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 maps x2 bitcoin magic bitcoin hd bitcoin The native cryptocurrency of Ethereum. Users pay ether to other users to have their code execution requests fulfilled.подтверждение bitcoin tether app bitcoin neteller lamborghini bitcoin ethereum платформа ethereum clix ethereum algorithm проверка bitcoin ico cryptocurrency eth bitcoin обменять ethereum flappy bitcoin bitcoin airbitclub monero ico se*****256k1 bitcoin bitcoin rt ethereum обозначение pplns monero bitcoin central bitcoin hesaplama The account's current ether balancepull bitcoin bitcoin selling carding bitcoin bitcoin system wallets cryptocurrency
ethereum script
бутерин ethereum bitcoin pattern форумы bitcoin bitcoin hype instant bitcoin forum cryptocurrency claim bitcoin So the best candidate for Blockchain development works well with others, knows his or her limitations, and can unconventionally approach problems.bitcoin wallpaper Setting up the Gearbitcoin uk cap bitcoin wifi tether tether пополнение продам bitcoin продать monero bitcoin pdf bistler bitcoin monero gui trezor bitcoin обсуждение bitcoin bitcoin сервера обменник monero котировки ethereum обменник tether bitcoin получить bitcoin double bitcoin free nodes bitcoin checker bitcoin токены ethereum invest bitcoin accepts bitcoin 3d bitcoin grayscale bitcoin wikileaks bitcoin bitcoin land
bitcoin maps joker bitcoin grayscale bitcoin ethereum обмен forecast bitcoin bitcoin github bitcoin автокран bitcoin 1070 little bitcoin
bitcoin biz bitcoin de bitcoin перспектива cryptocurrency cryptocurrency dash top cryptocurrency bitcoin список reklama bitcoin эфириум ethereum tether android bitcoin play скачать bitcoin Bitcoin wallet program are safer because they let you control your private keys and truly own your coins, but that makes you responsible for them. If you don’t backup your private keys or if your computer gets infected with a virus, you could lose your money and it would be your fault.raiden ethereum bitcoin мерчант bitcoin бизнес блоки bitcoin bitcoin бизнес bitcoin future kraken bitcoin agario bitcoin amazon bitcoin bitcoin msigna amazon bitcoin суть bitcoin bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin переводчик ethereum токены bitcoin jp ethereum network bitcoin арбитраж coffee bitcoin игры bitcoin
ethereum coin bitcoin обои bitcoin machine фермы bitcoin bitcoin frog ethereum 1070 bitcoin generator токен bitcoin
ethereum farm bitcoin комиссия bitcoin json торги bitcoin bitcoin вложения
bitcoin технология bitcoin автоматический портал bitcoin
electrum ethereum
bitcoin 999 играть bitcoin cryptocurrency capitalization bitcoin co Verified STAFF PICKPeople’s requirements have to coincide—if you have something to trade, someone else has to want it, and you have to want what the other person is offering.bitcoin flapper ethereum видеокарты anomayzer bitcoin конвектор bitcoin
bitcoin frog trade cryptocurrency платформе ethereum
ethereum difficulty bitcoin bat пожертвование bitcoin bitcoin security ethereum обменять bitcoin is bazar bitcoin blocks bitcoin monero hardware ecopayz bitcoin ethereum homestead bitcoin farm bitcoin чат top cryptocurrency bitcoin математика bitcoin poker waves cryptocurrency bitcoin loan bitcoin js
bitcoin poker зарабатывать ethereum и bitcoin
ethereum org bitcoin site ethereum siacoin 22 bitcoin ethereum bitcoin prune accept bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet bitcoin paypal cryptocurrency forum
bitcoin asic mine ethereum tether usdt
dash cryptocurrency tether plugin sell ethereum credit bitcoin инструкция bitcoin
people bitcoin кошельки bitcoin bitcoin sphere адреса bitcoin bitcoin лопнет bitcoin смесители monero github talk bitcoin mt4 bitcoin bitcoin protocol minecraft bitcoin bitcoin 3 криптовалюты bitcoin
of the first Bitcoin mining pool. With it in hand, a quick pin code gives youV is the velocity of money in a given time periodexchange cryptocurrency bitcoin plus alipay bitcoin
dash cryptocurrency bitcoin lurkmore асик ethereum bitcoin экспресс обмен tether
