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Started by Bitcoin, Feb 14, 2021, 08:32 am

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Bitcoin

Is Crypto Mining Getting Popular?
As the crypto economy continues to grow, crypto mining is gaining a lot of public attention. COVID-19 pandemic has caused a tremendous downturn due to which cryptocurrency traders are encouraging mining as a new way of generating passive income. Not only this, countries have started observing an increase in buying of GPU cards, which is the primary element for building a cryptocurrency mining rig. Even in the region Abkhazia, where all crypto activities have been prohibited for the past two years, it has been reported that citizens have spent around $500,000 on mining equipment over the past few months. Apart from this, ever-increasing crypto prices of Bitcoin(BTC) and Ethereum(ETH) is the other major reason for increasing crypto mining activities.
Want to know more about cryptocurrencies and become a Certified Cryptocurrency Expert? You are just a click away!
Crypto Mining Rig and its Components?
There is no exact definition of a mining rig. All you can say is that a mining rig consists of several GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) cards, which is considered to be the primary element for building a cryptocurrency mining rig but no monitor. Such cards have a power-generating unit, a motherboard, and a cooling system. Here it is important to note that a cryptocurrency mining rig has no monitor; it is just connected to the Blockchain network via internet connection.
A mining rig consists of a motherboard that has the linking capability with several connectors for GPU cards. The next component is a hard disk drive with 100 to 250 GB of memory to accommodate the cryptocurrency wallet . The next component is GPU cards that define the crypto asset that a user will mine with their future profit and timelines. A power-generating unit is another vital component. You can understand it in a way that if a rig has four GPUs, then it will require more than one power unit. Then comes a power adapter for GPU cards, a power switch, and a cooling system to provide airflow.
How to Build Your Cryptocurrency Mining Rig.
Once you have purchased all the components of the rig, all you have to do is install software for mining the cryptocurrency of preference. Moreover, you can also go to your preferred mining pool. After collecting all the components, all you have to do is start its design. For the designing process, there are many tutorials and guides that can help you.
To state which GPU is the best is not correct as it depends on how much money a miner can spend on buying one. It is advised to buy the more robust GPU cards for the price of two to three somewhat weaker ones, as the cheaper ones will bring more profits due to their lower initial cost and power consumption.
Crucial Point to Keep in Mind Before Building a Crypto Rig.
Building a crypto mining rig is not difficult, but a user must consider electricity as an essential parameter. This is because paying the cost of electricity is the most expensive task that can hamper profitability. Therefore, before building a crypto rig, users must gain a thorough understanding of GPU cards because these cards are the main energy consumers.
Power-generating units are also responsible for consuming a certain amount of electricity. They can consume even less power if they are 'gold-certified.'
After considering the high initial costs associated, Philip Salter, head of operations at Genesis Mining, believes 'mining in the cloud seems like the only viable option for many.'
Concluding Lines.
Mining is an efficient way to earn some money. Keeping the points mentioned above in mind will help you in building your own crypto rig.
To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications , check out Blockchain Council .
Best Mining Rigs.
The Best Crypto Mining Rigs You Can Buy The prices of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been rallying of late, and this has led to an increase in the.
The Best Crypto Mining Rigs You Can Buy.
The prices of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been rallying of late, and this has led to an increase in the price of graphics cards. Because of this, if you are looking to invest in a cryptocurrency mining rig, you might be better off buying a pre-built one rather than trying to build one yourself.
Keep in mind when shopping for a pre-built mining rig that these computers are very specialized. Unlike normal desktop computers, there are not intended for normal computer tasks. Instead, they are meant to be used exclusively for mining cryptocurrencies. But they do this very efficiently, helping you maximize your profits.
Here is our list of the best mining rigs mining that you can buy right now:
The Shark Mini is a compact rig that includes in its base model 4 AMD RX570/580 graphics cards, and it comes with a 90-day warranty. Shark Mining manufactures it, and the company is well respected by crypto-mining enthusiasts.
