Mining guide
Bitcoin mining explained: from mini-miner to heater
How does mining work, what does it really earn at home, and which mini-miner suits you? A calm, honest guide — with current figures and no sales talk.
Is Bitcoin mining profitable in the EU?
For each device, the electricity price at which a regular pool pays out exactly what the electricity costs, next to the price you are calculating with.
Bitaxe Gamma 1.2 TH/s · 20 W
Run the numbers, Bitaxe Gammabreaks even at €0.08electricity €4.03 per month
the electricity costs more than the pool pays out
Avalon Nano 3S 6 TH/s · 140 W
Run the numbers, Avalon Nano 3Sbreaks even at €0.06electricity €28.22 per month
the electricity costs more than the pool pays out
Antminer S21 200 TH/s · 3,500 W
Run the numbers, Antminer S21breaks even at €0.08electricity €705.60 per month
the electricity costs more than the pool pays out
Average household price in the EU for the first half of 2026, according to Eurostat.
Regular pool, 1 BTC = €72,000, network 1,035 EH/s (16 October 2026). Excluding purchase price, pool fees and tax. Price and network change every day: this is a snapshot, not a forecast.
Earlier this year, 1 zettahash was reached for the first time — a milestone in network security.
How does Bitcoin mining work?
Mining is the process that records Bitcoin transactions in the blockchain. Specialised computers take part in a mathematical lottery: whoever first finds a valid hash gets to create the next block and receives the reward. This is called Proof-of-Work.
- 1Collect transactions
The miner bundles pending transactions into a candidate block.
- 2Solve the puzzle
The miner tries billions of numbers per second until a hash falls below the threshold. Pure computing power and luck.
- 3Share the block
The winning block circulates the network; other nodes verify it in a fraction of a second.
- 4Reward
The winner receives 3.125 BTC plus the transaction fees in that block.
An attacker would need to own more than half of ±1,035 EH/s — economically almost impossible.
Fixed schedule up to a maximum of 21 million BTC. Mining is the only source.
Anyone can join. You too, from your desk.
Mining at home: three realistic routes
Small, quiet devices for your desk. You won't get rich, but you learn everything about pools, wallets and hashrate — and join the solo lottery for a whole block. By far the most fun and safest entry.
New category: miners built to heat a room (Avalon Mini 3, Heatbit). Almost every watt becomes heat. If you already heat electrically, you get the same heat — with sats back.
Run the numbersSerious returns, but 72–76 dB of noise, lots of heat and often a dedicated power circuit. Only worthwhile with a garage or shed AND a low electricity rate.
All official mini-miners at a glance
Mini-miners come in two flavours. Open-source miners (Bitaxe and Nerd families) have public schematics and firmware (AxeOS, NerdAxe OS): fully verifiable, repairable and tunable yourself. They run on the same Bitmain chips as large Antminers — from the older BM1366 (±0.5 TH/s per chip) through the BM1370 from the Antminer S21 generation (±1.2 TH/s per chip) to the new BM1373 (±2.4 TH/s per chip). Manufacturer miners (Canaan/Avalon, Braiins, FutureBit) are ready-to-use and often extra quiet, but closed.
Compare home minersPrices are deliberately left out here: they differ per shop and change from week to week. Under ‘Compare home miners’ above you can see which partner shop sells a device, which country it ships from and whether its prices include VAT; the current price is on the shop’s own site.
Mining Dogecoin & Litecoin (Scrypt)
Dogecoin is mined via the Scrypt algorithm together with Litecoin (merged mining): one machine earns two coins at once. Returns are more volatile than Bitcoin — always recalculate with current prices and your electricity rate.
Large ASICs for bitcoin (SHA-256)
This is the professional class: 2,700 to 6,000 watts and a dedicated circuit in the fuse box; air-cooled models run at 72 dB or more, water-cooled ones need their own cooling loop. At home it only works in a separate, ventilated room — and only pays off with a low electricity price.
Note: prices of large ASICs swing wildly. They track the bitcoin price, network difficulty and stock levels, and differ sharply between new, second-hand and pre-order — swings of tens of percent within a few weeks are normal. So compare the current price at several shops just before you buy.
Other algorithms and coins
Besides bitcoin and Scrypt there are ASICs for Kaspa, Alephium, Ethereum Classic and Dash. Their hashrates cannot be compared: every algorithm counts in different units.
Sorted by Hashrate, ascending.
Hashrate and power draw at the default setting, as stated by the manufacturer or an official seller; a range below the figure shows the available modes. Checked on 16 October 2026; where a source shows a different date, it was checked then. Models without a reliable source are left out. Efficiency is power draw divided by hashrate: the lower, the more economical.
Price: the lowest price for a new unit at our partner shops, read automatically from the shop every Monday, with the date it was read. If that reading is more than 15 days old, or the model can't be ordered anywhere, we show no amount. MineShop lists prices excluding VAT; your country's VAT comes on top. We show those prices separately and don't compare them with prices that include VAT. The shop's current price always applies.
Honestly: what does it earn?
