Before jumping into bitcoin mining, it's smart to think about your country's economy and its current situation. This can really influence your choice between investing in mining or simply buying and holding bitcoins.
In a shaky economy, prices aren't stable, and they can spike, which might affect your mining efforts, especially if you're just starting out. Electricity costs, a major factor in mining, can rise significantly in an unstable economy, hurting your profits. And as electricity prices go up, maintenance costs tend to follow suit.
Plus, if the economy is already struggling, there could be tougher times ahead, and some folks might turn to crime. Running a mining operation in such an environment can put your safety at risk, with the chance of getting robbed or having your gear stolen.
Understanding your country's economic situation is key to deciding if mining is worth it for you or if you should just buy and hold bitcoins. Mining isn't always a guaranteed profit.
Mining profits can be impacted by economic conditions
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Fact is, one of the major factors that are considered before establishing a mining farm in a location is cost of electricity, environmental freindliness and economic stability in the extend of taxation and bills that are existing I such locations, because mining is like every other business when it expenses exceed it gains the firm may end in bankruptcy.
So indeed economic conditions of the location matters in a great extent, when it comes to mining and more also the governmental behaviour and policy is what drive the sector most, this is because of the amount of policies and tax responsibilities that will be placed on such businesses.
RogueMinerFull Member
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#3Jan 17, 2022, 05:43 PM
In fact, in most scenarios, mining is unprofitable. You either need very cheap electricity or huge scale of operation and latest hardware (or both) to become profitable.
Now in many countries electricity is getting more expensive due to inflation or sanctions against Russia and ban on Russia's fossils.
It's also crucial to factor in the regulatory environment and potential changes in government policies related to cryptocurrency mining. Sudden shifts in regulations or bans on mining activities can significantly impact your investment and the effectiveness of your operations.
So it's essential to stay informed about evolving legal frameworks so you can make informed decisions about whether to engage in mining, or simply HODL.
Yeah, you are right, because the economic system of the country is what will determine how profitable the mining business can be. The electricity bill in some countries is more expensive, and I believe some people too who do mining on a large scale end up paying tax to the government, and if the tax is high, that means it will really not be a very profitable business in that country, plus the cost of maintenance for one's mining equipment.
just_bridgeSenior Member
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#6Jan 18, 2022, 04:44 AM
Mining is only profitable with solar, wind, gas flare as a source of powering the mining rig. Electricity bill will drive you out of business especially if it is not done on an industrial scale. Individual miners may not be able to afford the equipment and space needed for mining. For me, there are several reasons why mining is increasingly becoming unprofitable and the first reason is that the bitcoin network hashrate has nearly doubled in the last year and is rapidly increasing. Secondly, carrying out maintenance on the mining rig also cost money as well. For example, every year old antminers will be surpassed by new and improved antminers. I guess smart miners are already selling off their hardware having had a taste of the rising mining difficulty and an expectation next halving of mining rewards. Lastly, miners lose their mining revenue after each halving.
Do you have any sources on this? As far as I can remember, most suggestions related to mining do assume that users have cheap access to electricity, but not limited to renewable energy. Renewable energy does have some benefits and miners might profit more from it in the long run, but the cost to build one or gain access to it is quite difficult.
block_2021Full Member
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#8Jan 19, 2022, 03:00 AM
The price of components and energy costs are the main things to look for before starting mining. And maintenance needs to be taken care of too. So an unstable economy will have a significant impact on mining profit or in order to continue it. But if you are already doing it and making a good profit, then you can fight the unstable economy/inflation. There are places where this is the main problem. The cost won't let you start or the profit you make won't be able to keep up with the cost.
In situations like this, we are better off just buying and HODLing for a longer period of time. It only costs the value of how much you want to buy. Why go through all the complications when you can just buy, sit back and watch?
example from Russia for miners
1$ = 100 rubles
Miners have a profit in dollars, and they pay for electricity in rubles. Thanks to the high price of the dollar, the cost of a kilowatt fell to 4 cents.
The economic situation just helps miners to reduce 15-20% of electricity costs.
the_matrixSenior Member
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#10Jan 19, 2022, 08:01 AM
If mining was unprofitable for most miners they would just pack up their gears and stop mining, because they are doing so for profits, that's before we can talk about the part of protecting the network, it is the profits that gives them the incentives to do it.
Cheap electricity has always been important for miners, and surely the latest gears too, miners consider these things and how they can make profits before going into the business, they also join mining pools and contribute their own hashrate if they can't solely generate enough to compete for blocks and make profits.
RogueMinerFull Member
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#11Jan 19, 2022, 02:18 PM
In the EU, it's the other way round: mining has been becoming more and more unprofitable since the sanctions have been introduced. In the last couple of years, electricity prices have skyrocketed 100% or even more in many EU countries:
Source: https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/energy-prices-europe
So, the Europeans are paying the so called "war tax" which was introduced without asking for their approval.
