Is solo ASIC mining profitable?

Today, digital coin mining has become more profitable and accessible to anyone. But mining difficulty grows with its popularity. Solo mining isn’t always a profitable and straightforward process for miners. It’s one of the reasons to choose a pool as a mining method to make profits. However, in a pool you have to share the reward with all miners. In this case, solo mining with ASIC is the best option if you’re eager to get the entire reward — but get ready to spend before you earn.

All Bitcoin Mining Methods

Bitcoin mining is a complex process. It requires a lot of effort and investment. Bitcoin is a decentralized coin that makes mining this cryptocurrency accessible to anyone today. Keep in mind that in the very beginning, you might face some difficulties as a miner since you have to invest a lot at the first stage.

If you’re looking to become a Bitcoin miner, you need to learn more about the most popular mining methods like:

• Solo mining
• Mining pools
• Cloud mining

You should examine each method in more detail, as this will prevent you from wasting your time on research in the future.

Solo mining

There is a clue about how this mining method works — the name says it all. In other words, the key point of it is that you have to face cryptographic challenges on your own. You receive tasks from the network in order to find a valid block. It’s worth noting that you can only use the computing power of your own hardware to solve a cryptographic puzzle.

This makes the miner’s task even harder to complete. Many users choose solo mining since the entire reward for finding a valid block goes to them and isn’t split with other miners. Of course, this is promising, but it has some challenges. It takes much longer to find a block independently. Subsequently, getting rewarded in solo mining is not an easy task.

Today, solo mining has become more popular, even though the process of finding blocks as an individual miner requires quite a serious investment. This Bitcoin mining method gives you the ultimate opportunity to get an impressive reward. This attracts many newcomers to the crypto world and makes the solo mining Google search more viral.

Mining pools

This method implies that a group of miners work together, contributing their computing power and resources to increase the chances of finding a block and making profits. A mining pool provides ideal conditions for successful Bitcoin mining. However, there are some disadvantages to this method. The mining reward is usually split among all miners and the pool takes a fee. Try the EMCD Mining Pool , one of the top 10 largest Bitcoin mining pools — the fee is just 1.5%.

Cloud mining

This is a service that gives you an opportunity to rent computing power from remote data centers to mine without buying or setting up expensive mining hardware. It’s worth mentioning that the equipment may be located on another continent. In other words, rented computing power helps you make a profit without huge investments.

Here are the types of Bitcoin cloud mining:

• A group of investors funds a mining team
• Individuals rent remote servers with high computing power to mine BTC

How to Start Solo Bitcoin Mining with ASICs?

If you already studied all the specifics of the popular mining methods, you should start looking for profitable hardware. Before setting up your ASICs for solo mining, you need to take the following steps:

1. Thoroughly searching for the Bitcoin mining hardware

In 2009, Bitcoin marked the beginning of the cryptocurrency era with its appearance rousing users’ enthusiasm. During the initial stages, CPU computing power was suitable for profitable mining.

As time passed, Bitcoin mining became more viable, and the number of newcomers grew fast. This caused unprecedented competition and resulted in miners finding more high-performance equipment and using GPUs in BTC mining.

The development of cryptocurrency mining led to the creation of more powerful ASIC miners. This made it popular to mine Bitcoin solo with ASICs.

Before figuring out whether it’s efficient to use ASIC for mining and whether the ROI period will be quick, you should study the variety of these devices. Here are the most popular ASICs:

1. Antminer
2. Ebit
3. Avalon
4. Whatsminer

2. Setting up a Bitcoin wallet

The first thing you need to do to mine solo with ASIC is setting up a crypto wallet for getting rewards. You can look through several options: paper, hardware, and software wallets. Also, it’s worth paying special attention to the EMCD wallet , which is always at your fingerprint.

Setting up Bitcoin Solo Mining

After buying suitable mining hardware, your next step is setting up your ASIC for solo Bitcoin mining.

The first thing you need to do before setting up your equipment is provide the necessary conditions for its functioning. It’s crucial to make sure that the room is well-ventilated and relatively cool. Otherwise, you’ll face problems with proper operations — your hardware will overheat more easily.

Here’s a detailed guide on how to set up Bitcoin solo mining on a Windows system:

• Install the Cgminer program
• Find the %appdata%\Bitcoin folder

  For example, as in Windows 7 C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin

• Create a text file where you need to write the following lines: server=1 rpcuser=user rpcpassword=pass (you need to make up your username and password)
• Change the name of the file to bitcoin.conf
• Set up the Cgminer program for BTC mining
• Find the folder of this program and create a text file where write the following: cgminer -u https://name:[email protected]:8332/ -k phatk DEVICE=0 VECTORS WORKSIZE=128 (write the username and password are taken from the previously created bitcoin.conf file)
• Change the file name to runsolo.bat
• Open the renamed file

To figure out how to set up Bitcoin solo mining on your ASIC, take the following steps:

• Go to the chosen ASIC settings
• Enter the address stated above, as well as username and password

Bitcoin Solo Mining Profitability

If you’re wondering how much you can make solo mining Bitcoin with your ASIC, you need to make some quick calculations. This is straightforward and doesn’t require too much work.

For example, the ASIC Bitmain Antminer S19 95T is ranked among the top devices for Bitcoin solo mining. It’s quite expensive, starting at $6,495.

Look through the Bitmain Antminer S19 95 T's amazing features, setting it apart from other similar devices:

• Power consumption – 3250 Вт
• Hashrate – 95 TH/s

If you’re interested in this ASIC model profitability, you need to calculate the share of ASIC Bitmain Antminer S19 95T in the total Bitcoin hashing power. Considering the current Bitcoin hashrate (245 780 000 TH/s), the share of this ASIC is 1/(2,587,157) (95/245,780,000). This calculation helps you find out how long it will take you to solve a cryptographic puzzle using this device. So, the probability of finding a valid Bitcoin block will be 0.00038%. In other words, you will find one in 2.5 million blocks.

These calculations show that a solo miner needs a lot of time to find one valid block and make a profit. Today, a miner’s reward before halving is 3.125 BTC. The good news is that the previous halving just happened in April 2024, so this reward will stay the same for a while.

However, it’s equally important to calculate both the cost of electricity and the time it takes to find a valid block. For example, the ASIC Bitmain Antminer S19 95T needs 3250 watts. So, the electricity price is $0.06/kW. Accordingly, this device needs $4.68 per day or $1,700 per year to function. As a result, before figuring out how to start Bitcoin solo mining and setting up your hardware properly, it’s better to weigh all the pros and cons of using this ASIC.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Solo Mining

It’s hard to say for sure whether solo mining with your ASIC will be profitable or not without knowing all the details. You need to study all the specifics of your device. It’s better to delve into this field and look through the pros and cons of using ASICs:

F.A.Q.

What is the best for mining: ASIC or video cards?

The cost of using graphics cards for mining is more affordable than using ASICs. However, ASICs have higher computing power, which will help you find a valid block faster. In addition, if you’re going to mine a specific cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and others, it’s more profitable to use ASICs.

Why should I choose solo mining?

Solo mining allows you to mine independently and to receive the entire reward for finding a valid block without any commissions.

What is the best way to mine cryptocurrency: solo or in a pool?

It depends on your intentions since these methods are completely different. Solo mining is the best option if you’re eager to mine independently without any commissions, but demands serious investments to give you a good ROI. If you want to avoid taking risks and want a stable income, then a mining pool is a good way to start.

How much to invest to start solo mining?

It’s hard to predict the specific amount you need to invest to start since it depends on your mining goals and a chosen device model.