It is said that during the golden fever there were not those who enriched, gold scientists, but those who sold their selections. Minage machine manufacturers today have the role of Pickax retailers towards minor bitcoin minors. They offer increasingly efficient equipment for the ultra – -money market estimated at several billion dollars. Armament race, which still has unknown consequences of the environment.
If you want to undermine bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies, you need to use powerful graphics cards. These machines allow you to calculate the necessary cryptocurrency, specialized activity, but in full development. According to a study search, the global market with mining was $ 1.92 billion in $ 2022. By 2032 it should weigh nearly $ 7 billion.
Always more powerful (and more expensive) machines)
There was a time when dozens of bitcoins could be undermined a day with an old computer. But today it is no longer profitable for the individual to try Bitcoin mining: you have to contact specialized equipment. In fact, the computing power of the required network is that the mining of bitcoins has never been so difficult.
Companies are now specializing in tailor -made equipment and sale for this activity. These companies seem to have found the right vein by offering a high-tech offer: the most effective machines are bought for several thousand dollars, up to 8,000 euros. This market is considered promising investors. Auradine, manufacturer of Asics (graphics card specializing in mining, editor’s note), received $ 80 million at the beginning of 2024.
Centralization that asks
Most minors now decide to invest in industrial “farms”. Instead of cattle, it is the strength of mining machines that are used in hangars devoted to bitcoin extraction. This activity requires a massive flow of electricity. That is why the industry is cheap before priority in the regions of the world where electricity is cheap.
The work of bitcoins seemed that Satoshi Nakamoto calculated everything. He proposed the system by taking into account this increasing sophistication of the processor performance. In the e -mail addressed in 2010 writes: “Since the network is evolving after a certain moment, it will be increasingly entrusted to professionals with servers with specialized equipment.” In order to meet this challenge and guarantee the sustainability of the network, the creator of bitcoins created a special mechanism. Every 2 weeks, the difficulty of bitcoin mining adapts to maintain constant production speed: about 10 minutes. Otherwise, the device would only make a network bite these days.
The industry intermittent in half
Every four years, underage bitcoins must be redesigned. The price of mining is actually divided by two in each half. Every time the machines see how their price becomes very volatile, and specialized traders speculate about this lucrative market.
During the bear market, the price of machines fell by 80 %: everyone sold their equipment because the price of bitcoins was no longer enough. Only the best prepared minors survived (and generally the largest). When completing competitors from bankruptcy. In the Bitcoin community, half is often praised as a beneficial competitive process for the ecosystem because only the “best” minors remain.
Others buy all available supplies to create a shortage, suppress competition or sell their machines with gold prices. In 2023, the company mentioned on Bourse Riot invested $ 290 million to obtain $ 66,560 latest machines.
The concentration that raises the question of the centralization of the bitcoin network should be exactly … decentralized. The same way of the 19th century saw the craft golden shifting Far West To be gradually replaced by industrial gold mines. In addition to the revolution for bitcoins in just ten years.
Wasting unnecessary energy?
While bitcoins were supposed to be a simple decentralized digital currency, the project captivated unexpected dimensions. Mining is an increasingly important collateral effect, the necessary condition for feeding the expanding bitcoin network.
Is such an industry really desirable? Or is it an unnecessary waste with regard to the social usefulness of bitcoins? Sathi Nakamoto again expected the growth of mining in a post, which is still available on the Bitcointalk Forum. For him, despite pollution and spent energy, the usefulness of Bitcoins has stored:
” Extraction of gold is a waste, but this waste is much lower than the usefulness of having gold as a means of exchange. I think it will be the same for bitcoins. The usefulness of exchanges allowed by bitcoin far exceeds the cost of used electricity. The absence of bitcoin would therefore be clean waste ».
However, this vision ignores the angles of this 2.0 extraction, especially the issue of production and recycling of electronic components. Because for the production of these machines, metal mines are very real. The opposite of what journalist Célia Izoard advocates for whom “Climate Movement must become an anti-extractivist”In his book ” Mining of rush in the 21st century ».
Although minors say Bitcoin would make it easier to accept renewable energies, the question of recycling of outdated machines remains undamaged in this industry. Many developing countries welcome minor bitcoins where waste processing standards are sometimes respected. There are very few data on this topic. And that’s worried.