What do people really think about crypto and mining now?

[irishbeast]

I've watched tons of videos, with very different opinions about whats happening next. Generally positive but my personal experience since I started with crypto and mining 18 months ago has not been good. yes I was a late adoptor but was still led to believe it was profitable. 

 

Spend a few grand on kit and Bitcoin in particular seems to be constantly low now. Glad I only have a small amount in there. I have given up on mining now completely as due to the energy prices here in the uk it's basically impossible to make profit. 

 

I have had a few people saying to just withdraw everything and wait for it to stabilise and that seems like good advise as every time I check my wallet its gone down. I moved some funds to Doge coin and the rest is in BTC. Just seems a constant decline. I really cant see it suddenly shooting up in value. Although there is a temptation to invest it BC as its so low now but that could be more money down the pan. 

 

What do people think about it all? Could it get worse before it gets better? Theres no point in me withdrawing my funds now as it would be a significant loss so I might as well leave it in but its becoming very disheartening seeing the funds fall. Even when I had 8 GPUs going at full steam the increase was small. My energy for my computer and rigs is about £4 a day and I cannot get that back mining, well I could with a pittance of a profit. Might be useful for heating in winter but thats about it!

 

Just curious what people think about the whole crypto situation, mining etc. Please say where you live also if you choose to respond. I think the UK is doomed for mining, but some other countries might not be. Just my personal opinion from a bit of bad experience. 

[Fasauceome]

"line goes up" by folding ideas has left a very significant impact on people's perception of crypto and NFTs. Without knowledge of how negatively mining impacts the environment and how prevalent insider trading/pump n dumps are, people were cool with "live and let live" but the impact is a lot more visceral now. Over time I've seen a lot more open hostility towards crypto, and I feel a lot less favorable towards it.

 

U.S. perspective.

[Eigenvektor]

3 minutes ago, irishbeast said:

I think the UK is doomed for mining, but some other countries might not be.

The difficulty of mining increases over time by design. The faster the network gets, the higher the difficulty gets. This means you need to pour more and more resources into it, jut to maintain the same level of output. It was always going to be unmaintainable from an energy-cost perspective, unless you get electricity for free. It's a waste of resources that will, at best, profit the lucky few who got in early enough and can continue to scale up.

[Alex Atkin UK]

12 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

The difficulty of mining increases over time by design. The faster the network gets, the higher the difficulty gets. This means you need to pour more and more resources into it, jut to maintain the same level of output. It was always going to be unmaintainable from an energy-cost perspective, unless you get electricity for free. It's a waste of resources that will, at best, profit the lucky few who got in early enough and can continue to scale up.

Indeed, it was never meant to be profitable - just encouragement to participate in the project.  The fact people could suddenly make a ton of money out of it was absolutely the opposite of what was supposed to happen.

Personally I think the whole concept of cryto-currency is bad and it should illegal due to the huge waste of resources and especially the environmental damage for no actual gain to society as a whole.  I myself chose to do Folding@Home rather than Crypto, because it can help heat my home while benefiting medical science, something actually useful to society.

I don't blame people for trying to make back their investment on a GPU with Crypto, but people who buy a ton of GPUs just to profit from it I feel should really have a good think about the moral implications of this.  The only exception is if they are using their own generated electricity such as solar, I'm somewhat okay with that as at least they aren't contributing to energy shortages and polluting the planet. (yes making and disposing of solar panels is not exactly clean, but its at least an attempt to be cleaner)

[onlybuilt4cubanxlinx]

I think it can keep dropping so I can keep buying.

[irishbeast]

2 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Indeed, it was never meant to be profitable - just encouragement to participate in the project.  The fact people could suddenly make a ton of money out of it was absolutely the opposite of what was supposed to happen.

Personally I think the whole concept of cryto-currency is bad and it should illegal due to the huge waste of resources and especially the environmental damage for no actual gain to society as a whole.  I myself chose to do Folding@Home rather than Crypto, because it can help heat my home while benefiting medical science, something actually useful to society.

I don't blame people for trying to make back their investment on a GPU with Crypto, but people who buy a ton of GPUs just to profit from it I feel should really have a good think about the moral implications of this.  The only exception is if they are using their own generated electricity such as solar, I'm somewhat okay with that as at least they aren't contributing to energy shortages and polluting the planet. (yes making and disposing of solar panels is not exactly clean, but its at least an attempt to be cleaner)

 

Very interesting responses so far. I have highlighted something I found particularly interesting and very true. 

 

People (like me) using a ton of hardware to draw energy which was more material gain but quickly (1 year) realised its a waste of time for most. Most of my kit will end up sold on for a pittance or e-waste, which I can be guilty off.

 

I have stuff I would sell for next to nothing but the likes of a corsair PSU is not worth very much but the postage is significant because of the weight of it. Have about 4 of them, motherboard, ram, SSDs, pretty much everything and loads of other stuff that would be great would be awesome for a buyer but I don't have time to list it all. Ebay has locked me out and its impossible to get my account back it seems so will probably end up throwing a lot of stuff away. 

 

Local pawn shop buys stuff but the prices are a disgrace. Might be able to get rid of some 480/580s but doubt they will buy PSUs, memory, storage. Local computer shop went out of business last. 

[JogerJ]

Crypto is weird. It claims to be a currency but everyone treats it as a commodity. Most people who want to get into crypto is in it for the money/profit and not to use cryptocurrency as actual currency, especially NFT. I don't think this is the correct mindset to deal with cryptocurrency sustainably. 

 

EU pretty much isn't winning with how energy prices are right now. I barely make any profit lately or at least break even. If cryptocurrency is ever going to have a future, it definitely won't be with POW. 

 

For now i think most people are looking to crypto as an investment, as in to store money in a different form. With current rates of inflation people tend to hold commodities instead of money in hope that they hold value better.

[Error 504]

7 hours ago, JogerJ said:

Crypto is weird. It claims to be a currency but everyone treats it as a commodity. Most people who want to get into crypto is in it for the money/profit and not to use cryptocurrency as actual currency, especially NFT. I don't think this is the correct mindset to deal with cryptocurrency sustainably. 

 

EU pretty much isn't winning with how energy prices are right now. I barely make any profit lately or at least break even. If cryptocurrency is ever going to have a future, it definitely won't be with POW. 

 

For now i think most people are looking to crypto as an investment, as in to store money in a different form. With current rates of inflation people tend to hold commodities instead of money in hope that they hold value better.

maybe... gold? gold doesn't increase in value as much as crypto, but gold probably holds value better in terms of stability, and i think gold makes decent conductor, so if its value goes to zero, people can melt down a gold bar and use it to make some mobo.

[dogwitch]

18 hours ago, Error 504 said:

maybe... gold? gold doesn't increase in value as much as crypto, but gold probably holds value better in terms of stability, and i think gold makes decent conductor, so if its value goes to zero, people can melt down a gold bar and use it to make some mobo.

gold has  not been the most value metal.  for years now