While the base model includes the 4 AMD RX570/580 cards, you can upgrade them to either a set of Nvidia GTX 1070 GPUs or a set of Nvidia 1070 Ti GPUs. These cards are more expensive, but they could be well worth the extra cost by increasing your profit accordingly. You can also buy a touchscreen display for the rig, so that you can monitor it.

Bitcoin

2. Bitcoin Gold GPU Miner 2000 H/s.
The Bitcoin Gold GPU Miner 2000 H/s includes 6 Nvidia GTX 1060 6 GB graphics cards. It also comes with what the manufacturer calls a "default factory warranty," though it is not exactly clear at this moment what this means. Ethereumminer.eu manufactures the rig, and its specs indicate that it could make miners a significantly profit under current market conditions.
While the rig itself is not inexpensive (even after recent price cuts), the profits a miner could earn from using such a rig could easily offset its costs in a short amount of time. Another great feature of this rig is the ability to customize it according to your needs.
3. Antminer D3.
The Antminer D3 is a fundamentally different mining rig than all the other rigs in this roundup, as instead of graphics cards it mines cryptocurrency through the use of what are called application-specific integrated circuit chips (ASICs). These chips have both advantages and disadvantages in comparison to GPU-powered rigs. The chips are cheaper and use less energy than graphics cards, but they also can be more complicated to use.
Mineshop.eu manufactures this mining rig, which is extremely compact. It is an especially good choice if space is limited or if you intend to specifically mine Bitcoin, as it can mine blocks of this cryptocurrency faster than many other rigs. It comes with an excellent 19.5 GH/s hash rate.
4. Shark PRO.
The Shark PRO includes 6 AMD RX570/580 graphics cards, and it comes with a 90 days warranty. Like with the Shark Mini, Shark Mining manufactures it.
While not nearly as compact as the Shark Mini, the Shark PRO is a well-built rig. One that is intended for professional cryptocurrency miners. While the rig is the most expensive one in this roundup, it is well worth it. It is not only fast, but it also comes with a plethora of configuration upgrades. The graphics cards, in particular, you can upgrade to one of the following Nvidia models:
GTX 1070 GTX 1070 Ti GTX 1080 Ti RTX 2080 Ti (available beginning in October)
The Shark PRO is a rig to consider if you are really serious about cryptocurrency mining.
5. PandaMiner B5 Plus.
The PandaMiner B5 Plus includes 8 AMD Radeon RX 460 graphics cards, and it comes with a 6-months warranty. Luckily Pandaminer manufactures this mining rig, which is not only compact but also far more attractive than the other rigs in this roundup.
This powerful rig packs a lot of punch while providing a good value for its price. Not surprisingly, this has made it a popular choice for cryptocurrency mining enthusiasts. It is so popular, in fact, that it is often sold out. But if you can find one for sale, you can be pretty certain that under current market conditions it will make you a fine profit. Another plus of this rig is that there are various models that you can choose from.


Bitcoin

How does Bitcoin mining work.
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Best Cryptocurrency Exchange: What does It Mean for Us?
For you to be able to recognize a reliable online exchange and sort out those that appear to be too weak, we list several features, paying attention to which would help you to make the right choice. 1. Service safety and security. It is critical to ensure that your data will not be leaked to any other parties. Thus, the availability of certificates, like the PCI DSS, serves as the proof of service’s safety. Besides, the regulation of exchanges is also important. For example, CEX.IO.
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In traditional fiscal system, governments and banks can (and do) issue more money whenever they want to. However, no one can do that in Bitcoin, since the money issuance process revolves around mining - an extremely clever process of confirming Bitcoin transactions and recording them on a decentralized ledger at the same time.
But how does Bitcoin mining work? In this guide, we dive into the fundamentals of Bitcoin mining and the key processes behind it.
