What Happens In Vegas...

Now, some of you may have their reservations about gambling. While the rest may have no feelings at all. But for those who it makes uncomfortable, it mostly comes down to how it's defined. Whatever their personal definitions though, it necessarily includes some form of investment and some amount of risk.

In our world, it's safe to assume, that those who take their chances on the slot machine are viewed in a much darker light than those who take theirs in the stock or securities market.

However, dealing with multiple currencies is indeed a gamble. Can it truly be said to be any different from the above examples? It includes an investment (electrical and equipment costs) and is tempered by risk. Dynamic exchange rates can cause your holdings to depreciate or appreciate day to day. In the case of cryptocurrencies those value variations can be exceptionally wild. In the same year, appreciation can amount to an order of magnitude in gains! Look at Ether's price, $8 January 1st of this year, yet currently over $300. But the inverse is also true, there can be losses just as mountainous.

Knowing a few basic market principles can help guide you in your trading of the various cryptocurrencies. It's similar to how like learning to read a person's "tells" can help you to play a better game of poker or blackjack. But there remain other factors involved, some without our control, that affect our chances at making a profit - the de facto aim of any trade. So at the end, no matter how educated or versed you are, there can be no guarantee that you'll walk away from your chosen gamble with a profit.

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My lottery, however, barely involved any form of currency. What would be exchanged was time and energy for hardware equipment. Of course, however, due to the price of hardware today, the equipment offered in exchange for that time and energy would often be yesteryear's or broken, or both. But among the non-functioning parts and systems may lie golden nuggets that could be used to build a mining rig.

But why would the Monero Miner take this gamble you ask? Wouldn't saving and purchasing equipment oneself be a straightforward and less stressful endeavour? Surely, collecting, sorting and testing equipment would consume a lot of time. Time, that may have been otherwise employed. It would also require a lot of patience and research for troubleshooting year old parts. Oh, and let's not forget the space required to keep everything packed away in a safe and orderly manner. So again, why choose this gamble? Could the potential gain be that much more than the loss incurred?

To answer that question, we must remember that my profitability is only further compounded by the use of inexpensive equipment. It would make the length of time for return on investment substantially shorter. Any functioning parts gained through our transactions that lead to the creation of mining rigs become icing on an already discounted cake.

And who doesn't like cake?

Delayed Win Streak...

The hope of most gamblers is that of a win or a win streak. But besides some intricate math, there's just no telling when and if there'll be a win streak and thus begins our trials...

Since October 5th, we've collected five laptops, three desktops, seven motherboards, many ram modules, over ten graphics cards and six power supplies. A large collection for such a small space of time. Colour me appreciative and surprised. October 5th was the day I made a post on what's the equivalent of my local "craigslist" and the response has been overwhelming.

This is due to the fact that for every exchange each party is gaining something. A lot of persons wish to clear up space in their home but would rather not throw out potentially useful items and we're offering free pick up :) Needless to say, it's a win/win.

That's a win/win on collecting equipment, which is a far cry from building functioning systems. We'll discuss that process in detail in the following posts.

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Thanks for all the support again, especially @maxer27, @rmp, @steemfiles, and @xeo who are my newest followers. make sure to check out their stuff on Steemit! Take care, and see you all next time!