*This post has been updated with July 2017 prices and profitability according to MinersNow selling prices* There are hundreds of Bitcoin alternatives out there. One term for these is Altcoins, another generic term is cryptocurrency. It’s only worth investing money and time into ones that will stay in existence and grow. Just like with any investment, it’s best to buy at a low price. In some cases that means buying them at a low price on an exchange, and for others it’s mining them with specially designed computing machines. Running a Bitcoin and Altcoin mining operation, I like to look for Altcoins to mine that are going to go up in value.

If I can mine many of them while they are inexpensive and easier to mine, and I keep as many as possible after paying my bills, I’ll end up being very profitable. Before delving in Altcoins, it’s worth looking at Bitcoin. It has a huge installed base. It will be around for a long time. It is the standard and has so far proven to be solid. It does have a few issues that could lead to problems, but these will get worked out. No one wants to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, and no one that is invested in the Bitcoin ecosystem will actually go so far as to destroy it.

Let’s discuss that ecosystem, and use that as one of the measures of Bitcoin or an Altcoin’s viability. There are many people involved in making Bitcoin or an Altcoin (let’s just say Coin) work. These include: • Creators – the ones who come up with the idea and mathematics for how the Coin works. • Programmers – the people who generate, maintain, and improve the Coin software.

• Miners – the people who operate the machinery that tracks the transactions and maintain the integrity of the blockchain. • Mining pool operators – They run the mining pools that miners join to get consistent block rewards. Pools decide what software version to adopt. • Node Operators – people who operate the servers that broadcast transactions and maintain a copy of the Coin blockchain.

• Exchange operators – manage the transfer of funds between fiar currency and Coins. • Ecosystem partners – people who make products and services that make the coins more useful. • Coin owners – people who own the Coin.

Or more precisely, control the private keys that allow specific Coin inputs to be sent to another key owner. • Coin speculators – people who buy and sell between the different Coins, providing liquidity. • Intended and Actual Users – people and organizations that have a use for the Coin. • Regulators – Government authorities and industry organizations. The cryptocurrency space is just in its infancy. There is going to be a lot of growth in this space in the coming years, and the rising tide will lift many boats. For a Coin to survive long term, it has to have at least the following: • Reason to exist.

Feb 20, 2017 - There are hundreds of Bitcoin alternatives out there. One term for these is Altcoins, another generic term is cryptocurrency. It's only worth investing money and time into ones that will stay in existence and grow. Just like with any investment, it's best to buy at a low price. In some cases that means buying them. CoinDriller Zcash GPU Mining Rig 45000 Sol/s 2400MH/s 60x GTX1080TI Crypto Miner Ethereum, Siacoin, Zclassic, Hush, Nicehash, Pascalcoin. Find this Pin. Bitcoin Miner Miners Mining BTC Antminer S9 13TH/s & APW3+-12-1600. 46 x Bitmain Antminer S9 1400W BTC Bitcoin Miner 13.5 TH/S w/ APW3++ In Stock.

Bitcoin is the first, and other Coins need to carve out their own niches. • Code that works. Processes transactions quickly and reliably, is secure, and has many useful applications. This includes software for nodes, miners, pool operators, wallets, and API’s (Application Programming Interface) to connect into other applications.

• Active community that works well together, providing leadership, direction, marketing, and product management. • Programmers who are incentivized to update, maintain, add new features, and integrate the cryptocurrency with application providers. • Miners who can make money processing the transactions. • Node operators who can make money running nodes or run a node as part of another business function.

• Customers – business and users that have a use for the Coin. • Ecosystem partners that can make money. So where does Bitcoin stand in this measure?

The Bitcoin codebase works well. It has some issues in that it currently can’t process many transactions at a time. But it is well understood, works, and has scaled so far.

It need some improvements, and the different stakeholders have different political agendas. The miners are the big deciders in Bitcoin. They make most of the money, and the ones who ultimately make the decision on what new code gets accepted. They join their miners to the mining pools who support the policy they want. The miners want to make money forever. They want their coinbase block reward, as well as transaction payments.