Bitcoin mining can be defined as a process of "discovering" bitcoins. Much like gold, bitcoins are artificially limited, and there can never be more than 21 million BTC. Also, like gold, you need to allocate resources and hard work to extract it. However, unlike mining gold, bitcoins are designed to be minted using the computational power of millions of competing computers from all over the world.
It may be tricky to wrap your head around it at first, but in fact, it is quite genius. Everyone is free to run a Bitcoin node and try their luck at mining, but no one is guaranteed to be profitable at it. However, these millions of computers ensure one thing - the functionality and security of the network.
If you want to dive deeper into the topic of "what is Bitcoin mining," see our namesake guide.
For now, all you need to know is that Bitcoin mining serves multiple purposes:
Secures the Bitcoin network. Incentivizes the miners to allocate their resources to the Bitcoin network. Confirms Bitcoin transactions. Ensures the decentralization of Bitcoin (which makes it free global peer-to-peer (P2P) money). Makes bitcoins scarce and hard to get. Penalizes bad actors in the network by making it unprofitable to go against the system.

Bitcoin

How does mining work?
People can send bitcoins (or any other digital assets) all the time, but it doesn't mean much unless someone keeps tabs on all of them. This is especially true with digital assets which are super easy to copy. So to have a fully functioning digital cash you need to keep a record on who paid what and to whom, and that's essentially what banks do for us.
But how do we know that person A has sent bitcoins to person B if there are no organizations to oversee it? How do we prevent double-spending where person A sends the same bitcoins to person C?
The answer is Bitcoin mining.
The Bitcoin network replaces banks and other intermediaries by processing all the network transactions, putting them into a list, and locking them up into immutable blocks. Eventually, it's the miners who do all the work - allocate their hashing power to confirm those transactions and record them into a distributed public ledger.
Bitcoin mining requires a computer and special Bitcoin program (client). When you install Bitcoin client on your computer, you become a miner and can compete with rival miners in solving complex math puzzles. Every ten minutes, all computers try to solve a block with the latest transaction data in it using cryptographic hash functions.
What are bitcoin hashes?
Every solved block is added to the public ledger. Essentially, the distributed public ledger consists of a long list of blocks which make up the Bitcoin blockchain.
The Bitcoin distributed ledger aka blockchain is a public record of all the transactions that took place on the network. Since the file is public, it can be explored by anyone using any bitcoin block explorer. A new block is added to the ledger approximately every 10 minutes. Therefore, the blockchain size is continuously increasing. An updated copy on a new block is shared between miners, so everyone always knows what's going on.
Now, what purpose does that serve?
In traditional systems, a ledger must be trusted, meaning that there has to be a trusted person or entity which oversees it and guarantees no one tampers with it. In the Bitcoin network, that role is played by the miners.
When a block of transactions is ready, the miners need to process it. They apply the SHA-256 Cryptographic Hash Algorithm to turn into a seemingly random sequence of numbers and letters known as a hash. The hash is stored together with the block at the end of the blockchain at that particular point in time, which serves as a proof of work and validation.
Bitcoin mining \"farm.\" Source: Wikipedia Commons.
But how are these hashes so reliable?
Well, it's easy to make a hash out of data included in the Bitcoin block. However, it is practically impossible to decrypt the data just by looking at the hash because it is entirely random and each hash is unique. If you change even one symbol in the original input, you will get an entirely different hash. Therefore, it is completely impossible to predict the output and the only way to match it is by blind guessing, which is what miners do.
Nevertheless, the miners don't merely wrap the transactions into hashes but use some other pieces of data, too. One of these pieces is the hash of the last block.
Since each block's hash contains the hash of the previous block, it works as like a digital a wax seal. It guarantees that the produced block, as well as every block before it, is legitimate. If the block is falsified, other miners can see it and reject it.
In other words, a fake transaction would change a block along with its original hash. Since each block's hash is used to create the next block's hash, that would affect all blocks on the chain. So if someone checked it, they would immediately notice the difference between correct and false blocks since they don't match the ones already verified on the blockchain.
