KDA Mining Profitability Discussion - How does one actually make money?

Mining & Hardware ASIC Mining
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#1

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?

#2

I have been in mining for 1 year and have lost around 3K. Not the best time to get into mining. What I see if you want to make money you need the big machines and open your own mining farm with a cheap industrial electric rate. The manufacturers are still selling their miners at crazy ROI’s Not worth buying anything now. Used machines still have crazy ROI’s with the increase in electric rates. Better to sell the miners than mine with them.

1 Like
#3

It’d be nice to have a single thread that discusses KDA mining profitability trends etc. But some of that already has been done within this thread.

#4

Time in the game, and also timing the game. The biggest thing right now is getting into miners that will the most efficient and will be around for the long run. I know there’s alot of hate with bitmain, but they consistently crush the competition in terms of power and hash, the latest example being this ka3. They have the capital, the factories, and the R/D to be able to develop on a level where other companies like goldshell can’t compete. You have to understand that buying any miners that are not from bitmain, will fall under this risk, just ask any of the people who bought any of those goldshell doge miners before the L7 came out.

As far as buying a miner/holding paying off and then selling/repeating, that works, but again you have to be confident that 1)the miner will actually function that long/repairable, 2) the miner will remain profitable for that long and 3) the project will be around that long and potentially increase in value. Which again bitmain is your only real go to here, and specifically with bitcoin miners. example being some s19xp miners, preorders were over 15k, right now theyre as low as 6k and will potentially go lower. Now would be the time to buy or whenever you think bottom is, then hodl and sell it in the bull.

Can you make money with other manufacturers? Sure, goldshell makes miners for many coins that are up and coming and have great potential and can have a repeat of what happened with kda back in may 2021, like ckb/hns/sia etc, but again all fall to that risk that if bitmain decides to make a miner for that coin, it will destroy whatever else is on the market.

In reality it’s all a gamble, and it’s easy to say this now , now that everything has happened, but I am in the same boat as you, I pre-ordered a kd-lite the day they were announced, in the 4 months I’ve had it, Im making half the amount of coins and once these ka-3’s come out it will probably go down to about 1 a day. Didn’t think bitmain would jump in until the bull market, but it was a risk that I was ok with taking as it was paid with gpu mining profits. Live and Learn and keep on mining .

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#5

Just to know… This year I lost 12000 usd on mining … Wrong decesion bought 2 kd box pro for 12000 usd…

They are polling up by day 2 KDA…

But after Z11 , and Z 9 , I was very interested to home mining… Again wrong decesion…

If you have high price of electric power go on hosting…

#6

I sold all my miners. This past year saw inflation destroy all hope of profitability with anything but my L7 from Bitmain, but the writing was on the wall, so I sold everything; CK5, three KD-box, one KD-box pro, KD-5, L7.
The cost of electricity spiked and that ended my crypto mining dream & I have enough solar panels that before crypto I wasn’t paying additional for the electricity I used. I’m holding the coins I mined because I got in when everything was going up and then fell below my entry point.
Why did I get into mining in the first place? A long commute and long hours and hoping beyond hope there was a way out of the rat race.

#7

It’s the traders and hodlers making the money now.

#8

When it comes to making money with mining, especially long-term, its a lot about the efficiency of your mining rig, for example the Bitmain Antminer KA3 just popped up and is INCREDIBLY more efficient than the goldshell kadena miners and ibelink kadena miners

Here’s a nice Kadena mining efficiency w/ths chart by @Zilina

Ironically Goldshell was interested in collaborating with us to release a VoskCoin branded kd-box pro, what a terrible move that would have been with the Antminer KA3 lurking around the corner lol

For better and probably worse, Bitmain really just shook up the KDA mining ecosystem, at this time their miner looks like the only long-term viable mining rig for Kadena. If people already have Goldshell and ibelink miners, like myself, I’ll continue to run them and stack KDA as long as they earn more cryptocurrency than they burn in electricity.

#9

Context is important in this instance. Crypto prices are exceptionally volatile. Just like in 2017, when ETH was tanking and miners bailing, those who stayed the course profited handsomely. Even those who turned off their miners and waited for the upturn have done well. There’s no such thing as a sure thing in crypto, but you can take heart by the fact that according to metrics at least, the number of users, wallets and miners continues apace suggesting there’s a lot of people who believe in the project. There’s nothing wrong with shutting down for awhile especially if you aren’t profitable at this time. Take the time to determine what you can control like electricity usage. Can you install solar panels, for example? If you can, what’s the ROI? Point is, there’s no point fretting over things that we miners have no control over and focus on those things that can improve profitability. One thing I have learned is that flexibility is essential.