Still mining Bitcoin in 2025? Revealing the truth about mining: Money-making illusions vs. actual costs

Does anyone still mine?

Many people have heard that mining Bitcoin can make money, and their eyes light up; but most who actually get involved end up pale-faced. As long as Bitcoin exists, there will be miners running. This is not a choice, but an inevitability—without miners recording and verifying transactions, the entire Bitcoin network would come to a halt.

But “there are still people mining” and “making good money” are two different things.

The days of “just setting up a few computers at home to mine” are long gone. Participants are becoming increasingly professional:

• Individual small miners: Usually join mining pools; solo mining is basically impossible
• Mining pools: Aggregate global computing power to increase chances of winning, distribute rewards based on contribution
• Professional mining farms and companies: Build data centers, manage cooling, control electricity costs, treat mining as an industry

First, understand: what are you doing?

Bitcoin has no banks, no central bank, no one managing accounts, yet thousands of transactions happen every day. Who verifies transactions? Who keeps the ledger? Who prevents double-spending? These people are called miners.

Miners have three main tasks:

1. Verify that each transaction is legitimate
2. Pack transactions into a new “block” and add it to Bitcoin’s public ledger (blockchain)
3. Protect the entire system from attacks

What tools do they use? Not shovels, but thousands of ASIC miners—computers specially designed for mining.

How does mining actually work?

Core mechanism: Proof of Work (PoW)

Bitcoin uses mining to decide “who records the next block,” and at the same time makes it nearly impossible to secretly alter the ledger.

All miners receive new transactions on the network roughly at the same time, checking each one: Is there enough balance? Has it been double-spent? Once verified, they pack them into a new block. After packing, everyone starts competing:

Who can find a “number that meets the criteria” the fastest wins.

The winner can broadcast their block to the network, which nodes then verify and officially add to the blockchain, moving on to the next round.

The core rules of the competition: SHA-256 and inverse functions

This race relies on the SHA-256 hash function. Think of hashing as a magical meat grinder:

No matter what you put in (all transaction data in the block + the hash of the previous block + a number the miner can freely adjust, called nonce), it outputs a string of random characters.

The powerful features of hash functions:

• One-wayness: You can only compute the hash from data; it’s nearly impossible to reverse-engineer the data from the hash. This is the mathematical property where the inverse function does not exist—you know the result but cannot directly reverse the process.
• Sensitivity: Changing just one bit of the input completely changes the hash result.
• Uniqueness: Different data almost never produce the same hash.

This makes altering the ledger nearly impossible—changing old blocks requires re-computing all subsequent blocks and surpassing more than half of the network’s total computing power.

How it works in practice

1. The system sets a “target value” (difficulty threshold, periodically adjusted based on total network computing power).
2. Miners add a changing random number (nonce) to the transaction data and hash it.
3. Computers try wildly: if the hash doesn’t meet the target, they change the nonce and hash again, repeatedly.
4. The “winner”? Whoever first finds a hash below the target can broadcast their block, which nodes then verify and add to the chain.

Global mining machines keep trying and retrying like this, producing a new block approximately every 10 minutes.

Smart difficulty adjustment mechanism

Bitcoin has a rhythm control: roughly every two weeks, the system reviews the recent block production speed.

• If equipment gets more powerful and speeds up too much → increase difficulty
• If hash power drops → decrease difficulty

This adjustment keeps Bitcoin’s issuance rate stable, preventing it from being mined out instantly as technology advances.

Is mining profitable?

Yes, profits do exist. This is the reward for miners participating in the network’s operation. The system distributes two types of rewards:

1. Block reward (newly minted Bitcoin)

Whenever a miner successfully packs a block, they receive a fixed amount of BTC as a reward. This is how new Bitcoin is “created.”

2. Transaction fees

Each transaction includes a fee, which goes entirely to the successful miner. During busy network times, fees can even surpass the block reward.

But earning money doesn’t mean you will necessarily make a profit

Many newcomers think “just mining equals guaranteed profit,” but that’s not the reality.

Mining profitability depends on several very practical conditions:

Electricity costs—the most critical factor

Mining is essentially converting electricity into potential rewards.

• High electricity prices → high costs → likely unprofitable
• Low electricity prices → possible to stay afloat

That’s why mining farms are often located where electricity is cheap or even surplus. Some regions miners operate in year-round losses because local electricity is too expensive.

Equipment investment and efficiency

Bitcoin is almost entirely an ASIC miner world now; ordinary computers or graphics cards are no longer competitive.

• Equipment is expensive
• Depreciates quickly
• Machines with low efficiency are almost impossible to recoup

Buying a new miner can cost thousands, and after a year or so, it’s likely obsolete—who bears the cost?

Difficulty and total network hash rate

As more people join mining, the network automatically raises difficulty, meaning:

“Rewards become harder to obtain.”

Your hash rate remains the same, but with the total network hash rate skyrocketing, your share shrinks. It’s like buying a lottery ticket—more players mean lower chances of winning.

Price volatility

Ultimately, miners’ earnings are measured in the coin’s price.

• High price → same output, higher value
• Price drops → many end up losing money just by selling electricity

When the market is bad, mining becomes one of the most unprofitable investments.

What are the risks of mining?

Cost and market double pressure

Many people lose not due to “technology,” but because of “cost and market”:

• High electricity costs eat up all profits
• Mining hardware depreciates faster than Bitcoin’s price increases
• Difficulty keeps rising, reducing individual machine output
• When prices fall, income shrinks immediately

Hardware practical issues

Mining relies heavily on hardware; problems cost money:

• Miners run under high load for long periods, leading to higher failure rates than regular computers
• Noise and heat are real issues
• Repairs are not trivial; repair costs can be staggering

Policy and regulatory uncertainties

Mining involves electricity, energy policies, and financial regulation. Some regions outright ban it; stricter environmental policies or government shifts can turn “minable” into “not minable.”

For enterprise mining farms, these are real risks.

Pool and platform risks

Individual miners usually depend on mining pools. If the pool collapses, mismanages funds, gets hacked, or leaks data, earnings are affected.

Opportunity cost

Mining may seem like “passive income,” but it actually requires management, monitoring, maintenance, and strategy adjustments. With limited capital, time, and effort, mining isn’t necessarily the best choice for everyone.

The final question: Is it really worth it?

Electricity and hash power are the moat for Bitcoin’s security. Because mining requires huge real-world investments, cheating becomes extremely unprofitable, and honest participation is the most advantageous.

But for individuals, whether it’s “worth it” depends on conditions: cheap electricity, low costs, long-term holding—perhaps there’s a chance. Otherwise? Honestly, it might just be working for the power companies.