<p>I'm guessing this has now been asked like a million times.  Exponentially at first - once hw is available and it becomes more mainstream for the average person to buy asic hardware and setup at their own house...we will see difficulty plateau at a steady rate.  However by the time the plateau occurs, most 50GH/s hardware will only be able to mine a few USD a month...people will have already shifted over to alt-coins and GPUs will be targeting Scrypt Related stuff by that point.  I think we will see a shift of asic hardware from smaller groups  being used on other sha256 altcoins such as PPC, TRC, and FRC.  </p>

<p>I predict Difficulty will hit 120 Million by December 300 Million by June and 1 billion by Dec 2014 at the next block reward halving event.  This won't be because of the small guys I mentioned in the prior paragraph either...difficulty will steadily rise and plateau because there will be dozens if not hundereds of commercial medium and large scale mining operations that came online to 'milk' the system.   </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-23T06:46:32.893Z
Holy Crap Look at that Prediction and how WRONG I was! As of NOW, we have a difficulty of 267 Million, I was hoping to not see that sort of hashrate until Next JUNE!  Looking like Mining horizon is shorter than we all thought
Frankenmint
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-08T07:33:19.360Z
2013-07-08T07:33:19.360Z
Frankenmint
<p>Nobody knows the future difficulty, but the current path has it increasing 20% or more every ten days.</p>

<p>If profitability is revenue less the cost of inputs (electricity), then current ASICs should be profitable for quite some time.   </p>

<p>The problem in making a call whether that profit is sufficient has to do with the cost of the hardware.  If the hardware becomes obsolete in six months, then it possibly an investment in mining hardware ends up being a money-losing venture.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-06T09:05:45.767Z
SHA-256 Devices might not be feasible with BTC in 6 months but there are other Crypto currencies that are profitable using the exact same device. So its 0% investment with ROI straight  away! I did not down vote you but I think who did it thought the same as me.
WillyWonka
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-06T08:36:24.033Z
2013-09-06T08:36:24.033Z
Stephen Gornick
<p>I am considering buying a 5/Ghs Butterfly Labs ASIC miner. My question is, will the difficulty increase caused by large quantities of ASIC miners being shipped in the coming months make the miner in question unprofitable?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-06T08:33:31.773Z
This is a poor question for Stack Exchange, since any response would be mostly speculation.
Stephen Gornick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-06T08:39:59.163Z
I used to mine with 2 6990 and make a nice profit. I have 20 erupeters now and hardly make 25% of what I used too. Bitcoin is not for the small boys anymore! Time to buy 600ghs rigs. `And this is BITCOIN related and a very god question to ask.` There is no speculation in the fact its getting harder to mine because of ASIC's
Piotr Kula
<mining-hardware><difficulty><asic>
How much will difficulty increase when ASIC miners become generally availible in the coming months?
user149738
# How much will difficulty increase when ASIC miners become generally availible in the coming months?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-07-08)

I am considering buying a 5/Ghs Butterfly Labs ASIC miner. My question is, will the difficulty increase caused by large quantities of ASIC miners being shipped in the coming months make the miner in question unprofitable?

**Tags:** mining-hardware, difficulty, asic

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This is a poor question for Stack Exchange, since any response would be mostly speculation.  
> **username_2**: I used to mine with 2 6990 and make a nice profit. I have 20 erupeters now and hardly make 25% of what I used too. Bitcoin is not for the small boys anymore! Time to buy 600ghs rigs. `And this is BITCOIN related and a very god question to ask.` There is no speculation in the fact its getting harder to mine because of ASIC's  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2013-07-08. Score: 3

I'm guessing this has now been asked like a million times. Exponentially at first - once hw is available and it becomes more mainstream for the average person to buy asic hardware and setup at their own house...we will see difficulty plateau at a steady rate. However by the time the plateau occurs, most 50GH/s hardware will only be able to mine a few USD a month...people will have already shifted over to alt-coins and GPUs will be targeting Scrypt Related stuff by that point. I think we will see a shift of asic hardware from smaller groups being used on other sha256 altcoins such as PPC, TRC, and FRC.

I predict Difficulty will hit 120 Million by December 300 Million by June and 1 billion by Dec 2014 at the next block reward halving event. This won't be because of the small guys I mentioned in the prior paragraph either...difficulty will steadily rise and plateau because there will be dozens if not hundereds of commercial medium and large scale mining operations that came online to 'milk' the system.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Holy Crap Look at that Prediction and how WRONG I was! As of NOW, we have a difficulty of 267 Million, I was hoping to not see that sort of hashrate until Next JUNE!  Looking like Mining horizon is shorter than we all thought  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2013-09-06. Score: -1

Nobody knows the future difficulty, but the current path has it increasing 20% or more every ten days.

If profitability is revenue less the cost of inputs (electricity), then current ASICs should be profitable for quite some time.

The problem in making a call whether that profit is sufficient has to do with the cost of the hardware. If the hardware becomes obsolete in six months, then it possibly an investment in mining hardware ends up being a money-losing venture.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: SHA-256 Devices might not be feasible with BTC in 6 months but there are other Crypto currencies that are profitable using the exact same device. So its 0% investment with ROI straight  away! I did not down vote you but I think who did it thought the same as me.  

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