I got into this earlier this year and it is my favorite hobby. I now have 9 miners running and am generating close to $2,000 a month after electricity costs.
I have done some trading as well buying and selling bitcoin and am up nearly 10k this year.
That being said it scares me a bit especially with bitcoin over $7,000. Seems like a huge correction could me coming and I am hesitant to have large sums invested in it though I am happy to have my miners plugging away.
What's the most efficient way to convert bitcoin into USD?
Jim Frame, post: 456425, member: 10 wrote: What's the most efficient way to convert bitcoin into USD?
I would think; wait 'til the bottom falls out, there should be plenty of opportunities then.
Jim Frame, post: 456425, member: 10 wrote: What's the most efficient way to convert bitcoin into USD?
With a coinbase account you can link it to a bank account and buy and sell bitcoin and transfer to and from your bank account. For day to day stuff I have a BitPay debit card. I can send any amount of bitcoin from any wallet to my BitPay debit card and spend it anywhere. It is converted instantly at current market rates.
R.J. Schneider, post: 456457, member: 409 wrote: I would think; wait 'til the bottom falls out, there should be plenty of opportunities then.
I agree it scary but people have been saying this since it hit $100, $1,000, $5,000 etc. it keeps going up up up. The technology behind it is sound. Tons of people have tried to crack it and can??t. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins. There are roughly 16 million in circulation today and I bet 5 million of those are permanently lost. If you lose the private key to a bitcoin it is gone forever. There are 15 million millionaires in the world. There are not enough bitcoins in circulation for every millionaire to own one. It is a supply and demand deal. I could be wrong but I bet within five years they are 20k.
Any government currency can be printed at free will. Precious metals have a finite supply but it is unknown. Bitcoin is very unique in that it has a fixed quantity that people can be sure about. Granted inherently they have zero value but the fact it is secure and has a fixed quantity is very appealing to a lot of people.
I can send any amount of bitcoin to anyone anywhere in the world in minutes for virtually nothing with no middlemen involved. If you have ever done international business it can be costly and take significant time to move large sums of money internationally. I could send a million dollars of bitcoin to someone in the middle of nowhere Africa for about five bucks and they would have it in minutes.
John, post: 431990, member: 791 wrote: You are talking about the billions of pennies I've made over the years, right? 😉
Part of what I was thinking was the investment value. Not bad that they are hovering around $2871 per bitcoin at the moment. I certainly understand that bitcoins are likely about as volatile as the stock market.
I find the anonymity part intriguing as well. Not sure quite why as I don't plan to venture into any shady transactions. Just a bit leery of being tracked for doing even legal things like moving larger sums of money around for buying a car or some innocuous thing that requires over 10k of cash type thing.
"...bitcoins are likely about as volatile as the stock market. "
No, they are orders of magnitude more volatile than the stock market!
"the stock market" is an average of Many individual stocks. Each is Very different.
Some stocks are almost "fixed" and some are like fireworks
Drilldo, post: 456523, member: 8604 wrote: With a coinbase account you can link it to a bank account and buy and sell bitcoin and transfer to and from your bank account. For day to day stuff I have a BitPay debit card. I can send any amount of bitcoin from any wallet to my BitPay debit card and spend it anywhere. It is converted instantly at current market rates.
"...and spend it anywhere."
Interesting - there are no retailers in my community who will accept it...
I've seen it mostly online, but it seems to me that I've seen signs at some stores around me that accept Bitcoin. I just can't remember which ones (or if it's truly a figment of my mind)
You can invest in bitcoin stocks. I dipped my toe into it. I bought a bitcoin stock at .............$.50 cents on I think Tuesday one week, by Friday it had gone to .90 cents. I didn't sell, there was some government announcement about bitcoins late Friday after markets closed and by Monday morning when markets opened my stock was at $.30, I finally sold out at $.21, pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. That stock trades at about $.10 now. I would consider it strictly a day trading stock at this point.
If you want a more practical description about the math underpinnings for bitcoins Lubos Motl goes into great detail in his blog. Lots of good info there, he is a sceptic however. He has a lot of information, his main problem are the fees associated with trading bitcoins.
Jim in AZ, post: 456549, member: 249 wrote: "...and spend it anywhere."
Interesting - there are no retailers in my community who will accept it...
"refill" those giftcards
there are a number of companies that actively mine ... some are quite volatile 
https://www.google.com.mx/search?q=mgti+stock+price&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=OPASWpKAFIW8jwO_m4vgBg
At times, the "regular" stock market does seem ridiculously volatile. If someone sneezes the wrong way, well, we loose 300+ (at least on paper), if something else happens, it's up 300+.
Jim in AZ, post: 456549, member: 249 wrote: "...and spend it anywhere."
Interesting - there are no retailers in my community who will accept it...
Sorry should have been more clear. The BitPay debit card is a Visa card. I can send any amount of bitcoin to it I choose and within minutes it is converted from BTC to USD at current market rates and I can spend it anywhere Visa is accepted. It has an app for your phone and Is pretty slick.
https://bitpay.com/card/
Do you have any bitcoin Jim? If not go Blockchain.com and get a free wallet, post your address and I will send you a little bit so you can see how it works. Your public address which is what you use to receive bitcoins can be shared with anyone. Some people have theirs in their signature lines on other forums or on their you tube channels. Your private key is what you need to keep secure.
Drilldo, post: 456572, member: 8604 wrote: Sorry should have been more clear. The BitPay debit card is a Visa card. I can send any amount of bitcoin to it I choose and within minutes it is converted from BTC to USD at current market rates and I can spend it anywhere Visa is accepted. It has an app for your phone and Is pretty slick.
https://bitpay.com/card/
Quite interesting - this would make transactions far easier than I was aware...
The antmine hardware people always make a profit at $750+.
You could always hook some phones together.
Here are 40 Galaxy S5s linked together, 8 will do the job.
There is there is really no way to mine bitcoin directly with anything less than an ASIC miner today due to the difficulty. You can mine lots of alt coins like ethereum, z cash, etc with graphics cards in a regular PC.
I have An Avalon 741 which is Antminer??s main competitor. I bought it for $800 earlier this year. Last week by itself it earned $67. Your earnings mining bitcoin are variable based on the pool you are part of??s ability to solve blocks. It usually ranges from $25-$75 a week that it makes. Still on the low end that is a ROI in 8 months. Wish I could get that kind of ROI on my survey gear :laughing:
Drilldo, post: 456577, member: 8604 wrote: There is there is really no way to mine bitcoin directly with anything less than an ASIC miner today due to the difficulty. You can mine lots of alt coins like ethereum, z cash, etc with graphics cards in a regular PC.
I have An Avalon 741 which is Antminer??s main competitor. I bought it for $800 earlier this year. Last week by itself it earned $67. Your earnings mining bitcoin are variable based on the pool you are part of??s ability to solve blocks. It usually ranges from $25-$75 a week that it makes. Still on the low end that is a ROI in 8 months. Wish I could get that kind of ROI on my survey gear :laughing:
power consumption at ?? 1150W, +0% ~ +15% (with 93% PSU efficiency @ 25 C) might be a deal breaker with my rates here, that force an extreme user rate that would maybe be a break even.
