Energy and cost efficiency of Bitcoin mining endeavor

【Author】 Jablczynska, Malgorzata; Kosc, Krzysztof; Rys, Przemyslaw; Sakowski, Pawel; Slepaczuk, Robert; Zakrzewski, Grzegorz

【Source】PLOS ONE

【影响因子】3.752

【Abstract】The main aim of the study is to analyze BTC mining's efficiency under current market conditions (December 2021), including soaring energy prices produced from many different sources in different geographical locations. After a thorough analysis of initial assumptions concerning the (1) price of mining machine with associated components and its effective amortization period, (2) difficulty and the hash rate of the BTC network, (3) BTC transaction fees, and (4) energy costs from various sources, we have found that currently, BTC mining is not profitable, except for some rare cases. The main reason for this phenomenon is the fast and unpredictable increase of difficulty of the BTC network over time which results in decreasing participation of already purchased mining machines in the BTC network hash rate. The research is augmented with a detailed sensitivity analysis of mining efficiency to initial parameters assumptions, which allows observing that the conditions for BTC mining to be efficient and profitable are very challenging.

【Keywords】

【发表时间】2023 MAR 30

【收录时间】2023-06-18

【文献类型】实证数据

【主题类别】

区块链技术-核心技术-挖矿策略