While the price of Bitcoin has plunged over 80% from it’s peak in late 2017, Bitcoin’s total energy usage has dropped less than 40%. Nevertheless, as the map above shows, there are surprisingly still 10 countries where it may still be profitable to mine Bitcoin from home (although with some pretty major caveats).
The 10 countries are:
- Bahrain
- China
- Kuwait
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Surinam
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Ukraine
- Uzbekistan
- Venezuela
Looking at the list, not all the countries have stable electricity systems. Therefore, while in theory you might be able to mine Bitcoins profitably the reality is probably something rather different.
Our Data, Methodology & Sources
We came up with our list in more or less the same way we came up with our Estimated Electricity Cost Of Mining One Bitcoin By Country last year.
At that time it was still theoretically possible to mine Bitcoins profitably in 39 countries.
For electricity consumption we used the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, which currently estimates that it takes 459 KWh of electricity per Bitcoin transaction.
For the number of Bitcoin transactions per block, we used Blockchain.com’s data for 03 January 2019. It showed that there were an average of 1,878 transactions per block and each block currently represents 12.5 Bitcoins.
This means it currently takes 74,519 kWh of electricity to mine one Bitcoin.
For electricity prices per KWH we used Eurostat data for Europe and Wikipedia’s estimates for all other countries.
When there was a range we took the highest price and when there were different prices based on subsidies, we took the price without subsidies. Prices for Europe are inclusive of VAT and all other charges. And all prices are based on the residential prices rather than the commercial or industrial price (which can often be far cheaper). And all prices have been converted to USD based on official exchange rates.
Given how incredibly complex electricity pricing can be, these prices are only estimates, but are likely significantly higher than what professional miners actually pay.
At the current market price of $3,798.55 we can calculate the maximum price per kWh miners should be willing to pay:
= Current Bitcoin market price / [(Electricity consumed per transaction * number of transactions per block) / Bitcoins per block]
This gives us a maximum price of 5.1 cents per kWh.
We also updated our estimated mining cost by country (see below) in the following way:
= (Price per KWh * Electricity consumed per transaction * number of transactions per block) / Bitcoins per Block
This gave us a price in cents so we divided by further 100 to get a price in US dollars.
The map was created using MapChart.net.
| Country | PRICE PER KWH (US CENTS) | COST PER BITCOIN (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Venezuela | 0.1 | $74.52 |
| Mozambique | 1.1 | $819.71 |
| Kuwait | 3.0 | $2,235.57 |
| Myanmar | 3.6 | $2,682.68 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 4.0 | $2,980.76 |
| Bahrain | 4.23 | $3,152.15 |
| China | 4.5 | $3,353.36 |
| Ukraine | 4.66 | $3,472.59 |
| Surinam | 4.84 | $3,606.72 |
| Uzbekistan | 4.95 | $3,688.69 |
Also see:
- Countries That Consume More Or Less Electricity Than Bitcoin Mining In Late 2018
- The 66 Countries Where Annual Average Electricity Consumption Per Person Is Less Than 1 Bitcoin Transaction
- Bitcoin Mining Now Consuming More Electricity Than 159 Countries Including Ireland & Most Countries In Africa
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Hans says
You forgot 2 countries:
1) Iran where electricity is $0.01 per kWh
And
2) Turkmenistan where electricity is free for there citizens.