Bitcoin Mining Profitability – An Example

There is quite a bit of hype about Bitcoin mining and the profitability. This post will track the profitability of ordering Avalon ASICs Bitcoin Miners. Keep in mind that the situation changes rapidly and ordering a Bitcoin miner has generally involved making a preorder and waiting months for delivery. Developing new hardware can de difficult and predicting the difficulty changes in the Bitcoin network is also difficult. This makes investing in Bitcoin miners more of a gamble than an investment.

Currently, there is a large amount of hype around Bitcoin miners and many are predicting losses if you order during the hype.

The one question that is remaining is how much profit is there? Atlantic City Bitcoin will open its book to provide an example.

Units purchased:

Feb 2 – 2 units purchased (3 module, 65GigaHash/s per machine) 151.36 BTC USD value $3,000 with Bitcoin around $20)

Feb 3 – 1 unit (3 module, 65GigaHash/s) 75.49 BTC USD value $1500

March 25 – 2 units (4 module, 85GigaHash/s) 206.49 BTC USD value $15,000 (This is not a typo, it is due to the price increase in BTC to about $72)

Total spent 433.34 BTC which was $19,500 based on the exchange rates at the time of the purchases.

The first 2 units were delivered May 20, 2013 but were only partially operational until the next day when the Ethernet port bug was discovered.

Since then the units have been hashing mostly via Slush’s Pool. payments are sent when the balance goes above 1 BTC Here are the payouts:

Total Mined (Updated Real Time) BTC

To see the transactions: 1BvCSM6bzorihPrb8yCXvdsd7FpD7KfyvC

Some calculate “break even” based on dollar value while other just look at the total number of bitcoins.

Note that the “difficulty”, which is how difficult it is to solve the problem updates about every 2 weeks and it depends on how many other people are mining. The difficulty changes to ensure the average time between blocks is 10 minutes.

May 21 – 2.25 BTC – Partial day, received in afternoon. Estimate 20 kW-h used. Difficulty is 11,187,257.

May 22 – 5.53 BTC – Partial day, bugs fixed in the morning. 30kW-h estimate for full day operation.

May 23 – 5.43 BTC – 13.22 BTC total. Cash Value of Unit 1 ($1500) recovered. 3% of the 433.34 BTC recovered

May 24 – 7.33 BTC – Rewards vary depending on how many blocks are found (statistical variance).

May 25 – 6.27 BTC – 26.82 BTC total. Cash Value of Units 1 & 2 ($3000) recovered. Difficulty change: 12,153,411 block 237888.

1 Block 237,921 Found

May 26 – 4.81 BTC – 170 kW-h used.

May 27 – 5.27 BTC – 36.88 BTC total. Cash Value of Units 1, 2 & 3 ($4500) recovered. 8.5% of the 433 BTC recovered.

May 28 – 5.34 BTC – Tracking received for Unit #3.

May 29 – 3.90 BTC – 46.09 BTC total. 10% of the 433 BTC recovered.

May 30 – 3.60 BTC – 290 kW-h used. Additional fans now needed due to rising temperature.

May 31 – 5.27 BTC – 55 BTC Total. 12.5% of the 433 BTC recovered. 320 kW-h used for May $26.21.

June 1 – 4.91 BTC – FinCEN Ruling Requested for Bitcoin Mining

June 2 – 4.71 BTC – 64.62 BTC total. 380 kW used so far.

June 3 – 6.57 BTC. Unit 3 arrives. Online in less than 30 minutes after delivery. 45 kW-/day.

June 4 – 8.82 BTC – 80 BTC Total. BTC value of unit 1 recovered. 18% of the 433 BTC recovered.

June 5 – 9.33 BTC – Difficulty change +28% to 15,605,632 block 239,904. Ambient temp 95º F with room exhaust fan off.

2 Block 239,897 Found just before difficulty increase.

June 6 – 9.42 BTC – 98.75 BTC Total. 555 kWatt-hours used so far (plus more for running fans).

3 Block 240,045 Found

4 Block 240,066 Found

June 7 – 6.52 BTC – 105.27 BTC Total.

June 8 – 7.27 BTC – 112.54 BTC Total. Cash value of Units 1,2, 3 and 4 recovered. 25% of the 433 BTC recovered.

June 9 – 3.77 BTC

June 10 – 6.30 BTC

June 11 – 6.64 BTC – 129.25 BTC total. 29% of 433 BTC recovered.

5 Block 240,865 Found

June 12 – 6.19 BTC

6 Block 241,071 Found

June 13 – 6.21 BTC. 141.65 BTC total. 32% of 433 BTC recovered.

June 14 – 6.67 BTC.

7 Block 241,518 Found

June 15 – 4.75 BTC. 153.07 BTC total. BTC cost of Units 1 and 2 recovered. 35% of 433 BTC recovered.

