Mining Bitcoin at Home: Week 1 Update
What’s up, everyone? It’s been a week since the arrival of my first miner, SP30 Yukon 4.5 THs. I promised to provide regular updates about its operations and the earnings I am getting from it. I decided to write weekly reports to keep you all posted. Here goes the first such update.
According to the public address I published here, my miner has made 0.01149387 BTC in this first week. Well, actually it’s a bit more than that. I’ve got some “dust” mining rewards on Bitcoin.com’s mining pool, but I haven’t bothered to transfer them yet. So the number above accounts solely for my earnings with Kano’s CKPool.
Neither am I certain whether this amount of weekly earnings is representative of my miner’s full potential. For one, it suffered some downtime periods in the beginning, when I experimented with overclocking. It led to two incidents of blowing out fuses and losing electricity in half of my apartment. In the end I settled on downclocking it to 4.0–4.1 THs from its nominal 4.5 THs. I reckoned that a long-term sustainability is better than short-term greed, right? Also, I turn off the miner for the night, so its productivity is only about two-thirds of a full-time mode of operations.
I have also probably missed some potential earnings by switching back and forth between the two aforementioned pools. I wanted to compare payouts from both of them. In the end I settled on CKPool for the time being. I find its PPLNS payout model with the last 5 shares to be more preferable for my intermittent mode of mining, compared to Bitcoin.com’s 3 last shares. On average the CKPool has been finding between 1 and 3 blocks per day this past week. (Ironically, the day before I set up the miner the pool had mined 6 blocks in one day. Ouch!) The payouts per block have varied between 0.0005 BTC at worst and 0.001 BTC at best – depending on how long the miner has been operational prior to the pool mining a block.
Well, actually, reducing the miner’s power has had some positive side effects too. The greatest benefit is that it’s no longer as loud as it sounded in that first video. Sure, the ear defenders I bought definitely help to deal with the noise. And when I watch videos on my laptop, using earbuds under the ear defenders, I don’t notice the sound the miner makes at all. But even without wearing the ear defenders it is now possible to be in the apartment and not cringe. Maybe I just got used to the noise? Although it does seem to be less annoying after the downclocking.
What I love the most about these ear defenders is their lovely colour! I am striving to establish a dominant turquoise colour-scheme for my entire apartment.
All in all, I am quite content with how things are going for now. The reality is both better than the fears I had in the beginning and worse than the dreams of quick riches I made up in my greedy little mind. The most important thing about this whole project is that I’m learning tons about Bitcoin, its blockchain, mining process, mining hardware, and mining pools. It is all very exciting to me – and that’s exactly how a good hobby should feel!
Congrats on finding an exciting hobby ! ! ! Life is about living and enjoying the small pleasures we can find between effort and boring ruts. Best to find a cheap simple do anywhere hobby that can give you pleasure : )
I am finding a few new things to try out to make myself a better person and continue with life long learning. Just enjoy yourself and have fun, do not get to obsessed lol ; )
Thank you, @crok! Not that I complain about my everyday job, but life is surely more exciting and meaningful with a hobby or two! :D My other interests and passions in life are languages (including Esperanto), travels abroad, and, periodically, fitness. I hope to get more serious and active about this last one soon. I am finding inspiration on your blog here on Steemit. And I’ll keep you posted, as always! ;)
Oh, and as to your ‘do not get too obsessed’ advice – it’s too late, my friend, too late!.. :D
Hello @oleg326756. I'm from the Philippines and I'm also interested in mining but the problem is I'm a total newbie. I know nothing about mining, all I know is that it's something that can be beneficial in terms of earnings. I hope you can help out. A few words would do.
By the way, how much was your investment of your new miner and at it's current rate, how many months will be its ROI?
Hi @juvyjabian,
Thank you for your questions! It’s okay – I consider myself a newbie too. :) I have spent a few months on this forum – bitcointalk.org | Mining speculation – reading and learning and asking questions, before I dared to start on my current mining adventure.
The questions you should ask yourself are, first and foremost: do you have space and noise tolerance levels in your current housing to host a miner? How much do you pay for electricity? What’s your ambient temperature and how do you plan to cool down the space where the miner will be working?
You may realise that the safest and the most profitable strategy for you is simply to buy bitcoins and holding them, enjoying the upward price movement. I think it’s the best investment one can make, long-term.
And, to answer your questions: I bought my miner for 0.55 BTC, shipping costs included. I am not sure it will ever mine enough to cover this expense. If it does so in the next 5–6 months, I will be very happy – and somewhat surprised. Of course, if the price of bitcoin goes up much higher than it is today, then maybe the coins that it will have mined will be worth more than its original price expressed in dollars or euros. But then again, the amount of bitcoin I paid for it would have been even more valuable then, right? Maybe the only way to make a profit on it will be to sell it at a fraction of the price I paid, once it has mined enough coins to cover the remaining fraction of the price. That way I could make it into a no-loss affair – if I manage to find a buyer for it.
Anyhow, making profit with this miner is not the main point of this experiment. The main purpose is to experiment, to learn, and to have fun. So far it has been a very fulfilling journey, I must say.
I have no problem with cost of electricity. Regarding the temperature control, I will be putting it inside a high air-condition room.
Like you I also wanted to explore mining because ever since I joined steemit, I always hear about mining. In fact I'm about to buy 5 surplus S3 but I'm kind of hesitant because I don't know yet how to use it.
By the way, why didn't you settle on S9 when it has the same price with what you got and has 3x hash power?
Same price? No, I don't think so. The miner itself would be 3–4 times (depending on the production batch) more expensive, plus I would need an external PSU that would cost as much as I paid for my entire miner. AND it would be even louder than mine, haha! :D
But I think that S3 is a great choice for a beginner miner. Wow, five of them! Please post updates on Steemit about your mining adventures, okay? And the best of luck to you, my friend!
Oh sorry there was a difference of $800 http://holybitcoin.com/product/bitmain-antminer-s9-12-93-ths/
S3 is good but according to the seller, the ROI would be 1 1/2 yr.
Thank you for sharing your experience.