Profitability of a GPU Mining Rig for X11 Altcoins Using Outdated Hardware

I've been itching to do this post for a while now but haven't been able to because, well, I didn't have a GPU mining rig running... that is, until now.  The mining rig is old and out of date and doesn't hold a candle to what's available but it's made up entirely of parts that were already laying around and hey, something's better than nothing.

The rig consists of not much more than a motherboard/cpu/ram combo, an old ATI Radeon 5850 video card, and an ancient network card.  There's no hard drive, the Linux based operating system runs on a bootable USB thumb drive.  Notice the motherboard has several PCI-e slots... this is so I can (hopefully) run more than one GPU in the future.

The miner is slow and ugly but chugs along just fine mining altcoins for me... just my type of beast.

I know the 5850 video card is old and there are way better options for mining but with all the new algorithms out there and improvements in mining software, I was curious to see just how much money an old single GPU miner could make.

As it turns out, mining X11 coins at NiceHash.com or a few profit switching pools I tried, this setup only makes about 1.5 cents per day.  Yuck!

Keep in mind, that's when mining X11 altcoins.  I'm going to play around with mining some other algorithms to see what sort of profits (if any) can be had.  This video card came from a time when GPU mining scrypt coins was still profitable and before the scrypt ASICs entered the scene.  So nowadays it'd be completely worthless trying to mine scrypt coins unless I happen upon one that somehow magically explodes in price (to da moon!).

But I don't want to rely on luck...

For now I'll start messing with other algorithms to see if there are coins out there that can be mined profitably on shoddy old computer hardware.  mining X13 coins seems to make slightly less than X11 coins, so I'll start messing with some newer and/or more obscure algos.

Bookmark and check back often and I'll update the site with my findings.

Keep on & have fun!

Passive Income Bitcoin Mining Hardware for Small-Time Miners -- "Set It and Forget It"

It wasn't long ago that I started my quest to become a Bitcoin Billionaire and one of the first things I did was to dig up some old Gridseed (Scrypt) mining hardware to get something mining any form of crypto-currency as quickly as possible.  My mining rig includes a Gridseed Blade and a handful of Gridseed Orbs (or "Mini's"), and since I was lazy and had other stuff on my plate, the whole mess of Scrypt miners got pointed at the first thing that came to mind... www.LitecoinPool.org.  If you don't already know, there are much more profitable scrypt-based coins to mine besides Litecoin... but again, I was lazy and just wanted something going.

Fast forward to months later where I've all but forgotten about my little Gridseed mining rig.  Surprisingly, they're all still chugging along, happy as can be, slowly earning a small pittance of Litecoins.  But... that small pittance now totals 4.3 Litecoins as I write this (about $17.20 US).  It took about an hour to get the mining rig going and I haven't had to do anything since.  This is exactly why I wanted "something, anything" mining when I very first started... Do it once and keep collecting the rewards.

Ok, so this is a simplified form of passive income, and I'm not including the cost of the hardware nor electricity to run it.  But it is the concept I'd like to share and hope you'll remember... Do it once and keep collecting the rewards indefinitely.

Perhaps time will help get the point across as well... I'll revisit this post in a year with an update to see how much the small pittance of Litecoins has grown.

If you're looking to create a huge abundance of wealth, as I am, Passive Income is an essential key.  In the case of my Gridseed mining rig, I spent the time up front to get it running and now it requires almost no effort on my part to continually generate income for the foreseeable future.  More tradition examples of passive income include royalties from books and other intellectual property, licenses on patents, subscription based content, etc, etc.  Anything you can do once and get paid for multiple times qualifies as passive income and will help us both create wealth much more readily than simply trading our working hours for a set wage.  After all, there are only so many hours in the day...

So while my little mining rig isn't really passive income when you factor in cost, it is something I can "set and forget" and at least have one small stream of continual income.  Now I just need to find about a thousand more little streams and then we can create a massive torrent of wealth.

Keep on keepin' on!

