If I wanted to get involved in Nxt, realistically how many coins would I need to purchase to start mining?
Somewhat of a complicated answer...
Technically, 1 coin... However I think it would take you 1902 years to mine anything. (this is based on the chance of Mining a block is YOUR # OF COINS TOTAL NUMBER OF COINS (1 Billion)... and there are 1440 blocks mined in 1 day...)
Ok, so lets look at if you had 1 Million coins.
You would mine 1.4 Blocks per day.
BUT a block Value = Only the transaction fees of Transactions occurring in that block. (The majority of which at the moment are ZERO)
The more Coins each person has, the less people that have coins.
The less people that have coins, the less the coins get used, and thus the less they are traded.
The less use they have, the less value they have.
The less they are traded, the less transaction fees.
So which would you prefer??
To have 1 Million NXT, and mine 1.4 Blocks/day... but the 1 Million NXT be worth less than 1 BTC, and the 1.4 Block that you do mine, be lucky to be worth only 1 NXT.
OR...
Have 10,000 NXT and mine 5 Blocks/year... but the 10,000 NXT be worth 10 BTC, and the 5 Blocks that you do mine, have 1000 NXT in each block??
