Is LiteCoin Worth it?

[updawg]

https://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/1s2clt

After reading this post I am wondering if I am investing time into something that will not return a profit. I was going through the calculators and it seems to get an ROI takes much longer than I initially thought.

What do you guys think? Is it too late to get started?

 

[Oklahoma Wolf]

There's a reason why I started out only buying 270s. That reason is the impending shipment of dedicated Scrypt ASIC miners, and inevitable difficulty increase... if it all goes belly up tomorrow, I'm not going to be out much.

Currently, I'm about two weeks away from that card paying for itself. At the end of that time, I'll take a look and see where the Litecoin landscape is at, and then buy another 270X if I like what I see.

Right now, it's still worth it for me but all the extra hashrate on the network lately has cut into profits quite a bit. Difficulty has gone up without the exchange rate going up with it. I was afraid that would happen once everybody got their Christmas Radeons and started hashing with them.

It's definitely a gamble. The exchange rate could go back up to $40 tomorrow, or it could remain stagnant, or crash and never recover. My best advice is, as with any gamble, only bet what you can afford to lose. That's what I'm doing.

 

[updawg]

I have a 7950 and was planing to branch out with an additional 3 cards, affordability luckily isn't an issue for me, but I was hoping to setup a 2400-3000 KH/s machine. I was going to make an investment of about $1200 on second hand cards, I thought by my initial calculations they would turn a profit after about 3 months, however that reddit post leads me to believe that is not the case.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Difficulty is set to drop later today. But it will cotiue rising.

Good approach okw. Smart.

Definitely worth doing, but only in a way with acceptable risk. Plan for the worst in difficulty increases, know how long before your investment pays off - being optimistic in planning can lose you money.

Ultimately it is a persona decision. If I buy 10,000 in cards it may take 3 months to pay them all off, if difficulty cooperates... But if I know I can earn $2000 in the first month, and some after that though a bit less, AND I am convinced LTC will be many more times more valuable in the future... Then in a couple years that $2000 worth of LTC could be worth $15000. That would be worth it, even if my initial math says the $10,000 investment may be unprofitable before it pays itself off.

So the answer also depends if you need to sell the LTC immediately to get back your investment cost, or if you can let it ride long term.

In my experience, you can take quick gains by trading, however it is more reliable to make consistent small gains by mining. But its also an option to just take that money you would spend on a miner, buy LTC with it, then sell when value goes up. Take the profit you make, put it in a savings account, and put that initial investment money back into LTC when the market drops, sell again when it rises, repeat. Sounds easier than it is. I'm playing with small funds I trading, about $100 bucks now. Also mining with what I have.

 

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Good approach okw. Smart.

Thanks. I got into the game late, and I know it

I personally think the exchange rate will go up yet now that the network hashrate looks to be stabilizing. But am I counting on it? Nope. I only make $6k a year, so if I'm not smart about this I could easily lose everything.

 

[eaglescouter]

Rules of investing:
Do not invest what you cannot afford to loose.
Do not invest in what you do not understand.
If 'everyone' is doing x, it is probably a good time to do y.

 

[updawg]

The purpose of this thread was not to illicit the basic advice of not investing what you can't afford to lose, but to question if mining has reached a point where it is cost prohibitive to get started.

Are we at a point where the difficulty is going to increase at a much greater rate than the value of the coin itself.

 

[eaglescouter]

The purpose of this thread was not to illicit the basic advice of not investing what you can't afford to lose, but to question if mining has reached a point where it is cost prohibitive to get started.

Are we at a point where the difficulty is going to increase at a much greater rate than the value of the coin itself.

That is a hard question to answer so let me give you two answers:
1. I started LTC mining in December and I have new hardware coming online today.

2. Unfortunately when I ask my crystal ball questions about economic viability 60 days from now it always tells me the 'for best results ask in 60 days'.

 

[wagex]

il have my 280x tomorrow, but, financials looked good.. and i was wanting a new video card anyways and so i got it lol.
dat mine breh.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

The purpose of this thread was not to illicit the basic advice of not investing what you can't afford to lose, but to question if mining has reached a point where it is cost prohibitive to get started.

Are we at a point where the difficulty is going to increase at a much greater rate than the value of the coin itself.

No.

Also, difficulty didn't end up dropping today as network hash rate spiked to around 135GH/s. It changes in 10 minutes and looks like a less than 1% increase.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

The question you're asking has an answer which depends upon how you go about joining in the mining.

For example, if you have to build a ground up miner with a mobo, cpu, ram, psu(s) and gpu's, then it's a much longer time frame to break even.