Bitcoin Mining Reward Cut in Half – July 9th, 2016 – What this Means for Bitcoin's Future

The virtual currency Bitcoin hit another milestone a couple days ago when the reward for generating new Bitcoins was cut in half. Previously, when a new block was generated, the miner (or mining pool) responsible for generating the new block was awarded 25 Bitcoins for the efforts. Now with the reward halving come and gone, the same amount of effort produces only half the rewards, 12.5 Bitcoins (it actually takes more effort now as the difficulty for solving a block increased at the same time the reward decreased).

All of this and the Bitcoin price remains relatively flat, trading around $650 USD per Bitcoin as of this writing.

Many expected the price of Bitcoin to double when the reward was cut in half, and in many aspects, this makes a lot of sense. After all, the electricity cost and maintenance/upkeep of mining equipment hasn't changed – it still costs roughly the same to generate a new Bitcoin block, but since the reward is less, the price should be more to compensate, right? Well, maybe, maybe not.

Let's rewind to the end of last year when talk of the Summer 2016 Bitcoin halving first started hitting a fever pitch. At the time, Bitcoin was trading at $300-350 each and mining enthusiasts were snatching up and setting up Bitmain's Antminer S7 just as fast as they could.

Since then, the price HAS doubled. And for the last several weeks the price of Bitcoin seems stuck at approximately double the price of Q3-Q4 just last year.

So has the doubling in price already happened and we just missed it because it was slow and gradual and happened over months instead of overnight? Or is the price increase of the previous months just a glimpse of what is to come? At this point it is still too early to say, and the Bitcoin markets appear indecisive with most traders still sitting on the sidelines.

As mentioned in my previous posts, the Bitcoin price is being squeezed sideways. It'll move up a little or down a little, there's some panic selling here and some fickle buying efforts there, but overall the price is just kinda bouncing along in a sideways trading range with signs of trepidation and indecision. I don't know what the market is doing and I don't think it knows yet either. Hopefully a better trading pattern will emerge soon.

Is Now a Good Time to Invest in Bitcoin?

One recurring theme that has been popping up along with the reward halving chatter, is whether or not now is a good time to buy and/or invest in Bitcoin. Those bullish on Bitcoin say that it is now more rare than ever and more difficult to earn new Bitcoins. Those who are bearish on Bitcoin say the market is in a bubble, is too fickle/volatile, and that whales are waiting to dump their Bitcoin hoards and beat the price down.

Both Bitcoin bears and bulls have valid arguments, but the Bitcoin markets and price are on the fence so until that changes, I'm on the fence and undecided as well.

Points to Consider Before Buying or Selling Bitcoin in Today's Market

Before dumping your life savings into Bitcoin or trading your hard earned coins for cash, here are a few points to consider:

• In the last several years, the price of Bitcoin has been much higher than it is today, with a stretch of time in the $1,000+ range.
• In the last several years, the price of Bitcoin has been much lower than it is today, substantially lower. The market is volatile, offering high risks and high rewards. Don't invest more in Bitcoin than you can afford to lose.
• With recent events, Bitcoin markets remain undecided in a sideways holding pattern. Indecisive markets can mean big swings up or down... Making an investment decision right now means significantly higher risks, but also potentially huge rewards.
• It will take time for the full effects of the reward halving to be felt. New blocks (and Bitcoins) are generated approximately every 10 minutes while maintenance and electricity bills are usually paid on a bi-monthly or monthly basis.
• If the Bitcoin price doesn't go up soon, entire hordes of mining equipment will either be operating at a loss or taken offline due to an inability to run profitably. This would lead to a DECREASE in the difficulty of generating a new Bitcoin block, or at least keep the difficulty relatively flat for one or more adjustment periods.
• Antminer recently released their newest SHA-256 ASIC miner, the S9. This miner offers a huge leap in efficiency and mining power and is being unleashed in bulk on the mining community. As more S9's come online (as well as next gen miners from other companies), more Bitcoins will be generated quicker until the difficulty rises to slow them down. Yet another factor playing on the Bitcoin price.

At this point it's tough to say exactly what will happen with Bitcoin's future but one thing's for certain, Bitcoin use is increasing worldwide and it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

MinerGate.com Review – Mine the Most Profitable Altcoins with this CPU and GPU Mining Pool

Since my computing power and money resources are limited, I’ve been searching for a profitable way to cpu mine altcoins and haven’t had much luck until now.

