Hey folks,
I wanted to start a chat about my experiences with Bitcoin mining. My setup isn't huge, but it's not tiny either kind of in between. Hoping my story connects with some of you or leads to some interesting discussions.
How It All Started: Mining in a Bakery Basement
So, my mining journey kicked off in August 2023 when I made an impulsive decision to buy an S19J Pro+ from a buddy who owned a bakery in London. This miner had just been sitting in the basement of his shop for who knows how long. I shelled out £2,500 probably a bit too much but I was just pumped about the thought of passively earning BTC and messing around with the gear.
That turned out to be a big mistake. I basically just left it sitting in my bedroom and kinda forgot about it. With insane electricity prices, annoying noise, and heat, there was no way I could run it at home. After letting it gather dust for six months, I finally found a hosting service in the US in February 2024. Shipping the miner across the ocean felt like a big gamble, but thankfully, everything went smoothly, and the uptime was fantastic. I really should’ve found these guys six months earlier and started mining when it was easier.
Expanding: From the US to the UAE
By March 2024, I found a hosting provider in the UAE with better prices. I decided to take another chance and bought 2 S21s from them. Things went well, and I quickly ramped up, ending up with seven S21s in just a month. I also moved my S19J Pro+ from the US to Mexico after the hosting fees got too high. My plan was straightforward: just accumulate as much as I could.
Thanks for this story as i think mining is neat and hope to eventually establish something.
I picked up a used miner at the tail end of the 21' bull run and it lasted about a week. I bought another one that had about the same life span and just got a third that seemed to suffer the same fate. I recently bought a bitaxe that fortunately hasn't died but it also isn't making any money. The allure of a machine that you plug in and makes money is just neat. Unfortunately for me mining has been burning more cash than it generates. The guy I got the third miner from regrets the buy cause he bought towards the top of the 21' bull run and could have basically got 1/2 of bitcoin for what he paid for his miners.
One of my dreams is to mine with solar, I have a little land that it could be feasible but that route is pricey. Residential electric is getting ridiculous, but as solar and batteries continue to get cheaper its looking more and more feasible. To do it at your scale would be a considerable investment.
Just need to juggle work and life and throw this into the mix.
Keep growing your fleet and good luck!
Are you buying them from the same seller? Sounds like the seller sold you a dying rig. You must be extremely unlucky if you bought three products from three different sellers that died within a week. Do you think your set up, electricity voltage, etc might contribute to this short life span? Don't they offer insurance or something similar? My experience buying second hand devices (phones, etc) in my local marketplace usually comes with a 1 week guarantee.
What miner exactly did you buy at that time?
If that's a Bitmain unit, you may be running these units in an isolated area without exhausting all the hot air out of the room, which is why they end up dying.
Are the units dead? or do they still have power, lights open, and are fans spinning?
In case if it's not totally dead, you can still be able to repair them. If you can access the dashboard and go to kernel logs, you can be able to determine what the cause of your mining issue.
However, if it's totally dead, then maybe it's just a power supply; why not try to repair them? There are some guides on zeusbtc that you can follow, including how to repair control board and hashboard check them from this link below
- https://www.zeusbtc.com/asic-miner-troubleshooting/
I enjoyed reading about your experience with mining. More miners share their experience more if they have the time.
Most of what you have shared would not be possible in the African region where I live. Just imagine the cost you incurred and multiply it by 10 times more. That is almost how much it would cost to have the same experience with you.
The main highlight for me was that you viewed mining as a long-term bet on Bitcoins future value and I will keep this in mind because even though I haven't started yet, I agree with you and share in this view.
That's unfortunate. I'd love more miners in other continents outside of the US, China, etc, but it's not possible if the cost is extraordinarily high. Even in my country mining is much more expensive nowadays. That's just how it is if you're late to the party, especially after crypto got popular and mentioned quite often in the media. You might want to try mining other coins if you're looking to gain some experience though, It might be useful if you got the opportunity to participate in mining Bitcoin in the future. CMIIW.