Bitcoin Forum

I was doing some calculations and found that after the halving to 12.5, mining will become unprofitable if running two Antminer S7's with a combined GH/s of 9460GH, with 2460 Watts total (2 AntminerS7's and 2 PSU's 1600)and electricity cost of on average $0.17 cents/kwh running for 30 days. Am I doing something wrong here in my calculations? Did I add up the watt total correctly (2 S7's + 2 PSU 1600= 2460watts?) Would I have to hope and pray that the value of BTC go over $1000 to even make any type of profit? thanks

Solo mining was unprofitable since a long time now. Only the mining farms are making profit.

However, the mining farms need to move to green energy now. Like wind turbines or solar panels. The conventional electricity cost will make them unprofitable so they need to have some free energy to remain profitable.

Bitcoin mining will worth because bitcoin price will be higher and miners will cover the cost of electricity and price of hardware .

I think the probelm you have here is as the poster above me has pointed out, Solo bitcoin mining is no longer a viable option. The only reason to solo mine at the kind of prices your paying for electricity is for fun, Youd be better just spending that electricity money on bitcoins and leaving the mining to chinese farms. Perhaps get a few gpus and mine alts.

I don't plan on doing any solo mining, I will be joining mining pools. Should I go ahead and buy the 2 S7's with my calculations above?

Its completely up to you if you decide to do it for fun but i punched your figures into a mining calculator and you will be mining at a loss even at todays prices. If it was me then id say no dont bother. If you buy them your a lot safer imo. Besides theres more money to be made in mining alts than there is bitcoin, Just spend the money on gpu rig.

Time Frame    BTC Coins    USD    Power Cost (in USD)    Pool Fees (in USD)    Profit (in USD)
Hourly    0.00050554    $0.39    $0.42    $0.00                            (-$0.03)
Daily    0.01213285    $9.41    $10.04    $0.00                                    (-$0.62)
Weekly    0.08492996    $65.89    $70.26    $0.00                            (-$4.37)
Monthly    0.36398554    $282.37    $301.10    $0.00                            (-$18.74)
Annually    4.42849076    $3,435.47    $3,663.43    $0.00                            (-$227.96)

That doesnt include hardware costs which you will lose out on

so easy answer is no dont do it.

I did more calculations with today's prices (~$770= 1 BTC) and basically after the halving to 12.5 all mining operations are going to be losing? Does this mean everyone MUST buy the latest version of Antminers every time it comes out (S9) to stay ahead of the game or end up losing due to the increase in difficulty over time? Seems like the only people making money is Bitmain.

What were your calculations based on? Don't underestimate how cheap power is in certain parts of the world. There might also be miners with serious backing who are thinking very long term and may not care too much about today's price. bitcoin production's ramping down, not up and we all know how many there'll ever be.

Well theres a few options or things that can happen. You can either buy those miners and hope price goes up or you can buy those miners and move somewhere where electricity is a lot cheaper. the only miners that are going to be making money are the farms.

the only other thing you can hope happens is lots of people stop mining due to not making anything then after a while the difficulty drops and you can then make a profit with your s7s.

None of these options are really suitable for you though.

But one can argue that when the halving happens then the value of Bitcoins must go up due to less being made daily, so does this make an argument that mining is indeed profitable in the long run?

Id argue against that in that if you just buy bitcoin now instead of buying the hardware and the actual cost of mining then you will probably end up with more bitcoin at todays prices which buy the time the price goes up you will still be better off.  These are my views however, its your choice what you actually decide to do.

In fact a lots of miners are/were mining at the loss and believe that one day the success of bitcoin will help to recover the cost and eventually turn out to be profitable by holding the mined coins in long term.

So which "bitcoin price" are you using in your formulation? The current one or the future one?

Mining after the halving will basically be the same as it is now, you just sell your Bitcoin for literally twice as much to counteract the affect of the halving.

You'll still have the same hashing power that'll award relatively the same as it does now, in USD, but your numerical gain of Bitcoin will be halved.

It really doesn't matter when you start.

