I have been a long-term crypto enthusiast. Mining has been a curious process for me and I have long been interested in doing an amateur small-scale mining. In previous posts, I talked about my Innosilicon T2T 30TH 2200 W ASIC miner, which looked like a great addition in early 2019. Being located in Europe, I do not have access to particularly cheap electricity. Nevertheless, the miner seemed profitable and I was happy and monitored its work on a very frequent basis. The device itself proved to be stable and sturdy and I rarely had any action to take.
Well, this did not last very long. By the end of the summer difficulty soared and price action did not really follow, while by the end of the year BTC actually started going down and sideways. The difficulty level in mining did not budge. I still enjoyed monitoring my ASIC device and accumulated BTC for later periods - it did not matter to me whether I pay a little bit of electricity or add a little bit BTC to my portfolio for HODL and trading.
The long-awaited halving arrived - I also hoped to see the price of BTC rise sharply a little before and a little after the event. I would not say that I am not happy with the recovery that took place at least - we are back above $9000/BTC level. As I fully expected and commented - the difficulty level in mining started dropping significantly and we all awaited the price increase. Afterall, my miner was introduced in 2019, should it be outdated so quickly?
I shut it of in April expecting all this to happen. Did it happen:
Mining difficulty is approaching all-time high and price is now almost two-months in a sideways oscillation. With my cost of electricity, the Innosilicon T2T 30TH is hopelessly outdated. I can make the later models barely profitable should I decide to invest in a new ASIC device. I never got the chance to repay my actual investment in the hardware.
I stand no chance to mine anything within anytime soon. BTC is all the way down to position 9 for mining SHA 256 coins.
I am afraid I have to conclude once again that Crypto seems to be changing. It does not seem so decentralized now. Mining is not anymore a side occupation, which could be done for fun and on a small scale by enthusiasts.
I remain with HODL and trying to manage a modest portfolio, however, I grow more and more skeptical regarding the future of Crypto. I fail to see the practical use of crypto yet and it becomes more and more a space for speculation and betting by amateurs and professionals. I am happy it is turning into an asset class on its own and I still argue with people that the deflationary nature of most coins should drive them to appreciation, but I more and more fail to see the "asset" portion in an asset class.
I have monitored sometimes the mining development in SHA 256 coins
September 26th, 2020
March 24th, 2020
I hope the trend reverses and I am proven wrong.
Good luck to all crypto enthusiasts and thank you for reading. Please leave some comments.
