Bitcoin Mining Costs Throughout the World

[krishnapramod]

In January, Elite Fixtures conducted a research on the cost of mining a Bitcoin throughout the world. Since Bitcoin hit $20000 last year, the whole mining sector has expanded a lot. Bitcoin price and difficulty are positively correlated. Although miners are moving to locations with surplus hydropower and relatively moderate climate like Iceland, Quebec, according to this research, based on difficulty, utility company data, and different mining equipments there are a few other countries where mining is absolutely profitable and a few not at all suitable for mining. The break-even cost of mining a Bitcoin is as low as $531 to a staggering  $26,170.

1. Venezuela came in as the cheapest nation at $531.

2. South Korea comes in as the most expensive country for mining a single coin at $26,170.

3. The United States came in as the 41st cheapest country for mining at $4,758.

The cost to mine one bitcoin in 115 different countries based on average electricity rates according to government data, utility company data, and/or world reports from IEA, EIA, OANDA, etc. For the mining rigs, we used the AntMiner S9, the AntMiner S7, and the Avalon 6. We were able to calculate the numbers on how many days it would take to mine one coin and how much power that would use. Based on the mining difficulty when this study was finalized in early January 2018, the AntMiner S9 would use 17,773.344 kilowatts and take 548.56 days to mine a coin. The S7 would use 45,889.008 kilowatts and take 1580.2 days, and the Avalon 6 would use 55,294.344 kilowatts and take 2194.22 days for a single coin.

https://www.elitefixtures.com/blog/post/2683/bitcoin-mining-costs-by-country/

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[1Referee]

This article doesn't take into consideration that large scale miners purchase insane amounts of megawats, which means that they can demand the power supplier to lower their rate significantly compared to standard/average rates. No one is going to set up a mining farm and just let it run on the regular power net, that would be stupid and totally not profitable in most cases. Another aspect is that the countries offering fairly low base power rates, are mostly those who are incapable of delivering miners the consistent flow power they so badly need. Venezuela might be the cheapest in this example, but they will never be able to supply miners with the power they need. This article is set up in a very simple way, which in no shape or form applies to the actual cost the larger farms need to mint 1BTC.

[kaizerblitz]

Great article i wish my country is venezuela or either kuwait to mine some bitcoin but for now bitcoin mining is not yet profitable in comes of crypto crisis.

[radeone]

Interesting but I don't think this has all the facts. 100% renewables with good climate probably offers the best space to mine.

[IgniHash]

Well, Good article man. It's interesting that my country still not expensive.
I thought my electricity still expensive, but when I compare with another country (based on your infographic) I think my people still profit to mining 1 BTC. 

[ss890]

That is good visualiser of the cost per country for the mining. However as our fellow posters said above that these are not based on the full set of facts that can decide the final cost I dont think it is 100% sure visualiser. I mean yes there could some countries where cost of hardware might be very cheap while in other countries there might not be! Consider the fact of India. The mining hardware has to be exported from the foreign countries and the Indian govt. excise duty is heaviest in the world which can pump the hardware cost to skies! There you go the Indian cost of mining might just spike a lot. Considering the fact that the country is hot most of the times, the cost of cooling equipment and managing them will also add up over the time thus making it far costlier. I mean im just supporting this with few of the factors that needs to be considered.

[bobo012]

I am not interested in extremes, like Venezuela and South Korea. I was thinking lately how profitable is to mine now for the big companies that mine. They are based in Canada, Island, and Northern Europe. Now china is out of the question. Hashrate has doubled in the last four months and prices are going down. So now it is two times more expensive to mine than 4 months ago. Anybody knows at what prices big mining operations start to lose money?

[nazaididuan1]

Electricity prices in venezuela are very cheap, but miners are reluctant to go to venezuela.

Venezuela is in a serious economic crisis! The government tried to issue oil money to solve the country's economic crisis.

[Hydrogen]

Although miners are moving to locations with surplus hydropower and relatively moderate climate like Iceland, Quebec, according to this research, based on difficulty, utility company data, and different mining equipments there are a few other countries where mining is absolutely profitable and a few not at all suitable for mining. The break-even cost of mining a Bitcoin is as low as $531 to a staggering  $26,170.