Named the most profitable countries for mining bitcoin (BTC)
The Best and Worst Countries for Bitcoin Mining
The top 10 countries where BTC mining is the most profitable due to low household electricity costs are predominantly in Asia and Africa: Lebanon ($266.02), Iran ($532.04), Syria ($1330.1), Ethiopia ($1596.12), Sudan ($2128.17), Libya ($2660.21), Kyrgyzstan ($2660.21), Angola ($3724.29), Zimbabwe ($3990.31) and Bhutan ($4256.33).
It is unprofitable to mine bitcoin in 82 countries. Italy ($208,560.33), Austria ($184,352.44), Belgium ($172,381.50), Denmark ($166,795.06) are in the top 10 most expensive countries with the highest electricity costs for households when mining one BTC. ), Germany ($163,336.79), Ireland ($159,612.50), Lithuania ($152,163.92), Netherlands ($137,798.79), UK ($130,616.23) and Cayman Islands ($128,222.04) .
lynx_rocketSenior Member
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#13Jan 20, 2022, 05:52 PM
If you are from a country where there is no such thing as economy friendly its better to avoid any Bitcoin or crypto mining unless you have some money you can spend on electricity but even doing so, your return of investment will take a very long time.
Find out how much you are paying for electricity and use whattomine to do some calculation on how much you will be paying for mining, I believe every Bitcoin miner is available on the whattomine website.
The problem with electricity in my country is instability, the rate is very good but the electricity is so epileptic that it can get you frustrated, I ended up using energy from the sun to mine crypto till date, for someone like me, it's very hard to become a crypto miner here.
I am not sure what do you mean by the mining can be affected by the country's economy where I am mining? The whole concept of Bitcoin does not really follow what you are mentioning here. It's just a currency with value based on the volume that is getting traded, the demand and supply in the circulation and few various factors.
So just like any other assets Bitcoin will also get hampered with the economy but ON the Global scale! How can one countries situation can determine whether Bitcoin mining is profitable or not? It supposed to be entire global economy because Bitcoin is decentralized and it changes the value every where and at every corner of the world in similar ratio. Not a dime up and down.
I am not saying this factor is not valid, I am just saying this is about the entire global economic changes. That can affect the raw material required to produce let us say mining equipment, import and export duties if we are buying from the other countries, adding more cost to it OR the electricity within that country. In this way things can be tricky for the miners.
I suggest you reread OP's post and others' posts since most of them can easily answer your question. You are also mixing Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining activity. Honestly, I'm quite confused about your position since your last sentence seems to imply that you know mining can be unprofitable if the cost and profitability are not friendly to miners.
You are right OP, this is the reason why miners always look for a country where is environmental friendly with low cost of electricity to put up their mining farm so that they can make profit from mining. An unstable country with unstable economy will be a problem to mining because the business will be affected and miners will run at loss. We still have miners that are making profit and enjoying the business and at the same time some miners are also packing up their bags and leaving the business due to some challenges that they are faced with.
SwiftOrbitSenior Member
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#17Jan 21, 2022, 05:56 AM
Mining doesn't care about volume on Binance!
When you think of mining there are two key elements, the amount of energy you can get and at what price!
These two are based on real-life economics, it doesn't matter if Bitcoin is decentralized or centralized or if SpaceX buys or sells coins, the amount of available energy and the price you can burn it for are the ones that dictate everything.
A second look at those countries in the top 10 list and ask yourself, why is barely anyone mining there?
Because cheap energy doesn't mean a huge amount of them, it doesn't mean stability, it doesn't mean that you an afford the capital needed since, well, the price of miners is in dollars, not shit-currencies that devaluate 50% a year, that the infrastructure is almost non-existent, that powercuts are more frequent than normal times, that there is need for constant bribing and so on!
paul.stakeHero Member
Posts: 651 · Reputation: 3798
#18Jan 22, 2022, 12:46 AM
Mining is probably unprofitable if you're new to the space. The numerous factors of which you're unaware can result in losses before you even begin. Which are the best miners to buy, how much does electricity cost, where are you going to put them (you can't just turn them on in your house), tax-related factors (i.e., how much must you tax), how much capital you already have (and what can you afford to lose), cost of infrastructure, frequency of powercuts as mentioned, and a lot more that aren't on the top of my head at the moment.
Mining is profitable only if the miners can hold the coins until the next bull run so that they have to bear the running costs such as electricity bills on their own which is too huge for a small-scale miner that is why mining should not be an ideal choice for someone who has $20K or something and looking to make a stable income.
To OP, mining profitability depends on various factors like location, and electricity cost per KWH in your location so yes it depends on your country's economy too.
The firm said in its Q2 report that its mining cost was $5.5 million mainly from power purchases, net of credits, which implies a gross margin of 65% and cost of production at around $9,000 to $10,000. Although such numbers referred to the combination of hosting and proprietary mining, the cost of production was somewhat aligned with what Argo disclosed for December 2022.
https://theminermag.com/home/nydig-galaxy-ramp-up-bitcoin-mining-revenue/
I think that large miners with a cost price of 9-14 thousand dollars per bitcoin are doing very well in this market.
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