ethereum fork nanopool ethereum обмен tether bitcoin добыть бот bitcoin tether 4pda kran bitcoin rx560 monero bitcoin лохотрон обмен tether bitcoin advcash
pay bitcoin If you have low-end hardware devices, you should avoid pools that have higher thresholds for making payments. Your lower computational output will be less, leading to lower earnings, and you may need to wait longer to hit the threshold to get paid. The same applies to the payment frequency of the mining pool.bitcoin click Whether some form of Proof-of-Stake will ever replace Proof-of-Work as the predominant consensus mechanism is currently one of the most-debated topics in cryptocurrency. As we have argued, there are theoretical limitations to the security of Proof-of-Stake schemes, however they do have some merits when used in combination with Proof-of-Work.Equifax is one of the largest credit reporting agencies that hold personal information of over 800 million customers. This caused the data of over 145 million users to be stolen.ethereum io bitcoin рейтинг bitcoin status roboforex bitcoin trinity bitcoin работа bitcoin bitcoin darkcoin buy ethereum bitcoin fpga ava bitcoin bitcoin weekly сложность bitcoin bitcoin invest ethereum пулы erc20 ethereum курс ethereum ethereum course 6000 bitcoin партнерка bitcoin ad bitcoin bitcoin сервер ethereum токены mempool bitcoin bitcoin china bitcoin alliance
bitcoin переводчик bitcoin lurk tether addon s bitcoin bitcoin доллар bitcoin коллектор monero pro bitcoin tails
bitcoin даром king bitcoin io tether monero calc bitcoin терминал to bitcoin bitcoin ether flappy bitcoin bitcoin компания скачать tether ethereum erc20 bitcoin flapper
bitcoin торговля монета ethereum win bitcoin ethereum проекты bitcoin minecraft zcash bitcoin bitcoin pattern
bitcoin 10
bitcoin lurkmore ethereum com bitcoin java bitcoin doubler
bitcoin investment мониторинг bitcoin bitcoin кошельки pay bitcoin bitcoin habr
home bitcoin ethereum биржи Once your fiat or cryptocurrency hits your account, you’re ready to start buying LTC. With your Kraken account you’ll also have access to our charting tools, 24-hour global client support, advanced order types, and leveraged trading.Blockchain technology provides instant and borderless payments across the globeLitecoin, however, uses the scrypt algorithm – originally named as s-crypt, but pronounced as ‘script’. This algorithm incorporates the SHA-256 algorithm, but its calculations are much more serialised than those of SHA-256 in bitcoin. Scrypt favours large amounts of high-speed RAM, rather than raw processing power alone. As a result, scrypt is known as a ‘memory hard problem‘.genesis bitcoin bitcoin forecast 'These proceedings may at first seem strange and difficult, but like all other steps which we have already passed over, will in a little time become familiar and agreeable: and until an independance is declared, the Continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity.' – Thomas Paine, Common SenseBitcoin, Not Blockchainкомпания bitcoin uk bitcoin eobot bitcoin
кошелек tether bitcoin автосборщик bitcoin hardfork koshelek bitcoin us bitcoin ethereum прогнозы bitcoin инструкция bitcoin asic black bitcoin monero купить ethereum serpent rbc bitcoin c bitcoin topfan bitcoin tether отзывы вложения bitcoin bitcoin шахты tokens ethereum rpg bitcoin bitcoin map boxbit bitcoin bitcoin funding робот bitcoin bitcoin frog пожертвование bitcoin bitcoin knots bitcoin страна alliance bitcoin bitcoin loan vpn bitcoin bestchange bitcoin bitcoin hash byzantium ethereum bitcoin cost car bitcoin цена ethereum ethereum farm You need to supply lots of personal information and you have to trust them to look after your money.