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New to investing in bitcoin

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  • 19-02-2014 2:13pm
    #1
    Bandy B
    Registered Users Posts: 25 ✭


    Hi,

    I am new to Investing and i wanted to start with bitcoin, I have heard about bitcoin a few times over the last 12 months and has been very positive. Can anyone give me any advice and tips on where i should start and what to look out for!

    Cheers!
    Tagged:


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    #2
    Dublinflyer
    Registered Users Posts: 594 ✭✭✭Dublinflyer


    Very hard to make any real profit given the price of the hardware and running costs. There are some 5-8gh/s miners for sale on ebay for about €300 and as the price stands you will never make money using them. That's assuming the price of a bitcoin does not jump up a couple of hundred percent, you just don't know. From what I can see people are investing in the kit hoping that the price will jump over time. It's impossible to say what is going to happen with it. Use the online profit calculators and be prepared to lose the money you spend, worst case scenario.

    http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

    I have been mining for about 18 months, on a very small scale, and it's just a hobby. I don't think I will be clearing the mortgage with the profits!


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    #3
    Bandy B
    Registered Users Posts: 25 ✭Bandy B


    So you reckon there's not much point, judging by what you are saying if i was basically having to mixcro manage it all the time i think i would lose interest fairly quickly!


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    #4
    alb
    Registered Users Posts: 1,259 ✭✭✭alb


    Dublinflyer wrote: »
    Very hard to make any real profit given the price of the hardware and running costs. There are some 5-8gh/s miners for sale on ebay for about €300 and as the price stands you will never make money using them. That's assuming the price of a bitcoin does not jump up a couple of hundred percent, you just don't know. From what I can see people are investing in the kit hoping that the price will jump over time. It's impossible to say what is going to happen with it. Use the online profit calculators and be prepared to lose the money you spend, worst case scenario.

    http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

    I have been mining for about 18 months, on a very small scale, and it's just a hobby. I don't think I will be clearing the mortgage with the profits!

    If you had bought bitcoins 18 months ago with the money you invested in mining hardware, how many would you have now, what would they be worth? How many bitcoins have you mined in those 18 months?


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    #5
    Dublinflyer
    Registered Users Posts: 594 ✭✭✭Dublinflyer


    alb wrote: »
    If you had bought bitcoins 18 months ago with the money you invested in mining hardware, how many would you have now, what would they be worth? How many bitcoins have you mined in those 18 months?


    I would have the same amount of coins now as I would have bought 18 months ago but they would be worth more. I did not invest much so we are not talking huge number here.

    The problem you have, imho, is that so many people are getting into mining the difficulty is going up by about 20% a month and you need to increase you miners by that much just to keep up. It gets very expensive after a short amount of time with the current hardware costs. I am not claiming to be an expert in the area but have an interest.


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    #6
    Dublinflyer
    Registered Users Posts: 594 ✭✭✭Dublinflyer


    Bandy B wrote: »
    So you reckon there's not much point, judging by what you are saying if i was basically having to mixcro manage it all the time i think i would lose interest fairly quickly!

    There is no micromanaging as such, you set up your hardware, join a pool and leave it working away. I check mine a few times a week just to make sure it's ok. I would not say there is no point, it's an investment and could just as easily pay off in a years time, like I said anything can happen with bitcoin.


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    #7
    Bandy B
    Registered Users Posts: 25 ✭Bandy B


    yeah seems ok that way then, would only start off small i think. But again i am new to this so i wouldnt know how to even approach the whole thing!


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    #8
    Dublinflyer
    Registered Users Posts: 594 ✭✭✭Dublinflyer


    Bandy B wrote: »
    yeah seems ok that way then, would only start off small i think. But again i am new to this so i wouldnt know how to even approach the whole thing!

    Google is your friend, there is so much stuff out there you will figure it out in no time. In a nutshell you need
    • Bitcoin Mining hardware
    • A PC that is on all the time
    • Internet connection
    • A good powered USB hub (do you homework on this one)
    • Join a mining pool
    • An application to run your miners.


