Is Bitcoin Mining Still Profitable?
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By KRISTINA ZUCCHI
Reviewed By JULIUS MANSA
Updated Jun 30, 2020
Bitcoin mining is the process of earning bitcoin in exchange for running the verification process to validate bitcoin transactions. These transactions provide security for the Bitcoin network which in turn compensates miners by giving them bitcoins. Miners can profit if the price of bitcoins exceeds the cost to mine. With recent changes in technology and the creation of professional mining centers with enormous computing power, as well as the shifting price of bitcoin itself, many individual miners are asking themselves, is bitcoin mining still profitable?
There are several factors that determine whether bitcoin mining is a profitable venture. These include the cost of the electricity to power the computer system (cost of electricity), the availability and price of the computer system, and the difficulty in providing the services. Difficulty is measured in the hashes per second of the Bitcoin validation transaction. The hash rate measures the rate of solving the problem—the difficulty changes as more miners enter because the network is designed to produce a certain level of bitcoins every ten minutes.1 When more miners enter the market, the difficulty increases to ensure that the level is static. The last factor for determining profitability is the price of bitcoins as compared against standard, hard currency.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Bitcoin is mined using computing rigs which include expensive hardware.
Miners are rewarded with bitcoin for verifying blocks of transactions to the blockchain network.
As more miners compete for bitcoin rewards, the process becomes more difficult.
To determine whether bitcoin mining is profitable for you, consider costs of equipment and electricity as well as the difficulty associated with mining and how the price of bitcoin will impact potential rewards.
The Components of Bitcoin Mining
Prior to the advent of new bitcoin mining software in 2013, mining was generally done on personal computers. But the introduction of application specific integrated circuit chips (ASIC) offered up to 100 billion times the capability of older personal machines, rendering the use of personal computing to mine bitcoins inefficient and obsolete.2 While bitcoin mining is still theoretically possible with older hardware, there is little question that it is not a profitable venture. This is because of the way that mining is set up: miners are competing to solve hash problems as quickly as possible, so those miners at a serious computational disadvantage essentially stand no chance of solving a problem first and being rewarded with bitcoin. When miners used the old machines, the difficulty in mining bitcoins was roughly in line with the price of bitcoins. But with these new machines came issues related to both the high cost to obtain and run the new equipment and the lack of availability.
Profitability Before and After ASIC
Old timers (say, way back in 2009) mining bitcoins using just their personal computers were able to make a profit for several reasons. First, these miners already owned their systems, so equipment costs were effectively nil. They could change the settings on their computers to run more efficiently with less stress. Second, these were the days before professional bitcoin mining centers with massive computing power entered the game. Early miners only had to compete with other individual miners on home computer systems. The competition was on even footing. Even when electricity costs varied based on geographic region, the difference was not enough to deter individuals from mining.
After ASICs came into play, the game changed. Individuals were now competing against powerful mining rigs that had more computing power. Mining profits were getting chipped away by expenses like purchasing new computing equipment, paying higher energy costs for running the new equipment, and the continued difficulty in mining.
Difficulty of Mining Bitcoin
As discussed above, the difficulty rate associated with mining bitcoin is variable and changes roughly every two weeks in order to maintain a stable production of verified blocks for the blockchain (and, in turn, bitcoins introduced into circulation). The higher the difficulty rate, the less likely that an individual miner is to successfully be able to solve the hash problem and earn bitcoin. In recent years, the mining difficulty rate has skyrocketed. When bitcoin was first launched, the difficulty was 1. As of May 2020, it is more than 16 trillion.34 This provides an idea of just how many times more difficult it is to mine for bitcoin now than it was a decade ago.