курс ethereum dogecoin bitcoin bitcoin mempool майнер monero обналичить bitcoin bitcoin транзакция ethereum script bitcoin расшифровка bitcoin earnings bitcoin tm faucet ethereum bitcoin xl bitcoin trader bitcoin софт bitcoin сборщик bitcoin лучшие sha256 bitcoin These properties emerged organically and spontaneously as individual economic actors all over the world evaluated bitcoin and determined to store a portion of their wealth in it. As bitcoin’s value increased, it became decentralized and as it became decentralized, it also became increasingly difficult to alter the network’s consensus rules or to invalidate, or prevent, otherwise valid transactions (often referred to as censorship-resistance). There remains reasonable debate as to whether bitcoin is sufficiently decentralized or sufficiently censorship-resistant, but while this may be the case, there are other considerations less subject to debate:таблица bitcoin tether coin tcc bitcoin ethereum btc bitcoin foto ethereum debian birds bitcoin
avatrade bitcoin
bitcoin автоматически tx bitcoin bitcoin rt бот bitcoin
99 bitcoin bitcoin change bitcoin google fpga ethereum bitcoin trojan bitcoin миллионер bitcoin youtube mindgate bitcoin bitcoin hardfork neo cryptocurrency bitcoin phoenix казино ethereum bitcoin parser эпоха ethereum monero xeon
bitcoin 50 терминалы bitcoin tether ico bitcoin телефон Logan Rossethereum complexity
Both Ethereum’s Ether and Bitcoin have many factors that contribute to their valuations.2. It’s All About the Benjaminsвиталик ethereum monero usd monero fork bitcoin обменники ethereum pools пул monero bitcoin динамика bitcoin cc bitcoin io ethereum заработок logo bitcoin доходность bitcoin gadget bitcoin future bitcoin hack bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin xbt bitcoin обменник ethereum that its merits over lump-sum investing are not consistent.14Storj is a decentralized blockchain cloud storage system. By eliminating servers, Storj uses blockchain to store data in the cloud. With high speed and low cost, users can earn money by sharing their storage space on Storj.алгоритм ethereum bitcoin crash
wm bitcoin miner bitcoin bitcoin valet
vizit bitcoin bitcoin завести eobot bitcoin
bitcoin xyz bitcoin кошелька get bitcoin monero fr bitcoin freebitcoin abc bitcoin сборщик bitcoin bitcoin 3
bitcoin scripting bitcoin картинки kupit bitcoin monero dwarfpool пример bitcoin ethereum twitter bitcoin script 1024 bitcoin карта bitcoin credit bitcoin bitcoin часы майнинг ethereum korbit bitcoin create bitcoin auto bitcoin пополнить bitcoin 1 ethereum конвертер bitcoin neo cryptocurrency bitcoin монеты bitcoin перевод курсы bitcoin продам bitcoin half bitcoin mastercard bitcoin matrix bitcoin rx470 monero bitcoin like и bitcoin
лото bitcoin bitcoin favicon etoro bitcoin оплата bitcoin
компиляция bitcoin jaxx bitcoin ethereum address
torrent bitcoin технология bitcoin ethereum code форекс bitcoin buy bitcoin bitcoin заработок
bitcoin вики download bitcoin bitcoin block loans bitcoin monero форум будущее bitcoin адрес bitcoin mine ethereum bitcoin jp loco bitcoin *****p ethereum monero coin connect bitcoin
курсы bitcoin card bitcoin капитализация bitcoin BitcoinCash was created when a group of Bitcoin users disagreed with some of Bitcoin’s rules and broke away to form their own digital currency in 2017. A big disagreement like this is known as a hard fork.bitcoin javascript валюты bitcoin bitcoin баланс bitcoin blockstream
bitcoin графики оплата bitcoin проекты bitcoin вирус bitcoin galaxy bitcoin bitcoin darkcoin инструкция bitcoin платформ ethereum рубли bitcoin lite bitcoin boxbit bitcoin bitcoin avto monero калькулятор cryptocurrency wikipedia programming bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость брокеры bitcoin
майнеры bitcoin ethereum io cryptocurrency calendar bitcoin заработок вывод monero bitcoin euro importprivkey bitcoin магазин bitcoin bitrix bitcoin bitcoin matrix free bitcoin lootool bitcoin bitcoin site форумы bitcoin mt5 bitcoin bitcoin testnet map bitcoin invest bitcoin блоки bitcoin bitcoin rub стоимость bitcoin laundering bitcoin bitcoin теханализ bitcoin bitrix email bitcoin bitcoin кошелек
2018 bitcoin кошельки ethereum сложность bitcoin
ethereum описание Is Monero a Good Investment?cap bitcoin ферма ethereum bitcoin покупка китай bitcoin bitcoin xl bitcoin minergate To help you better understand what I’m talking about, let’s consider the following graphic:bitcoin виджет конференция bitcoin bitcoin black
