Gemini Estimates the Time for a Bitaxe Gamma to Accrue 1 BTC as a Pool Miner

Bitcoin = $118,400 on 7/27/2025 🔌 Block Reward = $370,000 on 7/27/2025

Accruing a full Bitcoin through pool mining with a single Bitaxe Gamma, a modest yet popular piece of mining hardware, would be a monumental undertaking, stretching over a vast expanse of time. Factoring in a 2% pool fee, the endeavor would likely take several millennia.

Here's a breakdown of the factors and calculations that lead to this extended timeline:

The Miner's Power: The Bitaxe Gamma boasts a hashrate of approximately 1.2 Terahashes per second (TH/s).¹ When participating in a mining pool, a 2% fee is deducted from the earnings. This reduces the effective hashrate for which the miner is rewarded to 1.176 TH/s (1.2 TH/s * 0.98).

The Global Network: The real challenge lies in the sheer scale of the global Bitcoin network. As of mid-2025, the total network hashrate hovers around a staggering 1.004 billion TH/s. This means the single Bitaxe Gamma contributes a minuscule fraction of the total computing power dedicated to mining Bitcoin.

Block Rewards and Distribution: A new Bitcoin block is discovered, on average, every 10 minutes, rewarding the successful miner or mining pool with 3.125 BTC. In a pool, these rewards are distributed among participants based on their contributed hashrate.²

Calculating the timeline: To determine how long it would take for the Bitaxe Gamma to accrue 1 BTC, we can calculate its share of the total daily Bitcoin production.

• Total Daily BTC: With a block reward of 3.125 BTC and a new block every 10 minutes, approximately 450 BTC are mined each day (3.125 BTC/block * 6 blocks/hour * 24 hours/day).

• Miner's Share: The Bitaxe Gamma's effective hashrate of 1.176 TH/s represents a tiny portion of the 1.004 billion TH/s network hashrate. Its share is roughly 1.171 x 10^-9, or 0.0000001171%.

• Daily Earnings: Multiplying the miner's share by the total daily BTC production gives us the expected daily earnings for the Bitaxe Gamma: 0.0000001171 * 450 BTC ≈ 0.00000052695 BTC.

• Time to 1 BTC: To find the time it would take to accumulate 1 BTC, we divide 1 by the daily earnings: 1 / 0.00000052695 BTC/day ≈ 1,897,713 days.

The Verdict: This translates to approximately 5,199 years to mine a single Bitcoin with a Bitaxe Gamma in a pool with a 2% fee, under current network conditions.

It's crucial to understand that this is an estimate. The Bitcoin network's difficulty adjusts roughly every two weeks, and the total network hashrate is constantly changing.³ As more powerful mining hardware comes online, the difficulty will likely increase, further extending the time it would take for a low-power device like the Bitaxe Gamma to reach this goal. Therefore, while the Bitaxe Gamma is an excellent tool for hobbyists and for learning about the mechanics of Bitcoin mining, it is not a practical instrument for accumulating significant amounts of Bitcoin in a short timeframe.

Solo mining is therefore the only viable option when running a small, low power bitcoin mining device. According to solochance.com the chances of a Bitaxe Gamma solving a block and receiving the BTC reward (as of 7/27/2025) Chance per block: 1 in 772,191,667. The good news is that 2 or 3 Bitaxes have solved Bitcoin blocks and received the Bitcoin reward. Will your Bitaxe be the next?

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Gemini's Thoughts on Solo Mining Miner Efficiency

Miner efficiency is crucial for solo miners, and it's not just about how much you're willing to spend on electricity. While a higher electricity budget allows you to run your hardware for longer, a more efficient miner will generate more hashes for the same amount of power, directly increasing your chances of finding a block and earning a reward.

Think of it this way: solo mining is like a lottery. The more tickets you have, the higher your probability of winning. In the world of cryptocurrency mining, your "tickets" are the number of hashes your hardware can produce, known as your hashrate.