When the coinbase block reward goes to zero, transaction payments are going to be the only way for them to make the money they need to keep running their operation. Miners probably operate nodes and pools as well, and I would expect they provide funding to developers. They have the datacenters, tech support, and the incentive to make the entire transaction infrastructure work. They could also employ programmers that can add to and update the codebase. Bigger miners are Bitmain, BitFury, Genesis Mining. Because it’s the first and biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has many ecosystem partners like Coinbase, Kraken, Electrum, Blockchain.info, and BitPay. There’s a lot to like about Bitcoin.

It’s proven, and people understand it. The feature implementation is slow, some people say too slow. The people that are pushing for more general and broader usage are hampered by the slow changes in the main Bitcoin code. And not all features should be put into the main Bitcoin codebase. Because people want more features, that leads to the creation of Altcoins, and also projects that build on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. These Bitcoin extension projects are usually called sidechains.

Serves a few different purposes for people: • Store of value • Investment – with assumption that it’s value will go up in future. • Token for purchasing products in the Bitcoin industry. • A way to purchase products internationally easily and quickly. Bitcoin You don’t need my opinion on Bitcoin.

Take look at for reference. I mine for Bitcoins using the latest and best SHA-256 ASIC mining technology. Right now that’s Bitmain Antminer S9’s. Bitcoin mining calculations with • SHA-256 Hash Rate – 14 TH/s • Power – 1400 Watts • Miner Price – $2,099 (PSU Included) • Electricity – $0.10 per kwhr • Days to break even: 330 • Annual Bitcoin earnings – 1.813 BTC • Annual Dollars earnings – $4,592 • Annual electricity cost – $ 2,277 • Annual profitability per miner – $ 2,314 Let’s take a look at some of the Altcoins out there using a template.

Evaluation template: • Reason – why does the Coin exist? • Code – is the code improvement active, is it unique and different? Is there wallet support on different platforms? • Community – What is the community like?

Are they active? • Programmers – Are there programmers contributing to the code improvement and integration?

• Miners – Are there many active miners? • Node Operators – Is there a large quantity of nodes? • Customers – Are there people using this yet?

LBRY Credits LBC Mining With Amd Gpu there. • Ecosystem partners – Exchanges, hardware wallets, partner. You can buy the with the above price and ROI calculations from our shop.

Litecoin has been around a long time. It is almost, but not quite like Bitcoin. It’s value compared to Bitcoin has languished.

It has a large community of miners and ecosystem supporters. So does Dogecoin. Maybe Litecoin is making a comeback?

• Reason – Copy of Bitcoin, with faster block times and more coins issued. • Code – Active development, wallets for all computers and mobile devices, API’s available. • Community – Not a strong community as far as I can tell, but there is one. • Programmers – There is active contribution to. Over 10,000 commits and 400 contributors.

• Miners – Large installed base of ASIC based Litecoin miners. • Node Operators – Not as many nodes as Bitcoin, but about 1000 • Customers – Litecoin is accepted in many places that Bitcoin is. • Ecosystem partners – Coinbase, other exchanges, hardware wallet support.

Litecoin mining calculations with: • Scrypt Hash Rate – 508 MH/s • Power – 800 Watts • Miner Price – $2599 (PSU Included) • Electricity – $0.10 per kwhr • Days to break even: 56 • Annual Litecoin earnings – 373 LTC • Annual Dollars earnings – $ 17,549 • Annual electricity cost – $700 • Annual profitability per miner – $ 16,848 You can buy the with the above price and ROI calculations from our shop. Ethereum is designed to be more flexible and useful than Bitcoin. The code is written for smart contracts and automated action. The Internet of Things will be able to have devices talk to each other and pay each other small amounts of Ethereum to make things happen automatically. • Reason – Unique and different from Bitcoin. Used to build flexible and automated systems. • Code – Unique, new, different.

