By
Temitope Olatunji
April 26th, 2024
Recent survey shows that Italy is the most expensive country for mining Bitcoin at $208,560 for each BTC produced.
When it comes to the Bitcoin mining costs, there’s a strong contrast worldwide in the household electricity expenses for individual Bitcoin miners. A recent survey shows that Bitcoin mining in Lebanon is 783 times cheaper than Bitcoin mining in Italy. Currently, the cost of mining 1 BTC in Italy is $208,560.
Last week on August 17, CoinGecko released a report, showing that only 65 countries are good for people who mine Bitcoin alone, considering just how much it costs to use electricity at home. Out of these countries, 34 are in Asia, but there are only five in Europe. But the problem is that people who mine Bitcoin on their own are having trouble because the average cost of electricity at homes worldwide is different.
“The average household electricity cost to mine 1 Bitcoin is $46,291.24, which is 35% higher than the average daily price of 1 BTC in July 2023 ($30,090.08),” the report notes.
The report names Italy as the most expensive country for mining Bitcoin at $208,560 for each Bitcoin. This means that mining one Bitcoin at home in Italy costs as much as about eight Bitcoins are worth.
Next in line were Austria at $184,352 and Belgium at $172,382. On the other hand, in Lebanon, the cost of electricity is low enough that individual miners can make one Bitcoin for just $266. Looking at these numbers, mining one Bitcoin in Lebanon is about 783 times cheaper than mining one in Italy.
Iran among the Cheapest Countries to Mine Bitcoin
Iran is among those countries where the cost to produce one Bitcoin was $532. Despite legalizing Bitcoin mining in 2019, the country has intermittently banned these operations, citing strains on energy grids, especially during winter.
Earlier this year, Iran’s Organization for Collection and Sale of State-Owned Property confiscated around 150,000 pieces of cryptocurrency mining equipment. In related news, new technology is claimed to increase the chances of successfully mining a winning hash by 260%.
On August 19, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao shared a screenshot of the report’s data on platform X (formerly known as Twitter). He asked his 8.6 million followers why people in countries with cheap electricity wouldn’t consider mining Bitcoin.
Why wouldn't they? 🤷♂️😂 pic.twitter.com/cD1TSgOZzx
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) August 19, 2023
However, CZ said that there could be other factors to consider. “The report probably didn’t consider feasibility and other logistics. But if the data is true, there definitely seems to be some potential opportunities,” noted CZ.