Remember the days when anyone with a computer could mine Bitcoin ? Yes, a long time ago, before the days of ASIC, some lucky people mined Bitcoins with their computers.
As the difficulty of mining Bitcoin increased, thanks to professional mining groups with specialized computer chips and high processing power, the mining industry has carved out a niche in the ecosystem.
In 2013, when ASICs were introduced, the hashrate had increased so much that GPUs became obsolete within a few months. Small miners with their GPU and previous generations of ASIC could not compete with the high-level ASIC and were abandoned.
Source: BTC Hashrate Chart 2013, coinwarz
The question remains - is there any point in having individuals manage only a few miners of the current generation, if electricity is affordable and if the main objective is to accumulate the centerpiece? Bitcoin lawyer Andreas Antonopoulos, in a recent podcast, noted that it is indeed still possible for individuals to mine Bitcoin at home. He stated,
"Yes, there is a point and it allows you to do two very important things. First, you buy Bitcoin at no cost and without loss of privacy; there are no transaction fees. In addition, it is completely anonymous. The other reason is that acquiring Bitcoin this way gives you a blank Bitcoin . It literally has no history. "
In addition, a late 2019 report from Coinshares revealed that approximately 54% of the total hashrate came from China and that in May 2020, 65% of the mining hashrate came from mining pools located in China.
