What miner to buy?

Hello everyone,
I’m glad to join the community and hope all are well. I have about $10,000 to invest in ASIC(s), and was looking for suggestions. I don’t care to mine ETH or ETC, it feels a little too risky with the possible merge. Something Scrypt or SHA-256 that will absolutely be here in the future. I only have access to residential electricity, but I have heard of co-hosting if you all have any knowledge on that to share. I appreciate any/all replies.

Here’s a list of Miner Profitability.
https://www.asicminervalue.com/

While this is not what you are asking for, it is a list of top dogs , right now.

Personally I don’t even have a recommendation, because prices, tech and availability are changing fast right now.
I’d recommend calling Desert Valley ASIC’s (they’re here on the board/forum, CryptominerNV ) or checking out their retail website.
As for hosting/co-hosting , Use the search function here on the site. There are numerous members here who run such facilities and have open chats and reviews about them.

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@Zhichao

I can sell you 3 used S19 J Pro 104’s for $12,000. I have 33 of them running for a client that wants to sell. I just sold 5 last week. I can switch them to a mining pool of your choice. We host for $.09/kWh.

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I can give you a KD6SE for your price. And includes postage. I hope we can have a more in-depth exchange of your ideas

Check out Goldshell direct as their prices are pretty good and a load of us have reliably bought from the recently

https://www.goldshell.com/product/kd6se/

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Perhaps diversify somewhat? You could negotiate the purchase of a S19j Pro 104 from Adam’s client, which would be remotely hosted at $0.09/kWh for the duration of the hosting contract. Plus you could get a new KD Lite directly from Goldshell and mine KDA at home. The KD Lite currently is the most energy efficient KDA ASIC rig available (and runs on 120V or 240V . . . it might not be as energy efficient running on 120V).

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Do you see Kadena surviving the long term? thanks for your reply!

I see KDA lasting. Investing $100 million into their project (1/3 of their total market cap at the time) gives me confidence they’re in it for the long term. Additionally, the mining ecosystem that’s being built out is significant and desirable by new and current miners. All good signs.

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Well, I have two KD5’s and a KD Lite. So I guess I’ve voted with my wallet. But you’d have to define “long-term”. In cryptoworld, “long-term” is actually pretty short-term.

ASIC rigs generally depreciate fast (exceptions are if the coin being mined does a moonshot). At some point, the cost to run the rig will exceed gross yield per day. I have an idle LT5 Pro for this very reason. So at some point, KDA could still be a viable PoW coin, though your hardware already might have become obsolete.

Technological obsolescence is near impossible to predict as there are too many variables. E.g., will my KD5 rigs still be profitable for another 2-3 years or be sitting no a shelf in cold storage by this point next year? I’ve no idea

As far as KDA itself . . . IMHO, a KDA rig that you buy today will become obsolete before KDA itself disappears. But I’d advise that you DYOR. IMO, Kadena has solid tech but are poor at marketing themselves (i.e. attracting practical applications that would drive demand for KDA). Fwiw, they also have some loose links (and perhaps hard links) with JP Morgan, which has its own pros and cons.

You didn’t ask but . . . With regard to BTC mining, you have develop a personal take on a probable BTC pricing range going forward and not get consumed by pundits. They don’t know anything either though occasionally, a few will guess correctly and become heavily followed “experts”.

Once you have a pricing view, you can weigh the variables: equipment cost, daily yield, historical difficulty trends, coin hold period, technology obsolescence, regulatory risks, event risks etc… Also with BTC, be aware that there will be a halving event around early May 2024. Just something to think about.

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Thank you for such a detailed response, Zilina. I appreciate the information, and you presented topics I had not yet given much thought.
You say you have the LT5 idle, but even if you mine the coins at a loss today, surely in the future you’ll come out profitable soon as we see the next bull market, no? Or I could be totally wrong lol.
Based on your message, I should probably avoid older/outdated ASICs?

@Zilina is always dropping serious knowledge

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I like the “theme” of Zilina’s post - you need something at home to “learn” and be involved in the community with (and it is just simply fun) - but once you start spending money beyond what you can “power” at home, you need to start to “learn” about remote hosting … and if you can find an offer/opportunity where you can get into a “single unit” at a cost effective purchase and hosting rate like Zilina suggested, that is a great way to “learn” about remote hosting to see whether this is a game (it really is a speculative business) you want to play …

I have both asic’s and gpu miners at home - and I have asic’s hosted with three different hosting companies (one of which I wouldn’t chose to work with again - so at the end-of-life of the miners, I will have them shipped home|aka not worth the hassle headache downtime to change now). In this one “bad” example I am giving you - I have billing/payment headaches paying my hosting fees and zero communications. Most hosting companies of MOQ (minimum quantities) so I have 6 really old machines at this location, five at another which I wish I had more, and 12 at another. I also have six new S19 XP’s coming online 1 each month this fall. So once you get started - it can be addicting.

