Mining is now controlled by big players

Bitcoin mining revenues in the first six months of 2018 have already surpassed those of 2017, but the miners themselves are making little profit. This is reported in the weekly crypto report Diar.

According to the Diar report, rewards and royalties for miners have already reached $4.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2018, which is about $1.4 billion more than profits for all of 2017. Miners are still producing 54,000 bitcoins per month.

However, this type of activity is gradually becoming profitable only for large pools, as energy prices are constantly rising. According to Diar, miners who pay retail prices for electricity not only did not make a profit in September of this year, but also ended up with a net loss.

The Diar report notes:

Mining, at least for the moment and most likely in the future, is coming under the control of large financial players.

However, if the report is to be believed, even large companies will have to make adjustments to their business. 

For example, the Chinese giant Bitmain, which received 95% of its revenue in 2018 from the sale of mining equipment, in addition to search for external borrowing, is forced to create pools in the USA and Israel in order to maintain the profitability of the network as a whole. The company announced plans to invest $500 million in a data center and mining company in Texas. It is expected that construction will begin in early 2019, and in the first two years it is planned to create 400 jobs for this purpose.

According to cointelegraph.com