If you know anything about bitcoin mining it is that it takes an enormous amount of energy, namely electricity, to keep the “rigs” operating, and cool, while they battle to solve the next equation in the blockchain and earn a piece of the crypto pie. In May of 2020 the amount of bitcoin awarded for solving the next block was halfed for the third time to 6.25 BTC. That means today each bitcoin block is worth $242,106.25. Not bad for a day’s work, mind you.
I am NOT a fan, though, of the impact that bitcoin mining has on the environment, or the fact that most giant bitcoin mining operations don’t seem to care because all they have are dollar signs in their eyes. Yes, on a corporate level, with hundreds if not thousands of rigs, bitcoin mining can still be, and apparently is, a profitable thing to do. But at what cost?
We are already deep into trying to reduce the amount of CO2 emmissions, fossil fuel use, and damage done to the environment in the name of resources. But now that bitcoin, and other crypto, mining has come along we see damage done to the enviroment not in the name of resources, but in the name of shear profit. And THAT is unacceptable!
Take the story above for example. The bitcoin mining operation is using water from the lakes to cool the rigs that are generating the bitcoin. That in itself is not a bad thing. But then the operation is dumping the water used back into the environment before letting it cool first, thus harming the environment by increasing the temperature of the water! I mean, come on! Why not take some of those bitcoin profits and build a pool to cool the water in first before dumping it back in the lake? Would that be such a hard thing to do?
When large companies, and even us as individuals, use the resources of the environment, we need to think about what impact we are having, and how to restore it to it’s pre-use status, BEFORE we tap into it.
We as humans are well on our way to destroying the planet we live on. We keep saying that we want to leave the world in a better condition for our children than we found it. It’s like the old camping and hiking slogan of “leave the land better than you found it”. But the more we say it, the more populous the world becomes, the more unprofitable resource recyling becomes, the less anyone cares about it.
Everytime Shawn, my younger brother, and I go down to the beach, we bring a trash bag with us to first do our part to clean up the trash that is laying all over the place. Do we make a dent? I don’t know. But it sure shows us that people just don’t care.
And now we have the bitcoin mining operations that use up tons of resources all for the minisquel chance of getting that next bitcoin block.
Think about ALL of the other computers in the world that are hooked up the bitcoin mining network, all trying to solve the next equation in the block, and only one of them will win. With the sheer number of rigs set up to mine bitcoin, and the current difficulty level, the chances of a solo miner with one rig hitting the next block is probably worse today than hitting all six numbers in Powerball. But people still do win Powerball from time to time. But don’t expect your rig to capture the next block tomorrow, or even a month from now.
Is it still worth it to set up a solo rig? It depends on how much you want to invest. Think about $10K for the rig itself, and then how much your power bill is going to be. It’s not going to be nearly the same, but I’d be more apt to tell a friend who was thinking about joining to just buy the bitcoin instead, and then sell it when the price gets to where they are comfortable.
Think of it this way: If you put $10,000 into bitcoin today you would buy .2644 BTC. Then let’s say that bitcoin rises to $50,000 again in the next few weeks or a month. If you sold at that point you would earn about $12,000 in Capital Gains. That’s a pretty fair number for the average Joe, isn’t it?
Then if you do what I did, which is the old “Buy-Low/Sell-High” game, you can buy more bitcoin and each round you gain more. Sounds a lot easier, doesn’t it? But as I always tell people: I am NOT a financial advisor, and always consult one before investing in anything to be sure it’s right for you and you can handle how much you want to invest. NEVER invest more than you can afford to lose.
A Little Bit of This and That 