So as I posted earlier this week, I purchased an Antmier A3. It's my first ASIC and my second mining rig. Right now there seems to be a lot of backlash over the units especially after seeing the effects the D3 had on X11 mining last year. I'm not delusional and am well aware that the current projection of $600/ day is totally unreasonable and that as people get their A3's online, the profitability is going to plummet.
I'm still optimistic I can get my investment back from the A3. With the increasing scarcity of GPU's and other mining rigs, there is massive demand for anything that is capable of mining. Last year's D3 still earns $5-$10 a day and sells for $1000+ on ebay. Say you received your D3 in September and have mined for 140 days @ $10/day that's $1400 back plus the resale of $1000. Seems alright to me. I hear lots of people say ASIC's have no resale value while GPU's retain value. That does hold a degree of truth but anything that can mine is highly sought after right now.
And then we have the community backlash over the surprise Antmier A3 release. This is understandable as people who mine Siacoin or have preorder other Siacoin miners, just lost out on a big payday. Bitmain will be pumping out the units and flood the market well before their models see the light of day. As a result of this the community has shown some desire to softfork Siacoin and tweaking the algorithm to make the new Antminer A3's useless. I understand the point of this but at the same time it doesn't really hurt Bitmain as they've already sold all the unit's but it does hurt anyone who stepped out an bought one. The developers claim they have a soft fork prepared in case the Bitmain miners act in a malicious manner, which the mining rigs they are making can adjust for.
All of this feels like overreaction and I hope nothing crazy happens before I get the miner in my hands. I'd very much like an extra $20-30 revenue stream each day and it was very satisfying to purchase something with crypto I earned. I hope this doesn't blow up in my face but who knows.