This is just some general thinking on my side, if Bitcoin were profitable before the Halving at $200 a year ago, it should still be profitable at about $400 after the Halving ...right? I know some miners still made

generous profits at $200 before the Halving, so my guess is $300 should be still profitable for many of them.  ::) ... I climbed out of the mining scene a long time ago as a solo miner, so I cannot say from

personal experience, if it's still going to be profitable... so I am just guessing here, based on what other people has said on the subject.  ???

So are you saying that I will be mining the same about of bitcoin (0.02) daily after the halving?

You should not. The problem is your electricity cost is too high. Mining farms pays much less, around 2 to 5 cents, thus you cant be competetive. Also S9 is better deal considering it should be most power effecient gear for very long. But with 17 cents, mining is not for you especially long term (you might be profitable temporarily mining alts or Bitcoin when price rise a lot, but after competetion catch up with added hashrate you cant compete longterm with your electricity cost).

Wow just called PG&E  :o

With the current tier plan I am currently on it would cost me about $786.40 to run two S7's 24hrs a day for 1 month.

2800 watts (2 Antminer S7's)

Tier 1 is actually 0.18 cents
Tier 2&3 is 0.22 cents
Tier 4 is 0.34 cents

Does this mean NO ONE in California mines at home?

I think after halving it will not be bad to continue mining as the price of bitcoin would be increasedto a higher value so the miners can sell their coins at a price the same as a few months ago.

Correct.  "Alternative Energy" is currently more expensive than energy via fossil fuels (natural gas is very cheap).  There is a lot of research underway re solar power, but I believe it will not be competitive for years.  Wind turbines look to be a loser, at least in the USA.


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While I cannot answer OP's question with any authority, my *guess* is that the most efficient miners will do OK.

The days of solo mining, even with the cheapest electricity in the USA, are likely just about over.

It looks like China will win most new BTC production.

Run your numbers with the new hardware (AntminerS9, 14 TH/s, 1500 watts) and reasonable electricity ($.05/kwh).

If you move to a place with hydroelectric power, and set up a huge farm, then yes, it will be.

lol how in the fuck will mining be unprofitable with a price that's constantly rising?

Miners have to plan ahead anyway, sometimes mining at a loss may mean millions in the future if they hold coins.

Yes because the bitcoin price is continue rising i also think that it is still worth it to mine bitcoins even though that the block reward will be 12.5 from 25. Joining mining pools can also help us to maintain bitcoin mining as a profitable way.

I'm pretty sure that mining has been unprofitable for a long time now, with the difficulty increasing to an extreme rate. However it'll really depend on the price of BTC after the halving, which I think is going to skyrocket.

It could be profitable.

I agree, bitcoin mining has nothing to do with halving, people mine bitcoin because of Bitcoin price.  In the same scenario where Bitcoin block reward is 50 BTC and price per bitcoin is less than 1 USD, would you prefer to mine it?  Or would you prefer to mine Bitcoin where reward is only 12.5 and the price is above 1000 usd?  I bet you would choose the latter.

Yes I think it would be profitable because bitcoin price will be increased more than 3x. If 2 month before mining was profitable then halving time also will be profitable.
In my country cost of electricity on average $0.05 cents/kWh. So here too must be profitable with respect to new bitcoin price and 12.5BTC block reward.

Some argue that the miners do not necessarily lose 50% of their income just because their income will drop by half. The argument is that given the prevailing constant demand for bitcoin, which causes the price to rise.
For example, if the miners gave all earned 25 per bitcoin block to pay their bills, they would have occurred 25 new bitcoin introduction into circulation of about every ten minutes (depending on the changes in the network).
If the price remains unchanged at $ 750 even taking into account these new bitcoin extracted, it will mean that the demand will be $ 18,750.
If the number of available bitcoin issued every ten minutes should have fallen by half to 12.5 of BTC, the price of bitcoin have to rise to compensate for the $ 18,750 demand. Thus, if the compensation will be reduced from 25 to 12.5 bitcoin, you should not think that the income in dollars will decline as well.

Well, I don't think that mining bitcoins has ever been that profitable unless you're talking about the earlier days. However, that would have only been profitable if they held onto their coins.

I suggest you mine coins, speculate on BTC price and sell when it's high. Good luck.

