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.
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 ±985 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 from 1 to 160 watts. 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 75–85 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) to the newest BM1370 from the Antminer S21 generation (±1.2 TH/s per chip). Manufacturer miners (Canaan/Avalon, Braiins, FutureBit) are ready-to-use and often extra quiet, but closed.
Open-source mini-miners
Manufacturer and heater miners
*Indicative prices June 2026; prices vary per shop and shipping and import costs may apply. Specifications are factory figures at stock settings.
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 5,100 watts, 75 dB or more and a dedicated circuit in the fuse box. At home it only works in a separate, ventilated room — and only pays off with a low electricity price. All figures are manufacturer specifications at stock settings.
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. Treat every amount below as a rough indication, not a quote.
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.
Honestly: what does it earn?
Here we'd rather be too honest than too enthusiastic. With a network of ±985 EH/s, a price of roughly €75,000 and an electricity rate of roughly €0.29 per kWh, a month of mining looks like this:
Only devices with known power consumption are included.
Calculation example as of 1 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 €235,000 (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 pay roughly €0.29 per kWh on average (EU, Eurostat); check your own rate, and off-peak hours with a dynamic contract. Below roughly €0.15, mining for returns becomes interesting.
Mini-miners are quiet; large ASICs (75–85 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
Can you still mine profitably at home in 2026?▾
For pure profit, usually not: at roughly €0.29 per kWh, electricity costs exceed the returns. Exceptions: you use the heat usefully (heater-miner), you have very cheap or your own solar power, or you mine to learn and for the solo lottery.
What's the best mini-miner to start with?▾
For most people: the Bitaxe Gamma (roughly €100–150, open source, 1.2 TH/s, whisper-quiet) or the Avalon Nano 3S (roughly €300, 6 TH/s, ready-to-use and quiet). 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 €235,000 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 ±52,000 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/Blockchair (1 October 2026); electricity price via Eurostat; model specifications via manufacturers (Canaan, FutureBit, Braiins, Heatbit) and specialised shops (D-Central, Solo Satoshi, Mineshop), checked on 10 June 2026. Indicative prices may vary.
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