Has had some issues, still under development. • Community – Technology companies are working with it. • Programmers – Active development on. Tens of thousands of commits and hundreds of contributors. • Miners – Some miners using GPU cards. Supposed to transition away from mining at some point. • Node Operators – In the future, node operators with Ethereum will replace miners and will be paid.

• Customers – Businesses are building applications with Ethereum. • Ecosystem partners – Traded on exchanges, has other business partners. Hardware wallet support. Ethereum is going to be around for a while. There was a code base split, leading to Ethereum Classic. These two systems have the ability to go in different development directions. They will both be around for a while.

Ethereum mining calculations with • Eth Hash Rate – 160 MH/s • Power – 1200 Watts • Miner Price – $4499 • Electricity – $0.10 per kwhr • Days to break even: 333 • Annual Ethereum earnings – 24 ETH • Annual Dollars earnings – $ 5,975 • Annual electricity cost – $ 1,051 • Annual profitability per miner – $ 4,924 You can buy the with the above price and ROI calculations from our shop. Ethereum Classic is also available for mining. It’s a fork of Ethereum, and has it’s own community developing in a different direction than Ethereum. • Days to break even: 337 • Annual Ethereum Classic earnings – 357 ETC • Annual Dollars earnings – $ 5,918 • Annual electricity cost – $ 1,051 • Annual profitability per miner – $ 4,867 I used to mine Ethereum on my GPU miners, and I might again. I may also mine for Ethereum Classic. You can buy the with the above price and ROI calculations from our shop. Ripple is a creation of banks.

I included it in here because it is high up on the list of. I don’t like it. But let’s look at it anyway. • Reason – Interbank transfers • Code – Written by contractors for the banks. It seems like it makes sense and is good code. • Community – People who work for banks? • Programmers – whoever the banks hired to program it.

I’m sure they’re good. It’s not on Github. • Miners – It’s not possible to mine Ripple. • Node Operators – The banks or the Ripple company run the node servers. • Customers – The banks are the customers. They have money, so that’s good. • Ecosystem partners – The banks and their suppliers.

I have no use for Ripple. I can’t participate in it, haven’t bothered to understand it, and don’t care about it. Dash has code that is similar to Bitcoin. It splits the mining profits between miners (45%), node operators (45%), and infrastructure team (10%). Payouts to the infrastructure team are determined by projects and put to the vote of the node operators. Dash is actually one of the Altcoins I like the most. It extends Bitcoin with rapid transactions and privacy through coin mixing using Masternodes.

To be a masternode operator, you need to own 1000 Dash. Right now there are about 4000 masternodes.

The Dash infrastructure team is working on PR and creating payment tools. I think they have the potential to be the digital cash replacement. As an example, watch this video created by the Dash team: Dash evaluation template: • Reason – Be used as digital cash.

Ease of use, fast transactions, privacy option • Code – Continual improvement, wallets for all platforms, funding for more. • Community – Big community that works well together. • Programmers – Strong core team, good volunteers and developers.

• Miners – ASIC miners available • Node Operators – Many node operators • Customers – Still not accepted online in many places. • Ecosystem partners – On exchanges, has hardware wallet support. Dash mining calculations with: • X11 Hash Rate – 1200 MH/s • Power – 360 Watts • Miner Price – $3999 • Electricity – $0.10 per kwhr • Days to break even: 251 • Annual Dash earnings – 31 DASH • Annual Dollars earnings – $ 6,111 • Annual electricity cost – $ 315 • Annual profitability per miner – $ 5,795 Dash is definitely on the upswing. The interesting thing about the X11 miner from Baikal is its low power usage. The amount of profits per amount of electricity used is much higher than any other Coin out there. You can buy the with the above price and ROI calculations from our shop. Zcash is similar to Bitcoin, but using different crypto.

It is very new, and it has extended Bitcoin with advanced crypto for complete anonymity. I think it is still overvalued, but it might grow into its value. Developers are rewarded by 20% of mined coins for first 4 years. There is a good list of answers to o ’s. There are two main types of transactions, T stands for transparents, and are just like Bitcoin transactions. Z stands for shielded transactions, and are anonymous.

