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In the summer of 2017, rising cryptocurrency prices led to a run with high-performance graphics cards. Cards with high resolution hashurats were taken as proverbial hot cakes, leaving players, scientific researchers and anyone else to rely on flagship GPUs at a price that increased the craze of cryptocurrency. A year later, and the same graphics cards can be purchased at bargain prices.
Read also: SHA-256 Mining Hashrate rises significantly in a year
From Hot Property to Obsolete Hardware
It was the summer of 2017 and the Geoforce 1070, the second most graphic card Nvidia's powerful, they were retailed for $ 450. There was only one problem: no one could have one. In PC stores all over the world, bare shelves occupied the space where players should update. This is because a boom in cryptocurrency mines, whose type had never been seen before, was in full swing, with crypto-miners cleaning shops and wholesalers of all the units they could get their hands on.
While computer stores in many countries ran dry desirable GPUs like 1070 and Radeon 570, on second-hand markets could still be bought – for a premium. Since last summer at the beginning of 2018, when the crypto-mania was at its peak, cards like $ 1070 were exchanging hands for $ 800 or more on a regular basis. The players' complaint was choked by the noise of cooling fans as the miners overclocked the newly acquired GPUs and started crunching numbers in exchange for altcoin. Bitcoin was only minable on ASIC by then, and ethereum was also heading that way, but smaller coins like both monero and zcash, as well as hundreds of lesser-known microchip coins, were still vital.
A year after the summer of shitcoin and the value of all the major cryptocurrencies they took a bad turn, while the network hashrates continued to rise. BTC, ETH and everything else could be worth more than a year ago, but their balloon mismatch meant that the GPU data extraction is not profitable, again causing secondary market demand. It is now the turn of the players, data researchers and gongular scientists, while loading cheap graphics cards downloaded by former miners whose dream is dead.
Second-hand extraction machines are cheap – But who buys?
A look at Craigslist and Gumtree, two of the leading P2P markets in the United Kingdom and the United States, shows the type of mining platform which can now be acquired. Many of those on sale have seen less than six months of use, suggesting that their original owners may not even have made profits before downloading them. In the Bay Area, a seller offers 16x 1080 for $ 3,950 – or about $ 246 for a card. The seller claims to have paid over $ 4,000 for them, but has recovered most of the costs from the mining industry.
In the same area, someone sold a group of 1070 and 1080 to $ 375 / $ 425 each. "Since I have too many rigs and electric charges for the use of level 3 too high for me at 45 cents of watts, I have decided that I will have to sell some," they explain. One of the rigs seems precarious, to put it mildly. In the United Kingdom, Gumtree is currently showing 42 mining rigs for sale, including a 7x RX480 build, "Now exceeding the requirement, built in the first quarter of 2017 for a friend". There is also a rig of 8x 1070 for about $ 4,500.
For the first time in a long time, single GPUs sell second hand less than their recommended price, showing that the cryptocurrency boom is over for now. Although hashrates, like market prices, may fall, it is unlikely that the conditions will make my staff profitable again with a handful of GPUs. With the approach of mines to cooler climates with cheaper energy, and from residential spaces to specially constructed farms, the era of amateur mines is almost over. Apart from the reduced profitability of GPU solo mining, there is another reason why many sellers seem to have decided to call it one day: there is simply no space.
Judging by the reasons cited in many announcements, a change in circumstances – usually an imminent move or a new girlfriend – it's often the last straw.As to accept your band you'll never make it and selling your electric guitar, selling your mining platform can be interpreted as the recognition that the dream of cryptography is over without having you Made rich.As most sellers will surely be the average, however, it was an 'explosion: a noisy and hot explosion that was fun while it lasted.
Do you think that the & # 39; was the GPU mines solo both over? Let us know in the comment section i below.
Images courtesy of Gumtree, Twitter, PCpartpicker.com and Craigslist.
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