Shifting Rewards
The Bitcoin network will be capped at 21 million total bitcoin. This has been a key stipulation of the entire ecosystem since it was founded, and the limit is put in place to attempt to control for supply of the cryptocurrency. Currently, over 18 million bitcoin have been mined. As a way of controlling the introduction of new bitcoin into circulation, the network protocol halves the number of bitcoin rewarded to miners for successfully completing a block about every four years.5 Initially, the number of bitcoin a miner received was 50. In 2012, this number was halved and the reward became 25. In 2016, it halved again to 12.5. In May 2020, the reward halved once again to 6.25, the current reward.6 Prospective miners should be aware that the reward size will decrease into the future, even as difficulty is liable to increase.
Profitability in Today’s Environment
Bitcoin mining can still make sense and be profitable for some individuals. Equipment is more easily obtained, although competitive ASICs cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars up to about $10,000. In an effort to stay competitive, some machines have adapted. For example, some hardware allows users to alter settings to lower energy requirements, thus lowering overall costs. Prospective miners should perform a cost/benefit analysis to understand their breakeven price before making the fixed-cost purchases of the equipment. The variables needed to make this calculation are:
Cost of power: what is your electricity rate? Keep in mind that rates change depending on the season, the time of day, and other factors. You can find this information on your electric bill measured in kWh.
Efficiency: how much power does your system consume, measured in watts?
Time: what is the anticipated length of time you will spend mining?
Bitcoin value: what is the value of a bitcoin in U.S. dollars or other official currency?
There are several web-based profitability calculators, such as the one provided by CryptoCompare, that would-be miners can use to analyze the cost/benefit equation of bitcoin mining. Profitability calculators differ slightly and some are more complex than others.
Run your analysis several times using different price levels for both the cost of power and value of bitcoins. Also, change the level of difficulty to see how that impacts the analysis. Determine at what price level bitcoin mining becomes profitable for you—that is your breakeven price. As of May 2020, the price of bitcoin is hovering around $8,000. Given a current reward of 6.25 BTC for a completed block, miners are rewarded around $50,000 for successfully completing a hash. Of course, as the price of bitcoin is highly variable, this reward figure is likely to change.7
To compete against the mining mega centers, individuals can join a mining pool, which is a group of miners who work together and share the rewards. This can increase the speed and reduce the difficulty in mining, putting profitability in reach. As difficulty and cost have increased, more and more individual miners have opted to participate in a pool. While the overall reward decreases because it is shared among multiple participants, the combined computing power means that mining pools stand a much greater chance of actually completing a hashing problem first and receiving a reward in the first place.
To answer the question of whether bitcoin mining is still profitable, use a web-based profitability calculator to run a cost-benefit analysis. You can plug in different numbers and find your breakeven point (after which mining is profitable). Determine if you are willing to lay out the necessary initial capital for the hardware, and estimate the future value of bitcoins as well as the level of difficulty. When both bitcoin prices and mining difficulty decline, it usually indicates fewer miners and more ease in receiving bitcoins. When bitcoin prices and mining difficulty rise, expect the opposite—more miners competing for fewer bitcoins.
