Crypto currency mining

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

Have been experimenting with couple of RX480 cards including over/underclocking, flashing modded BIOS. On the 2 cards I have there is not much room for memory overclocking but a little GPU under-clocking does bring energy savings without affecting performance much. Modifying BIOS did see increase in MH/s from 24-25MH/s to 28MH/s but was unstable resulting in lot of incorrect shares so actual return was lower. I only modified memory timing, maybe if I added a little bit of extra voltage it might be more stable but I don't want to fry it. Some people are lucky enough with their cards to have BIOS mod and also run memory overclocked resulting in 30 MH/s but did not work out for me. I have another 2 different RX 480 turning up hopefully tomorrow so I will see how they do. Also RX580 shows as generating less on NiceHash profitability calculator but apparently are more acceptable to BIOS mods and can do over 30MH/s with mods. Somebody told me get rid of RX480 while they are still £300+ and get RX 580 and mod them. Seems like a reasonable advice since you can get RX580 for less than 480 it's just that RX580 are pre-order only with expected stock 31/07. Might also look at GTX 1080 Ti.

I have wondered about GPU firmware/BIOS mods and whether they would be worthwhile but haven't yet gone down that route, so thanks for sharing your results

Originally Posted by ainarssems

I am still having itch for Antminer L3+. If I were to buy it what would be the best way since I do not hold any crypto-currency or USD accounts but I do have empty Bitcoin wallet.

You could simply purchase some Bitcoin. I've previously use Bittylicious to buy BTC ( https://bittylicious.com ). Your daily limit may be less than you need until you're verified though. The process is pretty straightforward as long as you have a bank account that you can send instant transfers from. You simply enter your Bitcoin address, how much you want to buy and you're given the bank account details of the seller, along with a reference code. Make sure you enter the reference code correctly and don't include any other references/notes in the payment, especially not anything referring to Bitcoin (as you can probably imagine, banks don't like Bitcoin much and some have been known to block payments that refer to it).

Make sure you're aware of the risks before buying an L3+ though. We're taking a big gamble buying 3 of them but I'm hoping it will pay off. My gut feeling is that Litecoin will increase in value greatly now, especially as Bitcoin enters a potentially very shaky few months (due to uncertainty and the imminent SegWit developments). It's also the third largest and most popular cryptocurrency (not counting Ripple, which isn't a true, decentralised cryptocurrency). There's also a risk of course that the price could plummet. Nobody really knows. Be aware also of the risks of buying from China. I've not had any issues with Bitmain myself, but a unit could get damaged/lost in transit. You will also need to purchase a power supply with the Antminer and you will be asked to pay duty on both of them (at the usual rate) when they arrive. I don't mean to put you off -- If it wasn't a gamble we felt was worth taking we wouldn't have ordered 3 of them! -- but you do need to be realistic and be prepared for the worst outcome.

Originally Posted by ainarssems

Mark, are you running all PC's on Windows or Linux as the licencing costs can mount up for several machines.

It really depends on personal preference and how legit you want to be. I mean Linux is great, if you're a Linux guru, but it can be a pain to get things working right if you're not. I don't work with Linux enough to be comfortable supporting it, so I'm using Windows. I know it all adds up, but a genuine Windows 10 OEM licence is relatively cheap compared to the rest of the mining rig so, for my customer's rigs at least, which are operating within a business premises/environment, we're sticking with fully licensed Windows 10 rigs --- It's more than my reputation is worth not to. You can actually buy Windows 10 OEM licences from ebay for about £30 though. Probably not genuine but, in a home environment, as long as the licence key works, do you care? Alternatively, you can go down the perpetual evaluation route: Windows 10 will work indefinitely without a key; there's just a few limitations, such as disabled desktop customisation. After all, these are just test rigs, right?

Originally Posted by ainarssems

Another question is where does it stand with taxman? I suppose you can offset all your purchase and electricity costs against income and it would only count as income only when you convert your earned bitcoins to fiat currency.

Essentially yeah, though it probably depends on your own situation. I'm self employed and I work in IT (mainly from my home office) so any IT purchases and electricity expenses lower my profits and reduce my tax bill.

More info here:

http://sterlingcoin.org/uk-tax-rulings/

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/briefs/vat/brief0914.htm