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    #9
    alb
    Registered Users Posts: 1,259 ✭✭✭alb


    Bandy B wrote: »
    yeah seems ok that way then, would only start off small i think. But again i am new to this so i wouldnt know how to even approach the whole thing!

    If you don't know what you are doing but want to get into Bitcoin, don't mine. Just buy some on an exchange such as bitstamp.net or kraken.com and read up on "bitcoin cold storage" for the most secure way to keep it.


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    #10
    Bandy B
    Registered Users Posts: 25 ✭Bandy B


    lol you guys have on a fence now! Dont know which way to turn, really appreciate the advice though too! Will have to sit down and have a think about which way to go!


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    #11
    alb
    Registered Users Posts: 1,259 ✭✭✭alb


    We're both saying don't mine. DublinFlyer seems to agree that the only way you'll make money by mining is if the price of bitcoin soars, in which case you nearly always make more by having just bought Bitcoin in the first place.

    If you wanted to invest in gold I wouldn't advise you to buy gold mining drills, I'd advise you to buy gold. It's the same thing. The hobby miner was pushed out of Bitcoin long ago.


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    #12
    Dublinflyer
    Registered Users Posts: 594 ✭✭✭Dublinflyer


    Look at is as you would a hobby, you are going to spend a bit of time and money to find out about it and to start off. If you start small and are not interested then it's easy to walk away. You won't make anything to start but get to dip your toe in the water. If you get into it and find it worthwhile it's just as easy at that point to ramp up and really go for it. I spend a few hundred on it at first and found it really interesting but did not really invest into it. I know a few people who have really got into it and have made a bit of money.


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    #13
    alb
    Registered Users Posts: 1,259 ✭✭✭alb


    Dublinflyer wrote: »
    Look at is as you would a hobby, you are going to spend a bit of time and money to find out about it and to start off. If you start small and are not interested then it's easy to walk away. You won't make anything to start but get to dip your toe in the water. If you get into it and find it worthwhile it's just as easy at that point to ramp up and really go for it. I spend a few hundred on it at first and found it really interesting but did not really invest into it. I know a few people who have really got into it and have made a bit of money.

    Lets say you spent $400 on hardware 18 months ago. Bitcoins cost $5 then. You could have bought 80 bitcoins up front, worth about $50,000 today. Unless you mined more than 80 bitcoins you made a mining loss. Sure you probably have more than $400 dollars worth of BTC today, but if you have less than $50,000 then you lost on mining, it's just that the gains on BTC price speculation more than cancelled it out.

    Many miners don't understand the difference between mining profits and price speculation profits, confuse the two and think they profited by mining. This is why mining is a bad idea now, because there's already many people doing it at a loss compared to buying coins (many without even realising it).


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    #14
    Dublinflyer
    Registered Users Posts: 594 ✭✭✭Dublinflyer


    I completely agree, for me it was to just find out about the whole thing and how it works. I was never going to invest much in it but I have been doing it long enough before it got popular and have made a fair profit against my initial investment. It's a completely different ball game now and the only people who can make decent returns are the ones making the hardware or running the pools, that's where the real money is.


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    #15
    old_aussie
    Registered Users Posts: 3,410 ✭✭✭old_aussie


    Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange collapse

    http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/mt-gox-bitcoin-exchange-collapse/

    This will hit hard.

    Cold hard cash for me.


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    #16
    nxbyveromdwjpg
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,402 ✭✭✭nxbyveromdwjpg


    old_aussie wrote: »
    Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange collapse

    http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/mt-gox-bitcoin-exchange-collapse/

    This will hit hard.

    Cold hard cash for me.

    You're a day late, back up over $120 since the wobble that news caused yesterday


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    #17
    Bandy B
    Registered Users Posts: 25 ✭Bandy B


    old_aussie wrote: »
    Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange collapse

    http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/mt-gox-bitcoin-exchange-collapse/

    This will hit hard.

    Cold hard cash for me.

    Wow!!!


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