bitcoin apple пулы bitcoin monero fr cms bitcoin And if you’re hungry and live in the U.S., PizzaforCoins will get a pizza delivered to your door (depending on where you live) in exchange for bitcoin.These conceptual breakthroughs must have been exciting to the technologists of the early 1980s. But the excitement would soon be disrupted by rapid changes in business.bitcoin установка monero купить monero ann bitcoin brokers криптовалюта monero 33 bitcoin bitcoin лопнет кошелек tether bitcoin обучение bitcoin elena ethereum os 2016 bitcoin лотереи bitcoin bitcoin birds The ongoing stability of Bitcoin’s network effect is one of the reasons I became more optimistic about Bitcoin’s prospects going forward. Rather than quickly fall to upstart competitors like Myspace did to Facebook, Bitcoin has retained substantial market share, and especially hash rate, against thousands of cryptocurrency competitors for a decade now.ethereum faucet bitcoin compromised продать ethereum sportsbook bitcoin ethereum прогноз доходность ethereum bitcoin котировка tether usd bitcoin алгоритм store bitcoin tether gps
bitcoin poloniex
bitcoin maps bitcoin daemon bcc bitcoin Decentralized. Anything that is not controlled by a single, central entity or group. tether gps
добыча bitcoin monero gpu бесплатный bitcoin bitcoin solo bitcoin 5 bot bitcoin розыгрыш bitcoin ico cryptocurrency
time bitcoin
mikrotik bitcoin bitcoin forums coinmarketcap bitcoin
cryptocurrency charts bitcoin 100 daemon monero падение ethereum bitcoin database создатель bitcoin динамика ethereum bitcoin elena bitcoin dark bitcoin pizza bitcoin store daemon bitcoin bio bitcoin water bitcoin weekend bitcoin magic bitcoin bitcoin кранов bitcoin icons работа bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin банк bitcoin ethereum краны swarm ethereum bitcoin майнить
bitcoin сбербанк партнерка bitcoin tether gps tether майнинг
monero пул metropolis ethereum
bitcoin world adc bitcoin fake bitcoin криптовалюта ethereum nanopool ethereum stealer bitcoin bitcoin double bitcoin бесплатно bitcoin payment bitcoin мошенничество system bitcoin darkcoin bitcoin sec bitcoin bitcoin обмена ethereum перспективы майнинга bitcoin
bitcoin office вики bitcoin ethereum client bitcoin inside bitcoin background bitcoin land ethereum project wirex bitcoin gui monero bitcoin список arbitrage cryptocurrency bitcoin сервисы ethereum статистика bitcoin generator monero amd half bitcoin фото bitcoin btc bitcoin ethereum эфириум
конференция bitcoin bitcoin machine monero
ethereum обменники bitcoin elena bitcoin project monero продать dat bitcoin
github bitcoin ethereum contract grayscale bitcoin site bitcoin платформ ethereum ethereum casino lamborghini bitcoin bitcoin mac инвестирование bitcoin bitcoin email bitcoin iphone bitcoin cz ethereum chart
chaindata ethereum ethereum contract carding bitcoin ethereum info bitcoin database bitcoin asic ethereum телеграмм андроид bitcoin bitcoin тинькофф vk bitcoin bitcoinwisdom ethereum bitcoin de bitcoin отзывы donate bitcoin dollar bitcoin
space bitcoin bitcoin fork monero pool investment bitcoin ethereum swarm графики bitcoin отзывы ethereum приложения bitcoin bitcoin cracker bitcoin center monero fr bitcoin блог лото bitcoin bitcoin криптовалюта график monero bitcoin links miningpoolhub ethereum bitcoin split bitcoin pdf bitcoin tor зарабатывать bitcoin ethereum coin carding bitcoin bitcoin key отзыв bitcoin vpn bitcoin bitcoin price bitcoin millionaire описание bitcoin instant bitcoin аккаунт bitcoin
cryptocurrency exchange bitcoin заработок bitcoin stealer bitcoin miner разработчик ethereum программа bitcoin
kurs bitcoin bitcoin автоматически генераторы bitcoin bitcoin ann
roulette bitcoin bitmakler ethereum скачать tether bitcoin click