My first home asic as an Antminer S7 - and it taught me a lot about power and noise … I quickly added an R4 which almost no-one knows about, it didn’t last long on the market …

So suggestions like Zilina’s about a KD Lite - are big enough home boxes to teach you about power and noise. But at home if you don’t want to deal with the noise and power, look at the other posts about the smaller “box” miners like some of the GoldShell suggestions that can be a LOT of Fun …

You have to figure out what is right for you … there is no single correct answer except what fits your lifestyle and home lifestyle options …

I have “exhausted” my home capacity - I super-sized my solar energy system - I have a utility company that essentially doesn’t pay for energy you send back into the grid - so my mining energy is capped at the “shoulder months” between summer air conditioning and winter heat to use 100% of energy in the shoulder months. So while I would love to add something else at home - if I add something I have to shut something else down. This is a personal choice - thus each of us make “lifestyle choices” - other posters may talk about wife approval factors …

So set your goals - and then look at the recommendations from various posters and see how they fit into your goals … I like Zilina’s approach …

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@Erc708 Regarding my LT5 Pro . . . yeah, it’s not the easiest decision. There’s a case to be made to take my lumps today with the hope that future increases in LTC/DOGE will more than offset the time value of today’s current losses. But since my power company raised rates in January, my electric bills have become shockingly high (pun intended). Also, I tend to hold KDA. Previously I sold LTC/DOGE produced by the LT5 Pro to offset electric costs generated by my KDA mining rigs.

But another issue is my lack of physical space and electrical capacity. I can run 4 large ASICs at home before I run out of electrical capacity and space. I’d have to kick a cash flowing rig to the curb to make space for the LT5 Pro, which makes no sense. I could try to find a data center to host, but it’s typically a 1-year contract. I don’t want to lock-in for a year to remote host a miner that’s likely to continue losing money every day, despite lower electricity/hosting costs than I have at home.

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Hey u ever thought of upgrading your pannel so u can run more. I just got mine upgrade so I can have more. once you start it’s like crack you want more and more. First upgrade was 200amp pannel my next will be 400 in a year. picture of my upgrade two weeks ago. Not finished yet just need to finish Sheetrock and put back up my hot and cold wall

@Smokey024 I had thought about it when my electric rate was $0.105/kWh. But with it now at $0.13/kWh and likely to go up again next Jan, it’s actually more cost effective to remote host. The challenge with remote hosting is finding a company that will host without forcing one to buy overpriced rigs from them. And remote hosting tends to have higher downtime than self-hosting, which is one of the reasons why I’d prefer to self-host - all other things being equal.

The other real issues are space/heat mangement. My garage accommodates several large tool boxes, a bench, MIG and TIG welders as well as a plasma cutter, 20 ton press, sand blast cabinet, a 60 gal compressor along with 2 cars and all my tools (and a beer fridge). It’s tight to say the least. So accomodating even 4 ASIC rigs is pushing the envelope.

Unfortunately, I live in a HOA community. So a mining shed is a non-starter. I also live in FL, which means that heat management is a significant issue. There’s only so much heat that I can manage using the garage that I have, even if I could conjure up some extra space. And all my rigs sit in noise management containers to appease the wife and therefore take up more space than just rigs sitting on a steel rack.

Utlimately the answer is going to be moving to a non-HOA community, and building a small house plus a big @ss building (Garaj Mahal) in the backyard for my cars, tools, workshop, mining rigs, and a nice poker table.

Contact @AdamMoyers for hosting wants and needs without the hassle of the MOQ and force Buying equipment

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We don’t have an MOQ on the S19s for sale.

We also don’t have an MOQ for hosting and we accept the customers miners.

Currently we are above 98% run time and guarantee 95% uptime.

The bad news is we are at capacity and the next expansion is already full when it’s complete.

I’m talking with an investor this weekend to add 700 capacity with containers. We have a meeting with a potential partner next week who should have a 330 capacity container online towards the end of this month.

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I would say the A11 would be a good option to consider.

An A11? That’s your recommendation when the OP specifically stated an aversion to ETH/ETC rigs given the risks? And even if you didn’t read the OP’s post, you’re making such a recommendation to someone who seems new to ASIC mining knowing full well that ETH is poised to move to PoS as soon as 5 weeks from now (in theory), or perhaps within a couple of months delay if one of the last testnets becomes glitchy?

Or are you implicitly proposing that the migration will be delayed for considerably longer? Given ETH’s history, there’s some validity to that argument. But it’d need to be backed by facts, not just “well, that’s what always happens with ETH PoW–>PoS migration”. Or should people be counting on Guo to fork ETH and create an ETC PoW clone?

Otherwise, where is all the ETH hashrate going once ETH does go PoS? To ETC, which would cause difficulty to skyrocket to offset the increase in global hashrate? Or will hashrate migrate to the theoretical newly forked “ETHGUO”, assuming Guo has success? Or to Callisto and other sh#tcoins? Or most likely a combo, which when taken in aggregate can’t absorb ETH’s global hashrate?

Fwiw, Bitmain had the E9 available for sale for weeks before they eventually sold out (for now). The E9’s hashrate is materially higher and power consumption materially lower compared to an A11. And I can’t believe the E9’s actually sold out. Who’s making the hashrate migration projections, running the math yet still purchasing these rigs? Anyways . . . .

IMO, manufacturers (eg Bitmain) and resellers are trying to dump EtHash algo rigs. So sorry, you’re not trying to make a recommendation. You appear to be just trying to unload rapidly depreciating inventory. Nothing wrong with that, ethics aside. It’s a free market. But you say that it’s a “good option”, which seems disingenuous. So I’d invite you to state your rationale as to why it’s a good option.

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