After a break from mining for some time (when BTC difficulty and Butterfly labs couldn't keep up with demand) I've been pretty inactive in the scene simply trading a few BTC.

I've come to realise with the popularity of Monero, Dash and Etherium recently that there is still plenty of mining scope for GPU miners, something I probably didn't realise as I lost interest in Doge and Litecoin pretty early on. I like using the calculators on Crypto Compare and appreciate they are estimates only.

There are older posts on this topic but I've not seen a recent one comparing all of the options below I'd appreciate some support with:

• WHAT to mine - Current profitability and ROI suggest Ethereum or ZCash, typical ROI ~100 days, will this sustain beyond?
• BUY Option - Do I buy hardware? The pro is I'd own it, the con is short availability of hardware in the market and delay to receive, build and operationalise
• CONTRACT Option - Do I buy a mining contract, such as with Genesis. I won't own hardware but I may get some initial coins before complexity escalates. If I do get a contract, which coin should I mine for?
• LEASE Option - Do I buy mining on demand, such as at Nice Hash? Again I won't own hardware but I may get some initial coins. If I do get a contract, which coin should I mine for?
• TRADE Option - Do I buy and hold and not bother mining, trading between crypto's as price dicates?

I would prefer to own hardware, but if there is a good argument to contract or lease, I'd love to hear about it! Thanks in advance for your feedback and thoughts.

4 or 8Gb GPU? Isn't the speed what counts not the ram? Isn't 8gb a false economy? What are the pros and cons? 

Any alternatives?

I'm also curious to know if development has halted the last post? Shopify is too weighty for me as I only wish to list up to 20 items, a sample cart with Bitcoin as a payment module. I was looking into the Mycelium Payment System that looks powerful and can be dropped into any webpage however I too am looking for an out of the box version (not to mention the otherwise complex setup and use of such a gateway). Any suggestions?

Excellent thank you! If you're near London, beer on me!

Again I appreciate the reply. Have there been any major developments on wallets? Losing codes or having then hijacked was a concern. Only a couple seemed to support three way verification I'd really appreciate some 'best practice' suggestions and not for 1-2 BTC either..

Is this available in a wallet yet?

Thanks ChuckBuck. I'll read up on your suggestions and see the limits, account info etc. Many thanks for the suggestions.

Hi guys, I worked heavily with Bitcoin up until China abolished it as a form of payment, just before MtGox went down. I was very active and handled some serious coin, attending numerous meetups, conferences and financing expos, enjoying prices at their very highest. Since then I've drifted away and missed the giant thefts and news of 51% ownership unnerving some to name just two bumps in the road.

I still have need for crypto currency and am hopeful someone can kindly give me their low-down. Coinbase was new when I left and cashing in coins was still rather lumpy, exchanges slow or maximum withdrawals of sums less than school lunch money. So my question is who would you use to convert BTC to USD or EUR (or to another coin and then USD/EUR) safely and if possible anonymously? Bitstamp were highly priced and BTC-e took forever to exchange.

After a while people find tools that really do the job whether it be malware removal software or defragging software, the same must go for BTC. I would value input on tried and tested methods away from the quick win, high risk exchanges of the old days (well a couple of years). Your experienced suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all, I'm interested to know your experiences cashing out from various exchanges. Coinbase is tied to a major US bank and works consitently though their prices aren't as generous as some. MtGox usually offers higher rates but they have lots of bad press (that I've seen) on delays meaning, if you'd seen an arbitrage opportunity, it's lost over the time it takes to get your funds back, not to mention fees.

Please share any experiences about cashing out especially if you are a volume or frequent trader.

Thank you, I understand that 'eggs in a basket', I was really trying to understand the 3-way security used like escrow, I don't understand it properly. I have a lot of application for this if I can understand it?

Thank you for posting this work! So far I understand BTC is more traceable in the chain than cash in global circulation. What's to be done to improve security?

On a side note, if the heists are trackable, has anyone done any crunching to see how many bits of coin are lost or floating around? From lost wallets to abandoned fractional mining payments. Curious what this sum is worth and whether anything can be done - Also how this affects the inflation/deflation value of the coins.

How does this work, especially with regard to trading securely? Sites like Bitalo support the escrow functionality. In cases such as localbitcoins, if you're handing over cash for bitcoins, I'm ensuring I understand it properly. Please advise!

Hi all, I'm sticking to USD trades at present as more exchanges support it and the cost per USD coin is often less than cost per coin in GBP. If I send BTC shall we say to MTGox and sell, I have a balance on account of USD. On localbitcoins (LBC) I can choose to buy/sell in whatever currency.

I'm trying to understand where the currency rates are derived from and also whether I can buy bitcoins whilst holding bitcoins. If I have 1 BTC bought in USD and see an arbitrage in RUR or EUR, the only way I think I can trade this is to exchange my BTC for a currency on the exchange, such as BTC-e, then buy in that currency the relevant amount of BTC. This means I need to know my currency rates and transaction fees. Right now as I type, the actual interbank spot for EURUSD is 1.3668 and BTC-e is 1.26399, a huge difference of 1028 pips and I mean huge! (I used to make an annual salary on 40 pips) - I presume the exchange sets their own rates!

So back to LBC, if I have a bitcoin wallet of $1000 and a customer wishes to pay me in GBP for £500 worth of BTC, how is this rate transacted? I believe I build the exchange rate into the offer price based on the LBC selling tools, meaning the client buys from me 'if' they like my rate, much like an exchange does.

Online exchanges though, seem to have the largest spreads and hopping currencies does not seem viable, unless I am missing something or a site where this is easier? (Please advise) Bitstamp for example sticks rigidly to your registration currency and you can't pick and choose a currency.

Naturally I would not use ripple for many reasons and would advise anyone even considering it to do their homework!

My goal is to maximize arbitrage without drawing the cash. All feedback welcome.

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Hi all, can anyone send me a good link about how the three-way cryptography works. All trading companies must use this escrow feature for safety, like localcoins? I'm trying to understand how this works for conversion to cash.

I have posted in the newbie section as I am a new user but wish for this thread to be read, forwarded and considered by advanced users.

Dear all, I wish to complete a feasibility study on the viability of large scale mining as the first phase of a 3 phase business. I have personally spent a few weeks reading up on the hardware options from custom, bespoke mining hardware to off-the-shelf computer components. I often post paid research projects on Freelancer but seek greater expertise on this topic than I am likely to find on Freelancer.

My goal would be to ascertain the project viability, define a platform and project scope from basic forum discussion then, commission a bespoke study that will be remunerated.

Considerations that affect our project:

• Strong financial backing
• Free electricity
• Multi-site availability
• 120Mb Cable Internet
• Tax efficient corporate structure
• Additional stage 2 and 3 business opportunities
• Employment potential for engineers

I can be contacted directly here and look forward to your correspondence.