Hidden dangers of crypto-mining / Is it worth to get into mining?

TLDR: Are you aware of any dangers that could make mining unprofitable in the near future? Post them here!


Long version: Crypto mining is more risky than many newbs realize. Most obviously the currency’s price could crash, but there’s a lot more to it. Things that come to mind:

  • Etherium is going to switch away from their current system to proof-of-stake at some point, eliminating the need for mining in the process. (Proof of Stake FAQ · ethereum/wiki Wiki · GitHub)
  • Etherium’s memory requirements are rising. Buying a GPU with too litlle VRAM might render it useless soon.

Do you know of any other things to be aware of? Does payout change over time? Let’s make this a comprehensive list.

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As per link above Etherium Bubble im wading in for the first time the last few days. Please chime in as it is new and interesting to me.

To be honest I'm not an expert on any financial or crypto-finantial matters. But one thing I wonder:

One of scenarios ppl are doing while mining at home is to mine any cryptocurrency and sell it for BTC.
That builds demand for BTC - rises its price. So basically every one that does that scenario contributes to the BTC bubble and in the end if everything you mine is converted to BTC, and you keep it as BTC, you actually might not profit as much as you think (that ofc. will depend on the future BTC price and stability).

There is ofc. other side to the same scenario. If you always sell BTC right away, then you might not get any additional benefits from its price rising.

That's why I always sell my BTC immediately unless the price is too low.

I've read up on the mining difficulty - turns out me previous understanding was wrong. Basically the higher the network's hashing power the lower the payouts. Take that into consideration.

I'm still torn between whether I should give it a try. I have a MSI r9 390, so it should perform decently well, but it consumes considerably more power than the rx480 or rx580.

Since you already own the card there's not much reason not to. Just don't buy hardware unless you've read up on all the details.

Do you mine solo or in a pool? Also, does Geth always re-sync everything? My Internet's not the fastest (12MBit/s) and I was once able to finish downloading the keychain, but when I restarted the whole process, it seemed to take a whole day again.

I've been using NiceHash so I guess you could call that mining in a pool. But with my 480 dying recently I'll probably stop altogether, because my 1060 alone just isn't worth the hassle.

NiceHash automatically starts/stops when no connection is available. Mining takes up virtually no bandwidth so I wouldn't be concerned about your connection either. In fact my connection is also roughly 12 MBits.

I was talking about the whole “download the keychain in advance“, not the actual mining, but I'll gibe nicehash a try.
How old is your rx480? It can't be older than 2y, there should still be a warranty on this thing...

There's no need for that. I'm mining directly to btce.

It is still under warranty, so given the current Rx 480 situation I'll probably end up getting my money back rather than a new card. Would have still liked to be able to mine though.

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So you got a 1060 instead?

I already had a 480, then bought a 1060 in addition. Only afterwards did the 480 fail.

This leaves me in a bad position, because the 1060 doesn't generate enough income to warrant further mining. So I'll probably end up sending the 1060 back as well, as I did not yet have it for 14 days. Back to my trusty intel HD 4000 it is :smiley:

xD - are you getting a new GPU soon?

As I make very little use of my GPU anyway I intend to wait for Volta. That way I'm at least forced to optimize my game engine a bit :sweat_smile:

Its only been a week I got my first payout of about $30USD and the forecast income has dropped from $4-5USD a day to $2-3 USD.

How the hell can I mine a free vega card now :slight_smile:

I tried NiceHash today and it seems to work fine - I've tunred it off for now though, due to the additional heat generated. Do you guys know how much the GPU's lifespan is decreased if it is used for mining?

biggest "hidden" risk is that the currency could crash. that being said high risk high reward.

I can understand there is extra stress on fans but the electronics would either fail quickly or pretty much run for several years.

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Thanks for the info