That's how miners "seal off" a block. Now let's have a look at the competition part.
Bitcoin \"mining.\" Source: Freepik.com.
Competing for coins.
We've already established that the only way to seal off a block is to guess the output of the hash correctly, and the most efficient way to do so is random guessing done by computers.
All miners compete with each other who can guess it faster using the mining software. The miner who is first to do this mines the block (which takes billions of random computer-generated guesses from all over the world) and reaps the block reward which is currently set at 12.5 BTC per block and decreases by half every 210,000 blocks. At the current rate, it means the block reward will fall to 6.25 BTC per block sometime in 2021.
Essentially, it serves as an incentive to keep on mining to keep the system working. Since the block rewards are continually decreasing, it is expected BTC price will continue to appreciate. However, block rewards aren't the only incentive mechanism for the miners, as they also share the collective Bitcoin transaction fees.
Check out this guide to learn more about the value of bitcoins.



Bitcoin

StefaNikolic / Getty Images.
Bitcoin is a sovereign system of digital money. It has no direct correlation to any real-world currency, nor is it controlled by any government or centralized entity. But people can (and do) use it to purchase real-world items at major retailers such as Overstock.com and Expedia.
In order to process these transactions securely, entities called miners compete to solve mathematically complex problems. The miner who is successful in solving the problem adds a block to Bitcoin's blockchain and receives a reward of 6.25 bitcoins.   In November 2020, a single bitcoin was worth over $18,000--meaning every successful miner receives over $100,000 worth of Bitcoin.  
Not only is this a reward for the miner's efforts, but the process of mining is how new bitcoins are generated and introduced into circulation.
All mining starts with the blockchain. This is an online decentralized ledger that records transactions throughout a network. A group of approved transactions is called a "block." These blocks are tied together to create a "chain," hence, the term "blockchain. "
In the Bitcoin network, a miner's goal is to add individual blocks to the blockchain by solving sophisticated mathematical problems. This requires enormous computational and electrical power. While many miners compete to add each block, the miner who solves the problem will actually add the block--along with its approved transactions--to the blockchain. This miner receives a reward of 6.25 bitcoins (as of November 2020).  
The reward rate is cut in half every 210,000 blocks, which roughly means every four years.   This process, called "halving," is algorithmically enforced, ensuring a predictable, unalterable rate of introducing new bitcoins into the existing supply--eliminating concerns of inflation.
Due to the inherent difficulty in mining bitcoins, there are a number of requirements when it comes to the actual mining process.
What Do I Need to Mine Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is designed to adjust the difficulty required to mine one block every 14 days (or every 2,016 blocks mined). The overarching goal is to maintain the time required to mine one bitcoin to 10 minutes. Since Bitcoin has been around since 2009, its mining difficulty is currently extremely high, which is why resource-intensive, powerful hardware is required to mine it.  
Regular household computers--even those with incredible power by today's standard--will not see any success in the modern Bitcoin mining ecosystem.
The first and most important piece of equipment needed to mine bitcoin is specialized mining hardware called application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs. A new ASICs device can cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to $10,000. But the price of mining hardware is only a fraction of the expense involved. ASICs consume tremendous amounts of electricity, the cost of which can quickly exceed the cost of the device using it.
You'll also need to choose Bitcoin mining software to join the Bitcoin network. This isn't nearly as expensive as hardware. In fact, there are plenty of reliable software options available for free.
To determine the profitability of Bitcoin mining, all expenses must be considered: hardware, software, and electricity. The current value of Bitcoin, which consistently fluctuates, must also be taken into account, as well as taxes you might pay.
Each block takes roughly 10 minutes to mine. If more power and resources are dedicated to mining, and the time required to mine one block falls under 10 minutes, Bitcoin's mining difficulty will increase to bring the average per-block mining time back to 10 minutes.  
Can You Make Money From Mining Bitcoin?
