Dec 20, 2020
A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Mining Bitcoin in Western Massachusetts that accounts for electricity consumption, hash rate power concentration in a mining pool, and capital costs as a T-5 industrial consumer.
Process
Decided to test three different concentrations of hashing rates (computing power) to determine which concentration would be most profitable. Calculated the total cost to run a mining unit for a year and adjusted the calculation to match the desired concentration. The benefits were calculated using a projection of possible future Bitcoin prices along with the success rate of the popular mining pool, Slushpool to obtain an estimated number of Bitcoin mined per year for three concentrations. This was used in tandem with two different projection prices for Bitcoin to get a grand total of six different scenarios.
Results conclude that Bitcoin mining is in fact PROFITABLE in Western Massachusetts!
Methodology
Electricity consumption: The cost of electricity that a mining rig requires in order to sustain itself for one year. (Using Data Sources 4,5)
Projected exchange price of Bitcoin: Various cryptocurrency experts have valuations that possess a range compiled by Prime XBT, a leading cryptocurrency platform. (Using Data Sources 1)
Capital Costs: The price of purchasing the mining equipment including a payment program using an industrial loan and a discount rate found by a commercial loan platform. (Data Source 6)
Hash rate power concentration in mining pool: The desired percentage of computing power that the firm would possess relative to the mining pool
Fixed and Variable Rates: Extrapolated from the Western Massachusetts Eversource rates showing the energy cost associated with a T-5 industrial consumer. (Using Data Source 4)
T-5 Industrial Consumer: Eversource customer that has an energy demand that is equal to or exceeds 2,500 kW. (Using Data source 4)
Caveats: The price of Bitcoin is extremely volatile and very difficult to predict meaning that our calculations could vary drastically as time progresses. The success rate of Slushpool can also change drastically in the future as the difficulty to mine a block in the blockchain increases over time. Similarly, as technology improves over time, the effectiveness of miners could also decrease in the future.
Data Sources:
- Bitcoin Price Index from 12/30/16–1/6/20, https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price-index
- Energy Prices by Sector and Source from U.S. Energy Information Administration, https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/data/browser/#/?id=3-AEO2019®ion=1-0&cases=ref2019&start=2017&end=2025&f=A&linechart=&map=ref2019-d111618a.4-3-AEO2019.1-0&sid=ref2019-d111618a.23-3-AEO2019.1-0&sourcekey=0
- Consumer Price Index, Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. January 2020. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)., https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet
- Eversource official rates as of 1/7/20, https://www.eversource.com/content/docs/default-source/rates-tariffs/wma-rates.pdf
- Mining Rig Specifications for MicroBT Whatsminer M20S, https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/sesterce-mining/microbt-whatsminer-m20s-sha256-65ths/
- Financed Amount for $75,000+ of machinery equipment, https://www.agdirect.com/rates?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
- Halving chart for bitcoin reward per block since 2009, https://www.bitcoinclock.com/
- Slushpool Statistics for block rewards, https://slushpool.com/stats/?c=btc
