Bitcoin Miner Exodus: Who Can Still Afford to Mine

The last two weeks have seen between 600 000 and 800 000 bitcoin miners shut down. This mass bitcoin miner exodus can largely be attributed to the price drop, but the hashrate decline on the network is also not to be overlooked.

Mao Shixing, the founder of the F2pool said the company takes into account the total network hashrate decline and the average hash power of older mining machines, which are struggling with making profits.

The data speaks for itself when we look at the computing power of the world’s first and biggest blockchain. 47 million tera hashes/sec (TH/s) on the 10^th of November have dedclined to 41 million 14 days later. That’s a 13% decline in 2 weeks.

Mao believes that miners which have halted operations are probably using outdated models such as Bitmain’s Antminer T9+ or Canaan Creative’s AvalonMiner 741. The miners simply do not have a high enough hash rate and are not profitable.

The mass bitcoin miner exodus is probably larger than predicted

F2pool’s bitcoin hashrate accounts of about 11.5% of the total network and it’s also seen a decline of over 10 percent in the last few weeks. Making exact calculations to the specific numbers of miners which have unplugged is near impossible. Mao said that despite that, the company has seen tens of thousands of them shut down in the last few days alone.

This can most actively be seen with the miners in China. The mass bitcoin miner exodus is apparent and all large companies are in the midst of it. Mao also made a joke post on his Weibo social media account. He posted a picture of a man stuffing outdated computer gear in moving boxes. The photo was captioned “Shut down is not an option, the only option is sell by the kilos.”

The post is referring the many outdated miner models which are not usable anymore. Mao believes people must come to terms with the fact that outdated models are not enough and should look for options to recycle and upgrade.

For the miners in China, Mao believes a number of factors were key to the mass bitcoin miner exodus. The biggest offender was without a doubt the bitcoin cash fork on the 15^th of November. Electricity costs and the rapid race of Chinese manufacturers to upgrade also play a big role. In the winter, Chinese hydropower plants are faced with a dry season. This means electricity prices double and miners will score more losses than gains.

Even though the mining difficulty has decreased by roughly 5%, profits still seem minimal and the current market conditions are simply not pleasant for any investor.

You can also check out:

• Gods Unchained: First Steps Into Blockchain Gaming
• Geocold51: How Easy it is to Executre the 51% Attack
• Roughly $1 Billion Were Stolen by Attacks in 2018 so far
• Crypto Insurance Needs to be Increased Dramatically