If you're buying a gpu to throw in your daily to mine with, I don't see any hesitations in mining. The card will earn LTC, and then when you think you're done, you can sell the card too (or keep it and get a free card plus a little extra).

Difficulty increases have always been part of the mining scene. And they can be pretty well anticipated and calculated so you know when the card(s) will pay themselves off. As long as you aren't taking out a loan to buy the cards, who cares if the money is in the form of LTC and gpu's for 3 months?

 

[updawg]

Do ASIC scrpyt miners scare any of you?

https://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/1v9e8z

 

[Janus67]

A little bit, but more so when they begin to be wider spread. The cost/benefit isn't really there yet (minus the power savings), as you get about 3MHs for $1300, that is a bit better than 3 high end cards (290/290X) but not hugely so (minus the power savings).

 

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Do ASIC scrpyt miners scare any of you?

https://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/1v9e8z

Not really... my whole investment strategy is built around dealing with them when the time comes. One of the main reasons I'm being exceedingly cautious with my new GPU fund. For now, I have serious doubts those things are going to be worth the money, at least right away. To begin with they're going to be in short supply, very expensive, and may not be any more cost effective than GPU mining.

Should they prove otherwise, I'm hoping I got into the game soon enough to eventually get one and still be in the game. But I think they're going to have a much more uphill battle to get into the market than the Bitcoin ASICs did.

Could be wrong, which is why I'm sticking to the 270X's

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I'll be honest; I'm a little worried about them.

I'm still a small time miner fighting hard to keep my head above the mining waters.

So if those are a hit, I'll be down and out because I only have my trusty 6850 mining....

 

[I.M.O.G.]

ASICs are the long mining game, not worried about them. The first generation ones for scrypt just aren't that good. The lower power usage may pay off long term, as when GPUs don't earn more than they cost in power, ASICs will have extra room to keep running as they are so low power. 2nd or 3rd gen could change that but even first gen seems a ways off before actual ASICs are shipped and in common use.

 

[shadowdr]

That article was written what, 45 days ago and they were assuming a steady 40.00 USD LTC rate which is now around 24.00? Even though the difficulty estimates were off, the drop in price puts the estimates pretty well in line with profitability. It also assumes that electricity is free, if anyone has looked at their bill lately they know it is not. We just got our bill the other day and saw a significant increase due to the price of coal and diesel, not to mention the federal tax increases. Strange considering that we are 100% hydro electric around here. Me, I would say this ship has sailed, it has more of a feel of sitting at a black jack table in Reno, you can drink for free but the house has the odd's.

 

[ZL1]

sorry, but I will have to strongly disagree shadow, the ship hasnt sailed at all, the winds are simply lazier
- price dropped, but its remarkably steady at the current rate, which is reassuring to me for one
- difficulties always change, its only normal and i always advise to keep that in mind, but note that they do go down at times too
- even at current rate and diff + say an electric of 0.20$ per kw, it is still profitable to run two 280x on ltc, let alone on smart trade alt coins
very generous power estimates https://www.litecoinpool.org/calc?h...171415&power=800&energycost=0.20&currency=USD


granted this game is not for everyone and if its not carefully planned and accounted it may not be a good investment, but for me, for me I invested 1.2k since November and i brought in 800 so far, 400 to go and im ready to reinvest, because profit, its all profit, the hardware will still be mine no matter what happens to the crypto-market

 

[Acuradude]

sorry, but I will have to strongly disagree shadow, the ship hasnt sailed at all, the winds are simply lazier
- price dropped, but its remarkably steady at the current rate, which is reassuring to me for one
- difficulties always change, its only normal and i always advise to keep that in mind, but note that they do go down at times too
- even at current rate and diff + say an electric of 0.20$ per kw, it is still profitable to run two 280x on ltc, let alone on smart trade alt coins
very generous power estimates https://www.litecoinpool.org/calc?h...171415&power=800&energycost=0.20&currency=USD


granted this game is not for everyone and if its not carefully planned and accounted it may not be a good investment, but for me, for me I invested 1.2k since November and i brought in 800 so far, 400 to go and im ready to reinvest, because profit, its all profit, the hardware will still be mine no matter what happens to the crypto-market

So true I completely agree with u zl1 that's why im not to worried about my plans of buying up 290xs I already want them and if mining goes belly up ill sell what I dont need and have a blast with whats left. I am a pc parts ***** anyways lol and everybody knows it!!!!!!

 

[ZL1]

oh ya very good point, its fun for us hardware junkies as its a perfect excuse to buy stuff we already want )) as long as its within reason