8 Block 241,749 Found

June 16 – 4.13 BTC. Difficulty change +24% to 19,339,258.

June 17 – 4.68 BTC. 161.88 BTC total. 37% of 433 BTC recovered.

June 18 – 4.65 BTC.

June 19 – 3.72 BTC.

June 20 – 4.90 BTC. 175.15 BTC Total. 40% of 433 BTC Recovered – 1 month

June 21 – 6.36 BTC. 181.37 BTC Total. Cash value of all 5 units recovered.

June 22 – 4.72 BTC. New Firmware released. Hack allows overclocking from 300 –> 350 adding 17% hashing power.

June 23 – 5.39 BTC. 191.49 BTC Total. 44% of 433 BTC Recovered.

9 Block 243,006 Found

June 24 – 6.83 BTC

10 Block 243,048 Found

11 Block 243,113 Found

June 25 – 9.73 BTC – Power supply stopped working. Upgrade from 650W -> 800W fixed it.

June 26 – 5.78 BTC

June 27 – 3.54 BTC. 217.37 BTC Total. 50% of 433 BTC Recovered.

June 28 – 5.81 BTC. Bugs becoming a problem. Outdoor bug zapper ordered as well as a Bugzooka.

12 Block 243,819 Found

June 29 – 7.06 BTC. Difficulty increased +10% to 21335329.

13 Block 244,083 Found

June 30 – 7.64 BTC. 237.88 BTC Total. BTC cost for units 1, 2 and 3 recovered.

July 1 – 5.39 BTC.

July 2 – 5.56 BTC. 248.83 BTC total. 57% of 433 BTC recovered.

14 Block 244,462 Found

July 3 – 5.47 BTC

July 4 – 5.88 BTC

July 5 – 4.79 BTC

July 6 – 3.80 BTC

July 7 – 6.60 BTC

July 8 – 4.90 BTC

July 9 – 5.81 BTC. 286.08 BTC total. 66% of 433 BTC recovered.

July 10 – 5.81 BTC. Difficulty change +22.6% to 26,162,876

July 11 – 2.15 BTC.

July 12 – 1.46 BTC.

July 13 – 4.10 BTC. 299.63 BTC Total. 69% of 433 BTC recovered.

July 14 – 3.63 BTC

July 15 – 3.86 BTC

July 16 – 3.60 BTC

15 Block 246,851 Found

July 17 – 4.54 BTC

16 Block 247,074 Found

July 18 – 4.08 BTC

July 19 – 4.74 BTC

July 20 – 2.62 BTC. 326.71 BTC Total. 75% of 433 BTC recovered.

July 21 – 5.55 BTC.

July 22 – 3.38 BTC. 335.64 BTC Total. BTC value of units 1-4 recovered.

July 23 – 6.15 BTC. Difficulty increased 19.4% to 31,256,961

17 Block 248,074 Found

July 24 – 4.62 BTC. 346.41 BTC Total.

July 25 – 3.82 BTC.

July 26 – 3.49 BTC.

July 27 – 5.42 BTC. 359.15 BTC Total. 82% of 433 BTC recovered.

July 28 – 2.17 BTC.

July 29 – 3.49 BTC.

July 30 – 3.53 BTC.

18 Block 249,149 Found

July 31 – 3.39 BTC. Difficulty increase 19.6% to 37,392,766

Aug 1 – 5.30 BTC. 381.77 BTC total. 88% of 433 BTC recovered.

Aug 2 – 3.59 BTC.

Electric charges to run an Avalon is about $1.25/day (plus room cooling if needed).

$26.21 – May Electric Charges 8.19 cents/kWatt-hour

$124.20 – June Electric costs

$750 – Installation of 3 240V Electrical lines with NEMA 6-20 receptacles:

$292.81 – Power Strip NEMA 6-20:

$35.25 – Fan

$106.99 – Power Supply.

Electric Bill – winter Rates/Summer rates (June-September) :

Distribution Charge: $0.032558/0.042658

Market Transition: 0.003372

Transition Bond Charge: 0.005969

Non-Utility Generation Charge: 0.023330

Societal Benefits Charge: 0.008346

RGGI Energy Efficiency 0.000186

System Control Charge: 0.000011

Regulatory Assets Recovery: 0.000285

Transmission Service Charge: 0.010142

Excess Depreciation Reserve Credit -0.002344

____________________________________

Cost of Electricity: 8.19 (October – May) | 9.20 (June-September) cents per kWatt-Hour

Electricity costs of an Avalon is about $1.20/day winter | $1.33/day Summer.

For more information about Bitcoin mining see:

Buying a Bitcoin Miner – The Long Journey is Almost Over

Avalon ASICs Bitcoin Miner Operation

Bitcoin Mining – What’s it all About?

What is Bitcoin Mining Doing?

Electricity Usage of Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin Mining Profitability Calculator

FinCEN Ruling Requested for Bitcoin Mining