Bitcoin mining operations have become cheaper these days, as the value of the cryptocurrency has been steadily declining. On Amazon.com, bitcoin mining rigs can be bought for less than $1000 while some startup companies claim that you can be able to run a bitcoin miner for lower electricity costs.
Smaller ASIC bitcoin mining machines of approximately 1000-1115 GH/s cost roughly $500-700 per unit, reflecting how smaller-scale miners can be able to have their own technologies. The Bitmain AntMiner S5 claims to be the most power-efficient Bitcoin miner currently on the market and it also comes with a simple and straightforward setup process.
Bitcoin Mining Costs
Meanwhile miner hosting startup HashPlex highlighted the increased energy costs that come with bitcoin mining operations, as these machines have to be plugged in and running constantly in order to generate cyrptocurrencies. This has led some to outsource their bitcoin mining activities, with third-party firms taking a cut out of the profits generated.
HashPlex doesn’t own any hardware but it runs a data center that’s near a cheap source of power, thereby lowering the costs associated for outsourced bitcoin mining. The company takes a smaller cut compared to what an average American pays for electricity of1.88¢ per kilowatt-hour.
According to the company, in exchange for $99 per kilowatt-month (less than 14¢ per kilowatt-hour), HashPlex does all the work of operating the hardware while you sit back and watch the bitcoins flow into your digital wallet. Customers can mine other altcoins and digital currencies through this system as well.
“Traditional data centers are not really set up to do that in the scale you need to do it for Bitcoin mining. Traditional data centers are targeted toward less power-intensive machines,” explains HashPlex VP of Engineering George Schnurle.
HashPlex has been taking orders since April last year and is enjoying a larger base of bitcoin miners in the past months.In addition to providing space and power, HashPlex uses management software that monitors miners and automatically reboots them in case of failure.