How Long Does it Take to Mine a Bitcoin?

When it comes to bitcoin mining, time is an important aspect. Understanding time is a necessity when your money is on the line. You should be aware of the ten minutes it takes miners to mine one block, of the approximate 14 days it takes the bitcoin mining difficulty to adjust, and the time it takes to mine a bitcoin. While the first two aspects of time are predictable, predicting the time it takes to mine a bitcoin is much more difficult.

In this guide, you will discover the factors that determine the length of time it takes to mine bitcoin and how long it will take you to mine one bitcoin.

Hardware vs Mining Duration

The hashing power of your bitcoin mining hardware is directly proportional to the amount of bitcoin you can mine per day. That means that the higher the hash rate, the more bitcoin you can mine each day. To mine as many bitcoin as possible daily, you need application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining hardware. ASICs are the best bitcoin miners to ensure that you can get a decent mining ROI.

When purchasing ASIC mining hardware, consider the following:

• Performance per watt: a good ASIC device should have low energy requirements to reduce your electricity costs. Performance per watt is the measure of how many gigahashes your ASIC miner is capable of. In most cases, efficient miners are usually the most expensive.
• Machine costs: this includes the price of buying a mining hardware, the cost of maintenance, and the cost of keeping a constant power supply.
• Price-performance ratio: you should look into the performance of a miner compared to its price. This measure of effectiveness is represented as gigahashes per dollar (GH/$). The best miners have a high GH/$. You should consider this factor alongside the miner’s durability and acquisition costs.
• Durability: you should factor in the durability of your miner since if it breaks down, it could affect your mining profits. New miners might be more durable than second-hand miners and they might come with warranties.

The length of time it will take you to mine a bitcoin will depend on the ASIC miner’s durability and its hash rate. A high hash rate allows a miner to solve the mining difficulty faster. As a result, the time it takes to mine a bitcoin depends on maintaining constant power supply, the number of miners you are running simultaneously, the hash rate, and the efficiency and longevity of your miner.

Joining a Mining Pool

Joining a mining pool with a high hash rate is another factor that will determine the time it will take to mine a bitcoin. Pooling together resources ensures that blocks are mined regularly. It also enables you to remain competitive in the tough bitcoin mining business. Otherwise, mining bitcoin individually is not lucrative.

When choosing a pool, you should consider the hash rate, its reputation, the fees, user reviews, and ease-of-use. Some mining pools have a minimum hash rate requirement for potential members, which locks out small miners. Moreover, while certain mining pools will charge, other pools do not. However, they might ask for donations or monthly subscriptions.

Examples of good mining pools to join in 2019 include BTC.com, Antpool, and Slushpool. Slushpool has mined more than one million BTC since 2010.

How Long Does it Take to Mine a Bitcoin?

Despite acquiring ASIC miners and joining a mining pool, it is still difficult to predict how long it will take to mine a coin. This is because bitcoin mining difficulty adjusts regularly. When the total hash rate on the network decreases, the difficulty also decreases. When the total hash rate increases, the difficulty rises as well.

In the current market upturn, the bitcoin mining difficulty could continue increasing as the network’s hash rate increases. Bitcoin mining difficulty is usually increasing. That makes it hard to predict mining profitability.

A Mining Profitability Example

For instance, if the bitcoin mining difficulty change remains constant at the current 10.38 percent, the Bitmain Antminer S17 will mine 0.3454 BTC in a year. Consequently, the miner will mine one BTC in 2.89 years. However, if you run three Antminer S17 miners at the same time, you can mine one bitcoin in one year. You can also increase the number of miners beyond three to mine one BTC in less than a year.

The above time estimates are based on the difficulty remaining constant. But since this is not the case, in reality, estimating the time becomes much more difficult.

What you can do is maximise other factors. Running several current-generation miners, joining a mining pool and maintaining constant power supply can help. You might need approximately 189TH/s from your current-generation miners to mine one BTC in one year.

Although bitcoin mining is becoming more complex annually, the above factors will also contribute greatly to your profits. If you can keep electricity costs as low as possible, your return on investment will be high.