Here we'd rather be too honest than too enthusiastic. With a network of ±1,035 EH/s, a price of roughly €72,000 and an electricity rate of roughly €0.28 per kWh, a month of mining looks like this:
Average household price in the EU for the first half of 2026, according to Eurostat.
Only devices with known power consumption are included.
Calculation example as of 16 October 2026, only block subsidy via a pool, before pool fees. Returns change continuously with price and difficulty.
As an investment, a mini-miner is loss-making — household electricity is too expensive for that.
As a learning project and lottery, it's unique: you verifiably take part in the real network, receive sats daily via your pool, and get a daily mini-chance at a whole block of roughly €227,000 (which is why many mine solo via Solo CKPool).
As heating it can pay off: if you already heat a room electrically, the electricity is spent anyway and the sats are pure bonus. An Avalon Mini 3 provides the same heat as an 800-watt electric heater.
How to start: step-by-step
- 1Calculate the business case
Consumption (kW) × 24 × 30 × your electricity price = monthly cost. Compare with the table above or an independent mining calculator.
- 2Choose your hardware
Learning and joining in: Bitaxe Gamma or Avalon Nano 3S. Heat: heater-miner. Returns: large ASIC, only with a low electricity rate.
- 3Arrange power and space
A mini-miner fits on any desk and socket. A large ASIC needs its own 16A circuit, extraction and hearing protection.
- 4Choose pool or solo
A pool (e.g. Braiins Pool, Ocean) pays out daily pro rata; solo (e.g. Solo CKPool) is the pure lottery for the whole block. Many mini-miners go solo: daily returns are small anyway, the dream is the block.
- 5Set up your wallet
Have payouts sent to a wallet whose keys you hold (hardware wallet), not to an exchange address.
- 6Monitor and maintain
Via the web interface (AxeOS on Bitaxe models) you track hashrate and temperature; keep everything dust-free.
Not just bitcoin: mining other coins
Dozens of blockchains use their own Proof-of-Work algorithms. The best-known options: Litecoin + Dogecoin (Scrypt; via merged mining you mine both at once with one ASIC, like an Antminer L series or Goldshell mini), Monero (RandomX, deliberately CPU-friendly — a modern Ryzen or Intel joins in from home), Ethereum Classic (Etchash, still runs on gaming GPUs with 8 GB+), Ravencoin and Ergo (GPU) and Kaspa (kHeavyHash, dedicated small ASICs from e.g. IceRiver).
Note: large chains like Ethereum, Solana and Cardano use Proof-of-Stake — there's nothing to mine there, but you can stake.
Tax, costs and safety
Households in the EU pay €0.28 per kWh on average (first half of 2026, Eurostat); check your own rate and, if you have a dynamic contract, the off-peak hours. At the bitcoin price as of 16 October 2026, an Antminer S21 only breaks even below roughly €0.08 per kWh.
Mini-miners are quiet; large ASICs (72–76 dB) belong in a separate, ventilated space with proper wiring.
Price and difficulty move continuously; what breaks even today may turn to loss after the ±April 2028 halving.
How mining income is taxed differs from country to country. Our tax register shows the rule for each EU country, with the official source.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bitcoin mining profitable in the EU?▾
That depends on your electricity price. At the bitcoin price and network hashrate as of 16 October 2026, a Bitaxe Gamma in a regular pool breaks even at €0.08 per kWh, an Avalon Nano 3S at €0.06 and an Antminer S21 at €0.08. Households in the EU pay €0.28 per kWh on average (first half of 2026, Eurostat). If your price is above the break-even price, the electricity costs more than the pool pays out, and that is before you have earned back what the device cost. It can still be worthwhile if you put the heat to good use, have surplus solar power of your own, or mine to learn and for the solo lottery.
What's the best mini-miner to start with?▾
For most people: the Bitaxe Gamma (open source, 1.2 TH/s, whisper-quiet) or the Avalon Nano 3S (6 TH/s, ready-to-use and quiet). The device guide shows which shops sell them; the current price is on the shop's own site. To also run your own Bitcoin node, look at the FutureBit Apollo line.
What's the chance my mini-miner finds a block?▾
Small, but real. A Bitaxe Gamma statistically finds a block of roughly €227,000 once every ±16,000 years. Compare it to a lottery where your ticket re-enters every 10 minutes — while your hardware collects sats via a pool in the meantime.
Does a mini-miner use a lot of electricity?▾
No. A Bitaxe (±20 W) uses less than a small LED set; an Avalon Nano 3S (140 W) about as much as a game console. Only large ASICs (3,000+ W) require changes to your fuse box.
Is mining heat really usable as heating?▾
Yes — almost 100% of the power consumption becomes heat, just like an electric heater. An 800W heater-miner warms a small room and returns ±49,000 sats per month. To see if it pays off in your situation, run the numbers with our heat calculator.
Sources: network data via mempool.space and Blockchair (16 October 2026); electricity price via Eurostat (first half of 2026); the specifications for each model are in the table above, with their source and the date they were checked.
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