What is Bitcoin Mining and is it Profitable in 2019?

During 2017, cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, reached the pinnacle of their popularity. All of a sudden, people who you would consider to be the least tech-savvy, started using terms like tokens, ICOs and blockchain on a daily basis. Moreover, Bitcoin became a household name and everyone wanted to get a piece of the action. However, a full year and a half have passed from this initial cryptocurrency euphoria, so where do these things stand now? In other words, is Bitcoin mining still profitable in 2019? Let’s find out!

1. What is Bitcoin mining?

First of all, you need to understand what the Bitcoin mining actually is, in order to be able to make an estimate of whether it’s worth your while. Due to the fact that it’s not institutionalized in a traditional sense, Bitcoin operates on a peer-to-peer network, which means that every Bitcoin user represents a tiny fraction of a fictional “Bitcoin Bank”. Each miner uses its hardware to solve specific mathematical equations, each of which makes the network a bit more secure. In order to keep the network sustainable, the difficulty of the math problems is increasing, which directly affects how easy it is for one to earn the reward.

2. Why wouldn’t it be profitable?

While in the beginning, things weren’t as complex, nowadays, it’s virtually impossible to make money mining with your home computer. Instead, you either need a plethora of graphic cards or commercial bitcoin mining chips specially reprogrammed for mining bitcoin. The problem with these devices lies in the fact that they’re A) quite expensive and B) incredibly power-hungry. What this means is that making a profit this way isn’t nearly as easy, seeing as how the overhead of running these operations tends to be substantial.

3. Is there a better way?

Like in any other tool-dependent industry, better tools mean greater competitiveness and higher productivity. Specialized cryptocurrency mining tools like Antminer can help you achieve a much greater mining efficiency ratio. Other than this, there are numerous software and mining platforms that can improve your efforts even further. In other words, the reason why mining might still be profitable in 2019 is not because of the algorithm itself or the value of the bitcoin, but because of the efficiency of the mining tools in question.

4. It’s regional

When it comes to the concept of cryptocurrency mining, a lot of people are worried about China and the supremacy of Chinese miners. Why is this the case? Well, first of all, the low cost of electricity in China allows Chinese miners to make more than $2,000 for every single bitcoin mined. Keep in mind, nonetheless, that the state of the bitcoin has been improving throughout 2019, which might soon lead to worldwide growth in popularity. The thing is, however, that a lot of people show a lack of trust in this concept which leads us to our next topic…

5. A new opportunity

As of the second half of 2018, things have been known to take a turn for the worse even there. There is, however, a hidden opportunity here. You see, due to the fact that a lot of people have overinvested in their cryptocurrency mining operations, some of them are likely to sell this hardware during the first hardship in order to cut their losses. To a newcomer to the industry, this can create a scenario where they can buy, quite cheaply, something that others have paid a small fortune for. In other words, second-hand hardware in almost pristine condition is now available all over the place. This is, of course, for all those who are willing to risk buying second-hand hardware.

In the end, it’s important to mention that someone, somewhere out there is definitely making money by mining Bitcoin. If not, there would be no one doing it and the Bitcoin market would collapse in a matter of days. The real question is whether it’s profitable to do this on a smaller scale and how much it would cost you to get started.