Hornblower wrote:Mike4 wrote:BungeeJumper wrote:I don't suppose anybody really knows, because this is uncharted territory. But if it's true that it currently costs $35,000 to mine a bitcoin, then the logical thing for a miner to do at $18,000 is to stop mining, no? What happens after that?
BJHornblower wrote:That depends on the miners conviction about the future value of bitcoin. They may choose to continue mining even at a loss.
Why would they do that? I don't understand. Why would anyone continue mining them at a cost of $35k when they can buy them already mined for $18k?
They observably DO keep mining though. Perhaps it's the sunk costs + a conviction that the price will bounce? In prolonged downturns, you'll see total hash rate start declining as miners with higher power prices switch off.
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I wasn't arguing that they don't, I was trying to understand why they DO.
There must be some really solid reason to, otherwise they wouldn't. But what is it?
Could it be that buying bitcoins still makes no sense because those who are continuing to mine are actually not shelling out $35k on each?
Perhaps they are getting their power at low or zero marginal cost from solar (or stealing it)? That would make more sense.