Can you mine Bitcoin at home? Is it worth it?
Why laptop mining no longer works, what decides ASIC profitability, and how to check the numbers before you buy.
Laptops and GPUs
In 2010 a laptop could find blocks. Today the network uses specialised ASIC machines, and a laptop's share of the hashrate is so tiny it would earn effectively nothing while wearing out the hardware.
What decides profit
Your electricity price, the machine's efficiency (joules per terahash), network difficulty, the Bitcoin price and the block reward, which halves every four years. Noise and heat matter at home too.
Check before buying
Compare the machine's daily revenue at today's difficulty with its daily power cost. If the margin is thin, a difficulty rise or a price drop can make it negative. Not investment advice.
FAQ
- Is pool mining required?
- For small miners, practically yes: a pool shares rewards steadily instead of waiting years for a block.
On the site
- ASIC shop: models and specs →
- Mining pools →
- Video: what is mining →
- Network live: fees, mempool, halving →
Original bitcointalk.org threads
- new miner - is it worth it? · 21 replies / 223,507 views (as of 13 Oct 2026)
- Can I mine on a laptop? · 12 replies / 83,943 views (as of 13 Oct 2026)
- Mining profitability calculator · 21 replies / 44,883 views (as of 13 Oct 2026)
Our own explanation; forum threads are linked, not copied. Not investment advice.
More topics
- The Bitcoin puzzle transaction: why keys can't be guessed
- Bitcoin supply and inflation over time
- My Bitcoin transaction is stuck: RBF and CPFP explained
- Lost wallet password or seed: what can be recovered
- Bitcoin or gold? A plain comparison
- Satoshi Nakamoto and Hal Finney: the first Bitcoin transaction
- Bitcoin Pizza Day: 10,000 BTC for two pizzas
- History of Bitcoin hacks: why 'not your keys, not your coins'