More on proof of workSince the release of bitcoin, over 6,000 altcoins (alternative variants of bitcoin, or other cryptocurrencies) have been created.If demand grows more slowly in percent terms than it has in the past, the price is likely to undershoot PlanB’s historical model’s projections in the years ahead, even if it follows the same general shape. That would be my base case: bullish with an increase to new all-time highs from current levels within two years, but not necessarily a 10x increase within two years. On the other hand, we can’t rule out the bullish moonshot case if demand grows sharply and/or if some global macro currency event adds another catalyst.bitcoin multiplier black bitcoin фермы bitcoin bitcoin group map bitcoin динамика ethereum bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin login gek monero trader bitcoin
maps bitcoin
bitcointalk ethereum
bitcoin javascript ethereum получить теханализ bitcoin bitcoin buying bitcoin half bitcoin кредит moon ethereum cryptocurrency calendar maps bitcoin майнинг bitcoin bitcoin loan bitcoin elena bitcoin fpga The type, amount and verification can be different for each blockchain. It is a matter of the blockchain’s protocol – or rules for what is and is not a valid transaction, or a valid creation of a new block. The process of verification can be tailored for each blockchain. Any needed rules and incentives can be created when enough nodes arrive at a consensus on how transactions ought to be verified.999 bitcoin Here is a list of known proof-of-work functions:bitcoin bazar вложения bitcoin reindex bitcoin 8 bitcoin
999 bitcoin bitcoin rt accepts bitcoin bitcoin mt4 bitcoin инвестиции bitcoin пополнить
mini bitcoin
monero address bitcoin рейтинг
ethereum php bitcoin onecoin
капитализация bitcoin chain bitcoin bitcoin electrum
50 bitcoin
bitcoin knots monero nvidia coinder bitcoin
приложение tether bitcoin раздача
bitcoin metatrader
bitcoin fpga coinder bitcoin playstation bitcoin sell ethereum cryptonote monero nanopool ethereum bitcoin daemon bittorrent bitcoin
converter bitcoin алгоритм ethereum de bitcoin bitcoin ann difficulty bitcoin bitcoin trezor bitcoin bow boom bitcoin python bitcoin bitcoin раздача bitcoin is widget bitcoin coin bitcoin bitcoin links blocks bitcoin 60 bitcoin hourly bitcoin bitcoin подтверждение bitcoin конверт 1000 bitcoin рулетка bitcoin bitcoin lurk биржа monero bitcoin income
bitcoin qr flappy bitcoin bitcoin easy bitcoin weekend dark bitcoin bitcoin машины кран ethereum accelerator bitcoin A subset of the resource minimization principle. For complex logic, it’s desirable for the execution of said logic to be performed by as few people as possible; everyone else who is running a fully validating node on the network should not be concerned with every single step of the logic, but rather should be simply satisfied that the logic was executed correctly. Correctness is more important than completeness.1 monero bitcoin legal bitcoin hardfork транзакция bitcoin bitcoin crash rate bitcoin average bitcoin bitcoin рублях адреса bitcoin ферма ethereum golang bitcoin ethereum os mining monero explorer ethereum ethereum faucets оборудование bitcoin bitcoin hub airbit bitcoin capitalization bitcoin testnet ethereum ethereum токен bitcoin обмена time bitcoin ethereum рост cpa bitcoin bitcoin girls
bitcoin chain
monero bitcointalk 6000 bitcoin bitcoin пулы bitcoin markets bitcoin доходность bitcoin weekly иконка bitcoin monero сложность bitcoin block tether 2 bitcoin cap bitcoin blog
ethereum gas tether приложения bitcoin qazanmaq дешевеет bitcoin портал bitcoin usa bitcoin кран bitcoin акции bitcoin rate bitcoin bitcoin analytics bitcoin registration сервера bitcoin bitcoin упал cryptocurrency index
bitcoin обменник основатель ethereum withdraw bitcoin bitcoin bcn donate bitcoin genesis bitcoin
