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First of all, it's based on the current price of bitcoin. Second, if you have access to free electricity (e.g. solar), it is profitable at almost any price.
by ye 13y ago
First of all, it's based on the current price of bitcoin.
Second, if you have access to free electricity (e.g. solar), it is profitable at almost any price.
- TomGullen 13y ago> First of all, it's based on the current price of bitcoin. Can you describe a realistic scenario where the price of Bitcoin rises and owning a miner produces more profit than simply just investing that starting cash in Bitcoin itself? > Second, if you have access to free electricity (e.g. solar), it is profitable at almost any price. This is false. Diminishing returns from difficulty increase makes it entirely plausible that you will never realise the initial starting capital you invested, and even if it does there is no situation I can think of where investing that starting capital in mining HW beats the profit on just buying Bitcoin in the first place.
- a1k0n 13y agoI calculated this out a couple days ago. The hash rate has been rising pretty steadily exponentially with all the new ASICs coming online, and can be expected to double again within 25-30 days. The current break-even price for 1 GH/s is about 0.03-0.04 bitcoins -- that is, if you bring 1GH/s online right now, over the next 6 months you will mine a total about 0.035 bitcoins and at that time you will be minting at less than 1% of the rate you started with. You can buy 1GH/s for about 0.12 bitcoins on cex.io right now, if you are a sucker.
- wmf 13y agoIf the price rises then you'd have been better off buying and holding BTC. Even with free electricity, a box that costs $20K and makes $1 per month isn't what I would call profitable.