At first glance, Bitcoin mining appears profitable. As of November 2020, the reward per block was 6.25 bitcoins, and one bitcoin is worth almost $18,000. According to these figures, Bitcoin generates over $100,000 worth of value every 10 minutes. If that sounds too good to be true, that's because it is--in part.
A single ASIC can consume as much electricity as 500,000 Playstation 3 devices, which is why Bitcoin mining simply isn't profitable from home.  
The profitability of Bitcoin mining mostly depends on the cost of electricity. For example, if you live in Louisiana and access electricity at an industrial rate of 4.58 cents per Kilowatt hour--which is the cheapest in the U.S.--you will lose money, even with top-notch ASICs hardware.  
Fortunately, Bitcoin mining enthusiasts without direct access to cheap electricity have another option.
Mining Pools.
One way in which Bitcoin mining can still be profitable--and perhaps the only way--is through mining pools. These enable miners to pool their resources together, adding power, but splitting the difficulty, cost, and reward of mining Bitcoin. There are several well-known Bitcoin mining pools across the globe, including F2Pool, Poolin, and BTC.com.
When a mining pool is rewarded, the individual miners get a very tiny piece of this reward. One bitcoin can be divided by eight decimal places, meaning a transaction of 0.00000001 BTC can be facilitated by the Bitcoin network, thus accommodating thousands of Bitcoin miners who collaborate through mining pools.  
But miners might still wait a long time to successfully reap their reward. Though this is highly speculative, one analysis found that top-notch ASICs hardware would require about 1,200 days to receive one bitcoin from mining efforts as part of a pool.  
The IRS treats cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin) received from mining as income. A miner needs documentation proving when a bitcoin was mined. The bitcoin will be valued based on its price the day it was mined. If a bitcoin is later sold at a higher price, the miner will need to pay capital gains tax on the difference.
If a mining operation is not part of an established business, additional tax obligations could apply. Such miners are likely to owe a self-employment tax of 15.3% on their annual income.  
How to Start Mining Bitcoin.
Though it is extremely difficult and rarely profitable, Bitcoin mining is still feasible. While the best results will derive from joining a mining pool, the following steps can be taken to venture into Bitcoin mining:


Bitcoin

Is Bitcoin mining Profitable or Worth it in 2020?
The short answer is yes. The long answer... it's complicated.
Bitcoin mining began as a well paid hobby for early adopters who had the chance to earn 50 BTC every 10 minutes, mining from their bedrooms. Successfully mining just one Bitcoin block, and holding onto it since 2010 would mean you have $450,000 worth of bitcoin in your wallet in 2020.
Unless you have access to very cheap electricity, and modern mining hardware then mining isn't the most efficient way to stack sats. Buying bitcoin with a debit card is the simplest way.
Ten years ago, all you needed was a reasonably powerful computer, a stable internet connection and the foresight of Nostradamus. These days, thanks to industrial Bitcoin mining operations, it's not such a level playing field and for a lot of people it makes more sense to simply buy some bitcoin on an exchange like Coinbase.
If you're motivated to learn, and you want to get a semi-passive income of bitcoin, then there are a few basics to get your head round, before working out if it's even possible for you to profit from Bitcoin mining.
Mining is the backbone of all proof-of-work blockchains and can be described with three key concepts:
Transaction Records.
The verification and addition of transactions to the public blockchain ledger. This is where you can view every single transaction that has ever occured in the history of the blockchain.
Proof-of-Work Calculations.
The energy-intensive puzzle that each Bitcoin mining machine solves every ten minutes. The miner that completes the puzzle before anything else adds the new block to the blockchain.
Bitcoin Block Reward.
Rewarded with 6.25 bitcoins. This number will reduce to 6.25 bitcoins after the halving in May 2020. The reward (plus transaction fees) are paid to the miner who solved the puzzle first.
This process repeats approximately every 10 minutes for every mining machine on the network. The difficulty of the puzzle (Network Difficulty) adjusts every 2016 blocks (
14 days) to ensure that on average one machine will solve the puzzle in a 10 minute period.
