Need your honest advice

Hey guys, I’ve got $800 just sitting around, and I’m ready to take a risk with it. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind losing it since I can make that back in about a month. I’m considering diving into Bitcoin mining solo with 30TH on CKPOOL. The good news is that I have free electricity, so that $800 would be my only investment, no extra costs down the line. But then there’s this other thought nagging at me what if I just buy $800 worth of Bitcoin and hold it for the next decade? I mean, I can totally see myself mining solo for 10 years, but if I just hold onto that Bitcoin for 10 years, which option do you all think is smarter? This question actually came from a buddy of mine who’s pretty savvy with crypto trading. He stopped by yesterday and asked me about it, and I told him I’d check with folks who know more than I do. So here I am asking you all if you were in my buddy’s shoes, which route would you take?

You want to solo mine bitcoin with a free electricity, but buy miner that is not more than $800. This is not advisable, it is better you just buy bitcoin, send it to your noncustodial wallet and hold it for the 10 years or more. The probability that you will mine a block with $800 miner is very low with the present mining difficulty.

Although electricity is definitely one of the most significant things for mining so getting free electricity is good, but mate with $800 what type of mining equipment are you getting with this amount definitely some obsolete equipment like a very Old ASIC which won’t be that efficient any more.   Plus then you’re mining solo at this period of time, I will definitely say you stand no chance using that equipment to get even a block against some of the mining pools with sophisticated equipment. For $800 investment in the next 10 years, I will guarantee that with what bitcoin has shown in the last 15 years even with a reduction of volatility now and in the future, at least an 8 to 10x of that investment is possible, which can still be more than that because we have seen a single cycle ( 4 years) having more than that.

That’s what I have in mind also because solo mining bitcoin using that capacity is just like a lottery, it’d be a very rare scenario for him to successfully mine a block even in that ten years to come…not to talk of other problem that might occur along the way. So if I’m personally going to advice this brother of yours, I’d advice him to buy the $800 worth of bitcoin and store it very safely and Hodl for the ten years. But for concluding which is better you’d like to ask if he’s down for the very low probability of making it in bitcoin miner by successfully mining and block or he would rather take a somehow lesser risk of just Hodling for that period of time..

With $800, you can not invest too much for ASICs and solo mining this way with limited mining hashrate, you will have very small chance of getting a Bitcoin block and rewards. It's like money wasting if you do that and my advice is using $800 for purchasing bitcoin and holding it for 8 years. During the 8 years, perhaps you will be able to spend more investment capital for your purchase,  more than $800 like you are planning with right now. I am quite sure that saving a little bit money for accumulating more satoshis in 8 years is not too challenging with you. If you want to surely get profit from initial $800 and even bigger capital than that, let's start your investment and try to not only maintain that portfolio but also expand it bigger with time.

You can also tell him that bitcoin is inflationary resistant and it is a good investment, he can just DCA with small amount of money for over a long period of time so that he will be able to hold more than  $800. If he can afford to lose $800 as he can see it in 4 weeks (which I am sure he is not going to lose but gain more money on it), he can start DCA. DCA with $50 and accumulate it for a longer period of time so that he can safe more than $800 and gain more.

I'm not a miner, but the word "free electricity" really got me hooked. I don't know where this is, but based on our time, such happiness can quickly stop, especially if we talk about a period of ten years. Investments for this amount, and perhaps not only for this amount, since you say that you will be able to return them in four weeks, which means that you will be able to replenish them regularly, will bring you more benefits, fewer costs, and, of course, better your own well-being. Ten years may seem like a long time, but time is fleeting if you start thinking about it seriously.

You have $800 that you can recoup in 4 weeks. And it means you can plan to buy $9,600 worth of Bitcoin over the course of a year or even twelve months. You can structure this as a better plan. And you don’t have to go to much trouble investing in Bitcoin, where you just need to be patient for the next ten years and even let it sit there. By the next halving cycle perhaps you’ll have made a significant profit or even by the cycle after that. I personally will buy Bitcoin, where I will simply choose to invest my money in Bitcoin for long-term holding. And next I will focus on increasing my income through other avenues.

If you can make $800 back in 4 weeks, I guess your salary is good enough so that you can plan your long term accumulation and investment rather than taking risk with solo mining. If you still want to take risk, try a lottery from solo mining, you can read this guide from fillippone: NERDMINER: Bitcoin lottery miners. Good luck with your try too but I don't want to take risk with $800 and even more with other costs later. Investment and hold coins for a long term are safer choices with me.

