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1. Can individuals still profit from bitcoin mining?
Bitcoin mining for individuals is returning in a new form, but profits remain uncertain. As some of the largest industrial miners redirect resources toward artificial intelligence computing, companies including GoMining, KuMining and Sazmining are marketing access to professional-grade mining to ordinary users, who do not have to run machines at home. As of October 31, the economics still look difficult, with high equipment and operating costs and a halving of the block reward expected in about 18 months.
Mining is the process by which computers compete to validate new batches of transactions on the Bitcoin network, which uses proof of work. The winner of each round earns newly issued bitcoin (BTC) plus fees. The more computing power a participant contributes relative to everyone else, the larger the share of rewards it can expect.
2. How did bitcoin mining change since 2009?
In 2009, when the network launched, people could mine bitcoin on ordinary home computers and collect rewards for processing transactions. Some early participants accumulated thousands of coins before specialized machines pushed hobbyists out of the race.
Over the years the activity turned into an industry run by firms operating thousands of machines in dedicated facilities. Those operations use advanced rigs, custom cooling systems and power contracts negotiated for their needs, advantages an individual cannot easily replicate with a single device in a spare room.
Ivo Georgiev, founder and chief executive of the crypto wallet company Ambire, mined bitcoin in 2011 while still in high school. He said it remains hard for an individual to make money from mining and that it will not get any easier. His view reflects the scale advantage that large operators have built.
3. What are GoMining, KuMining and Sazmining offering?
The three companies sell individuals a way into the same professional setup that large miners use. Rather than buying, hosting and maintaining hardware personally, customers gain exposure to mining output through arrangements that the companies manage. The aim is to give retail users the bitcoin earnings of mining without the practical burden of running equipment.
The pitch arrives at an unusual moment. Several big public miners have been moving into AI computing, renting out their computing capacity to technology companies instead of relying only on mining rewards. In some cases that shift has been accompanied by sales of bitcoin to help pay for it.
Supporters of the individual-mining model argue that if large miners switch away from bitcoin, the network's total computing power might fall and mining could become more profitable for those who remain. The data do not yet show that effect.
4. What is happening to the network's hashrate?
Hashrate, the total computing power directed at the network, was recently about 1.09 zettahashes per second, according to Hashrate Index. That is close to the roughly 1.13 zettahashes per second recorded a year earlier, and it has risen over the past two months. The pivot toward AI has therefore not significantly reduced the network's computing power.
Whether it ever will depends on a simple question: does mining hardware leave the network, or does it merely change hands? Machines that are switched off remove competition, but machines sold to another operator continue to compete for the same rewards.
Mark Zalan, chief executive of GoMining, made that point directly, saying that equipment sold to another mining operator may keep competing for the same rewards. For a small operator hoping for relief from lower competition, this limits the potential benefit.
5. What does the 2028 halving mean for miners?
The block reward is set to be cut by 50% in the next halving, the fifth in Bitcoin's history, which the industry expects in 2028, roughly 18 months from now. Each halving reduces the amount of new bitcoin that miners receive for validating a block, so revenue falls unless the bitcoin price or transaction fees rise to compensate.
After the next halving the reward will drop to 1.5625 BTC per block. That means mining becomes less profitable at constant prices, and any equipment purchased now has a limited window to earn at the higher rate.
Nick Perchey, Sazmining's director of revenue, argued that acquiring bitcoin by mining it can still cost less than buying it on the market at current prices. His claim rests on low electricity costs and on the equipment lasting several years, assumptions that vary among buyers.
6. How much does a Sazmining mining board cost?
Earlier in October, Sazmining, founded in 2018, began selling mining boards developed by Block, the company led by Jack Dorsey. Each board costs $4,187, with electricity and maintenance charged at $153 per month and a management fee of 15% of the bitcoin mined.
Perchey said the company has taken nearly 50 orders for the boards, about half of them from people who had never mined before. Sazmining says it has nearly 500 customers who together own about 4,000 rigs.
The company projects that bitcoin produced by the boards will cost at least 20% less than buying it on an exchange over the equipment's minimum useful life of three years. Perchey said every buyer is told before purchase that returns are not guaranteed.
7. How long would the payback take?
Using Sazmining's estimate of 0.035 BTC produced per board each year and an assumed bitcoin price of $83,000, one board would generate gross revenue of about $2,905 annually. Running costs come to $1,836 a year, and the 15% management fee takes a further share of the gross, leaving roughly $633 a year to recover the $4,187 purchase price.
On those assumptions, payback takes more than six years, longer than the three-year minimum lifetime the company cites, and it presumes no change in price, output or costs. The calculation is an illustration based on the stated figures, not a forecast. The upcoming halving, which cuts the reward to 1.5625 BTC, would lengthen the period further.
Zalan noted that receiving bitcoin regularly and recovering the full investment are different milestones. A buyer may see steady deposits of coins while still being far from breaking even on the cost of equipment.
Jolie Du, chief operating officer of KuMining, gave estimates for an S23 XP Hyd machine. She said it would take 23 months to pay off if electricity were free, and 29 months with power at 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. Those figures exclude other expenses.
Du cautioned that daily mining income alone is not a sufficient measure of profitability. Costs such as hosting, maintenance, fees and eventual equipment obsolescence all affect the final result, and the price of bitcoin remains the biggest variable.
The estimates show how sensitive the outcome is to electricity prices. A buyer with access to very cheap power may recover costs within a couple of years, while one paying more can wait much longer, and the halving falls inside both timelines.
8. Why does scale matter so much in mining?
Proof of work rewards computing effort, so the contest favors whoever can run the most efficient machines at the lowest power cost. Industrial operators buy equipment in bulk, secure electricity under long-term agreements and keep machines cool and maintained by dedicated staff. Each of those factors reduces cost per coin, and the gap compared with a single hobbyist is wide.
Hosting and managed-mining services try to close that gap by pooling customers into a larger operation. The customer keeps a claim on the output while the provider handles the site, the power and the repairs. The trade-off is that fees and monthly charges take a portion of the revenue, as the Sazmining figures show.
Because rewards are shared in proportion to contribution, new machines joining the network dilute the output of existing ones. A buyer who purchases a board today is therefore not only exposed to the bitcoin price, but also to how quickly competitors add computing power over the next several years.
9. What should prospective buyers weigh?
The figures in this story point to several variables that decide the outcome: the purchase price of equipment, the cost of electricity, the management fee, the bitcoin price, the network's total computing power and the date of the halving. A change in any one of them can move the payback period by months or years.
Sazmining's claim that mined coins can cost at least 20% less than exchange purchases over three years and the calculation showing a payback of more than six years are not contradictory. One compares the cost of acquiring coins with the market price, while the other asks when the original outlay is fully recovered. A buyer who values the coins at market price and counts the equipment's remaining worth may reach a different conclusion again.
The company says it informs buyers that returns are not guaranteed. Prospective customers should expect the provider's estimates to rest on assumptions about price and output that can change.
10. What comes next for retail bitcoin mining?
The key date is the halving expected in about 18 months, in 2028, when the reward falls to 1.5625 BTC per block. Before then, readers can follow network hashrate, which has climbed for two months, and the pace at which large miners convert capacity to AI work.
If hashrate stays near current levels, small operators will keep competing against the same industrial fleets. If it falls materially, margins could improve, but the sources in this story say hardware sold on to other operators may simply keep competing. For now, the retail offerings test whether individuals will pay for exposure to an activity that large firms are increasingly leaving behind.