Bitcoin mining becomes unprofitable as BTC price falls to average cost of mining

Re:Bitcoin mining becomes unprofitable as BTC price falls to... by eterm on Sunday June 19, 2022 @05:28AM (#31797721)

I think I worded it badly, I meant that if depreciation is high then you wouldn't want to turn it off because you'd want to mine as much as possible while it was still worth something.

So I meant the depreciation would need to be low enough to make turning them off a worthwhile strategy.

Edit: I see what you mean about sunk costs, I had worded it badly but you were still arguing against my intended meaning.

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Re:Bitcoin mining becomes unprofitable as BTC price falls to... by robocat on Sunday June 19, 2022 @05:43AM (#31797823)

I don’t think I misunderstood. How fast equipment is “depreciating” is entirely irrelevant, unless you are using the term in a manner I am misunderstanding.

Understanding marginal economics is difficult because it is counter-intuitive. I am currently on a personal binge trying to help understand the economic theory because it helps me challenge whether I have understood and whether I can pass that understanding on to others.

Unfortunately marginal economics is poorly explained - the link I referenced was the only one of five I quickly skimmed that seemed to be free of gross errors and had no misleading content.

Edit: latchkey seems pretty froody and made a couple of relevant comments:

* Bitcoin OPEX (marginal cost) estimation of $7k to $9k per Bitcoin: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31797201

* CAPEX vs OPEX: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31796669

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Re:Bitcoin mining becomes unprofitable as BTC price falls to... by formerkrogemp on Sunday June 19, 2022 @07:53AM (#31798458)

Capex is spending on your crap, ie buying it and maintenance. Opex is what you spend to run your crap.

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Re:Bitcoin mining becomes unprofitable as BTC price falls to... by scoopertrooper on Sunday June 19, 2022 @05:55AM (#31797884)

Doesn't really matter. If the price of Bitcoin is below the cost of electricity and labor required to mine it, then it's irrelevant that the card won't be as productive (lose money at a greater rate) in future. You're still losing money either way.

The only valid reason to continue mining would be that you expected that the price of Bitcoin would exceed the mining costs in the future. Then you would stockpile them and take advantage of the reduced hashrate as other market participants exited.

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