Today is going to be a big one as we will be discussing the Best of Bitcoin Miners. This subject has grown and expanded quite a bit since the early days of Bitcoin mining.
I remember mining Bitcoins and Litecoins when cryptocurrency was just begging to gather attention using my 2 years out of date graphics card.
Even though it was an older card it was still pumping out enough hashes that I was generating coins at a steady rate. In the time since then, Bitcoin miners have evolved into powerhouse monsters that dwarf anything my poor old GPU could muster up.
We’re going to be taking a look at some of the most powerful and profitable miners on the market and help you decide if it is the right direction for you to go.
Basic Terminology And Concepts
For those who are unaware of what mining Bitcoin looks like I will quickly run through the basics and then jump into the hardware, if you know your way around the terminology feel free to skip ahead to the details.
Bitcoin is a decentralized alternative to the banking system, understanding this will be important later on. This means that the system can operate and transfer funds from one account to another without a central authority allowing it to do so.
In the case of a centralized system, transferring money means you have to go to the central authority, in this case, the bank, and tell them you want to remove money from your account and transfer it to another account.
In this scenario, the Bank is the central authority that holds all the power and the only one capable of altering the ledger since they are the only ones with access to everybody’s balances.
As is often the case this power often brings with it a lot of negligence and corruption. Bitcoin is the solution to removing a central authority from keeping too much power over everybody in the system.
How Does Bitcoin Solve The Need For A Central Authority?
Bitcoin solves this issue in an interesting way that allows anybody who is willing and capable to try and write the next block of the blockchain.
This is done by guessing a random number to an equation generated by the Bitcoin protocol. This is not as simple as it sounds, the “guessing” is all done by your computer, and the more powerful your system, the more guesses per second your computer can try.
The more guesses you can take per second the more likely you are to be the first one to guess it correctly. Getting the correct answer to the system-generated equations means you earn Bitcoin and get the write the next page of transactions on the Blockchain.
The amount of Bitcoin earned for solving the equation is determined by the halving rate. The halving rate is what dictates the speed at which new Bitcoins are introduced into circulation.
In 2009, at the launch of Bitcoin, miners were able to earn 50 Bitcoins as a reward for solving the system-generated equation.
After the first halving, the reward was reduced by 50% to 25 BTC and the 2nd halving by another 50% to 12.5 BTC. Currently, the reward for solving an equation is 6.25 BTC per block.
A new halving occurs every time 210,000 blocks are mined, which coincidentally happens almost every 4 years. This means it took 4 years to mine 50% of Bitcoins but will take another 120 years to mine the remaining 50%.
In this way, Bitcoin controls the value of itself using supply and demand. The value of Bitcoin will rise every time a halving occurs due to the greater difficulty in releasing more Bitcoins into the market.
Coincidence or not, every time a halving has occurred, Bitcoin has experienced a massive Bull run leading to massive gains in value.
Keep in mind that halving is just one factor in determining the value of Bitcoin. Other factors such as institutional and individual adoption rates as well as new and exciting innovations in crypto.
Mining Bitcoin
As I mentioned earlier, once your Bitcoin miner has guessed the correct solution to the mathematical equation the system will then take all the pending transactions to be written to the block.
Your system compiling this block in the blockchain is you performing the role of the Central Authority.
You are now the big shot banker for Bitcoin for a brief moment of glory.
Once the block is posted to the chain, you receive your Bitcoin payment as a reward for the time and energy required to solve the solution plus and transaction fees associated with the transactions posted on the block.
Once your block is compiled the block is sent across the Bitcoin Network along with the solution to the equation so that all the other computers on the system can validate it.
Every computer that validates your new block updates its own ledgers to reflect the latest one compiled by your system.
This process repeats every time a solution is found to the next mathematical equation generated by the Bitcoin protocol allowing a new user to write the next block in the chain.
This means that those with more and superior equipment will succeed more often. However, due to the laws of statistical probability, it is highly unlikely the same user will succeed twice in a row.
That being said, better, more up to date and specialized equipment can provide a significant boost to profit generation and the technology to do so is widely being hoarded by “bitcoin mining farmers”.
Self-Adjusting Mining Difficulty
The inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto came up with a way to increase or decrease the difficulty of guessing the correct answer based on the amount of mining power (hashes) available.
The more mining power there is available the more difficult it will be to guess the correct answer and vice versa.
Adjusting the mining difficulty is a way to keep the inflation of Bitcoin in check and ensure a steady flow of fresh Bitcoin into circulation. The mining difficulty is set so that on average the acquiring the solution to the equation will take approximately 10 minutes.
Since this is a guessing game, it is possible to have a block added, minute after minute however the average time hovers around 10 minutes per block.
As a frame of reference, the current total hash rate for Bitcoin alone is at an astonishing 160 Exahashes per second. 160,000,000,000,000,000,000 hashes per second, that’s such a large number that it is starting to become difficult to comprehend.
Mining Farms
The allure of generating Bitcoin rewards has attracted the most efficient and resourceful individuals.
Bitcoin mining farms popping up in warehouses that are hoarding entire supplies of high tech hardware and consuming an obscene amount of power from the neighborhood grid are becoming a widely debated topic.
These farms often have thousands upon thousands of Bitcoin Mining rigs working 24/7 to generate as many solutions to the equations as possible.
These mining farms now offer to sell you hashes or in other words “the effort or energy” required to mine Bitcoin without the hardware requirements, but more on that later.
