In the light of a sweeping Bitcoin growth in 2017, many people decided to dive into mining, literally emptying video card stores in the process. You couldn’t even pre-order a specific ASIC miner back then.
But what can we do today when over the last 6 months Bitcoin, to put it lightly, doesn’t please with its price? In which condition is the Bitcoin mining for today and is it worth it to enter this activity in 2018?
Mining 2018
With a bold confidence it is clear that mining market in 2018 will continue its development. It only takes to see the graph of the Bitcoin network hash rate to get convinced of the bright future for the industry. The graph shows that during the period from January to June, the Bitcoin hash rate more than just doubled — it went from 15 to 36 EH/s.
Another observant confirmations of the mining prospective are its multimillion investments into the branch. Take the Japanese Internet giant called GMO Internet Group for example. The company has spent $320M on a mining farm, and they have already obtained more than 900 Bitcoins.
Mining profitability
According to the estimations of big market players, it takes to spend $6000-$7000 in order to mine a single Bitcoin. Some companies even go as far as to amass the expenses hoping for further price escalation of the first cryptocurrency.
In the end, all these estimations are provided by large companies. An ordinary miner would have to conduct individual calculations. It is also worth noting specifications such as mining difficulty and the ability to predict its changes, as well as choosing the right mining pool with the proper commission fees. But the most important thing is the cost of electricity consumption. By combining all these prerequisites, the final conclusion will reveal how much of a hardware investment is needed for mining, and how fast will it pay off before you move to counting the profit.
Hardware
Mining Bitcoin with a CPU is long forgotten because it is not cost-effective anymore. Modern miners tend to choose between specialized ASIC devices and video cards.
By its nature, ASIC is a combination of specific CPUs that are optimized for Bitcoin mining. The production leader of these devices is widely considered to be Bitmain. The company sells their ASICs starting from the price of $750, according to their website information anyway. But in reality, you would have to shell out around $3000 for a good mining rig. But Bitmain isn’t the center of the world, the ASIC market holds place for many other well-known companies such as Canaan Creative, Halong Mining and etc.
Video cards are also good for mining. GPU production leaders such as AMD and NVIDIA even offer specific sets of video cards for mining. These sets don’t feature a video output because none is required. For this type of mining, you would need to construct your own mining farm with no less than 4 GPUs. Going with fewer would be cost ineffective.
How to acquire the profit
With the current network difficulty, hardware cost, and price of electricity there’s no point in waiting for quick and huge profits. The investment payback will take from 8 months to 1.5 year, that’s all provided the favorable circumstances are in place, of course.
We don't recommend entering mining business for those who plan to buy a farm today, and provide for themselves and their family tomorrow when they sell the obtained Bitcoins — it doesn’t work like that. Mining in 2018 is about investments for future uses - when you can afford to accumulate the cryptocurrency for its consequent sale during the next peak of its price, just like it was in December 2017 or rather better.
Conclusion
The mining industry continues to advance and bring in profits, but the times of lucky ones who once mined thousands of Bitcoins with laptops and home computers have long passed. With each day, mining becomes more and more professional, prompting to have a specific budget and a clear plan in order to enter this interesting market.