I think you don't need further debate again on this issue from the very replies under this post. Investing that amount in Bitcoin is far more profitable than investing such amount in mining. I'm confident in my assertion judging from Bitcoin historical record. If you can really hold Bitcoin for that long (10 years), your chances of making multiple folds of that amount is high. With that amount invested in mining is just like gambling. I know you don't mind gambling with it since you say you can afford to lose it and make it back in few weeks. But at least you shouldn't venture into bad or uncalculated gambling. The chances of you finding a block is very low with this set up.

mining bitcoin would give you faster return but holding bitcoin will most likely give you bigger returns especially if you plan to hold long term. mining bitcoin can be profitable if you know how to improve and expound. but if you just remain in a small bubble, it won’t be as profitable

Buying is holding is definitely better than solo mining, imo. He doesn't even need to buy with the whole $800 capital at once, he can do DCA, keep buying about $100 worth of Bitcoin every month for 8 months straight, and if he can manage to save more money in that time, he can continue buying even after that. This way, he will have a better overall buying price average, and if he plans to hold for the long-term, he should be able to get good profits once the next bull run arrives. I don't think he can do much with solo mining considering the difficulty and the competition in the market with all the major pools fighting against each other to mine as many blocks as possible. You also mentioned that he said that he can make it back in 4 weeks, which means that he has a good and stable source of income, so this confirms that buying Bitcoin through the DCA method is indeed the best solution for him. You should just ask him to start buying whenever he is ready, and then he should keep adding to his bag every month. Ask him to stay away from trading, people often think that if they get into futures, they can make $1600 from the $800 they have in a week, but they don't understand the risks involved, so it's better that he sticks to making investments only.

I have serious doubt about making back 800$ in 4weeks. That would mean steady and risky investments should both be considered with the money that comes in surplus if any. But as far as bitcoin mining is concerned, I would not recommend it. Unless the person lives in a country where it is ice cold and electricity is very low costing and the person can organize a mining farm with a decent number of ASICs and their maintenance. The person could buy bitcoin at small fractions on every drop and in parallel invest in traditional markets as well for a long term approach.

Get a higher paying job instead of making a 800 usd bet. That is the only option for you. Grow your money to 10k usd and above and then buy some stocks and btc. Meanwhile, keep saving and keep increasing your stash. 10 years later, It will be lots of money that's for sure but if you put 800 usd in btc and wait 10 years, it might disappoint you. Having 800 bucks only isnt the problem. you need a higher paying job, that's the only real solution to your problem.

Tell your buddy to play it safe and simply buy bitcoin with those $800, since the chances of it being worth significantly more in 10 years are reasonably high.

$800 of BTC in the next 10 years may not be worth more than $5000 or a price that is slightly above that which is think is still a very good return. You can encourage him to save higher which is good, but it is not about saying he should get higher paying job. Individual have different jobs and all fingers are not equal.

I want to understand something very clear before I can give you my advice, you said you have free electricity, please I want to be sure you are not making a mistake by saying, so if possible reply me by saying you or your friend have free electricity for mining bitcoin because I really don’t understand, is it that in the place you or your friend is staying they don’t pay for electricity or someone is paying it for you or him. However let me put out a little advice while waiting for your answer about free electricity, the both options are actually okay but only if truly you or your friend has free electricity he can use for mining but if that’s not true then I will advise he uses the money to accumulate and hold for 10 years that’s better.

I would define this like the "question" basic of entering in bitcoin. Also in this way you can get "privacy" coin, but you are assuming a big risk = getting 0. I see a defintely imbalance, based on your potential outcome desidered... Also, the answer could change in base of your time frame, in your equipment, even based in your technical/informatic knowledge. I would also count the "idea" to take a risk. Solo mining could even lead to NOTHING. The amount you plan to use it could define as a small fraction...

If he has completely free electricity, give me a number, I want to make a call.   If he doesn't care to throw $800 to the trash bin, then let him do it. If he's making $800 per month, and he is really thinking about winning the Bitcoin lottery, then he is a moron, no offense. What he should be doing is using those $800 to acquire knowledge that will increase his cashflow. Don't try to cheat the laws of the Universe. If you want money, you have to provide the proof-of-work. Do the work and get paid. Period.

Mining might be worth it with free electricity but do you also have space to run a miner? They're noisy, require a low moisture, low heat environment and produce a lot of heat. You can't realistically run an efficient miner in your room these days. Many people opt for co-location for these reasons. In any case, if you think you can host it without issues, here's a list of miners by efficiency: https://www.asicminervalue.com/ Do note though, the links to buy from this site aren't vetted. Better ask here if you can trust a site for buying machines.