The technological intricacies around Bitcoin mining, a process essential to the cryptocurrency's existence and value, are sometimes obscured. Discover the time required to mine 1 Bitcoin in 2024. Learn about factors like mining difficulty, hardware efficiency, and network hash rate to mine Bitcoin.

How Many Bitcoins Are Left to Mine?

On February 1, 2024, out of a total of 21 million Bitcoins, somewhere around 19.62 million had been mined. There are around 1.38 million Bitcoins that can be mined at this time. Once every 210,000 blocks, or almost four years, a process called halving is performed to gradually reduce the rate of new Bitcoins being created. This system makes sure that new Bitcoins are released in a predictable and steady fashion, so that the remaining 1.38 million will be a challenge to mine for the next couple of decades.

- Bitcoin Mining Data -

What is the Cost to Mine 1 Bitcoin?

There are four key expenses that go into the process of Bitcoin mining: power, mining gear, maintenance, and site fees. The prices differ depending on where you live. We can use the US state of Ohio to simplify things and see what this means. There are three main kinds of scenarios:

• Mining on your own
• Starting a mining site
• Hosting

Before we can figure out how much it will cost to mine one Bitcoin, we need to know how much electricity costs in Ohio, how efficient the mining technology is, and how much power each Bitcoin requires. The time needed to mine one Bitcoin may then be estimated by taking into account the hash rate of the mining equipment and the current difficulty of the Bitcoin network. We can get a good idea of the overall cost by combining these data points.

Electricity consumption is the primary cost for home mining operations in Ohio, where the average residential electricity rate is fifteen cents (15c) per kilowatt-hour. The mining equipment's hash rate and energy efficiency ratio are other important factors. How much power a mining setup needs and how long it takes to mine one Bitcoin are both affected by its performance.

Consider the Antminer S19, a well-known mining rig with specs like a hash rate of about 95 TH/s and a power rating of about 3250W. We can approximately determine the time and electricity usage required to mine one Bitcoin using these criteria and the current Bitcoin network difficulty.

Take this mining gear as an example:

Based on the current network difficulty and hash rate, it would take around 10 days to mine one Bitcoin. Over the course of those ten days, the rig would run nonstop, using up 780 kilowatt-hours (kWh) due to its 3250W output divided by 24 hours. Therefore, just for energy, the cost would be around $117 (780 kWh × $0.15/kWh).

Electricity prices aren't the only thing to think about; you also need to include in the purchase price of the mining rig and the maintenance costs, which aren't easy to predict. Read more about mining rigs in our mining rig guide.

Although the cost of power for a self-built mining farm could be quite low, at roughly 5 cents/kWh, there are other expenses to consider, including as the cost of land, building the farm, labor for operations and maintenance, and updating equipment. The prices for these will change based on the details. Just for power, in this case, it would cost about $39 (780 kWh × $0.05/kWh).

Electricity costs for hosted mining equipment usually hover around 8.5 cents/kWh. Although more expensive than a self-built mining farm, there is no need to put a lot of money down at the outset because most of the cost goes into the mining equipment, approximately $66.3, would be the cost of power in this scenario.

The entire cost is still dependent on the particular mining setup and operating climate, even though we can estimate the electricity prices. As a result, the aforementioned figures give a ballpark figure for the electrical costs associated with mining one Bitcoin in Ohio.

What Happens After All the Bitcoins Have Been Mined?

After all 21 million Bitcoins have been mined, transaction fees will replace block rewards as the main incentive for miners. The only money that miners will make will be from the fees that users pay to have their transactions processed. The Bitcoin network should remain unaffected by this change. However, it has the ability to affect transaction fees and miner participation, which could result in a greater concentration of power in the mining industry.

What’s the Process of Mining a Block?

To create a Bitcoin block, miners must use computing power to solve complicated mathematical problems. The process of adding transactions to the blockchain involves mining, which is done using specialized hardware. The process of adding a new block to the blockchain and rewarding the first miner with Bitcoins takes an average of 10 minutes per block. However, because mining is both competitive and stochastic, this does not directly translate to the time it takes to mine one Bitcoin. We have a more in depth guide here on how bitcoin is mined.

How Long Does It Take to Mine One Bitcoin?

The complicated process of mining a single Bitcoin is affected by a wide range of factors. Depending on personal conditions and technological factors, the length can vary greatly. If you want to understand the complexities of Bitcoin mining, you need to understand these variables.

Factor 1: Mining Hardware Efficiency

More powerful mining hardware with a greater hash rate can quickly solve cryptographic challenges, allowing for speedier Bitcoin mining. As an example, the S21Hyd, the most recent mining model, boasts a whopping 335 TH/s. Nevertheless, individual miners are faced with a huge financial commitment due to the expensive cost, which poses a substantial risk.

Factor 2: Network Difficulty

To keep the average time to mine a block at around 10 minutes, the network difficulty of Bitcoin varies about every two weeks. The difficulty of mining a block increases as the number of miners on the network grows, making it more difficult and time-consuming to mine one Bitcoin.

Factor 3: Electricity Costs and Availability

Power supply and pricing are major considerations. Mining Bitcoin is more efficient in areas with lower electricity rates. Using renewable energy sources helps lower your carbon footprint and is good for the environment.

Learn More About Bitcoin at Bitdeer

If you're interested in Bitcoin mining, Bitdeer offers bitcoin cloud mining plans, Hashrate plans as well as other comprehensive Bitcoin management services. To learn more about Bitcoin mining and these chances, visit Bitdeer.