Quote from: Cryptotourist on December 02, 2018, 11:55:12 PM

Quote from: DrearyUrbanite on December 02, 2018, 07:58:53 PM

I don't think they are mining at a loss in every country as some countries have very low energy prices.

Good point. China for example:

https://www.asiacryptotoday.com/chinese-mining-fud-manipulation-vs-the-real-situation/

So still in the green right?
You need TOTALLY FREE power in the rest of the world, to even try to compete with China.
But it is not only a matter of electricity.

Taking as a fact that Chinese ASIC manufacturers trash & upgrade their equipment every 6 months or so, and taking also into account that if you go for the latest & fastest BTC miner on the market ATM - EBIT E11++ 44TH/S, 45W/T, 10nm chip DW1228 - and forgetting about purchasing costs, we have: Delivery time is Feb 15, 2019.

http://miner.ebang.com.cn/goods-15.html

Hold on. Didn't we just read in the previous article that - & I quote: "Rigs have evolved from 100nm to 7nm which has led to huge increases in efficiency." Shocked

Oh yes, here it is:
https://shop.bitmain.com/product/detail?pid=00020181107195820131prWuuVTy0738
Estimated shipping: Dec.20-31
And last but not least: "The Antminer S15 has just been confirmed to have an estimated hashrate of 28 TH/s and power consumption of 1596 W"
https://mineable.com/bitmain-just-announced-their-new-7nm-miners-antminer-s15-t15-overview-hashrate-profitability/
Total bollocks.

So, selling their outdated hardware, trashing the even older ones, whilst keeping the best ones for themselves & repeat.
Do the maths, China is the only TRUE profitable player in the Bitcoin/ASIC/mining industry. Always has been.

Better off trading (buying cheap of course), hodling & sparing us the hassle.

You gave a good overview and I agree with this for the most part. There are a few countries that may not be mining at a loss, but as you said the real power lies within China. Not really the best situation, but that's how Bitcoin works.