Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference. In the Ethereum protocol and blockchain there is a price for each operation.
The general ledger is a blockchain, a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of data records hardened against tampering and revision, even by operators of the data store.
The ether price has been rising steadily for the past few months, and mining it has become quite profitable. However, mining Ethereum requires expensive equipment and a lot of electricity, so it’s not something that just anyone can do.
If you’re thinking about mining Ethereum, here are some things you should consider:
The cost of equipment: You’ll need a powerful GPU (graphics processing unit) to mine Ethereum. AMD cards are generally better for mining than Nvidia cards, but both will work.
You’ll also need to factor in the cost of a power supply, motherboard, CPU, and memory.
The cost of electricity: Mining is an energy-intensive process. You’ll need to factor in the cost of electricity to power your mining rig.
The higher the hashrate of your rig, the more electricity it will consume.
The difficulty of mining: The Ethereum blockchain is constantly growing as more blocks are mined and added to the chain. This makes mining more difficult and less profitable as time goes on.
The rewards of mining: When you mine a block, you earn a reward for contributing your computational power to the network. The current reward for mining a block is 5 ETH + any transaction fees included in the block.
However, as the difficulty increases, so does the minimum amount of ETH you can earn per block.
Whether or not mining Ethereum is worth it for you will depend on many factors including the cost of equipment and electricity, the difficulty of mining, and the current price of ETH. If you’re thinking about getting into Ethereum mining, do your research and calculate whether or not it’s likely to be profitable for you.