Yeah it always profitable because the price is continue rising and i think that even though the mining difficulty will increase it's still profitable because if they hold their coins for few more years i think that big miners can make $$$$$ or more because it depends on how many coins they save.

Will an s7 work on my outlets? I am new to all this electrical stuff, but with the S7 using power consumption of 2850 watts total (2 S7 Antminers) and my outlets are at 120v/240v then I shiuld be ok right? Here is the pic of my electrical box https://imgur.com/a/PJA1N

not only in this way in my opinion it will definitely be profitable in the future in my opinion

people ar ebuying and pushing the price up now, thats what will make the miners being profitable at mining, the price went up 2 times or even more and the halving will cut the reward twice, theres nothing to worry about

Would I be able to use both if I use the outlet for the kitchen stove instead of the outlets in my room? What are the 15,20,, and 30 numbers mean? Do they hold more watts the higher the number? What is the watt or volt limit for 15, 20, and 30? Thanks
https://imgur.com/a/tVLxr

It's always the same reply: You have to do the mathematical equation that will tell you if Bitcoin is worth mining for you in your situation. Not everyone has the same expenses for their electricity bill and not everyone has the same hashing power. There will always be people finding profit in mining Bitcoin.

Mining will only be worth and limited to a very few people who have high plants of electricity and setups. Ordinary persons will have no power tp solve such difficulty with his limited supply and setup.

Can someone please look at the links above to see if I can safely run 2 S7 Antminer's please? Thank you

The difficulty does not affect the cost, on the contrary, investors buy cryptocurrency, miners include miners saw that there was a margin, the price drops, miners turned off. Do not confuse cause and effect. Rather, in the run-up to Halving reward for mining investors probably push the price up to a network opportunity does not fall heavily when Halving happen.

This is correct.  I was mining in Las Vegas, only paying 10 cents.  That became unprofitable a long time ago.  You must now be stealing electricity or somehow paying about 3 - 6 cents.  Except for stealing electricity and some very special places having super cheap electricity, there is absolutely no way to mine profitably.  Mining is all finished.  Even very sophisticated miners like KnC who burned up $32 million failed.  They know a thing or two of mining.  So, only china can do it with a profit.

According to me Bitcoin mining is not profitable after mining Because the block reward would remain half and it not gives you more profit. So I suggest you to Don't try out Mining after Halving.....

It depends on the total cost of mining. This includes the electricity price, building, labour and machine price.

I see a few knowing what mining is all about and a lot knowing jack about the BTC mining scene.
The halving will have no effect what so ever and price will settle for some time in the range of 500-550$ before a new hype will push the price up to 800-1000$ each.
There is western countries who pays less than 0,05 cents and they will keep expanding the farms.
Its a gambling and noboddy will ever know the real future, but after Ethereums disaster we will see BTC make a hughe jump ahead of any other coins.
Its not for fun that, Microsoft, Ebay, Amazon, Dell and other big players are adopting BTC....its here to stay and so is mining.

well said.


Put it this way if you want to mine its all about electricity price... hence why you hear solar, hydro power its all about the price... where I am S7 will still be profitable after the halving at the current btc of $640
and will stay profitable for another 2 years if btc stays around 640... yes even with network difficulty jumps.

do your math but $0.17 you out of the game already unless you invest and go solar.... $0.05- $0.08 you in the game but you will still have to transition to alternative power preferably your own solar setup which has a life span of about 20 years... so there ya go..

okay at

 ten cents  at 3% diff jumps   the s-7 loses out in 75 days after the jump  earns about 0.02432 btc after ½ ing
nine cents at 3% diff jumps  the s-7 loses out in 119 days after the jumps earns about 0.06782 btc after ½ ing
eight cents at 3% diff jumps the s-7 lose out in   175 days after the jump earns about 0.1362 btc after ½ ing
seven cents at 3% diff jumps the s-7 lose out in 230 days after the jump earns about 0.2325 btc after ½ ing
six cents at 3 % diff jumps the s-7 lose out on 299 days after the jump earns about 0.3607 btc after the ½ ing
five cents 395 days  .5255btc
four cents 492 days .7369 btc


so  what you got 3 cent power?