For those considering bitcoin mining for the first time, it’s critical to comprehend the significance of Bitcoin’s difficulty change as well as the effects it has on mining profitability. Many people who are just starting out in bitcoin mining may check the profitability of an ASIC on a mining calculator and assume that profitability will largely remain the same in the future. This is incorrect because a machine’s profitability tends to decline with time for any particular machine. Before investing in an ASIC, it is important to comprehend increases in difficulty.
Comparing an ASIC to any other electronic equipment will help you understand this in a straightforward manner. The device becomes less useful as time goes on because new software demands greater processing power. The performance of an iPhone from six years ago would be exceedingly annoying. The utility of a phone decreases with age.
Mining involves a procedure that is extremely similar. You compete with all the other miners in the world when you are mining. It becomes increasingly challenging to compete as more miners turn on their equipment. You can be more competitive by using newer, more effective hardware, but that hardware is soon becoming less competitive.
The Bitcoin protocol has a difficulty adjustment feature to make sure that Bitcoin has a steady and predictable supply schedule. Without difficulty adjustments, it is possible that all of the bitcoin would have already been mined, and miners would have little to no motivation to protect the network. Blocks are created at a faster rate due to an increase in hash rate when more miners join the network. In response, the network raises the difficulty so that blocks arrive in about 10 minutes. Lower profits are the result of increasing difficulty changes for miners. For the typical Bitcoin user, it implies their financial network is more secure.
As a result of the hash rate going offline, difficulty adjustments with a lower difficulty level will result in more revenues for miners. The most well-known instance of this was when Bitcoin mining was outlawed in China, which resulted in a significant drop in network hash rate for a while. Downward difficulty adjustments are uncommon because mining equipment is constantly becoming more effective and strong. More machines would be created and connected, even if machine efficiency stagnated and hash rates rose. Hash rate is very probably going to increase at high rates moving ahead over the long term because the Bitcoin mining business is really immature and has a ton of space for expansion.
As a result of the bull market in energy prices and the low price of bitcoin, miners are currently going through a lot of hardship. As hash rate decreases, it is possible that there may be a series of downward difficulty changes, but miners shouldn’t account for this in their models. As we have seen over the past few months, it is crucial to plan for the worst-case scenario.
NEW MACHINES AVAILABLE ON THE MARKET
Every two years, ASIC makers introduce a new machine with appreciable gains in hash rate and productivity. The deployment of Bitmain’s S19 XP and S19 Hydro has significantly increased network hash rates recently. Another aspect is that while infrastructure is being developed, many computers from earlier generations are now being used.
An ASIC you purchase will lose value over time as the network hash rate rises and more modern equipment enters the market. Depending on the price of Bitcoin, the value will change, but it is reasonable to conclude that the machine will depreciate over time. Because of this, it is crucial that you run the machine whenever you have it. You would be wasting money by purchasing it to plug in later.
POWER TO PURCHASE BTC
Bitcoin mining is similar to opening a long position in bitcoin, but with far more work and danger. It can be extremely profitable if done properly. If done improperly, it is a great way to become bankrupt very quickly. Although the machine generates a reasonably steady amount of cash, its purchasing power varies greatly. Although power costs may be steady when expressed in dollars, they are highly erratic when expressed in terms of the money you are earning from that equipment. With bitcoin pricing at $17,461, an S19j Pro may earn 38,000–40,000 sats per day in revenue, but if you are mining at $0.10 per kWh, your electricity expenditures will be 41,263 sats.
In order to be successful and maximize the return on your equipment, it is crucial to seek out the lowest electricity prices. Finding inexpensive electricity is neither simple nor easy. Many times, mines fail because of unanticipated costs or difficulties. No matter how big or small, all miners are susceptible to the economics of fluctuating purchasing power, rising network hash rates, and hardware depreciation/obsolescence.
