Top cheapest Arab countries for Bitcoin mining, and more

1. Top cheapest Arab countries for Bitcoin mining

In the dynamic world of Bitcoin mining, electricity prices are crucial in deciding profitability.  Bitcoin mining has developed from a straightforward task powered by desktop PCs to a sophisticated operation requiring specialized technology. The energy needed for mining increased in tandem with the rise in Bitcoin’s popularity. Today, a single Bitcoin requires a significant amount of electricity to mine, making the price of electricity a key component in deciding profitability. This article covers the most economically advantageous Arab nations for Bitcoin mining operations as well as the electricity usage related to the activity.

The Electricity Demand for Mining Bitcoin

A single Bitcoin mining requires a lot of energy. To mine only one Bitcoin, a solo miner needs about 266,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. This amounts to nearly seven years of nonstop mining at a monthly energy consumption of 143 kWh. In order to put this into perspective, in the year 2021, the monthly electricity consumption for Bitcoin mining will be around one-sixth of that of a typical American family.

Other than the price of electricity, a number of factors, such as the hash rate of mining hardware and the mining difficulty of the network, have a considerable impact on the profitability of Bitcoin mining. This article focuses on examining household electricity expenses globally, even though some miners decide to join mining pools to increase their chances of success. It offers useful perspectives for lone miners operating inside a decentralized network and offers insights into how these expenses are distributed across various areas.

Evolution of Bitcoin Mining and Electricity Usage

In its early days, Bitcoin mining was very simple, used little electricity, and was done primarily using desktop PCs. However, as Bitcoin gained traction and public interest grew dramatically, the procedure grew more intricate. Specialized hardware, especially application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), became the norm. Unfortunately, the use of these sophisticated tools increased electricity use dramatically, which distanced mining from its prior open accessibility.

The Cost of Mining 1 Bitcoin: Household Electricity Costs

For one BTC, the typical residential electricity bill is $46,291.24. Compared to the average daily price of one BTC in July 2023, which was $30,090.18, this price is 35% higher. The cost of home energy varies significantly by region, with Europe having the highest average cost at about $85,767.84.

The lowest average cost for lone miners is found in Asia, at $20,635.62. The only region where the average cost of household power makes mining BTC alone profitable is this one. The cost of electricity varies significantly across Asia, though. For instance, energy costs only $266.20 in Lebanon, compared to $64,111.02 in Japan, which is a significantly higher price.

2. It’s Now Harder Than Ever to Mine Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has hit a new all-time high despite the digital asset’s less-than-stellar price performance of late.

Mining difficulty refers to how competitive it is to mine Bitcoin (BTC). The difficulty rises as more mining units get deployed, and thus suggests that the activity continues to be a profitable and popular enterprise.

According to data from CoinWarz, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is 55.62 trillion hashes. The network’s last notable peak was 53.9 trillion hashes on July 17 this year.

“The deployment is an arm’s race. Everyone is putting as much as possible online before the halving. You can see this with Hut8, Canaan, and Riot,” co-founder of mining firm LSJ Ops Scott Norris told Decrypt. “We’re also seeing Antpool and other Chinese firms growing hash rate at a pace we haven’t seen in over a year. Whatsminer has shipped their latest generation machines already and their hash abilities are growing substantially.”

Despite the milestone, markets currently tell a different story.

Investor sentiment towards Bitcoin turned bearish last week after Chinese property giant Evergrande filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in a Manhattan court, pushing some investors to dump their more speculative assets.

Bitcoin mining stats on the up

Certain events can significantly pull down the metric—such as China’s 2021 crackdown against crypto miners, or a cold snap in North America last winter that caused some operational problems to the grid, prompting some big miners to either shut down or curtail power.

However, when those machines relocate or come back online, the data usually shows a marked upward adjustment.

Broadly speaking, mining difficulty is constantly climbing year-on-year. That’s because every year more machines are deployed than shut down.

Another metric that climbed recently–and that is also always climbing every year–is hash rate. Hash rate measures the computing power of the Bitcoin network.