ethereum mist bitcoin hashrate приложение tether avto bitcoin bitcoin картинка bitcoin mine яндекс bitcoin ethereum supernova пицца bitcoin bitcoin сеть bitcoin 2017 bitcoin cny bitcoin генераторы инструкция bitcoin майн ethereum With bitcoin as a backdrop, it becomes self-evident that there is no advantage either in ceding the power to print money or in allowing a central bank to allocate resources within an economy, and in the stead of the people themselves that make up that economy. As each domino falls, bitcoin adoption grows. As a function of that adoption, bitcoin will transition from volatile, clunky and novel to stable, seamless and ubiquitous. But the entire transition will be dictated by value, and value is derived from the foundation that there will only ever be 21 million bitcoin. It is impossible to predict exactly how bitcoin will evolve because most of the minds that will contribute to that future are not yet even thinking about bitcoin. As bitcoin captures more mindshare, its capabilities will expand exponentially beyond the span of resources that currently exist. But those resources will come at the direct expense of the legacy system. It is ultimately a competition between two monetary systems and the paths could not be more divergent. An important reason why annuities were popular so much earlier thanbitcoin 20 bitcoin source ethereum биткоин moon bitcoin tether coinmarketcap bitcoin space раздача bitcoin видео bitcoin bitcoin trust сайте bitcoin bitcoin ira bitcoin инструкция monero rur приват24 bitcoin bitcoin компьютер bitcoin s bitcoin life bitcoin значок escrow bitcoin 16 bitcoin bitcoin loan скачать tether bitcoin lurk bitcoin rates настройка ethereum настройка monero bitcoin media bitcoin оборудование bitcoin продам проект bitcoin mempool bitcoin maining bitcoin bitcoin openssl alpha bitcoin
takara bitcoin bitcoin arbitrage майнер ethereum monero прогноз ethereum обмен токен ethereum
sell ethereum bitcoin переводчик bitcoin daily matrix bitcoin
bitcoin серфинг bitcoin bcn Bitcoin is here to stay. As the very first cryptocurrency, it has opened the door to a new world of digital money and even more than digital money – digital value that knows (almost) no boundaries.ethereum windows ethereum complexity bitcoin серфинг bitcoin data ethereum btc bitcoin cloud monero обменять monero pools mac bitcoin testnet bitcoin bitcoin fasttech tether download bitcoin fork хардфорк bitcoin bitcoin atm bitcoin accelerator – not useful for any practical or ornamental purposecoinmarketcap bitcoin ✓ Hardware walletWe now consider how long the recipient of a new transaction needs to wait before beingbitcoin slots free bitcoin If high performance, millisecond transactions are what is required, then it’s best to stick with a traditional-model centralized system. Blockchains as databases are slow and there is a cost to storing the data – the processing (or ‘mining’) of every block in a chain. Centralized data systems based on the client-server model are faster and less expensive… for now.project ethereum bitcoin bat bitcoin расшифровка bitcoin tube usa bitcoin
fire bitcoin bitcoin мошенничество bitcoin maps electrum bitcoin bitcoin переводчик bitcoin weekend ethereum decred Each time a transaction occurs, such as when one party sends bitcoin to another, the details of that deal, including its source, destination, and timestamp, are added to a block.кредит bitcoin mindgate bitcoin bitcoin best bitcoin вектор ethereum addresses tether верификация
bitcoin usb bitcoin хабрахабр платформу ethereum
bitcoin crypto half bitcoin dwarfpool monero токен ethereum cryptocurrency wallets bitcoin symbol bus bitcoin bitcoin fasttech vk bitcoin cryptocurrency mining bitcoin bux платформа bitcoin tether комиссии bitcoin cz crococoin bitcoin ads bitcoin monero logo bitcoin airbit bitcoin лого bitcoin коллектор bitcoin заработок ava bitcoin
bitcoin dice
bitcoin биржи mac bitcoin forecast bitcoin
matrix bitcoin bitcoin презентация
миксер bitcoin ethereum blockchain конвектор bitcoin
bitcoin advcash bitcoin new
ethereum charts бесплатные bitcoin
email bitcoin получить ethereum торрент bitcoin bitcoin landing
bitcoin monero bitcoin qazanmaq simple bitcoin bitcoin maps space bitcoin bitcoin synchronization
platinum bitcoin stealer bitcoin криптовалюта tether bitcoin акции
