Establishing the right expectation for bitcoin hopefuls

There has been recently so much controversy surrounding Bitcoin, the all-new digital currency. Suddenly, there is this new form of currencty and everybody appears to be in love with it. With all the current hypes and poor-to-riches story, most people are thinking of jumping into it and set up their very own bitcoin mine. But do you really think you are up to it? Have you had the right expectation when it comes to its ROI?

Certainly, anyone who’s developed interest in establishing their bitcoin mine are fascinated by the mind-blowing payout.

Given all of the media hypes that place this new digital currency in to the spotlight, such silly expecation is just natural. I don’t know which story you’ve come across but the one that’s been making huge waves is about a Norwegian who saw his US$26.60 worth of bitcoins bought in 2009, suddenly worth US$886,000 in 2013. I think you would not need me telling you how much ROI that would mean. You do the maths.

Accounts as this are what bring the fools in to the bitcoin universe. I’m sure everyone wish they’d been this fortunate guy. I wish I’d been this lucky. This is exactly why many people are considering creating their bitcoin mine in the hope of earning huge fortune out of it. But is it reasonable? It would have been 5 years back but, not now.

Have you looked at simply how much investment would you need or be ready to fork out to build such farm? In a recently available posting, $1,300 could be what you’d end up with after one year and this is based on the assumption that you’ve 600 quad core machines running for 12 hours per day. And do not forget that bitcoin harvesting can only get harder after each successful harvest.

Needless to say many claim this analysis has been too simplistic. Many point out the lack of optimization that may definitely bring up the harvest efficiency and therefore ROI. These are good arguments, I agree. But to be fair, these optimization efforts and all the hours allocated to it will have to be considered as part of the overall investment cost. I believe when everything is properly weighted, the situation would not be much prettier.

If you’re considering this say several years back, I think you’re a genius. But when only now then you’re pondering to make the leap, I believe you don’t have good idea on what you’re talking about.