Let me start by saying, I want to believe that it is possible to make money mining. I just do not know how to do so. I am sincerely looking for input on what others are doing to make black ink (profits) vs. red ink (losses). I am new here. I did not see anything limiting topics about profitability. If these types of discussions are not allowed, please excuse me for being less informed.
Long story short: I bought KD5#1 and started mining in Oct 2021. I bought KD5#2 and started mining with it in Nov 2021. I paid the going price for these units at the time I bought them–let’s just say a few tens of thousands total. I was able to mine through the pump in Dec 2021 and Jan 2022. I broke even about April 2022 give or take. Then May 2022 KDA pricing went through the floor. In Aug 2022 I got a 50% increase in my electricity cost. Needless to say, I pulled the plug the last day before the electric price increase went through…
It seems to me that Goldshell released all of the KDA miner updates because of the huge pump in KDA price in late 2021 and early 2022. It feels like my profitability is totally in their control. By this I mean, they made my machine obsolete with upgrades so that about the time that my equipment was paid for, it wouldn’t generate any profits. While this is not totally true due to the cave in KDA pricing. It sure feels like it.
I have watched the voskcoin videos repeatedly. The message is: mining is not get rich quick. Buy a miner and use it for a year to pay itself off and pay the electric bill. Use the money generated to pay the miner off to buy another miner. In theory, in year 2, I would have 2 miners working to pay the second miner off and pay the power bill. Again, in theory, I should be able to pay the 2nd miner off faster and therefore have some real profit…
My question is: if the difficulty increases (driven by the manufacturer and not in my control at all) to basically render my 1st miner non-profitable, how do I get any advantage buying the 2nd unit and mining with 2 during the 2nd year? If all that happens is that I take a risk and the manufacturers, middle-men, and power company take all of the profits, why would I ever buy miners? It is a huge risk to have them plugged in and exposed to the voltage issues of the grid. It is a huge risk to hope that the price of the coin stays up so that the purchase price can be paid back. It is a fairly significant effort just to keep the power bill paid.
Is the only way to really make money mining tied to being a Youtube influencer so that equipment is given to you for review? I have looked into solar power and wind turbines. Neither of these make any sense based on my location, the cost of the equipment, the space requirements, and the lack of significant way to store electricity. I thought miners were expensive. Take a look at the calculation to size batteries to run an ASIC through the night and the cost of that battery…shhhhheeeeeeessssshhhhh. Even the cost of the solar panels gets high fast when you consider how many are needed to power 2300W continuously and develop enough energy during the day to allow more or less cost free consumption at night through net metering without batteries.
I sincerely want to know if folks are actually making money and how they are doing it. I feel lucky that I was actually able to pay the miners off based on what has happened. By the time the market comes back, my equipment will be so far out of it that any discussion of profitability is laughable and this mainly so that I don’t cry. Even if the price had stayed up, I would not be able to follow the direction of the several videos and mine for 2yrs and get any long term synergistic benefits…
What is the secret?