It will be two years this April that I began cryptocurrency mining. I started mining Monero with an old Radeon HD 6870 and a couple of old desktops/laptops. I pushed that old hardware to the limits to eek out some more hashrate, and while it was slow going, I felt something wonderful bubbling up inside of me. I was loving this. It was a new thing. A new challenge. I had to understand what it was I was doing, and how to do it better, and it was a process that has never stopped. I eventually started buying more video cards to get the process really moving. Soon I had 3 more cards to mine with. I had torn apart my gaming rig for a couple of them, and used an even older gaming rig I got from a friend to setup the other 2 cards downstairs because I couldn't afford to get decent power supplies. As things progressed, I finally got a high end PSU and was able to consolidate. Then I decided to buy more cards, and the process began again.

Flash forward to now. I have a 6 card rig running most of the time, and another 6 card rig on standby. I have 5 ASIC machines hashing full time on Scrypt and Equihash, and I may end up grabbing a few more to switch things up. I wouldn't say it's an obsession, but it probably is. I did all of this through patience, bargain hunting, and lot so trial and error. I've blown up 1 power supply, had one mining board fail, and another that I sort of -fried trying to hook up multiple PSU's to the thing. (ASUS Mining Expert 19 card MB, with inputs for 3 PSU's.) I've had to buy a fair number of risers to keep up with the changing technology, or change out shitty ones. I spend a fair amount on cleaning wipes and compressed air to keep all my stuff running in top shape. I spend a goodly amount of time on tweaking performance, and trying to see just how far I can underclock/undervolt to save a few extra dollars on the electric bill. (I pay 0.10 per kw/h)

I'm not making a profit. Period. SO why do I still do it? Well, because I love it, obviously, but what are some compelling reasons to increase your electric bill exponentially, and spend money on hardware that could have been used other places, and make budgeting even more of a nightmare? Well, let's get into that, shall we?

Cryptocurrency markets are a volatile, wild-west, filled with shit coins, scam projects, uncertain regulation, hacked exchanges, lost or stolen coin amounting to 10's of millions of dollars each year, and an all-around unpredictable future. But, despite all of these things, there is one thing that is certain, some of the projects out there will survive, they will grow, and if we learn the patience to HODL, we could be holding on to the next google or amazon in terms of growth. Mining in the slump is the best way to get ahead, because you may lose in the short-term; but as the market recovers, as it always does, you will have had the opportunity to mine more, because the difficulty, and hashrate has fallen along with the prices, and your investment will recover as the price increases.  

You are banking on the long-term price of your coins. Everything you do is about having a strategy. Are you going for quick profits? Want to stuff your fiat accounts? Great. Go for it. I think trading in cryptos is a phenomenal idea. But, I'm not looking for another full-time job right now, and I don't want the tax headaches. It's much easier for me at least, too HODL, and worry about the tax burden later. Personally, I'm employing a long-term approach, understanding that, in this moment in time, the crypto markets are still in their infancy. Governments are still determining what they are, how they should they be taxed, should they even be taxed, how to regulate them, etc. 

So, despite the state of the crypto economy, I am still mining, and even adding to my equipment. For the most part, I am mining established coins with a high marketcap, good project momentum, good visibility, excellent long-term goals and viability. I do, however, still engage in speculative mining, I investigate new crypto projects and if I think they are worthy, I will mine them, or buy some to setup a Masternode, if that's the kind of project it is. I think the hardest part for me is really being sure of what constitutes a worthy project. For me, I have some hard rules that I use when looking at a new project.

1. Do they have a goal, and is that goal something new, and not a rehashing of a hundred other projects?

2.Do they have a properly fleshed out whitepaper/roadmap?

3.Are they keeping up with their roadmap, and if not, are they transparent with the community as to why?

4.Is the team engaged, transparent, and informative? Do they keep the community abreast of where they're at?

5.Are they too heavily invested in airdrops, bounties, referral programs, etc, and not spending enough time on creating things? Freebies are nice, but ultimately worthless if the coin goes nowhere.

6. Do they have a professional website, or one of those God awful template sites with the shitty lego graphics, and the moving blockchain background that floats around? That's annoying.

7. Are they engaged on most of the relevant social media platforms. In my opinion Discord and Twitter are the two most useful. Telegram is good for what it does, but I hate the interface, setting it up on all my machines is a pain in the ass, and did I mention I hate the interface? God it fucking sucks. Instagram is not useful, it's for vanity, and I could give two shits if you want to post selfies from the last blockchain conference you went to. 

You get the idea. 

I keep my miners pointed at projects that matter, I invest in Staking and Masternode coins that serve a purpose, and I try my best to avoid wasting time with shit projects, and get rich quick crypto schemes. 

I won't know until years from now if I've made the right choices, but I think I've learned enough to see the difference between good projects, and garbage. Also, I've learned that my rigs can heat the whole upstairs of my house in the winter, so that absolutely justifies the expense, as I live in a 150 year old home that has no radiators on the second floor. None. It's heated only by the air that comes up the stairs, and now my miners....

So that's my tale at the present. What's your take on all this? Any theories as to the future of the market, or thoughts on good projects to invest in? Let me know in the comments section, and maybe I'll delve into some of that in a future article.