We often talk about hashrate, but what about how easy it is to get started?
For solo miners, the costs can be pretty steep beyond just lottery mining. Is it turning into a luxury pursuit, or is it still crucial for the network's strength?
You mean having ASIC units? Nowadays, brand-new units are expensive; if you seek profitability, new model units could provide you better profitability. The only problem is if you are living in a country with expensive power costs.
Most people, I think, treat it more as a hobby and try their luck to hit a block than use a lottery miner to help the network.
I don't think both are contradictory though. If it's easy to mine and get rewards, the the network would be flooded with bad actors instead. I think it's a trade-off that's quite fair. While you can say earlier days are different, I'd say something like this should be expected given that we have difficulty adjustment and whatnot. If you're solo mining, I think placing your expectation on the lower side (of getting the rewards) should be expected too. CMIIW.
Solo mining is practical possible but if you have very small mining hashrate, you are mining for fun and wait for a lottery ticket to knock your doors with a Bitcoin block and a fortune.
The network security are from Bitcoin mining hashrate and solo miners don't actually contribute too much in hashrates. There is another factor for Bitcoin network security, Bitcoin full nodes and if solo miners run their own Bitcoin full nodes, it's another contribution to Bitcoin blockchain security.
You can try with Nerd solo mining with this mining guide from fillippone
NERDMINER: Bitcoin lottery miners
Bitcoin mining history.
It's both. You are doing solo mining as a hobby, hoping to hit the lottery but don't put too much of an expectation, on the other side you also increased decentralization of hashrate by participating to the network.
If you want sustainability you would've joined mining pool.
However, there are cases where solo mining actually become very profitable like when you got free electricity.
Solo mining is someone's own choice and nothing else, if the person who does solo mining somehow finds a block even in 5 years he's lucky I believe.
But, only lucky ones might find blocks using solo mining these days because hash rate of network is quite high and solo mining with top ASIC miner will still not be enough to find a block easily.
Although, there's probability of finding a block but sometimes people don't find one for decades. So I believe it's better to join a pool when mining rather than trying solo mining.
Solo mining is the last thing that should be luxury, infact it should be the easiest for everyone
Because you don't have to burn 3500 Watts every hour all because of solo mining unless you really can afford to.
BitAxe and Canaan home miners exists because of this,
It's a good lottery to play, as you just have to spend once or twice and never look back until you get lucky or never get lucky.
I set up my solo miners using solar panels and batteries, they have been up for months.
And guess what? I was aa gambler and now I hardly gambles.
Some part of me feels the freedom
That I am trying to be lucky elsewhere too.
It's a money well spent even though I haven't solved a block yet.
It's lottery and hobby jammedpack in one box, those who aren't hobby miners end up complaining after a short period of time and they end up selling their miner later.
You can't fake solo mining, it tells real quick, in a short period of time, you will easily be triggered if you are not already a fan of crypto mining.
I can remember I helped a guy bought a BitAxe and after a month he started asking when it will hit a block, I instantly regret helping him out, I was the one that ended up buying from him to have my rest of mind back.
What if I told you that those unknown miners that we think are getting a lottery may not see it like that? Many of them are groups of people that come together with lower mining hash rate to get the luck. Some of them are good in mathematics and still generally a mining hash rates that they think will be good to have high chance of getting a block reward within their calculated days.
The previous messages are rich !
For me I would say that Solo mining is increasingly just a lottery against today's hash rate; do you think collective pooling is the only viable path left to keep the spirit alive?
Mining is not a "hobby". It's a highly competitive job, where one miner wins by the loss of another miner. It's perhaps one of the most competitive fields to be. Playing the lottery is what solo mining is now. Nothing wrong with lottery per se, just understand you don't have chances to succeed if you find this a hobby. It won't be like, "oops I succeeded at football, that I didn't play" kind of things.
Of course. It's like a giant industry nowadays. Let's say you can make a mobile phone at home. That's a lot of work but you will still make much more money being an engineer at Apple.
Don't treat it like a hobby unless you can afford throwing a lot of money on it.
If solo mining is a complete competitive job as suggested, how do we prevent the network from moving to entire centralization by those who can afford investing a lot of money on it?
One thing is solo mining for whatever reason (at some scale could be rather profitable).
The other thing is solo mining in attempt to challenge Bitcoin's decentralisation. In which case it's not even about the money, but about gathering enough of actual hardware power (basically impossible) and locating it somewhere with enough space, electricity and cooling (basically impossible).
Money alone won't get you any of that. At the moment there's no such threat, imho.
Bitcoin's decentralization via hardware power is practically impossible due to logistical constraints like space, electricity, and cooling; therefore, there is no threat of centralization.
Well, I don't know about you or other persons here but personally, I've always seen bitcoin mining as a luxury kind of hobby, this is if one takes it as a hobby anyway.
And the reason is because getting all the machines requires to mine bitcoin successfully is not just expensive, it's very expensive, i can bet that today, more than 70% of those in bitcoin can not afford bitcoin mining equipment assuming they wanted to become a bitcoin miner.
Now, being able to afford the type of ASIC miners that can successfully mine bitcoin profitably is one thing, and it's another thing entirely to live in a city where energy or electricity is constantly available and also affordable, cus we all know that mining Bitcoin consumes alot of electrical energy, this is why I always feel that mining Bitcoin is an activity only the rich can engage in, because to be honest, If bitcoin mining gears were cheap and affordable to the common or average person out there, and mining doesn't require the level or amount of electricity it requires, I personally would have loved to a bitcoin miner, infact, I would have been mining Bitcoin from a long time ago.
Luxury hobby is a kind of thing for sports/rare cars, watches, jewelries, i just heard about it in solo miners but if you consider their standings compare to other big mining pools, i guess, that's a kind they actually are and it make sense, especially for people who already understand that profit isn't the main goal.
Because as a hobby they are paying for, excitement of potentially finding a block lol and supporting the network.
Solo mining is a lottery indeed unless you are able to spend tens of millions to build your mining farm.
Most rig owners are taking the mining pool path because it's a sure way to earn bitcoin and you can calculate your profit vs money you spent running your rigs.
Not just a viable path, but overwhelmingly the path that majority choose.
It's a waste of time and money and expensive hobby, unless you have asic miners and ''free'' electricity.
Note that bitcoin mining is currently not profitable at all, and even big miners are mining with a loss.