There could be additional angles to miners migrating into iceland aside from climate. After the economic crisis of 2008 iceland imprisoned some of the bankers who contributed towards economic crisis there. As far as I know, iceland is the only country in the entire world who did this. Iceland may be perceived as being unafraid to stand up to international bankers and largely independent from central banks which is one reason why miners could view it as being favorable for crypto mining operations. Iceland also is the most likely country on earth to achieve energy independence from oil/coal and other non-renewable sources of energy, which could contribute toward its being more independent from anti crypto political agendas.

Years ago, iceland also may have supported auroracoin and there could be a decent pro crypto community demographic there. I'm certain there could be many other reasons why iceland is a good place to setup a mining operation, I can't claim to know them all.

Japan also could be a good place for crypto given their cultural tendencies towards delayed gratification, building long term value and general responsibility/morality. Japan often invests in long term value projects like building a network of high speed network infrastructure as a means of building long term value and so bitcoin could mesh well with their ethos.

[dothebeats]

It's quite a noob move if these large-scale mining operators run their machines with the general rate these countries' power providers offer. Most of the miners I know here in our country have a specialized contract with the power company that runs for 1 or 2 years before they can renew it. Also, some countries on the 'cheaper' end of the mining cost spectrum cannot deliver such power or it might affect a large portion of their communities' power needs, so it still isn't a viable place for mining operation even if electricity is dirt cheap. Nice list though, gives an insight and estimate on how much the maintenance would be for prospective miners.

[LeGaulois]

[
. After the economic crisis of 2008 iceland imprisoned some of the bankers who contributed towards economic crisis there. As far as I know, iceland is the only country in the entire world who did this. Iceland may be perceived as being unafraid to stand up to international bankers and largely independent from central banks which is one reason why miners could view it as being favorable for crypto mining operations.

Because Iceland is too small, it's something you would almost never be able to do for a simple reason. For example, as a banker, you can take the worst decision for your bank, costing to it multiple millions, you are not really considered as the culprit, but the bank is, you represent and act in the name of the bank and not yourself. In another side, the bank is considered endorsing everything you do

[Hydrogen]

Because Iceland is too small, it's something you would almost never be able to do for a simple reason. For example, as a banker, you can take the worst decision for your bank, costing to it multiple millions, you are not really considered as the culprit, but the bank is, you represent and act in the name of the bank and not yourself. In another side, the bank is considered endorsing everything you do

I'm not 100% certain on iceland imprisoning bankers post 2008 economic crisis.

There are some who attempt to downplay the issue claiming if bankers in iceland did what they did in any other country they would have been imprisoned. Based on recent precedents that appears unlikely. Banks like HSBC have routinely laundered money for terrorists and drug cartels over the past 15+ years without anyone being prosecuted or imprisoned.

Has anyone heard the urban myth that iceland has a "shortage of men" and is offering migrants free money or land to travel there? That could be a myth started by bankers as a form of revenge on iceland for daring to crackdown on their schemes in that country and refusing to bow as other nations typically do. It could also imply that iceland's imprisoning of bankers for their crimes is something exceptional in this day and age.

But to be honest, I'm not 100% certain one way or another.

[pitiflin]

I am actually surprised that Venezuela was the cheapest. I expected India to take a lead as we all know electricity is dirt cheap there but as another user pointed out various other factors that affect the cost of mining.

There are some who attempt to downplay the issue claiming if bankers in iceland did what they did in any other country they would have been imprisoned. Based on recent precedents that appears unlikely. Banks like HSBC have routinely laundered money for terrorists and drug cartels over the past 15+ years without anyone being prosecuted or imprisoned.

HSBC was caught doing such activities in 2011/12 if I'm not mistaken. A banker himself that too from the compliance department explained me that HSBC had been doing these shady activities and had to pay a heavy fee and after that they have never ever been able to go up in profits but still they are cutting equal and surviving.

Has anyone heard the urban myth that iceland has a "shortage of men" and is offering migrants free money or land to travel there? That could be a myth started by bankers as a form of revenge on iceland for daring to crackdown on their schemes in that country and refusing to bow as other nations typically do. It could also imply that iceland's imprisoning of bankers for their crimes is something exceptional in this day and age.

