How many devices are needed to mine the first cryptocurrency, when will the war between miners and gamers end, and why may be a better time to enter the market in May?
The rise in bitcoin quotes in 2021 provoked a new wave of interest in mining, as the profitability of mining farms has increased significantly. On February 21, the main digital coin updated its all-time high at around $ 58.3 thousand. A week earlier, miners managed to break the 2017 record, earning $ 354.4 million in seven days.
The high interest in cryptocurrency mining has led to a shortage of mining equipment. Manufacturers have already sold out all the latest miner models on pre-orders almost until the end of this year. Prices for some miners have increased by almost 100% due to the fact that the demand significantly exceeds the available supply.
Miners VS gamers
The popularity of cryptocurrencies has led to an increase in the prices of video cards. In order to solve this problem, NVIDIA has halved the hash rate of its latest RTX 3060 graphics cards. This was done in order to end the confrontation between miners and gamers. The manufacturer has introduced a line of dedicated processors for Ethereum mining.
The split card solutions will affect the gaming and computing market, but will not completely solve the problem as long as the computing market grows, according to Philip Modnov, CEO of Lazm. Of course, the war between gamers and miners will continue, but already on digital coins of the second tier and below, so the new NVIDIA product will be in demand, added BitCluster co-founder Sergey Arestov.
“This war will never end, at least until the Ethereum network switches to the Proof of Stake consensus algorithm. The new line looks good on paper, but another question is whether the company will be able to establish uninterrupted supplies and whether it will maintain a balance of prices,” said Jahon Khabilov, CEO of Sigmapool.
Use the situation or wait
Bitcoin is in the stage of correction and is now trading at a price of $ 44.5 thousand. This can create favorable conditions for entering mining, says Arestov. According to him, it makes no sense to buy mining equipment at inflated prices, since this will affect the final profit. The expert predicts that against the background of the correction, the cost of equipment will begin to decline, but this will only happen if quotes do not recover in the near future.
“The earnings of miners have certainly increased. Especially those who bought equipment before December 2020, when prices for it had not yet skyrocketed, and by now it has already recaptured its value and brings customers a net profit. Now mining is profitable at almost any cost of electricity,” added Arestov.
On average, miners’ income increased by 300-400% compared to August-September 2020, Khabilov said. He believes that a more favorable situation for entering mining may develop in May of this year. In his opinion, by this time the mining market should “cool down” due to the spring rainy season in the Chinese provinces. This allows hydroelectric power plants to generate more electricity. Miners actively use this and connect additional equipment to mining, which leads to an increase in the complexity of calculations on the network and a decrease in profitability.
Equipment purchases and coin selection
To ensure stable mining and income from the farm, Arestov advises purchasing at least 20 devices that are capable of providing 1.5 thousand TH / s of computing power. According to him, such a volume will make it possible to make a profit even if some of the cars are being repaired. The expert recommends choosing Whats miner and Avalon miners. It is necessary to aim at bitcoin mining, since the main digital coin is the most promising and less volatile, according to the co-founder of Bit Cluster.
For confident mining of bitcoin, the computing power must be at least 150 PH / s (150 thousand TH / s), Modnov notes. To do this, he advises creating a farm of 1.5 thousand Ant miner S19 miners or 2 thousand Ant miners S17 Pro According to him, the tense situation in the mining equipment market is really felt due to the shortage of miners.
