Hi all
I looked into this three of four years ago after building a high spec PC and copped out; I think you'd need a dedicated bitcoin rig to farm the coins, a 'normal' even high end pc wont cut it.
However by the time it took to break even on the cost of the rig, the market would have changed so that your roughly breakeven after the electricity cost.
This was a few years ago, not sure if it is the same now but and after a set period of time the number of calculations required to farm each bitcoin increases.
Older rigs eventually cost you more in electricity to run than they farm in coin.
I think this was to keep the supply steady, so not to flood the market as higher spec rigs farmed more than the older rigs.
So you're basically gambling on the bitcoin value itself to rise. So why mine? Just buy the coins and hope it goes up. Bit risky for me as I'm a coward though!!
It was worth doing if you had free electricity from say solar panels (only effective part of the day) / a none the wiser employer (!!) provided that the bitcoin value at least remains the same.
Obviously if the bitcoin value goes up your quids in, but if it drops...
You can buy bitcoin rigs on ebay, but I suspect its people selling last gen machines to fund the next gen machines that are profitable at the newer higher farm rates.
For whats its worth I only looked at farming bitcoin not other currencies.
Looking at some graphs today it looks like bitcoin has doubled in the last few months, no idea why though? Might be worth a fresh look...?
Many thanks
Rich