Nowadays, cryptocurrency commonplace in society, where almost anyone is able to get involved and increasingly make use of it in everyday life. The thing is, crypto does not just get printed like normal money, in fact, the process could not be more different. As decentralised and encrypted assets, it makes sense that computers are involved in their distribution to buyers, and the way this happens is through crypto mining. If you are not familiar with cryptocurrency, the above information may be a little confusing, however, using it as a platform to build on, these assets do not require banks to authenticate payments or transfers, securing the flows of the currency, lighting up the future of payments big and small, commercial or personal.
Going back to the idea of mining cryptocurrency, our topic for today, it is important to mention that it is probably not going to be for everyone, but it could well be perfect for you.
Basically, it involves using computers to solve mathematical problems the likes of which would not be cracked by mathematicians of any skill level. The responsibilities of a crypto miner go beyond the introduction of new digital assets to the market and include monitoring roles to ensure the integrity of the currency is protected. For those of you who are prospective investors intrigued by this market, we will look into a number of factors today in relation to Latin America, a region where cryptomining is really taking off.
Costs involved
For the purpose of clarity and consistency, we will use Bitcoin as a benchmark for all of the criteria we will discuss today so that the relative data and statistics can be applied to other crypto, so you can decide the viability of an investment like this.
Firstly, Bitcoin mining has traditionally been energy intensive, an automatic indicator of high costs, couple this with the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip required nowadays, costing from within the hundreds of dollars up to the tens of thousands, your final equipment and running bills could end up looking different from anyone else’s. From the get-go we can see this is not a cheap investment, and with prices in the crypto market being as dynamic as they are, there is always wriggle room for change. Though, this is where Latin America is standing out from the crowd, as the energy prices lend themselves to BTC mining.
One example from the region is Venezuela where prices are US$0.025/kwh and have a 90% uptime, making constant mining at a relatively low rate possible. It has been reported that currently to mine one BTC it could cost between US$11,000 and US$19,000 which is a lot, though let’s not forget the value of Bitcoin did reach US$64,000 in April this year, so there are profits to be found.
Benefits
The profit to be found from mining crypto can be seen as a benefit on the surface, but the energy intense methods and amount of effort that goes into undertaking such a task nullifies this a little.
So, instead of focusing on profit alone, let’s look a little more into some of the other benefits to be found from investing in a crypto miner. Initially, the time it takes one block of BTC to be mined is 10 minutes, and bearing in mind one block is 6.25 Bitcoins,this is a rather fast for such a valuable asset.
There are some countries where industrial electricity is at a reduced rate or subsidised in order to attract business and stimulate economies, making mining Bitcoin a potential investment to look out for in developing nations looking to find foreign investors to maintain growth rates year on year as your chances of success are greater wherever running costs can be lowered. In Latin America specifically, Venezuela has low energy prices, making the profit margins wider than elsewhere, and alongside this, Venezuela, El Salvador and Paraguay are generating geothermal and hydroelectric power sources to make mining capacity larger, and somewhat cleaner too.
So, if you are interested in finding out more, contact us today! Below this article you will find a link to set up a free fifteen-minute consultation with us to discuss your options further. At Creimerman, our team of professional global citizens would be happy to help you with your personal or professional cross-border ventures and help make them a success.