Best Of Hardware
As is expected with any system that can generate money, Bitcoin mining created an arms race for the best of the best in mining equipment. This isn’t too unlike the gold rush of the 1850s, sprouting up mining towns and new businesses.
The new industry has quickly evolved from CPU and GPU mining of old and now dedicated equipment that can outpace the most advanced tech only a few years back. Let’s take a look at the most powerful and profitable hardware you can use to mine Bitcoins.
I quickly want to point out that there are various different hardware solutions available for various mining methods but today we are looking at Bitcoin mining which specifically uses ASIC mining. Just one of these miners is capable of outpacing 700 Graphics cards in Hashes per second for the Bitcoin algorithm.
Antminer S19
The newest line of miners from the veteran manufacturer are the S19s. The S19 is equipped with a new-gen custom-built chip from Bitmain. Achieving a power efficiency as low as 23J per terahash, the S19 is a leader in power efficiency and hash production.
Antmain miners comprise the bulk of mining equipment being used right now, which speaks for their reliability and consistency. The S19 is the new flagship for Antminer and getting your hands on a few of these is a great addition to any mining operation.
Specifications
Antminer S19 Pro
The upgraded version of the Flagship S19, this miner represents the pinnacle of current Bitcoin ASIC mining technology.
The premium version of the S19 offers a slightly higher hash rate at 110 TH/s at a 34J per Terahash average efficiency and is capable of lower efficiency when using the lower power settings.
The leader in Bitcoin ASIC mining has produced another monster of a miner and is the best choice for use in any scale mining operation.
Specifications
WhatsMiner M30S+
The M30+ is the primary competition to the Antminer S19 when it comes to hash rate and power efficiency. At an efficiency rating of 34J per terahash the M30+ offers a lot of competition to the S19s.
With the emergence of the M30 miners, the market now has some stiff competition and Antminer now longer dominates most of the mining hardware market.
Healthy competition is the key to innovation and when one company has the lead for too long then they get dull, boring, and lose innovation.
WhatsMiner taking part of the market away from Antminer with the M30+ series miners is a great thing for the industry and will only lead to greater advancements in ASIC mining technology. This card is a fantastic option for any mining operation.
Specifications
WhatsMiner M30S++
This is the most state-of-the-art, flagship ASIC miner manufactured by MicroBT. The miner boasts an incredible 112 TH/s at a power efficiency of 31 joules per terahash.
This miner is one of the first miners capable of pushing the Bitcoin mining industry into the “3x era” of power efficiency.
This miner is incredibly expensive and incredibly sold out at most vendors. This is one of the most highly recommended and efficient Bitcoin miners available for any serious mining operation.
Specifications
Avalon Miner 1246
A newer entry into the Bitcoin mining market, the Avalon Miner 1246 became more widely popular when the big names started running out of stock.
With an impressive hash rate of 90 TH/s at a 38J per Terahash efficiency, the Avalon 1246 offers strong competition to the big players in the game.
Offering a very refined-looking machine Avalon has placed themselves among the top of the Bitcoin mining manufacturers with this entry into the market.
The gold rush to acquire the best of the best hardware has only exposed this gem of a mining product and created even more competition for creating the best and most efficient mining hardware.
The Avalon Miner is on par with the S19 and M30+ and is more likely to still be found in stock. This is a great alternative choice for any mining operation looking to acquire more hashes but cannot find enough quantities of Antminers or M30s.
Specifications
The most important specs when checking out Bitcoin mining equipment boil down to just 3 things; Power Consumption, Hash Rate, and Energy Efficiency.
Power Consumption
If you are lucky enough to not have to pay for electricity then this section does not really apply to you however, it is still a good frame of reference for comparing miners.
Bitcoin mining uses up a lot of energy, the larger the hash rate typically the larger the power consumption.
This is something you will have to consider when buying a Bitcoin miner as power consumption is a maintenance cost that usually cannot be overlooked.
The lower the power consumption the better it will be for your electricity bill but that is usually followed by lower hash rates.
Hash Rate
The most important spec, the Hash Rate capability of the miner is the most popular and sought-after question.
The Hash Rate will determine how many chances per second you get to guess the correct answer to the Bitcoin equations.
The more hash rate you can produce the better your odds are of guessing the correct answer and writing the next block of Bitcoin blockchain.
Efficiency
A high hash rate is great and low power consumption is also amazing but a balance has to be struck between the two in order to achieve an efficient system. Nobody want’s to be paying for a massive electricity bill before any significant coins have been mined.
This figure is a measure of your energy consumption divided by your hash rate generation. A more efficient miner will require less energy to mine Bitcoin. Using this method is a good way to compare miners against one another.
Final Thoughts
Overall, any of the miners on our list represent the best of the best when it comes to Bitcoin miners.
There is such an enormous demand and terrible short supply of miners that they have gone up several times in price.
The miners that used to cost $3.5k USD now cost upwards of $12K! The miners are priced so that any buyers will be able to break even after about a year’s worth of mining.
This figure used to be a lot lower at about a 3-month break-even cost. I suppose all this can say is that the system works and the miners are efficient and profitable enough to hoard the capabilities of these miners.
That being said, at the rate crypto is escalating, a break-even period of 1 year still sounds reasonable.
If I found myself interested in mining Bitcoin once more I would be on the lookout for one or more of these miners and snatch one up whenever they become available.
The short supply right now is unbelievable and getting any chance to buy one is a golden opportunity. Good luck and happy hunting miners!
