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Comment by jtchang | Hacker News Reader

I have so much respect for the internet archive. To me the internet archive represents an entity that really understands the "Internet" and aligns closely with a lot of the ideals of free speech and information access.

Plus the wayback machine is super cool!

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Wayback machine has to be the best thing created online. Its not just about the nostalgia it about the growth and keeping all necessary information always available.

I really like how they quickly and smoothly accepted bitcoins. They truly listen and understand the Internet.

I'm more interested in mining them. Is it too late to start jumping on the BTC train ? Do you need special processors? Last I remember, you could still mine Bitcoins using GPUs.

You can use GPUs, but you will have much better luck using an ASIC.

You can still mine with AMD GPUs but the difficulty has been rising fast due to the release of ASICs.

For example, right now a Radeon HD 7970 will earn you about 1.4 BTC per month.

ASICs are not for sale anywhere. You can preorder from butterfly labs but there is no indication when they will ship.

Why not an FPGA?

They did do FPGA, many of the companies selling FPGA boards to mine have ceased operations because interest has dropped off since ASICS are where it is at now.

/facepalm

The advantage to FPGAs is that they can be designed rapidly. ASICs are cheaper to manufacture and usually run faster.

FPGAs are the same speed as GPUs but cost more, so they're only better if you're paying a lot for power.

Actually, if you were serious about mining, FPGAs might still be a good choice. They are approximately as efficient as current ASICS, just much slower. Plus they will have resale value.

I don't see why decent ASICs will ever be for sale. It'll be more profitable to run them than to sell them so the manufacturers will keep them.

Because you need a large capital investment to get an ASIC made. taking pre-orders and selling some is one way to get that cash.

Besides the crowdfunding argument, it may be possible to sell an ASIC miner for more BTC than it will ever generate during its lifetime.

Yea that's what I'm saying. It wouldn't be worth it unless you have really cheap or free electricity. If you're considering buying ASICs you should be very careful.

In theory, miners will have a better estimate of BTC future values than the manufacture.

In practice, miners might even be a little generous in their estimates (because they are self-selecting).

And more importantly, the risk is reduced. If BTC tanks, the manufacturer will have already cashed out. If BTC goes up, the manufacture will have lost some potential profits, but will still have made a decent amount.

ASICs were for sale from Avalon http://launch.avalon-asics.com/ but they only took orders for a <1000 in 3 batches that sold out very quickly and are going for 20k + on eBay. Butterfly labs has been promising a lot for a long time but there is no evidence yet that they will actually deliver anything. They have taken a lot of pre-orders though. There is a third company that lets you buy shares and is running ASICs but doesn't sell them. I can't remember the name at the moment.

'ASICminer' is the third company.

During their first week of operation they paid out 3860 BTC (~$480,000) spread over 163,964 shares. [1]

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99497.msg1568242#msg...

CPU Mining is possible but not profitable.

GPU mining is the traditional and the best way.

The thing is, if you have a very bad GPU you might not make any profit. The electrial costs are going to be a pain in that case.

If you have a fairly decent GPU, you can still mine and shine but expect a really low profit. If you aren't worried about the electrial costs ( as GPU is running 100% 24/7 ) then you could mine very well.

If you really want to know how much exactly you could mine

Use a manual calucaltor - https://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/

Run a Miner http://bitminter.com/ ( Run the pool's miner for few minutes, it would calcuate an estimate for you )

GPU mining is on the way out thanks the imminent proliferation of ASICs.

I've heard it's more profitable to mine Litecoin then convert to BTC at this point.

ASICs are yet to penetrate well, thanks to the delays. Till then GPUs would still work. Mine out till you can.

Here is the thing, after BTC's success many such online digital currency came into existence.

As soon as BTC gets enough traction, there would be some regulation to handle the growing digital currencies. There are chances that not every such currecny would grow like BTC did. So putting time in mining should be well calculated. If you think LTC would grow then go for it, but if not then no point putting time and money in mining for it. Better mine, earn, sell off and move on.

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