Reports of a company known as Core Scientific have emerged in the news as of late. The enterprise is looking to expand its bitcoin mining operations throughout the U.S. While the firm is officially based in Bellevue, Washington, the company has also opened stations in several Midwest and southern states including North Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia, and it doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.
Does Bitcoin Mining Still Hold Sway?
The fact that all this is occurring in the United States is certainly positive. For one thing, bitcoin mining ultimately got its start in America. However, the business has since grown in regions such as China – with the establishment of firms like Bitmain and Canaan Creative – and eastern parts of Europe, and as a result, the U.S. is somewhat lagging in this department.
Thus, Core Scientific could potentially bring the practice of bitcoin mining back to its basics and back to form, with America in the central role it once enjoyed many years ago. This could potentially help the U.S. get back on top and establish itself as a primary cryptocurrency hub, which doesn’t appear to be the case at press time considering how many unestablished regulations still meander throughout the country’s legislative offices.
In addition, mining bitcoin is quite profitable at the time of writing. Despite a few bumps along the road during the past week, one bitcoin is worth close to $19,000. A bitcoin miner’s rewards were ultimately reduced to about 6.25 back in May following bitcoin’s third halving, but this is still a profit of over $100,000 for every block produced. Thus, if you mine bitcoin, you can do pretty darn well for yourself if you’re patient and stick with it.
No doubt the prospects of bitcoin mining in the U.S. – or anywhere, for that matter – are promising. However, there is one major problem that nobody seems to be talking about, and that is there aren’t that many bitcoins left.
A Slower Process
As it stands, more than 18.5 million of the world’s 21 million bitcoins have already been extracted. This only leaves a little more than two million left. This may look like a big number at first, but the fact is that those 18 million initially spoken of were extracted in a timeframe of approximately ten years.
While the final bitcoin isn’t set to be mined until the year 2140 – more than 100 years from now – the idea that only 2.5 million more BTC will be extracted during this extended period suggests that the mining process has become incredibly slow in recent years, so you can imagine just how long it will take to mine a whole block. You can still make money, but there’s a possibility it won’t be steady, and it may take some time to really accumulate the funds necessary to keep an operation up.
