Just thought I would share.

[Joshua_Mahr]

As some of you know and some don't, I am into a hobby and venture called Bitcoin. It has done great things for me (make money & pay for hardware). I just thought I would give y'all a heads up. There is a company called Butterfly Labs that I get hardware from. They are coming out with a new product and I thought if you were interested in the idea you could check it out and maybe make some money too. They have products for all budgets. From 159.00 to 29,000. Please ask me if you need any help or would like to just try it out on the hardware you have. Ask Cody, I got lots of computer stuff due to the hobby(like 11 HD7970's hehe).

[werty316]

I first heard about Bitcoin back when it first broke out however I never really got into it since I couldn't find any solid information about the amount of overhead(initial cost & power consumption) compared to the return(profit).

One thing that concerns me is that the hashrates mentioned on several sections on their website doesn't equate to the amount mentioned on the products page.

I also wonder what the power consumption is for each product.

[CDsDontBurn]

Bitcoin, as in Bitcoin miner?

[Joshua_Mahr]

Yea Bitcoin Mining. Werty I can answer all your questions.. The single(what I ordered 4 of) is 1299. for 60Ghash at max 80W.

Compaired to my current farm of over 20GPU's at 12GHash and 3200W, it's nothing.

[CDsDontBurn]

So, how does it work? Is it like the Kickstarter program where you invest some money and you get something out of it?

[werty316]

I know that 60Ghash is crazy but holy crap :eek2: 60 GH/s at 80W! That's crazy insane.

How many coins does 60Ghash produce? If you don't mind me asking, based on current prices, what sort of value do you get per coin (after exchange fees)? I understand if you do not wish to divulge such info since there are people who don't like to mention their bitcoin return. PM me if you choose to or not and I will understand either way.

I don't know whether this was true or not but I remember reading a while ago on [H]'s forums that some users netted roughly $10k from bitcoining. I can't remember the time frame it took for them to get that many coins with that much value but I believe it was a short period.

[altereDad]

Looks interesting, but I would be as leery as others in regards. I guess it takes that leap of faith.

[TehYoyo]

Yeah can you guys give us a for-beginners summary of what exactly Bitcoin-farming is, how to start, etc?

Is it one of those "invest in this internet thing and make lots back!" things?

[altereDad]

TehYoyo, I believe you can get some basics from the website video.
http://www.weusecoins.com/

[Joshua_Mahr]

I do not mind telling yall anything. Werty: If you were to plug in the 60GH/s unit right now it would get you about 9BTC a day, or 118USD a day. You have to figure that the network will adjust though for these units coming online.

To give you my story. I started in May of 2011. With a 600.00 investment. Now I have 4 P67 i7-2600k w 2 or 3 HD7970's each. My rig 3770K w 2 HD7970. Plus many other parts. I have cashed out 5600.00 over the last year and a half also.. So total of about 10K made since May2011 with only a 600.00 investment.

Keep the questions coming. I would really like to see others do what I was able to do, or at least close.

[Joshua_Mahr]

If you go to bitcointalk.org you can find lots of info on how to start.

If you have a AMD GPU. You can start mining now. Let me know what you have and I can help more.

I would not call it a get rich quick thing but. I did ok.

[ET3D]

Would be interesting to fold on the CPU and mine on the GPU. But I think I'll stick to shutting the PC off for now.

[werty316]

118USD is not bad at all and if the market price doesn't fluctuate like a bunch of mountains you'll get a nice chunk of spending $. Very interesting...

I just noticed that you said you ordered four of single units :eek2:

[CDsDontBurn]

I think I might be interested in this myself. So, what's the initial investment? Building a system that can run the miner at a decent pace?

The thing for me would be my electric bill. Right now I'm averaging $30/mo and if it increases significantly, bitcoin would have to be enough to at least cover the increased electric bill.

Also, how often does it pay out? is it twice a month, once a month, quarterly, bi-annually?

[Joshua_Mahr]

You get payments from mining whenever you choose. You can invest whatever you want, but I would look at it as a hobby don't do any all for broke investing. Like I sad I ordered quite a few products from BFLabs. But you can get your foot in the door for just 159.00. To spend money on a new GPU at this point would not be wise. You can also get there older product the BFL single. It's 80W at 850MH/s. Then you can also trade those in at 100% toward and ASIC when they are released.

CD's do you have an AMD/ATI Gpu?

[Joshua_Mahr]

Looks interesting, but I would be as leery as others in regards. I guess it takes that leap of faith.

Really no leap of faith it's all math.

[Joshua_Mahr]

I just noticed that you said you ordered four of single units :eek2:

Yea I would like to keep earning at least a grand a month.

[CDsDontBurn]

You get payments from mining whenever you choose. You can invest whatever you want, but I would look at it as a hobby don't do any all for broke investing. Like I sad I ordered quite a few products from BFLabs. But you can get your foot in the door for just 159.00. To spend money on a new GPU at this point would not be wise. You can also get there older product the BFL single. It's 80W at 850MH/s. Then you can also trade those in at 100% toward and ASIC when they are released.

CD's do you have an AMD/ATI Gpu?

So I have to buy into the program then to get started? Not sure if I could do it then if I have to do that then since I'm pretty cash strapped and will be for a while at least.

As for GPU, I'm going to be building my system sometime this week and it will have a 7870 :). I also have nearly enough parts to build me another computer - slower - computer and I have a 4670 I can throw in there.

