Early bitcoin mining was a home-computer hobby. In 2009, people could run software on ordinary machines and earn coins for processing transactions. That changed when specialized rigs arrived. Hobbyists were pushed out, and mining became a business of large data farms, custom cooling, and power deals.
Small miners get new options
Companies are now selling access to professional setups. GoMining, KuMining, and Sazmining offer ways to earn bitcoin without buying and running expensive machines at home. The pitch is simple: share in the same infrastructure used by industrial operators. The economics are still tight. Ivo Georgiev, founder and CEO of crypto wallet company Ambire, mined bitcoin in 2011 while in high school. He said it remains hard for an individual to make money, and he does not expect that to get easier.
AI shift changes the math, maybe
Large miners are moving toward AI data centers. They rent computing power to technology firms instead of relying only on bitcoin rewards. Some observers speculate that if big miners leave the network, the remaining participants could earn more. That depends on what happens to the equipment. If machines are sold to another mining operator, they keep competing for the same block rewards. GoMining CEO Mark Zalan said equipment sold to another operator may continue competing for the same rewards.
Hashrate, the total computing power on the network, was recently around 1.09 zetahash per second. That is little changed from about 1.13 ZH/s a year earlier, according to Hashrate Index. It has been rising for two months.
Costs and the next halving
Mining is still competitive. In about 18 months, the bitcoin reward for each block will be cut by 50%. That will squeeze margins. Nick Perchey, Sazmining’s director of revenue, said it may still be cheaper to acquire coins through mining than to buy them at current prices.
Earlier this month, Sazmining began selling mining boards developed by Jack Dorsey’s Block. Each board costs $4,187. Electricity and maintenance add $153 a month, plus a 15% management fee on mined bitcoin. The company has received nearly 50 orders, and about half came from first-time miners.
For individuals, the door is open a little wider. It is not 2009 again. Profit is possible, perhaps, but the edge remains with operators who control power, hardware, and scale.