Z transactions are much more computationally intensive, and are only supported in the wallets on PC’s with powerful CPU’s for now. It’s possible to receive Zcash or Zclassic on a PC wallet with a T or Z transaction, and send it out using either type of transaction. Zcash evaluation template: • Reason – Privacy support built into codebase • Code – actively working on improvements, windows wallet available • Community – good community • Programmers – Core development team, paid by the protocol for first 4 years • Miners – Lots of GPU miners • Node Operators – miners and wallets are nodes right now • Customers – very few yet. • Ecosystem partners – on exchanges, hardware wallet support Calculations with: • Equihash Hash Rate – 1900 H/s • Power – 1200 Watts • Miner Price – $4499 • Electricity – $0.10 per kwhr • Days to break even: 385 • Annual Zcash earnings – 20 ZEC • Annual Dollars earnings – $ 5,306 • Annual electricity cost – $ 1,051 • Annual profitability per miner – $ 4,255 I think Zcash is going to be around for a while. It fills a need for private transactions, is supported by a strong team, and has good community and ecosystem support.

You can buy the with the above price and ROI calculations from our shop. Zclassic is a fork of Zcash with two changes.

There is no slow start on mining rewards, and there is no developer reward. It’s community has developed rapidly, and it looks like there is cross-contribution of code between Zcash and Zclassic developers. It looks like a Coin that is going to be around for a while. Zclassic evaluation template: • Reason – Privacy support built into codebase • Code – actively working on improvements, windows wallet available • Community – good community, very active • Programmers – Contributors and bounty rewards • Miners – Some GPU miners • Node Operators – miners and wallets are nodes right now • Customers – very few yet. • Ecosystem partners – on exchanges, no hardware wallet support • Days to break even: 171 • Annual Zclassic earnings – 6448 ZCL • Annual Dollars earnings – $ 10,641 • Annual electricity cost – $ 1,051 • Annual profitability per miner – $ 9,590 I think Zclassic is going to do well. I think people like the technology, and some were a little put off by the inability to participate as part of the Zcash team. Just like with Zcash, there is a need for private transactions, it’s supported by a strong team, and has good community support.

If there is more support from exchanges and hardware wallet manufacturers, it will do well. You can buy the with the above price and ROI calculations from our shop.

Monero is based on Cryptonote, an algorithm designed for only private transactions. It appears to be doing well, and there are many supporters of the Coin. It appears to have the ability to be successful, but I don’t like it. Whenever I try to dig into the specifics of using it, it’s security, and the ecosystem, I find I don’t want to be part of that. I’m wrong a lot, though, and may be wrong in this case.

Here’s some info on Monero. Evaluation template: • Reason – private and untraceable transactions • Code – improvement is active. But wallet support is very basic on PC’s and nonexistent on mobile devices.

$This frame has been built to be very practical and sturdy. If you have 8 cards on a frame, it needs to handle them. The picture shows it with 7 cards but 8 cards is not a problem with plenty of airflow between the cards. We use these for our systems and thought we would offer them to the public.

Comes with motherboard standoffs to mount the motherboard. Arrives fully assembled. This comes with a place to rest the power supply facedown. It will support power supplies 8' long so the EVGA 1300W fits nicely.

If you have any questions, let us know. $This frame has been built to be very practical and sturdy. If you have 8 cards on a frame, it needs to handle them. This frame easily fits 8 graphics cards and 2 power supplies being 27' across with plenty of airflow between the cards.

We use these for our systems and thought we would offer them to the public. Comes with rubber feet and motherboard standoffs to mount the motherboard. Arrives fully assembled. Raspberry Pi DigiByte DGB Miner. In stock ready to ship with 1-day handling time.

Possibly same day shipping if ordered early enough. Please ask about bulk discounts.

Express shipping is also available. A little about us and mining: We have been mining for around 5 years and been selling mining rigs on eBay for over 2 years.