Quote from: Mentalfloss on January 29, 2014, 02:04:29 AM

Quote from: J_Dubbs on January 27, 2014, 02:30:24 AM

Quote from: Mentalfloss on January 27, 2014, 01:24:40 AM

Quote from: FalconFly on January 25, 2014, 11:31:21 AM

Quote from: boylin on January 25, 2014, 11:15:36 AM

what does everyone think of these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=191048412931&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

Terribly expensive...
Typical "looking for the greater fool" sale (approx. less than 60% ROI)...

I think by now it's safe to say it's impossible not to get a "greater fool" sale on EBay, as well as any shipping-ready low-end/medium-end hardware from a manufacturer. The only people making money there are the resellers.
Nothing on the market (ready-to-ship) seems to be even remotely able to ROI.
Everything else (high-priced pre-order gear) is the usual gamble.

IMHO if you have 900 quid to spend, buy BTC directly at a price you deem attractive.

I agree. During the gold rush those making the most money were those selling the tools. With difficulty shooting for the moon the 10 GH/s blades I'm running will be obsolete soon. Anyone paying more than $10 a G/Hs is sure to loose money.

You know this thinking is fundamentally flawed, right? "Anyone paying more than $10 a g/his is sure to lose money". Under-schooled message forum economists have been saying that for months now, but the truth is nobody knows the future value of BTC, which if trending upwards blows your entire theory out of the water. Buying in BTC is one thing, and mining versus trading carry opportunity costs as any decision does, but you put it in terms of dollar returns and it's entirely based on a future value unknown. The misinformation is so widespread here I know it's pointless to try to enlighten folks, but if BTC goes up in value a lot of people will find themselves wearing The Emporer's New Clothes, hope you like the fit.

I'll concede that you may be correct. But only as far as wishing for a miracle. Even if BTC starts trading at $10,000 there is so much hashing power being added any ASIC we can buy will never reach ROI. Do you think the >20% increase in difficulty every 2k blocks is from people buying ASIC's on eBay? There are one or more entities out there pumping up some serious data centers full of ASICs. My theory is it is the outfit that was selling the ASICMiner Erupter Blades and Cubes. I can't remember who that was, one name leading the group was Friedkat or something, supposedly they started selling these units because they reached 30% of hashing power and for the health of the network stopped building and sold units instead. Supposedly they stopped selling them now because they "are working on a new model" Yeah, right, stop selling a profitable unit...my arse. GHash.IO exploded on the scene, so these guys stopped selling chips and resumed building. The two of them and probably others are in an arms race for the most coin, squashing us with these rises in difficulty, whatever the cause is I am far from being fundamentally flawed.

And the little guy is just getting squeezed out, further and further. I keep a spreadsheet of Bitcoin CZ, of all the blocks and times, and average them by day, and it's been interesting and depressing to watch the time-to-find-a-block rise and rise, as the daily reward lowers, and not just because of the difficulty rise. The problem I think, and I'm sorry if this makes me sound like a whiny baby, but the problem is big business seeing yet more dollar signs to reap/rape, and millions being invested by them, etc. I just hope that they are as disappointed as I am when all their hardware is useless crap because of a few more block reductions, difficulty in the trillions and so on. I'm sure they'll find some other soft virgin flesh to tear into at that time. Greed is what drives the world, I guess, and I even admit to my share, but hell, all I wanted was my share. This time a year ago, price of BtC notwithstanding, my share was still pretty good. I've got ten times the hash power now, and I'm not doing crap. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

BTW, that pool that's now the largest, I can't remember the name, the one that has got over the 51% barrier, is that a private pool?

russell