Network difficulty is calculated by the amount of hashrate contributing to the Bitcoin network.
What is Hashrate?
Hashrate is a measure of a miner's computational power.
In other words, the more miners (and therefore computing power) mining bitcoin and hoping for a reward, the harder it becomes to solve the puzzle. It is a computational arms race, where the individuals or organizations with the most computing power (hashrate) will be able to mine the most bitcoin.
The more computing power a machine has, the more solutions (and hence, block rewards) a miner is likely to find.
In 2009, hashrate was initially measured in hash per second (H/s) - Due to the exponential growth of mining, H/s was soon commonly pre-fixed with the following SI units:
Kilohash KH/s (thousands of Hashes/second) Megahash MH/s (millions of Hashes/second) Gigahash GH/s (billions of Hashes/second) Terahash TH/s (trillions of Hashes/second) Petahash PH/s (quadrillions of Hashes/second)
To try and put this into perspective, let's look at how much revenue 1 TH of power can earn mining bitcoin. As the global hashrate is usually growing the revenue per TH for each miner is usually falling, - and the revenue chart for 1 TH/s looks like this:
When you consider how many TH/s there are in the entire Bitcoin network though, you get a true sense of the scale of the industry:
85 Exahash = 85,000,000 Terahash.
That means in May 2020 the daily revenue, globally, for Bitcoin mining is: $8.45M.
How do Bitcoin miners calculate their earnings?
You've probably heard the scare stories about Bitcoin mining's energy consumption.
Regardless of whether the impact is overblown by the media, it's a fact that the underlying cost of mining is the energy consumed. The revenue from mining has to outweigh those costs, plus the original investment into mining hardware, in order to be profitable.



Bitcoin

Mining Revenue.
In 2020, one modern Bitcoin mining machine (commonly known as an ASIC), like the Whatsminer M20S, generates around $8 in Bitcoin revenue every day. If you compare this to the revenue of mining a different crypto currency, like Ethereum, which is mined with graphics cards, you can see that the revenue from Bitcoin mining is twice that of mining with the same amount GPUs you could buy for one ASIC. Thirteen AMD RX graphics cards cost around the same as one Whatsminer M20s.
WARNING.
This graph shows you the daily revenue of mining Bitcoin. It does not take into account the daily electricity costs of running a mining machine. Your baseline costs will be the difference between mining profitably or losing money. GPU mining for Ethereum is more efficient than mining with Bitcoin with an ASIC machine.
You can think of it as though the miners are a decentralized Paypal. Allowing all the transactions to be recorded accurately and making a bit of money for running the system.
Bitcoin miners earn bitcoin by collecting something called the block reward plus the fees bitcoin users pay the miners for safely and securely recording their bitcoin transactions onto the blockchain.
What is the Block Reward?
Roughly every ten minutes a specific number of newly-minted bitcoin is awarded to the person with a mining machine that is quickest to discover the new block.
Originally, in 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto set the mining reward at 50 BTC, as well as encoding the future reductions to the reward.
The Bitcoin code is predetermined to halve this payout roughly every four years. It was reduced to 25 BTC in late-2012, and halved again to 12.5 BTC in the middle of 2016.
Most recently, in May 2020, the third Bitcoin halving reduced the block reward to 6.25 BTC.
What about transaction fees?
The second source of revenue for Bitcoin miners is the transaction fees that Bitcoiners have to pay when they transfer BTC to one another.
This is the beauty of Bitcoin. Every transaction is recorded in an unchangeable blockchain that is copied to every mining machine.
Bitcoin doesn't rely on a central bank to keep records, it's the miners themselves that keep the records, and they get to keep a share of the transaction fees as well.
Taxes on Bitcoin mining Profits.
