A 10 PH mining farm could pull in about 5 BTC over three years, mainly because of the halving. You could use the same money to just buy 9 BTC right now.
So seriously, why even bother mining at this point?
Bragging right? Hobby? Continuous supply of BTC through mining after 3 years? Liquidating the money and proposing Bitcoin mining as a source of funds to avoid money laundering charges? What else? Help secure the network? No matter what the reason is, it is the right of the person who has the fund to decide where he put his money. If all the people who have the money have the same mindset as yours, everyone will be buying BTC and no one will be left to secure the network making it easier for a 51% attack which can affect the valuation of Bitcoin and may render our Bitcoin investment worthless.
If I have the fund and friendly energy cost, I would also set up a mining farm regardless of the price of BTC. I would rather have a secured network than look for short-term profitability. Call it foolish but it is what it is.
but here's the specific reason .... because it is still profitable.
1- Liquidating the money and proposing Bitcoin mining as a source of funds to avoid money laundering charges ( that is a point for big miners only )
2- Help secure the network ( that is a point for big miners only )
3- because it is still profitable it is not profitable against buying BTC
one of the only valid reasons is some people can't just " HODL " so they have it from business perspective, any other valid reasons?
How did you get those figures?
9 BTC in today's price is roughly $261,000
Here is a list of some gear prices for (only for bulk)
M30s++ 100th = $1250 , 10ph = $125,000 or 4.3 BTC
S19 90th = $750 , 10ph = $85,000 or 2.8 BTC
S19 XP 140T = $3400, 10ph = $240,000 or 8.27 BTC
M50s 128th= 2,624, 10ph = 205,000 or 7 BTC.
As you see, it could be anywhere between 4.3 BTC to 8.27BTC, of course, this doesn't take into account the other expences which could easily add up 20-30% to each model.
Now let's review the 5 BTC you assumed they would make.
10PH today makes 0.0262, so without any difficulty increase, in the roughly remaining 340 days for the halving they should make almost 9 BTC.
Now you need to account for power bills, someone with S19xp and 6 cents per kWh which seems to be the average would be paying 35% of that 9BTC for bills, someone with M30s would be paying close to 50% of that BTC in power bills.
So the XP guy makes 5.85 before halving (70% into ROI on paper), while the M30s guy makes 4.5 (already hit ROI on paper) BTC before the halving.
What happens after the halving is unknown, it's safe to assume a 50% drop in BTC reward if the price goes up i.e, no hashrate drop from the less efficient miners.
Keep in mind that those figures in the previous line are just ROI on paper, it assumes difficulty won't rise for 340 days, no gear fails, no downtime, no monthly/daily expenses, wiring, networking, and everything is not taken into account, which you honestly can't, because to set up 10ph with S19 XP 0.25MW, it could cost anywhere between a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand, depending on where you live, so it's impossible to know for sure that exact cost for 10PH for everyone.
that exactly validates my point of view (and yes based on my calculation its only 6 BTC but I said 9 as 3 will go for location setup - also I assumed giving up 50-75% of the profits for any possible issues).. so if we talk about the best case (hosting $168,000+issues/setup rounds up to $200,000 will return (4.68 BTC) in 3 years).. it is like even in best case 9 BTC will be 9 BTC after 3 years then what has been added to you is the used miners you have that you can sell later for 50% so you invest 9 BTC for 3 years to be 10 or even 11-12 BTC, (only if you sell your miners by then) which means you have almost waste your time and risked your btc not to mention taxes etc.
I mean two points that you claim are only valid for big miners are still valid reasons. Even if you strongly believe mining is not profitable at all, the fact that people still looking to mine Bitcoin means that they are profitable for them. Whether they have access to very cheap energy or for other reasons, they can do whatever they want with it.
I believe people are not that stupid and will quickly stop mining if they suffer thousand of dollars loss every month with no method to make profits. If you're trying to discourage people from solo mining or starting a new farm, you don't really have to make this thread since they will soon quit as long as it is no longer profitable for them. Not to mention there are dozens of threads talking about this same issue from years ago (you'll probably see similar points like yours from other users when a newbie asks if they can mine BTC with a CPU or a single ASIC, for example). CMIIW.
The case I talk about is crystal clear (starting 1 year before the halving) that is the most stupid decision to take. Even mining needs a business plan and not every moment is the right moment to start. If you started like 3 years ago it would have been profitable as you would end up with 50% more in BTC.
If you start right now, yes you will be profitable in USD only. However, you will be fucked up in terms of BTC. The only good time to start nowadays is to wait the halving to happen and price to double than start your farm.. otherwise, I don't see any other wise decisions as no one can prove it in terms of BTC so, mining isn't dead it just needs the right time to start.