Thinking About Starting Bitcoin Mining?

Been curious about mining bitcoin lately. How does it work? If I wanted to start, what gear do I need and how much is it gonna set me back? I’m in the Philippines where electricity is kinda average, not too high but not cheap either. But honestly, with the US salary, living here is pretty chill.

Alright, let's dive in! So, from what I've seen, average electricity cost in the Philippines is about 0.15 to 0.20 USD per kWh. If you’re thinking about BTC mining, check out the Bitmain Antminer S21. It uses around 3.5 kWh, giving you a hashrate of 200 Th/s. If you go with the max rate for regular households, you’re looking at around 8.5 USD in costs per day, even less if you’re on a business rate.

Honestly, if your electricity costs are higher than 10 cents, just forget about mining bitcoin. Even at 5 cents, you’re looking at a long payback time, like 24 months. Plus, mining companies are ramping up capacity all the time. And those so-called shitcoins? They carry huge risks; prices can plummet and you end up with a useless box.

Mining costs: 20 cents = total loser 15 cents = total loser 10 cents = maybe break even if you’re lucky 5 cents = profit potential 3 cents = pretty much guaranteed profit.

I gotta say, cheap electricity is just one piece of the puzzle. If you’re a home miner, you might run one or two ASICs due to power limits. But those things can fail too. The Antminer S21 has a flaw where if one chip goes down, the whole unit is toast, unlike older models that could still run on fewer chips. And the most efficient ASICs now use water or immersion cooling!

Right, and as others pointed out, the cost of power is huge for mining profitability. In your case, with average rates in the Philippines, it could be tough to profit.

That’s why I stopped mining BTC! Profits dropped big time while energy rates shot up. You could try mining other coins, but with BTC ASICs, you’re pretty much guaranteed to lose money. Tried the D3 units too just loud and unprofitable.

You could grab an Avalon for about 175 bucks, plus power supply and shipping. It does around 3.3 TH and uses 110 watts. If you mine it on NiceHash, you’re looking at about 15 cents a day. In 400 days, you might see about 0.001 BTC, which could be worth 63 bucks if BTC rises, but it’s not exactly a gold mine.

Based on my bill last month, I’m at around 0.23 per kWh. That 15 cents a day still shows losses unless BTC spikes. Maybe a small solar setup could help? Saw a portable system for about 100 bucks that could run small units 24/7 if the sun’s right.

For a steady draw of 200 watts for 12 hours, you'd need at least four 65 Ah 12V car batteries. Solar can work during the day, but you’ll need a backup at night.

Thanks! I’ll check out those resources. But seriously, who’s mining BTC if profits are mostly negative?

I doubt there’s anyone mining BTC for losses unless they’re just contributing to the network. Some folks run USB miners like the Compac F as a gamble. Power costs are low for those, maybe just a couple bucks a month.

Yeah, it seems like you need low electricity rates to mine BTC profitably around 0.06 or lower to break even in 2-3 years with an Antminer S21. Anything higher? Might as well just hold BTC.

I appreciate the advice. Mining is getting super pricey, and it’s damaging the environment with fossil fuels. How easy was it to mine on a laptop back when Bitcoin started?

I bet it was just as tricky as mining a new shitcoin today. New coins don’t have pools, so it’s all solo mining from scratch. Look at Kaspa those who mined early made bank.

Why even suggest cloud mining? Everyone here knows it's basically a scam. Newbies should stay far away unless they really know what they're doing.

Bitcoin ASICs are cheaper compared to others like the Antminer AL1 Pro. But yeah, electricity costs are the main killer in mining.

If you're still worrying about costs, maybe mining isn’t for you. It takes serious cash to get started, and you gotta be able to ignore those electricity bills, which are just climbing everywhere. As a newbie, unless you love this, there are better ways to earn from bitcoin, mining is just too costly.

Where in the Philippines are you from? In Manila, the electricity rate this year is around 9-11 pesos, which is about 0.18 USD. Honestly, bitcoin mining might not be worth it there. Better to invest and just DCA into bitcoin.

Let me make a bold claim: Bitcoin mining is done for small-scale miners. Those days are gone. You need to be huge to make it work or have free electricity. Otherwise, it's just a money pit. Buying and holding is way smarter.