Quote from: Keyser Soze on November 11, 2013, 07:19:41 PM

Quote from: mberg2007 on November 11, 2013, 07:06:26 PM

Hello all,

Many people will say that buying a block erupter is a bad idea because at the rate the network difficulty is rising, they will never produce enough bitcoints to break even.

I had an opportunity to discuss this with a friend today, and the fact is that you can actually still make money with a low yield device like a block erupter, so long as you pay for it in some form of fiat currency. This is true because of the rise in value of bitcoin against these currencies - a trend which is likely to continue.

For example, take a place like this (randomly picked, no affiliation). Buy a block erupter here for $15 and put it to work today.

According to the profit calculator at bitcoinx, the unit will produce 0.00033 btc/day at the current difficulty level. At $326/btc that's 0.10758 per day, which gives a ROI of 139 days. But, some say, difficulty increases will make the unit unable to ever break even.

Let's say the unit produces the promised 0.00033 btc/day for just one month. The total sum produced would then be 0,0099, or roughly 0.01 BTC. You paid $15 for it, so if the BTC/USD rate just swings up to $1500 you have in fact broken even. These are super conservative numbers, it is realistic to assume the unit will produce 0,03 if you let it run for a year I think. It is also likely that you will be able to buy them for $10 rather than $15. With these numbers the BTC/USD rate in one year will only have to be 334, which is pretty much where it already is (my guess is that in one year, BTC/USD will be close to $1000).

So, as long as you buy units with fiat currency, it should still be possible to not just break even but make a healthy profit with lowly block erupters.

What do you think?

-Michael

You should not include an exchange rate increase in your profit calculations. If you pay 0.04BTC (or the equivalent in another currency) for a device that will only produce 0.01BTC (after operating costs) in its lifetime, then it is not profitable. If you want to bet on bitcoins increasing in value over other currencies, then just buy bitcoins. This assumes your only motivation is profit.

This whole post is just to negate the buyers remorse. I've bought 27 of em for a few months ago for something like 6 BTC. I am currently at 1.11 BTC, if they pump out 2 BTC, given the current Bitcoin price, then I will have hit my ROI.
Off course there is a gap of 4 BTC and so the ROI in bitcoins hasn't been met, but in fiat money it can eventually break even.

Quote from: Littleshop on November 12, 2013, 11:22:20 PM

+100 Just buy bitcoins if you think prices are going to go that high. If you buy the Bitcoins straight up vs the erupters you are going to make a lot more money. Also remember that buying the Bitcoins ADDS to the Bitcoin ecosystem directly, buying block erupters adds to ASICMINERS bottom line instead.

That's the consensus now, now we've seen the ASIC rush. Now it makes more sense to buy em instead. But remember the first ASIC equipment? They made a lot.