backed by something material. But I've seen that it has value beyond that... You can be fairly anonymous, and nobody needs to know you own a specific bitcoin account. Its uses in circumventing taxation and regulation, not to mention allowing the black market to do what it does give it enormous value to its userbase. You can't discount the fact that it's worth SOMETHING for that reason. Yeah, it has its moments, and I'd be a lot more skeptical if it just came out, but it's been around for a few years now. The history exists to be studied.

I highly doubt it'll just vanish... But I've seen the market crash many times. Hell, look back at 2013 when the guy who ran the Mt Gox website ran away with all the funds! LOL Bitcoin lost a SHIT ton of value overnight. But you know something? You can capitalize on that too if you're smart. I don't place all my trust in bitcoin, and that's precisely why I play the market. It goes up... it goes down. I just gotta be on the right bus. :3 And when the market goes funny... cash out and wait.

Yeah, just like any market, it's risky. But not without reward. And if I fuck up? Well... Got nobody to blame for it but myself. But that's one of the reasons I started with miners rather than investing all my own money in it. I did it for fun, and if I lose it all, it wasn't money I had before, and couldn't afford to lose. I ain't in this for the whole get-rich-quick BS, but I am hoping I'll make a substantial return on what I generate over time.

'Nothing from nothing leaves nothing'
Money is nothing more than a perceived unit of measure, that is why it is left to governments to play with it's value and to control how much is to be in circulation, you want to control the inflation/deflation rates, keeping the swings to a minimum.
No such controls on this bit of make-believe thus the wild swings as you mentioned.
This is more insidious than the 'gold standard' believers, but is not considered to be much of a threat to the globe exchange.
So enjoy the game and try to keep it from taking too much of your real world.

You make a good point. The only thing that gives anything value is the fact that SOMEONE is willing to pay for it. xD

But yeah, that's what this is all about for me. Having fun and hopefully making some money. I figure the bitcoin markets are more volatile than stocks, and have a better rate of return if you play the market right. I'm careful to avoid margin trades, since at this point I have a little experience getting the short end of the stick from that. Good old fashioned exchanges are where it's at.

Eh well. I appreciate your concern. :) I'll be ok! It's not like I'm going to risk money I can't afford to lose.

What is your cause? Giving the profits to charity?

Only to my favorite charity.

Oh? Which one?

Me. :3

XD

Wait a moment, so you are asking people to 'donate' money to you, so you can make more money? Fuck man, you got some brass ones asking that.

Hey no one says you have to. It's just there.

You are literally begging for money, like a bum. I have to wonder, if you have all this money coming in from mining and investments, why you have to beg on a furry site?

lol I'm not begging. But why does it matter so much to you? If it bothers you so much, then leave. Don't even bother wasting your time.

Specialized hardware?

Yep! ASIC miners. Two antminer S5's to be exact.

Kinda cool, I found out after I got 'em that they run an embedded linux on board, and it supports SSH, so you can actually get into the box and poke around. ouo They run a modified version of CGminer using two hashing boards each.

And how much did they cost you? As a tech I'd totes love to invest in some of these.
And also have you done the math on power consumption vs coins generated?

No I have not. I don't pay for power here, so I'm lucky in that regard. I've found you get the biggest bang for your buck buying second hand... Not third hand or fourth hand. You want something new enough, and plan on upgrading your hardware every six months to a year. You want to resell it while it still has value, then re-invest. These generate about 50 bucks a month each... at least for the time being. You have to understand that bitcoin is a moving target, and its value fluctuates.

The amount of bitcoin they make monthly decreases each month due to the difficulty factor. But bitcoin really spiked in price this past month, so the dollar amount they make has actually gone up. Anyways, to answer your question, I paid 250 for the first unit and 150 for the second.

Also as a side note, I'll mention this. If you're going to get a miner, I wouldn't get an S5 like I did. S5's are getting a little too old, and they're already dipping into the third hand category. I just ended up with another one because the deal was too good to pass up and the power bill doesn't matter so much to me. If I were you, I'd look into something more powerful... Like an S7 if you can swing it (they're 4 times as powerful, with the same power draw I think). Keep in mind MOST of the time the power supplies are sold separately, unless the unit is rackmountable.

Uh oh
https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/09/t.....t-in-half/amp/

Yeah I knew this was gonna happen. xD It's why I got into this when I did.

Your pie is about to be cut in half.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-m.....-idUSKCN0ZO2CW

I'm well aware of this, and it doesn't really bother me.