How profitable is Bitcoin mining in the year 2018?
Well this may sound a little complicated but the truth of the matter is that Bitcoin mining is not what it used to be again. This simply means that mining bitcoin about 5 years ago was more profitable than someone just starting out now. In the past, mining bitcoin with GPUs / FPGAs was the norm but with the advent of ASICs bitcoin mining hardware, the efficiency of mining bitcoin has been increased significantly and this means that mining bitcoin with the computer hardware will no longer be as profitable as it was say 5 years back.
Until 2013, bitcoin mining with GPUs was still worth it because the Difficulty level of mining bitcoin was at best close to its price and this simply meant a huge profit potential for the miners of those years.
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In that yesteryear, many bitcoin miners were simply doing it as a part-time activity and not as a full time job. These guys were simply using the hardware of their computer for computer games and when they were not using their computers, they simply used it to mine bitcoin. What this means is that the cost of purchasing the hardware doesnt add up and so their Return On Investment is great since they bought it purposefully for gaming activities and so therefore the resulting profit from mining bitcoin was just a bonus. This made mining more profitable in those years.
Also, at that time, there was not many bitcoin farms as we have them now. Miners then were not competing with datacenters, a situation that we have now. Rather, miners were simply competing with one another. This means that miners living in areas with cheap electricity could mine enough to profitability.
So back to our question. Is mining bitcoin worth the effort and how profitable is it in 2018?
The answer is both yes and no. This depends on the condition of mining the individual miner is exposed to. Some of these include Electricity cost, the cheaper you can get access to electricity, the more your ROI. It may also be advisable to join a pool of other miners instead of just operating alone. When all these are put into considerations, a smart investor may still be able to come out with profit mining bitcoin. Let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comment below.