Bitcoin miner called $5.68 cost for 50 BTC a loss
A Bitcoin forum post published on Sept. 7, 2010, has resurfaced 16 years later after an early miner described a projected $5.68 electricity bill for mining a 50 BTC block as “a net loser.” The calculation was genuine, but it did not mean that spending $5.68 guaranteed the miner a block. The figure represented an expected electricity cost based on the miner‘s computing power, Bitcoin’s difficulty and the average time needed to find a valid block. The forum participant, using the name TTBit, measured a computer consuming 140 watts while producing about 2,200 kilohashes per second. A mining calculator estimated an average wait of 338.05 hours, or roughly 14 days and two hours. Running a 140-watt machine for that period would consume approximately 47.33 kilowatt-hours. At $0.12 per kilowatt-hour, the electricity bill would be $5.68. The arithmetic in the original post is therefore consistent. “It would cost me 47.327 Kwh to produce a block,” TTBit wrote, before calling the projected expense “a net loser.” An Internet forum user 16 years ago measured their computers electricity use and estimated it would take approximately two weeks to produce a Bitcoin block. With the block mining subsidy then 50 bitcoin, their estimated electricity cost was $5.68, which they









