How Much Does it Cost to Mine One Bitcoin?

If you are looking for an answer to the question: “How much does it cost to mine bitcoin in 2019?” you have come to the right place. In this guide, you will discover how much it costs to mine bitcoin (BTC) and what factors determine whether you can mine bitcoin profitably.

Understanding the Factors

Mining bitcoin is not easy since there are many factors you need to consider before taking the plunge. Nevertheless, it is possible to come up with an estimated cost. In 2018 for instance, the cost of mining one bitcoin was about $6,000. So, how much does it cost to mine one bitcoin in 2019?

Here is a list of the costs you should factor in:

• Mining equipment: Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are the best bitcoin mining equipment in the market. You can use a CPU or a GPU, but they may not make you any money. Currently, one of the best ASIC miners on the market is the Ebang Ebit E12+, which goes for $2,410 and has a hash rate of 50TH/s. Unfortunately, this product is currently sold out. You might, therefore, decide to go with Ebit 12 whose price is $1,930 and has a hash rate of 44TH/s. In the current bullish market, sellers are likely to increase the price of second-hand miners and miners are likely to buy more mining equipment.
• Electricity costs per kWh: The cost of electricity is another major factor that will determine your overall bitcoin mining costs. As a result, mining bitcoin in countries with low electricity costs will reduce your expenses. For instance, electricity costs went for $0.02 per kWh in Burma, according to Global Petrol Prices report, in March 2019. Moreover, to purchase an efficient miner that will use low energy, you must consider its performance per watt. This measures the number of gigahashes per watt an ASIC miner is capable of. The most efficient miners are usually the most costly. However, you could still make decent returns using second-hand miners in a country with low electricity costs.
• Mining pool fees: At this point, mining bitcoin individually is almost hopeless. That is why mining pools are becoming increasingly popular as miners come together to increase their hash rates. These pools deduct one to two percent of your earnings. Smaller pools might not charge any fees but members are required to make monthly subscriptions or donations.

Increasing Bitcoin Mining Difficulty

The difficulty of mining bitcoin is constantly increasing particularly during a market upturn. On September 13, 2019, the bitcoin mining difficulty hit 11.89 trillion, a 10.39 percent change compared to the previous difficulty of 10.77 trillion on the first day of September.

Consequently, the increasing difficulty becomes a barrier to the duration of time it takes to mine one bitcoin. For instance, the Ebit E11++ mines about 0.0045BTC per week and 0.233BTC annually. If the difficulty rate were increasing by about 10.3 percent biweekly, this miner would never mine 1 BTC. Therefore, to mine one bitcoin in one year or less, you will require several current-generation ASIC miners running concurrently with a total hashing power of about $189TH/s. To acquire this hashing power, you need about five Ebit E12 miners.

Calculating the Cost

To get a better glimpse into the estimated cost of mining one bitcoin in 2019, we shall consider the following costs:

• The acquisition cost of one Ebit E12 miner = $1,930
• Mining pool fees = 0 percent
• Electricity cost (assuming you are in Burma and the cost is $0.03 per kWh) = $513.22 per year

In this case, you will spend $2,443.22 and make 0.2867 BTC in one year. However, assuming that you want to make one bitcoin in one year and all other factors remain constant, you can run four more Ebit E12 miners. In this scenario, you will spend $12,216.1 and make 1.4335 BTC.

Is Bitcoin Mining Profitable in 2019?

The current bullish market has made bitcoin mining a profitable endeavour. In April 2019, the rising bitcoin price was at around $5,500. Then, the breakeven cost for bitcoin mining was around $3,550 to $4,350. The bitcoin price has since escalated to about $10,000 and bitcoin miners that had left the scenes are now getting back into the action.

According to the calculator above, you would make a profit of $2,425.30 per year using the one Ebit E12 miner. This means that you would recover your initial costs and still have a good amount of money left over.

Compared to what the average cost of mining bitcoin was in 2018, mining bitcoin in September 2019 is much cheaper. It is also more profitable to mine bitcoin now than in early 2019, which marked the end of the crypto winter.

Bitcoin network’s hash rate has also increased by 100 percent since early 2019 (vs. the 200 percent rise recorded during the bull market in 2017). This slower growth is due to the low supply of ASIC miners compared to the demand.