How Long Does It Take To Mine 1 Bitcoin? [2023]

Over the 13 years of cryptocurrency history, bitcoin has grown by more than 2.2 million times (from $0.03 to $69K at the peak in November 2021). Owning BTC has long been synonymous with wealth. Even 0.01 coins in the future can turn into huge capital for the holder if the asset continues to grow. 

In 2009, the first cryptocurrency was worth almost nothing. Any user on a home PC could mine a coin. In parallel with the rate’s growth, the network’s difficulty increased. Thus, in 2022, you need powerful ASICs to mine coins. Still, how long does it take to mine one bitcoin? Today, we’ll try to find out!

Factors Affecting the Mining Time of 1 Bitcoin

In 2022, ASICs, graphics cards, processors, and hard drives are used to mine various coins. But many miners prefer bitcoin. In 2011, BTCs were mined on GPUs — with a blockchain difficulty of 14,484K, it was possible to mine 1 bitcoin in a week. But this could not continue for long.

In 2014, the profitability of graphics cards for bitcoin mining decreased significantly. Thus, earnings did not recoup even electricity.

This way, mining speed depends on several factors:

 

• • Network difficulty. The parameter describes the base difficulty or the minimum difficulty the underlying blockchain will accept as a valid block. The higher the value, the slower the bitcoin mining speed.

• • Hardware power. You can quickly find a block on hardware with a high hash rate.

• • Cryptocurrency rates. The higher the coin rate, the more miners are connected to the mining process and vice versa.

Network Difficulty

The main blockchain performance indicator determines the amount of work performed to find a block. Coins in the blockchain are mined at the same rate regardless of the total computing power of the miners. The code of each cryptocurrency has a specific block time. For bitcoin, this is 10 minutes.

Mining difficulty regulates the integrity of the blockchain. Otherwise, with the hash rate growth, the remaining coins will be received very quickly. The more miners in the Bitcoin network, the harder it is to mine the coin. Users are forced to constantly upgrade equipment in order to maintain profitability.

As of August 2022, 19.1 million Bitcoin coins (91%) have already been mined. Due to the growing difficulty of the blockchain, the remaining 1.9 million BTC will be mined for about 120 more years.

 

Hardware Power

The difficulty of top blockchains, although changing unpredictably, tends to grow. The more complex the hash becomes, the more powerful hardware is required to decrypt it. Blockchain.com has recorded a sharp increase since 2017. Experts attribute this to the growing popularity of cryptocurrency.

In 2022, specially designed ASICs are considered the most modern hardware for decrypting a cryptographic task. The more powerful the hardware used, the faster it will find a solution.

A valid hash is searched for by a selection method, which requires a lot of calculations. The ASIC finds the value of the hash function and checks if it is the solution to the issue. The hash rate shows how many such operations per second the hardware can perform. In 2022, the capacity of the Bitcoin network is 216,204 EH/s. This means that it takes 216.204 quadrillion computational operations per second to create a block.

Every year, hacking the Bitcoin blockchain is more difficult. To do this, attackers need to gain control over 51% of the network hash rate. In this case, hackers will be able to generate blocks and influence transactions (delete or replace). However, this task is almost impossible in practice.

How Long Does It Take to Mine One Bitcoin?

The network’s difficulty automatically adjusts to the total hash rate of the miners to avoid the technical volatility of the exchange rate. This condition is fixed in the BTC code. The indicator changes every 2016 block, or about once every two weeks. If the total computing power of the miners grows, the algorithm makes it difficult to find the hash, and if it falls, it reduces the level of encryption. The goal is to mine one block in exactly 10 minutes.

In 2022, the reward for a verified bitcoin hash is 6.25 coins. A simple calculation shows that the mining time for 1 BTC is 1.6 minutes. To get a reward, you need to choose the right solution. A user with a high hash rate has more chances to find a block.

The current difficulty of the Bitcoin blockchain is 28.13T. The most powerful ASIC NuMiner NM440 has a hash rate of 440 TH/s. On such a miner, you can get 1 bitcoin in 17 months — ASIC brings 0.00199 coins per day.

How Many Graphics Cards Do You Need to Mine 1 BTC in 2022?

ASIC (INNOSILICON A11 PRO) performance is 60 times higher than current energy-efficient GPUs (GeForce GTX 1060). Thus, in 2022, very few people mine bitcoin on graphics cards. Due to the high blockchain difficulty, the power of the most modern models has become insufficient to pay for at least electricity. On GPUs, you can earn other coins and exchange them for BTC.

Thus, on a farm of 24 Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti graphics cards, you can mine 1 bitcoin in 3.7 years. A rig of 24 AMD Radeon VIIs will bring you bitcoin in 12 months. The mined cryptocurrency can be converted into Bitcoin on a crypto exchange. 

If you’re wondering where to swap some crypto for BTC, you should definitely think about doing this at Switchere. Switchere crypto swaps are characterized by fast speed and maximum efficiency — you are able to purchase Bitcoin in the fastest and most convenient ways at the best exchange rates and without any extra charges.

Conclusion

In August 2022, you can obtain 1 bitcoin in 1.5 years using the ultra-fast NuMiner NM440. Keep in mind that this is an estimate, as the network’s difficulty is constantly changing. Thus, before starting mining, make sure to do your own research.