Of course, while profiting on Bitcoin mining isn't certain, paying taxes on your mining rewards is. Every miner needs to know the relevant tax laws for Bitcoin mining in his area, which is why it is so important to use a crypto tax software that helps you keep track of everything and make sure you are still making enough money after you account for taxes.
How do you know if you can profit from Bitcoin mining?
First of all, Bitcoin mining has a lot of variables. This is why buying bitcoin on an exchange can be a simpler way to make a profit. However, when done efficiently it is possible to end up with more bitcoin from mining than from simply hodling.
One of the most important variables for miners is the price of Bitcoin itself. If, like most people, you are paying for your mining hardware, and your electricity,- in dollars, then you will need to earn enough bitcoin from mining to cover your ongoing costs; and make back your original investment into the machine itself.
Bitcoin price, naturally, impacts all miners. However, there are three factors that separate profitable miners from the rest: cheap electricity, low cost and efficient hardware and a good mining pool.
1. Cheap Electricity.
Electricity prices vary from country to country. Many countries also charge a lower price for industrial electricity in order to encourage economic growth. This means that a mining farm in  will pay half as much for the electricity you would mining at home in the USA. In places like Germany, well as you can see from the chart, that's another story...
In practical terms. Running a Whatsminer M20S for one month will cost around $110 a month if your electricity is $0.045 kWh in somewhere like China,  or Kazakhstan. You can see from the table below that you would make $45 a month in May 2020 with those electricity prices.
Profitability with $0.045 kWh electricity.
However, with the typical home electricity price in the USA, of $0.12 kWh, you would be running the machines at a loss from the start and it would not make sense to mine under these conditions:
Profitability with $0.12 kWh electricity.
2. Efficient Hardware.
So far in this article I've used the Whatsminer M20S as an example of the kind of machine you will need to mine bitcoin. These days there are several hardware manufacturers to choose from.
The price of hardware varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and depends largely on how low the energy use is for the machine vs the amount of computing power it produces. The more computing power, the more bitcoin you will mine. The lower the energy consumption the lower your monthly costs.
When choosing which machine to invest in, miners should think about the machine's profitability and longevity.
Profitability is determined by the machine's price per TH, how many watts the machine uses per TH, and your hosting costs. Longevity is determined by the production quality of the machine. It makes no sense to buy cheaper or seemingly more efficient machines if they break down after a few months of running.
If the hosting cost is low enough, it often makes sense to prioritize the 'price per TH' over 'watts per TH', as your lower operational expenses (OpEx) will make up for the loss in your machine's efficiency - and vice versa if your hosting costs are high.
The manufacturer with the lowest failure rate right now is MicroBT, who make the Whatsminer M20S and other Whatsminer models.
Bitcoin mining Hardware Turnoff Prices.
One useful way to think about hardware is to consider what price BTC would have to fall to in order for the machines to stop being profitable. You want your machine to stay profitable for several years in order for you to earn more bitcoin from mining than you could have got by simply buying the cryptocurrency itself.
The following table shows that the majority of the most modern machines could remain profitable at a bitcoin price between $5000 and $6000. Some machines could handle a drop below $5k, if they are being run with electricity that costs under $0.05 kWh.
Unfortunately most older machines are now no longer profitable even in China. The Bitmain S9 has been operational since 2016 and interestingly enough they are still being used in Venezuela and Iran where electricity is so cheap that it outweighs the risk of confiscation. There may, eventually, be more reputable sources of sub 2 cents electricity as the access to solar and wind improves in North America.
For the individual miner, the only hope of competing with operations that have access to such cheap electricity is to send your machines to those farms themselves. Not many farms offer this as a service though.
3. Reliable Mining Pool.
These days, every miner needs to mine through a mining pool. Whether you are mining with one machine, or several thousand, the network of Bitcoin mining machines is so large that your chances of regularly finding a block (and therefore earning the block reward and transaction fees) is very low.