The Role of Miner Efficiency

Miner efficiency is typically measured in Joules per terahash (J/TH or as I like to call it W/TH, watts per terahash). A lower J/TH value indicates a more efficient miner because it consumes less energy to produce one terahash of computing power. Here's why this is critical for a solo miner:

Maximizing Your Hashrate: For a fixed electricity budget, a more efficient miner will allow you to achieve a higher hashrate. This is because you are getting more computational power for every watt of electricity consumed. A higher hashrate translates directly to a greater share of the total network hashrate, increasing your odds of solving the next block and receiving the entire block reward.

Sustainability of Your Operation: Even with a significant budget, inefficient miners can quickly become unprofitable, especially as the network difficulty increases. A more efficient miner extends the economic viability of your operation, allowing you to continue mining for longer periods before your costs outweigh the potential rewards.

Beyond Just Electricity Costs

While electricity is a major operational expense, it's not the only factor. The initial investment in mining hardware is also a significant consideration. More efficient miners often come with a higher price tag. Therefore, a solo miner needs to find a balance between the upfront cost of the hardware and its long-term operational efficiency.

In essence, a willingness to spend a lot on electricity doesn't negate the importance of miner efficiency. An inefficient miner will simply waste a larger portion of that electricity budget, producing fewer hashes and diminishing your chances of success. For a solo miner, where the probability of finding a block is already low, maximizing your hashrate through efficient hardware is a critical strategy for improving your odds.

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On Bitcoin Mining 8

Here we go, just another chapter in a Bitcoin mining adventure.

So, I had a perfectly good Bitmain Antminer R4 earlier this year and when I saw how much I could make selling it compared to the heat, noise, electric bill and slower return on investment I decided to sell it. What I made was almost double what I bought it for (and for a lightly used miner) that's how hot the market for Bitcoin miners in May/June 2017 was and still is. 

The Antminer R4 was my favorite Bitmain product because even though it is a powerful miner it is pretty quiet compared to other miners. Why they stopped making it is beyond me but I have a feeling that they wanted to concentrate on making, noisy but modular, Antminer S7's and S9's which they could sell to mining farms by the thousands and hence make a better profit, sort of giving up on the home-oriented miners market.

At any rate, since there was a more immediate profit to be made for me by selling Bitcoin miners as opposed to mining Bitcoin with them I decided to buy a couple Antminer S9 Bitcoin miners from Bitmain and resell them. There was a wait to receive them in June but it was only about a month or so at this time. Buying from the Bitmain company in China was (and is) not a simple process, as most people will tell you who try to buy miners from them - one of the reasons that people are willing to pay more on eBay or Amazon. It is simpler there and less of a hassle. The communication is inefficient with Bitmain, which is understaffed in their sales department. In addition, they are always changing the accepted method of payment, sometimes it is with Bitcoin, sometimes with bank transfer, and now with Bitcoin Cash.

Anyway, eventually I received the two Antminer S9's and wanted to test them to make sure they were operable before I listed them and shipped them to a paying customer. Luckily I had a 1375 watt power supply, so I hooked one up and tried to find it on the network. It seems like this is always difficult when you first turn on a miner and try to find it on your network. When I did find it and assigned a mining pool to it, the machine started mining and I was treated to the trademark Antminer "jet engine" noise that I discovered with my Antminer S7. I don't know if the S9 is louder than the S7 or if they are the same but there is no way I would be keeping either one of these loud ASIC miners since I only have a garage and not a mining farm. Both S9's operated well, hashing away at around 14.5 TH/s. After my brief testing was complete I listed these on eBay and eventually sold them for a 70% profit. Not bad.

