Is the 500 gigahash ASIC miner from Butterfly Labs a good investment?

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I have a friend who has no problem with dropping tons of money on something like this, which is, of course, $22,500. As he is practically useless with computers, I offered him a deal; I'll do the maintenance and actual management of the device if he buys it and I get a 50% cut of all profits.

Now, from what I've inputted into profitability calculators on the net, we'd be making about $8,500 per month. That'd be $4,250 for each of us, and that's no small sum at all.

Would it be wise to go through with this? By the looks of it, we'd be sitting pretty with all of that extra spending money. I know it'd help out a whole lot around here, that's for sure.

TheProspectsAreHigh

Posted 2013-12-07T08:08:02.297

Reputation: 1

I doubt you put in the correct numbers and reading them right in those calculators. Mining is not picking up free money, it's not supposed to be and that's a good thing. http://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/calculator When I put that butterfly machine in there you will never even break even. Of course the BTC price just dropped quite a bit, so maybe that's why you saw something different before.

– Jannes – 2013-12-07T13:56:08.133

Answers

Its hard to say. Here's the thing... Butterfly Labs is notorious for taking your money now and delivering a products a year and a half later. The problem is that the difficulty factor for mining Bitcoins rises exponentially. This means that you will mine a FRACTION of what you thought you would be mining.

IF you believe that bitcoin will continue to grow, then despite the exponential increase in mining difficulty, bitcoin's value in USD may also grow exponentially. This means that your investment may pay off. Its a risk and a complete gamble.

Personally, I believe bitcoin will continue to grow. If I were to spend money on mining hardware, I would put my dollar towards GPU and CPU coins such as Litecoin and Quark/Primecoin. I feel as though altcoins have more potential to grow. Additionally, your hardware can actually be sold when mining no longer becomes profitable. No one wants your ASICS when the next best ASIC is here. trash...

mosca1337

Posted 2013-12-07T08:08:02.297

Reputation: 463