[Joshua_Mahr]

So I have to buy into the program then to get started? Not sure if I could do it then if I have to do that then since I'm pretty cash strapped and will be for a while at least.

As for GPU, I'm going to be building my system sometime this week and it will have a 7870 :). I also have nearly enough parts to build me another computer - slower - computer and I have a 4670 I can throw in there.

There is no buy in. You can use you HD7870 and start right away. The 4670 wont work. 5xxx or above.

[CDsDontBurn]

There is no buy in. You can use you HD7870 and start right away. The 4670 wont work. 5xxx or above.

Awesome! So, I guess I would need to make an account then?

[Pablo 54]

5770 doing nothing right now. looks interesting.

[Cody_Irwin]

Damn josh, Quit reminding me of how much I gotta come live in your garage and do all this with you...lol

[Joshua_Mahr]

Yea CD. Download the bitcoin client and pick a pool to mine with. I suggest BTCGuild.com or CoinOTron.com

You can get the wallet client from here. http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.7.2/

[TehYoyo]

So I just run it on my GPU and sit back and make cash? Where's the catch? Also, how do I mine?

[Joshua_Mahr]

The catch is it is a slow process and it costs electricity. That's it. If you have just one GPU going don't expect a lot from it. I would just check it out on your gpu and get a feel for it. Then consider purchasing something from Butterfly Labs, as the new hardware is gonna be fast.

[CDsDontBurn]

And how do you get paid? Is it through PayPal? And, I imagine that a faster GPU would be better than a slower GPU? And of course, the more GPUs the faster the processing would go?

[werty316]

I believe Paypal is an option but I cannot confirm. Josh can confirm that one.

The premise is similar to how Nvidia GPUs are superior in folding@home when compared to AMD GPUs; AMD has the upper hand in bitcoin mining and the more stream processors a GPU has equals a faster mine time.

[ET3D]

I tried it on my Radeon 5850. Going to take about a month to generate 1 BTC, and it's slowing down the Windows UI. Doesn't seem worth it.

[CDsDontBurn]

If a miner gets interrupted for whatever reason, will the miner:

1. Have to start all over
2. Pick up from where it left off
3. Start a new miner and start from the beginning of that new miner
4. Something else entirely?

Just more questions I have about this :).

[Joshua_Mahr]

Sorry in Hospital. My Son came yesterday so I am a little slow on posting.

CD if a miner gets disconnected it will just wait and reconnect. A Gpu spits out a share every few seconds its not like a WU for folding where it takes forever.

Werty: You should be able to get 350+ MH/s from a 5850. Remember you want to raise the gpu clock and drop the mem clock to like 300. 350MH/s= 1.6BTC a month. So about 21.50 a month. Which your right it is not much. Thats why I say try and learn with the gpu and then think about getting BFLabs hardware!

[CDsDontBurn]

Cool. Thanks for the extra info. Another question. What is considered "BFLabs hardware"? AMD GPUs?

[ET3D]

He's talking about Butterfly Labs. He mentioned them in the first post.

[CDsDontBurn]

^^ I know that. I'm just asking what is approved hardware when I stated "BFLabs Hardware".

Maybe I said that wrong in my last post.

[werty316]

They are ASIC(Application-specific integrated circuit) boards.

Taken from their website:

Butterfly Labs manufactures a line of high speed encryption processors for use in bitcoin mining, research, telecommunication and security applications.

[CDsDontBurn]

Anything more specific? Technically every GPU and CPU out there under the sun is an ASIC.

[Joshua_Mahr]

When they say ASIC they refer to SHA256 hashing specific ASIC. Look at there order page feel free to ask whatever your curious about.

[phenom2]

I tried bitcoin in the past on my previous 4870 gpus...obtaining only a few cents! lol! Now I have a 7850...is there an easy guide to use some gpu miners?

[Joshua_Mahr]

Yes there is. Let me know if you need more help.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0

Werty did you order from BFL?

[ET3D]

How are the devices from BFL expected to affect bitcoins? Will they cause the bitcoin value to drop sharply?

[werty316]

I wouldn't be surprised if there has been some discussion about how the hardware like BFL will affect bitcoin mining and how it will affect the countless amount of GPUs in the future. Its really too early to tell or predict.

I haven't order just yet. I'm still deciding.

[TehYoyo]

So.... you're expected to buy higher-end hardware? Why is it especially good to buy from butterfly labs?

[Cody_Irwin]

As he stated...
They are pretty much selling you OPTIMIZED hardware for folding getting you the most Bitcoins possible for a good price without no issues to running it.


So.... you're expected to buy higher-end hardware? Why is it especially good to buy from butterfly labs?

[CDsDontBurn]

can't wait to get my system up and running.

[Joshua_Mahr]

I say Butterfly Lab because they have the lowest power requirements for all the manufactures coming out with such products. Also because they also have a fpga edition "BFL Single" that are currently out and mining.

[ET3D]

I think I've done enough reading to convince myself that there's no point in ordering the ASIC right now, as it won't be cost effective.

[Joshua_Mahr]

Actually the longer you wait the less profitable it will be. Glad I pre-ordered in August!

[ET3D]

That was my thought. Maybe the "right now" wasn't needed in that sentence. :)

My understanding is that anyone ordering now will already hit the low. I'm not entirely certain that everything will become ultra-difficult quickly, but it seems that's what most people think, so I would rather take the more pessimistic side and not spend money on something which will not bring a return on it.