Since this fiscal adventure was a success I decided to do it again. However, the next time I wanted to buy some S9's to sell I would have had to wait two months to receive them, so I decided to look elsewhere, if possible, for Bitcoin miners that I would receive sooner. (Apparently other people were having this idea too.) The company I settled on was another Chinese company called Canaan who were making and selling a nice miner called the Avalon 741. Unfortunately, they were just as hard to communicate with as Bitmain, also being woefully understaffed to meet customer demand. But once the back and forth about price and shipping were taken care of and the bank transfer went through, they shipped and I received the machines within two weeks of my initial contact with them. This was probably the last good experience anyone would ever have with them as the company was beset with orders because people wanted and needed miners and Bitmain became even more backlogged. Now Canaan would be backlogged too. 

But for now this first buying experience from Canaan was pretty good. They accepted bank transfer, shipping cost from China was reasonable and I received the machines fairly quickly. This time I bought five machines and controllers and tested one or two of the Bitcoin miners. Within a couple of weeks they all sold and though there was a profit it was significantly less than on the Antminers. The reason the profit was less was that these miners didn't have the same reputation in the mining world as the Antminers do. Also the Avalon 741 hashes at a slower speed than the S9 and so for these reasons it was somewhat less sought after. One of the controllers and miners I had sold did not function properly and were sent back by the customer. After refunding him I determined that one of the hashing boards was inoperable. Canaan support was very helpful and sent me a new hash board which was pretty easy to replace. I was then able to sell the refurbished miner.

The Avalon 741 runs quieter than the Antminer S9. This is because it has only one variable speed fan and because it runs at half the speed of the S9 (7.3 TH/s vs. 14.5 TH/s). It is a good, sturdy and steady Bitcoin miner with a good user interface. It uses a controller (Raspberry Pi) which you have to buy, hook up and power separately and this is unappealing compared to Antminer's onboard controller. I did run the Avalon for about a month and made some pretty good Bitcoin with it, above and beyond electricity cost, so it was a positive experience overall.

As of December 6, 2017 it is almost impossible to get a Bitcoin miner unless you want to pay at least double the price. Bitmain has a 2 to 3 month waiting period and only accepts Bitcoin Cash. Canaan doesn't even bother to sell to individuals any more and their distributors either have a waiting period, no miners to sell or sell out as soon as they put them up for sale. Jhejiang Ebang, who makes the Ebit series of miners, which I will talk about in the next blog posting, is having the same problems. They don't respond to e-mails after you make an order and apparently don't want to deal with individual buyers.

With Bitcoin's precipitous rise in price I think I am back to feeling that it is better to mine for Bitcoin if you want to make money from Bitcoin rather than selling the machines -- that is if you can get your hands on the latest version (or any version) of a Bitcoin ASIC miner. Just buying Bitcoin and holding may indeed be the wisest strategy, even at this point when it is 12,783 dollars for a single Bitcoin.
 
The next blog post will cover my Ebit E9 plus Bitcoin miner experience.

On Bitcoin Mining 7

The Antminer R4 joins me on my Bitcoin mining journey and it is still too early in my experience with this miner to tell anything but a short story about it. But I can say these things right now: It is significantly quieter than any other powerful ASIC miner and it is more electricity efficient than any other miner.

When the R4 is running at 8.7 terahash (TH/s) it still puts out quite a bit of heat using about 950 watts compared to something like 1300 watts for the Antminer S9 (13 TH/s) and the previous model Antminer S7 (4.7 TH/s).

At the moment it is creating the equivalent of about 0.15 Bitcoin per month (in a mining pool) but this will go down at the next difficulty increase.

I really like this machine and though it is not as quiet as the Black Arrow Prospero it is much more powerful, productive, and expensive (unfortunately). Also unfortunately, I see on Bitmain’s website that they have been out of stock for a while and I am wondering if this means they will not produce them anymore. If not, then miners who want a powerful Bitcoin miner that is relatively quiet will have to buy whatever is available on eBay, which is mostly used stock. If you want a powerful miner and don’t care about the noise then get the Antminer S9 which you can get new from Bitmain, on eBay, and on Amazon.