Bitcoin mining rigs use their power to break codes to validate logs of transactions on the network—called “blocks”—which are then added to Bitcoin’s immutable distributed ledger system. Miners are rewarded for this work with Bitcoin. 

Each attempt at cracking the encryption generates a code called a “hash.” The first miner to transmit the valid hash for their candidate block gets the reward and gets added to the blockchain. Miners are thus incentivized to work quickly.

The higher the hash rate is, the more attempts (or hashes) Bitcoin miners can make within a second to break the code—a clear indicator of the network’s computational power.

3. The next evolution of WhatsMiner

In the furnace of competition and industrial capitalism, machinery evolves fast! Giants clash and only the best balance of efficiency and robustness survive. But survival is not the mere objective. In the world of Bitcoin mining, it’s about excellence, the pursuit of an ideal—the purest manifestation of ingenuity and technical prowess. In Bitcoin, shrewdness and value creation are rewarded with victory!

Bitmain‘s Antminer series has long stood as a monument to efficiency. A marvel of engineering, the S19 XP (air and hydro models) delivered unparalleled hash rates while sipping electricity; a celebration of man’s ability to bend nature to his will. It is a formidable machine, a tribute to the very ethos of pure capitalism’s influence on the most specialized aspect of the Bitcoin economy: hashing. And every year, Bitmain holds the flag for the most efficient ASIC in the bitcoin economy, but as we intend to show, efficiency is not the only metric that matters!

Enter MicroBT’s flagship WhatsMiner

A machine is not merely satisfied with competing with the Antminer but destined to transcend it. The M53S++ delivers a maximum hash rate of 320 terahash per second (TH/s), dwarfing the Antminer’s 257 TH/s. The numbers are stark, but the true artistry lies in its construction, with a modular form factor designed to fit in a standard server rack and variants that fill the needs of air-cooled and oil-cooled systems as well!

More than an efficient machine, the WhatsMiner stands as an edifice to reliability.

Sure, the M53s class machines are significantly more efficient than the flagship machines of 18 months ago, but so is every ASIC rig on the market today, and the Antminer still wins in the pure arithmetic of energy consumption! For now, WhatsMiner triumphs in total raw power and reliable uptime. It’s a robust beast, carefully crafted, built to endure, and designed to perform, and this really matters!

In the world of Bitcoin mining, ROI is not a simple ledger of costs and expenses. It’s a multifaceted equation where the quality of engineering, the resilience of design, and the artistry of execution all play their roles. In short, uptime matters because your rig is worth ZERO if it isn’t hashing! Here, WhatsMiner shines: a beacon of engineering excellence.

“The Antminers are good, but they have traditionally had a 1-3% DOA rate when they show up to be installed. That means up to 3 out of every hundred machines go out for repair for weeks just upon arrival, and that hits the ROI a lot harder than people might think. That doesn’t even factor in how many repairs an Antminer might require over its 12-month warranty period and beyond.”

“With Whatsminers, I can’t even remember the last time we sent one out for repair.” – Kevin “SuperGoose” Hendrik, ASIC Ops at GorillaPool.

By the numbers

MicroBT’s vision doesn’t stop with mere efficiency but is also actively researching renewable power generation, distribution, and recycling processes as the hashing industry grows. The idea of compatibility with solar energy and hydro cooling is not a concession to trends but a step towards an ideal, a synthesis of man and nature that elevates both. To that end, Whatsminers are built with modular cabinets in mind that cool the rigs with water which can then be recirculated into systems that utilize hot water in commerce! Think greenhouses or hospitals: they both pay for hot water, but by utilizing one of these systems, they could be mining on-site and using water that was heated as a byproduct of the pursuit of bitcoins.

So the benefit becomes exponential at scale. In the race of giants, numbers tell only part of the story. It’s the relentless drive for excellence, the uncompromising quest for quality, and the sheer love of the game that forge legends.

In the world of Bitcoin mining, WhatsMiner is not just a contender. Instead, they are pushing the envelope in ways that are absolutely bananas! I will continue to test out next-generation gear and report on both hardware and infrastructure for the bitcoin economy.