<p>Well, you can TRY mining. To see how much coins you can expect, check your computer's GPU on <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison">the Wiki page</a>, get its hash rate, and plug that into a profitability calculator, <a href="http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/">such as mine</a>. This can give you an idea of how many coins can you expect to mine and whether you would get any profit from that.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, most likely you won't be able to mine at a profit using a PC. Bitcoin's difficulty is quite high, the reward will be dropping by half soon, and with the introduction of ASIC miners, GPU mining will be outclassed. However, if you are willing to invest <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#ASICs">some money into custom hardware</a>, you can still start your career as a full-time Bitcoin miner. But again, you ought to <a href="http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/">check if it calculates for you</a>.</p>

<p>However, if you want to try your luck at a newly emerging trend of using your GPUs to "mine" for split-key vanity addresses, you can check out <a href="https://vanitypool.appspot.com/">my Vanity Pool</a>, or <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84569.0">its topic on BitcoinTalk</a>. The process is quite similar, but the profit margin can be better.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-24T15:18:57.700Z
How accurate are your numbers? So with price of power at 0.22 USD per kwh, a monarch http://www.butterflylabs.com/monarch/ would break even in 9 days on average?
Pacerier
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-24T18:38:51.020Z
@Pacerier My numbers should be accurate, however the calculator assumes difficulty not rising over a given period of time, which is not the case right now. One should assume a worse case scenario of it rising by a factor of 2 or more when making long-term predictions.
ThePiachu
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-14T23:29:42.827Z
Makes you wonder if that was even good advice considering that btc price skyrocketed in November of this year...if he just wanted to hold onto 10 BTC just in case and stop...he couldve made 12k
Frankenmint
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-12T09:37:36.910Z
2012-10-12T09:37:36.910Z
ThePiachu
<p>Normal people can mine but normal computers can't mine profitably.  At least not any longer.</p>

<p>Right now, in mid-October 2012, some people are doing OK mining on GPUs, particularly those who don't pay directly for electricity.  However, roughly sometime around the end of November the mining proceeds get cut by half instantly -- something that happens every four years.</p>

<p>After that point, there will not be many GPU miners who can continue to mine -- unless, again, they aren't paying for electricity.</p>

<p>Others have bought specialized hardware known as FPGAs (a BFL single is an FPGA).  Those use less electricity than GPUs so they will still mine at a profit.</p>

<p>But a gamechanger is likely coming from <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#ASICs" rel="nofollow">ASIC manufacturers</a>. Several are accepting pre-payment on orders now, though not a single ASIC design has shipped yet.</p>

<p>There's no harm that occurs from using your computer (with GPU) to try to learn mining -- if you are looking for a hobby.  But to mine for profit will generally only make sense from the purchase of mining hardware.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-12T09:11:45.757Z
2012-10-14T23:08:23.827Z
2012-10-14T23:08:23.827Z
Stephen Gornick
<p>If you know your estimated hashrate and power consumption, or can estimate it using the <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison" rel="nofollow">wiki</a>, you can work it out for yourself:</p>

<p><strong>Estimated earnings / sec = Ghps * 1e09 / 2^32 * B / D * exch.rate - elec.cost / 1e03 / 3600 * watts</strong></p>

<p><strong>Ghps</strong> = estimated device hashrate in Ghps</p>

<p><strong>B</strong> = bitcoin block reward, currently 50 btc, soon to be halved to 25 btc</p>

<p><strong>D</strong> = mining difficulty, currently 3072321</p>

<p><strong>exchange rate</strong> = btc to your currency exchange rate</p>

<p><strong>elec.cost</strong> = cost of your electricity in your currency</p>

<p><strong>watts</strong> = the estimated power consumption of your computer + GPU</p>

<p>As long as the estimated earnings are > 0 and you don't have to outlay anything, mining won't cost you.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-17T11:38:46.580Z
2012-10-17T11:38:46.580Z
organofcorti
<p>If you mean getting actual profit without cheap/stolen electricity you should at the minimum have a high-end AMD GPU. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-14T23:10:25.290Z
Until about Nov 30th (+/- a few days), after which even high end AMD GPUs are unprofitable unless you have cheap/stolen electricity (or the exchange rate goes up big from here).
Stephen Gornick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-15T15:29:05.657Z
Yes, but we are talking about 'now', as this is what OP asked about, not Nov 30th. Besides there is absolutely no guarantee we will see ASICs on time.
Qba-th'Intrepid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-14T20:52:24.183Z
2012-10-14T20:52:24.183Z
Qba-th'Intrepid
<p>Can casual people still mine for bitcoins? As of October 2012, the difficulty seems very high, being over 3,000,000.</p>