MinerGate.com is a cross-platform, profit switching mining pool that allows you to CPU mine or GPU mine the most profitable altcoins easier than ever no matter which computer operating system you are using.  The MinerGate mining software is available for Windows PCs, MacOS, Linux, and Unix, and they even have a CPU mining app for Android smart phones in the Google Play store.  With MinerGate, you don’t have to worry about which mining software to use or getting the settings right for each separate coin, they do this all for you… automatically.

The multi-pool allows you to mine popular altcoins like Ethereum, Monero, Bytecoin, Dashcoin, etc.  You can even mine Bitcoin or Litecoin if you like, although chances are they won’t be nearly as profitable to mine as the other crypto-currencies.  So what, you say?  There’s a ton of profit switching mining pools out there, you say?  Yes, I absolutely agree and have tried them myself and have to conclude that MinerGate.com shines beautifully where other CPU mining multi-pools have failed.

In a nutshell, MinerGate is easier to use and more profitable than all of the other CPU mining pools I’ve tried.  It only takes a couple minutes from the time you first visit their site to the time you’re mining away, and starting to make money!  It really is that quick and easy.
Usually, when you want to CPU or GPU mine any crypto-coin at most any pool, they only offer minimal help when it comes to installing and using mining software to work with their pool (and for the type of crypto-coin you want to mine).  MinerGate flips this concept on its head by offering their own mining software for free that is already configured and set to start mining altcoins as soon as its installed.

Smart Mining
The mining software has a nice feature called “Smart Mining” where it will automatically mine the most profitable cryptocurrency at any given time (from the list of coins that they support).  When mining in this mode, the software will automatically switch mining to whichever altcoin can be converted into the most Bitcoins at the current exchange rate.

Single Coin Mining
This is great for those of us who want an easy way to CPU or GPU mine our favorite coin and aren’t so concerned with always switching to whatever coin can be sold for the most at that minute in time.
A lot of people interested in Monero (XMR) or Etherium (ETH) choose this option and mine only that coin.  Single coin mining is especially useful for anyone new to Cryptocurrencies who wants to give it a shot on a cool new coin without much investment or risk.

Benchmark Your Mining Rig
Whether you’re CPU or GPU mining, there are several little interesting features including a Benchmark area where you can test your computer’s hardware to see how it compares with others.  I knew my laptop was old and decrepit but my benchmark results kinda feel like rubbing salt in a wound.   https://minergate.com/b/1bf71646bd70eaf30baff0b852092be435747ff8

Achievements
Just to keep things entertaining and provide little rewards for using the mining software, there is an Achievements area where badges are earned for completing challenges.  The software claims that you get a “MinerGate prize” after unlocking all achievements but I haven’t got this far yet so I don’t know what the prize is or if it is any good.

Integrated Wallets
Each altcoin that you mine (or fractions of coins) will show up in the Wallets area.  This section definitely needs work (at least the Linux version).  If you show too many coins here at once, they just run off the bottom of the screen and you have no idea what those coins are or if you have mined any.  You can select which coins to show in the “View” menu but it is a cumbersome process, especially if you want to view balances for more than 5 or 6 coins at a time.
The work-around… use the mining software for mining, and the website for analyzing account balances, wallets, and other stats.

MinerGate also offers a sort of auto-exchange called Changelly where you can easily convert one crypto-currency into another.  There is a 0.5% fee for doing this and I haven’t cross-checked their exchange rates with other altcoin exchanges so can’t say a whole lot more yet.

Withdraws
From the website you can withdraw/send any of the altcoins you’ve mined to another address (instead of leaving them in the pool’s wallet or converting directly to Bitcoins).  I’ve talked to many others who’ve had successful withdraws here and reputable members who recommend the site but again I can’t post my thoughts until my account has built up enough where cashing out is an option.

That’s all for now but please check back often as I’m adding more and more to this site and will update this post with anything new.

Feel free to post in the comments if you’ve had success (or problems) with MinerGate.com