If the Bitcoin Network Hashrate is 100 EH/s (100,000,000 TH/s), a WhatsMiner M20S ASIC miner with 68 TH/s, has approximately a 1 in 1,470,588 chance of mining a Bitcoin block. With one block per 10 mins they may have to wait 16 years to mine that one block.
The oldest two pools are Slush Pool and F2Pool. F2Pool is now the largest Bitcoin mining pool and they support around 20% of the entire Bitcoin network.
F2Pool's payout method is called PPS+. PPS+ pools take the risk away from miners, as they pay out block rewards and transaction fees to miners regardless of whether the pool itself successfully mines each block. Typically, PPS+ pools pay the miners at the end of each day.
This is how PPS+ pools calculate how much to pay out to miners in their pool. Here comes the science part...
If the Bitcoin Network Hashrate is at 85 EH/s (85,000,000 TH/s), a WhatsMiner M20S ASIC miner with 68 TH/s, will earn around 0.000702 BTC per day before pool fees.
0.000702 BTC is calculated by 68 (miner hashrate) ÷ 85,000,000 (network hashrate) × 144 (number of blocks per day) × 6.25 (block reward).
Pool fees are normally 2.50-4.00%, so let's use 2.50% for the example; the net mining revenue is therefore 0.00068445 BTC.
If BTC is priced at $9,000, then this M20S has a daily revenue of $6.16.
Choosing the right mining pool is very important, as you will receive your mined bitcoin sent from the pool payouts every day. It's important to choose a pool that is reliable, transparent and offers the right suite of tools and services to help you optimize your mining operation.
4. Fees When Selling Bitcoin.
An often overlooked facet of mining profitability is the fees one pays to sell the Bitcoin one mines. If you are a small time miner, you may have to sell your coins on a retail exchange like kraken or binance. Sometimes your fees are low but sometimes your fees are high - it really just depends on the fee structure of the exchange and the state of the orderbook at the moment.
However, if you are a professional miner like F2 or Bitmain, you likely have really advantageous deals with OTC desks to sell your coins at little to no fees - depending on the state of the market. Some miners are even paid above spot price for their coins. Either way, professional mining operations deal with Bitcoin at a large scale and so they have more leverage to get deals that are good for them, and this doesn't just apply to electrcity purchases.
If you think you have what it takes be mine profitably, we suggest you make sure first by using our mining profitability calculator.
Professionals vs Amateurs.
It's common knowledge that it has become very difficult for individual miners to get access to the best machines and the cheapest electricity rates. Bitcoin farms that operate at scale use these advantages to maximize their returns.
As the difficulty of mining bitcoin increases, and the price lags behind, it is becoming harder and harder for small miners to make a profit.
It all comes down to scale and access to cheaper prices. When people enter the space, without prior relationships, they struggle to compete with established mining operations.
Bitcoin mining is starting to resemble similar industries as more money flows in and people start to suit up. With increased leverage, margins are lower across the whole sector. Soon, large scale miners will be able to hedge their operations with financial tooling to lock in profits, whilst bringing in USD denominated investments like loans or for equity.
As mining becomes more professional, it will make things even harder for DIY miners.
Can you Mine direct to an exchange?
If you have put in the effort to learn about mining, and you have found a location with low cost electricity for your machines, then you still need to consider where to store the bitcoin that you mine.
It is possible to mine direct from the pool to an exchange, but we recommend you keep your bitcoin in a wallet where you have access to the private keys.
Here are our top picks for Bitcoin wallets:
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Is Bitcoin mining Worth It? (2020 Updated)
Is Bitcoin mining worth it?
In this article, we’ll answer that question given that today, large scale mining operations now dominate the landscape. We’ll consider equipment costs, what can give you an advantage in mining and how to determine profitability. В.
Before we dive in though, if you’d like a primer on what Bitcoin mining is, including some interesting facts that you might not be aware of, we’ve published another article: What is Bitcoin mining. The article is a great introduction to the topic of Bitcoin mining and if you’re new to crypto you might want to check it out before reading this more technically rich article.