<p>I've seen a ad for bitcoins, and watched the video. It said I could mine for them with my computer, so can I?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-20T20:59:09.140Z
related: [In the ASIC-age, is it worth starting mining Bitcoin at home?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/41276/5406)
Murch
<difficulty><mining-profitability><cpu-mining>
Can casual people still mine for bitcoins, now that the difficulty is much higher than it was?
Rook Ward
# Can casual people still mine for bitcoins, now that the difficulty is much higher than it was?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-10-12)

Can casual people still mine for bitcoins? As of October 2012, the difficulty seems very high, being over 3,000,000.

I've seen a ad for bitcoins, and watched the video. It said I could mine for them with my computer, so can I?

**Tags:** difficulty, mining-profitability, cpu-mining

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: related: [In the ASIC-age, is it worth starting mining Bitcoin at home?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/41276/5406)  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2012-10-12. Score: 9

Well, you can TRY mining. To see how much coins you can expect, check your computer's GPU on [the Wiki page](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison), get its hash rate, and plug that into a profitability calculator, [such as mine](http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/). This can give you an idea of how many coins can you expect to mine and whether you would get any profit from that.

Unfortunately, most likely you won't be able to mine at a profit using a PC. Bitcoin's difficulty is quite high, the reward will be dropping by half soon, and with the introduction of ASIC miners, GPU mining will be outclassed. However, if you are willing to invest [some money into custom hardware](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#ASICs), you can still start your career as a full-time Bitcoin miner. But again, you ought to [check if it calculates for you](http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/).

However, if you want to try your luck at a newly emerging trend of using your GPUs to "mine" for split-key vanity addresses, you can check out [my Vanity Pool](https://vanitypool.appspot.com/), or [its topic on BitcoinTalk](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84569.0). The process is quite similar, but the profit margin can be better.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: How accurate are your numbers? So with price of power at 0.22 USD per kwh, a monarch http://www.butterflylabs.com/monarch/ would break even in 9 days on average?  
> **username_2**: @username_3 My numbers should be accurate, however the calculator assumes difficulty not rising over a given period of time, which is not the case right now. One should assume a worse case scenario of it rising by a factor of 2 or more when making long-term predictions.  
> **username_4**: Makes you wonder if that was even good advice considering that btc price skyrocketed in November of this year...if he just wanted to hold onto 10 BTC just in case and stop...he couldve made 12k  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2012-10-12. Score: 4

Normal people can mine but normal computers can't mine profitably. At least not any longer.

Right now, in mid-October 2012, some people are doing OK mining on GPUs, particularly those who don't pay directly for electricity. However, roughly sometime around the end of November the mining proceeds get cut by half instantly -- something that happens every four years.

After that point, there will not be many GPU miners who can continue to mine -- unless, again, they aren't paying for electricity.

Others have bought specialized hardware known as FPGAs (a BFL single is an FPGA). Those use less electricity than GPUs so they will still mine at a profit.

But a gamechanger is likely coming from [ASIC manufacturers](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#ASICs). Several are accepting pre-payment on orders now, though not a single ASIC design has shipped yet.

There's no harm that occurs from using your computer (with GPU) to try to learn mining -- if you are looking for a hobby. But to mine for profit will generally only make sense from the purchase of mining hardware.


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2012-10-17. Score: 1

If you know your estimated hashrate and power consumption, or can estimate it using the [wiki](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison), you can work it out for yourself:

**Estimated earnings / sec = Ghps \* 1e09 / 2^32 \* B / D \* exch.rate - elec.cost / 1e03 / 3600 \* watts**

**Ghps** = estimated device hashrate in Ghps

**B** = bitcoin block reward, currently 50 btc, soon to be halved to 25 btc

**D** = mining difficulty, currently 3072321

**exchange rate** = btc to your currency exchange rate

**elec.cost** = cost of your electricity in your currency

**watts** = the estimated power consumption of your computer + GPU

As long as the estimated earnings are > 0 and you don't have to outlay anything, mining won't cost you.


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2012-10-14. Score: 0

If you mean getting actual profit without cheap/stolen electricity you should at the minimum have a high-end AMD GPU.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Until about Nov 30th (+/- a few days), after which even high end AMD GPUs are unprofitable unless you have cheap/stolen electricity (or the exchange rate goes up big from here).  
> **username_7**: Yes, but we are talking about 'now', as this is what OP asked about, not Nov 30th. Besides there is absolutely no guarantee we will see ASICs on time.  

---