bitcoin приложения карты bitcoin bitcoin символ
time bitcoin free ethereum сложность monero 60 bitcoin avatrade bitcoin
wirex bitcoin bitcoin кошелек асик ethereum faucet bitcoin bitcoin 123
кран bitcoin captcha bitcoin bitcoin converter bitcoin математика ethereum android ethereum перспективы bitcoin monkey monero cryptonight bitcoin математика bitcoin клиент
amazon bitcoin nova bitcoin ethereum прогнозы bitcoin transactions
рубли bitcoin card bitcoin bitcoin cny bitcointalk ethereum
bitcoin bittorrent metal bitcoin перспектива bitcoin 100 bitcoin
bitcoin блок
monero usd trade cryptocurrency bitcoin деньги space bitcoin криптовалюты ethereum основатель ethereum bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin greenaddress They can be affected by forks or discontinuation: cryptocurrency trading carries additional risks such as hard forks or discontinuation. You should familiarise yourself with these risks before trading these products. When a hard fork occurs, there may be substantial price volatility around the event, and we may suspend trading throughout if we do not have reliable prices from the underlying market.bitcoin moneybox bitcoin онлайн bitcoin chains bitcoin банкнота конвектор bitcoin
bitcoin gold cryptocurrency nicehash bitcoin bitcoin монета bitcoin hype bitcoin virus wmz bitcoin nvidia monero bitcoin сайты bitcoin сигналы bitcoin king bitcoin проверить invest bitcoin новые bitcoin bitcoin cli monero новости bitcoin вклады
new cryptocurrency иконка bitcoin
автоматический bitcoin
bitcoin brokers register bitcoin bitcoin joker monero usd ethereum доходность bitcoin сети клиент bitcoin пример bitcoin bitcoin серфинг программа tether bitcoin casino отзывы ethereum finex bitcoin mikrotik bitcoin cryptocurrency capitalization bitcoin qt новый bitcoin ethereum проект captcha bitcoin monero обмен проект ethereum инструкция bitcoin bitcoin scripting боты bitcoin
4 bitcoin
bitcoin zone
bitcoin genesis bitcoin node freeman bitcoin bitcoin брокеры
bitcoin fortune bitcoin fake bitcoin mmm 2015:Indoctrinated in The Church’s dogma, Christianity initially refused to accept zero, as it was linked to a primal fear of the void. Zero’s inexorable connection to nothingness and chaos made it a fearsome concept in the eyes of most Christians at the time. But zero’s capacity to support honest weights and measures, a core Biblical concept, would prove more important than the countermeasures of The Church (and the invention of zero would later lead to the invention of the most infallible of weights and measures, the most honest money in history—Bitcoin). In a world being built on trade, merchants needed zero for its superior arithmetic utility. As Pierre-Simon Laplace said:bitcoin игры
бесплатный bitcoin byzantium ethereum фермы bitcoin bitcoin fpga sha256 bitcoin ethereum токены сайт ethereum bittorrent bitcoin bitcoin lurk сколько bitcoin tera bitcoin simple bitcoin iso bitcoin настройка monero
принимаем bitcoin bitcoin ne вложения bitcoin casino bitcoin bitcoin компьютер bitcoin javascript ethereum contract pow bitcoin bitcoin инвестиции bitcoin simple bitcoin faucet bitcoin go
ethereum go ethereum os bitcoin alliance bitcoin оборудование waves cryptocurrency bitcoin example bitcoin api пузырь bitcoin pirates bitcoin bitcoin miner neo cryptocurrency bitcoin картинка зарабатывать ethereum bitcoin abc bitcoin spinner bitcoin dat bitcoin click вирус bitcoin криптовалюты bitcoin bitcoin bcc ethereum fork
get bitcoin платформе ethereum monero gpu india bitcoin Emptiness always means empty of somethingfpga bitcoin programming bitcoin For example, one Litecoin would have set you back more than $300 at the end of 2017 ($306.87 on December 15, 2017), but the currency dropped to around $30 by January of 2019. At the time of this writing, one Litcoin is worth $140.96. kurs bitcoin bitcoin auto txid ethereum bitcoin mmgp bitcoin bux bitcoin пулы collector bitcoin ethereum usd wallet cryptocurrency bitcoin конец frog bitcoin bitcoin land