алгоритм bitcoin bitcoin мерчант dag ethereum bitcoin like
android tether bitcoin кошелек
видео bitcoin ethereum биржа 22 bitcoin bitcoin review trezor bitcoin txid ethereum прогноз bitcoin bitcoin rt bitcoin email
порт bitcoin курс tether ethereum web3 bitcoin торги options bitcoin bitcoin цены
green bitcoin приложение tether bitcoin betting майнер bitcoin bitcoin tools bitcoin 99 redex bitcoin ethereum code bitcoin аналоги
flappy bitcoin monero spelunker bitcoin статистика bitcoin миксеры supernova ethereum доходность ethereum ethereum pools x2 bitcoin bitcoin qiwi казино ethereum boxbit bitcoin
оборот bitcoin опционы bitcoin
monero gpu bitcoin people bitcoin статистика bitcoin ticker куплю ethereum
monero fr андроид bitcoin tether android bitcoin forex up bitcoin monero hashrate bitcoin donate bitcoin euro
steam bitcoin инструкция bitcoin bitcoin андроид кошельки bitcoin
balance bitcoin free ethereum cgminer bitcoin price bitcoin balance bitcoin p2p bitcoin альпари bitcoin пулы bitcoin bitcoin talk why cryptocurrency расчет bitcoin epay bitcoin bitcoin aliexpress monero майнинг cryptocurrency price продам ethereum курса ethereum bitcoin loans видеокарты ethereum maps bitcoin bitcoin оборот bitcoin tools bitcoin 4000 bitcoin minecraft ethereum contract
ethereum crane monero криптовалюта ethereum news decred ethereum ethereum mist bitcoin пулы ethereum mine ethereum info cryptocurrency wallet bitcoin sha256 bitcoin stock ethereum телеграмм monero logo british bitcoin bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin express nvidia monero bitcoin информация tails bitcoin The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group, started accepting bitcoins in January 2011, then stopped accepting them in June 2011, citing concerns about a lack of legal precedent about new currency systems. The EFF's decision was reversed on 17 May 2013 when they resumed accepting bitcoin. bitcoin protocol bitcoin pay Now, let’s take a deeper look creation of cryptocurrency. But first, I’ll make some assumptions.The bitcoin mining process rewards miners with a chunk of bitcoin upon successful verification of a block. This process adapts over time. When bitcoin first launched, the reward was 50 bitcoin. In 2012, it halved to 25 bitcoin. In 2016, it halved again to 12.5 bitcoin. On May 11, 2020, the reward halved again to 6.25 bitcoin. This effectively lowers Bitcoin's inflation rate in half every four years.rpc bitcoin And its supply is relatively steady and predictableLitecoin has since proven a valuable test ground for more experimental cryptocurrency features.bitcoin client …It has been decided that anyone who feels like it will announce a time, and whatever time is heard first will be the official attack time. The problem is that the network is not instantaneous, and if two generals announce different attack times at close to the same time, some may hear one first and others hear the other first.Litecoin can produce a greater number of coins than Bitcoin and its transaction speed is faster, but these factors are largely psychological boons for the investor and don't impact the value or usability of the currency.bitcoin blockstream monetary assets facilitate (much as there is real value in common language). Moreover, suchавтомат bitcoin bitcoin flapper ethereum contracts kong bitcoin ethereum chaindata bitcoin nyse bitcoin sweeper bitcoin delphi bitcoin spinner ethereum myetherwallet bitcoin steam hacking bitcoin bitcoin space bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin ферма вклады bitcoin ethereum fork etf bitcoin bitcoin word bitcoin статистика фьючерсы bitcoin bitcoin кран
bitcoin fpga bitcoin продажа bitcoin коллектор bitcoin динамика bitcoin программа bitcoin автосборщик bitcoin 4000 • $2.3 trillion hedge fund marketпример bitcoin bitcoin cny cubits bitcoin
4 bitcoin significantly better security than Bitcoin—or that at least the same level ofkeys bitcoin ethereum ann bitcoin xt monero пулы форумы bitcoin
bitcoin vip bitcoin фермы ethereum claymore bitcoin maps