This case might be possible. What these bankers in Iceland would do is try to create some myths about it, people visit Iceland and somehow if the people are stupid enough not to read the terms and conditions offered by the bank, the tourists would get stuck into a debt trap and revenge could be taken upon easily. A lot of ways things can go, I can say that. The myth by the way is obviously fake : https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/iceland-pays-immigrants-to-marry-icelandic-women/

[LeGaulois]

Because Iceland is too small, it's something you would almost never be able to do for a simple reason. For example, as a banker, you can take the worst decision for your bank, costing to it multiple millions, you are not really considered as the culprit, but the bank is, you represent and act in the name of the bank and not yourself. In another side, the bank is considered endorsing everything you do

I'm not 100% certain on iceland imprisoning bankers post 2008 economic crisis.

There are some who attempt to downplay the issue claiming if bankers in iceland did what they did in any other country they would have been imprisoned. Based on recent precedents that appears unlikely. Banks like HSBC have routinely laundered money for terrorists and drug cartels over the past 15+ years without anyone being prosecuted or imprisoned.

Has anyone heard the urban myth that iceland has a "shortage of men" and is offering migrants free money or land to travel there? That could be a myth started by bankers as a form of revenge on iceland for daring to crackdown on their schemes in that country and refusing to bow as other nations typically do. It could also imply that iceland's imprisoning of bankers for their crimes is something exceptional in this day and age.

But to be honest, I'm not 100% certain one way or another.

Yeah, I do remember about the news claiming Iceland will give free money to anyone who immigrates there and marry a lady, (due to the lack of males?). I don't know if it was true, on top of that it was not just a few bucks but a good bag of cash. I can go there for free if they want, I will be also happy to take care of more than one wife, I can turn into polygamy

HSBC is the perfect example to give an overview of what banks are doing, sadly it's not the only one. Take a look at the Panama papers drama.
I just searched about "bankers in prison" and found articles reporting Spain and Ireland and France jailed crooked bankers for embezzlement, back in 2016-2017. Look like a justice is still possible, unfortunately, a massive purge would be necessary

Back to the graphic posted by @OP, I am surpised with some countries, especially Bahrain, Denmark, Germany,

[Beerwizzard]

The calculation of direct mining costs is inaccurate when you are including unstable countries yo your rating. For example in Iceland and Quebec miners are less likely to get some troubles with the law. In this countries they can be sure that their field of duty won't be counted as illegal, they won't be unfairly charged by the government and they can work and develop their business without any worries. Their property and their rights will be respected.
Meanwhile Venezuela is one of the most dangerous countries in the world (don't remember the exact place, it was somewhere in top5 of the most dangerous countries). Beside the chance that socialistic government can "nationalize" your  business you can always get robbed or someone can break into your house and kill you in order to obtain your highly expensive equipment. You won't just face a legal threat but also a physical. If you are trying to calculate how attractive are such countries then you should also count those issues.

[campica]

So according to this article , my country isn't most expensive. But if we look this article made in January when price of bitcoin was $19 000 , then it was really profitable for almost all countries to mining bitcoin. I was looking for mining rig then and I didn't find even one rig for sell on market. Now when bitcoin price fall on $7000 and there was news that electricity will become more expensive from this month for people who spend more then 20kW, I noticed that many people start selling their rig on market. But they asking too much ($11 000) , so probably will need years for starting getting profit from mining.

[Cobalt9317]

The combination of 10 s9 could become profitable in my country however with this information I have my doubt to build a mining farm now not to mention antminer is expensive and it will be more expensive because of the delivery fee.

P.S I will go in iceland myself and start my productivity life over there if that myth is somehow true.

[yslyv]

i dont know what the reference is in this research but equipment costs are approximately same in all over the world. only electricity price is different. i dont think it is possible to mine 1 bitcoin below 1k usd.

[RockBar0]

i dont know what the reference is in this research but equipment costs are approximately same in all over the world. only electricity price is different. i dont think it is possible to mine 1 bitcoin below 1k usd.

Cost is of course very expensive for digging machines. Especially it consumes too much electricity and costs a lot of money. But bitcoin has been modernized rather than having new projects to create them. And investors who capture the opportunity will have a lot. Especially the source of huge income. Wealth has more success.