The True Price Tag of Mining a Single Bitcoin

The True Price Tag of Mining a Single Bitcoin

02.02.2023
Author: Robert Strickland
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What's the Cost of Mining One Bitcoin? Let's explore how accurate this question is and examine the timeframe required to mine a single bitcoin.

MINING ONE BITCOIN: A DETAILED ANALYSIS

Bitcoin's network generates new blocks approximately every 10 minutes, potentially yielding 12.5 bitcoins during this period if you have sufficient mining power. To have a reasonable chance of earning a solo block reward, your equipment needs to achieve roughly 2.5 TH/s, matching today's network difficulty.

Consider mining pools, which possess greater hash rates and consequently discover blocks more rapidly. For instance, some pools achieve 935 PH/s. This represents the benchmark hash rate needed for independent block mining at 10-minute intervals.

Achieving such hash rates independently is unfeasible. Calculations indicate you'd need approximately 70,000 Antminer S9 ASIC miners to reach this level.

The question of mining one bitcoin can be answered in two ways:

  1. With 70,000 Antminer S9 ASICs, you could theoretically mine 12.5 bitcoins every 10 minutes, meaning one bitcoin in under a minute.
  2. Using typical mining equipment with several dozen TH/s, mining one bitcoin could take months or years.

Using cryptocurrency mining calculators, we analyzed the requirements for mining one bitcoin daily using SHA-256 algorithm ASICs. Initial calculations without electricity costs showed a requirement of 9300 TH/s, equivalent to about 690 Antminer S9 units.

Including electricity costs changes the equation. The 690 Antminer S9 units would consume approximately 970 kilowatts daily, costing around $2,000 per kilowatt at current rates. After several recalculations incorporating equipment and energy costs, we determined that mining one bitcoin daily requires about 11500 TH/s, equivalent to 851 Antminer S9 units consuming 1190 kW daily.

This should provide a clear understanding of the requirements and feasibility of mining one bitcoin in today's environment.

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