Mining Bitcoin in 2024? A chat with Florent Gabriel of Blobb.io

Can you still mine Bitcoin in 2024 when you have no space, no cheap electricity and no time to look after machines? In this video (in French), we talk with Florent Gabriel, co-founder of Blobb.io, a company that hosts and runs ASIC miners owned by its clients in data centers. On the agenda: how mining works, the halving, choosing a hosting site, machines, profitability and risks.

Video from 2024, recorded before the April 2024 halving: the figures below date from that time. See "What about today?" at the end of the article.

Florent Gabriel's background

Florent Gabriel spent almost his whole career in the energy sector. After starting out with graphics cards and a mining Discord server, he managed thousands of machines across 13 data centers for two years, with a team of around thirty people, before founding Blobb with his partner Julien, who is one of the advisers of the Bitcoin Mining Council.

Bitcoin mining explained simply

Florent Gabriel compares the blockchain to a huge accounting ledger, with a new page validated roughly every 10 minutes. To validate it, miners search for a secret code by brute force. Whoever finds it receives the reward: a fixed part, made of newly created bitcoins, plus the fees of the transactions on that page.

To keep this pace, the difficulty adjusts. He illustrates it with a gold nugget hidden in a pile of sand that grows as new searchers arrive: today it is a mountain being dug through by thousands of bulldozers, and a lone miner has practically no chance. Miners therefore group together in pools, "teams" that share the rewards according to the computing power each member contributes, and which you can switch in one click.

The halving: why efficient machines come out on top

Roughly every four years, the fixed part of the reward is cut in half; transaction fees are not affected. Florent Gabriel goes back to his bulldozers: they all earn the same amount per hour, but their costs differ. When income is halved, the least efficient machines, or those paying the most for electricity, start losing money and shut down. The difficulty then falls, and those with efficient hardware and cheap electricity stay profitable.

Choosing the right hosting site

According to Florent Gabriel, the price per kWh is only a starting point. Other criteria matter just as much:

• Country stability: you need a genuine rule of law. He cites Venezuela, where miners who even held the official licence had their machines nationalised.
• Climate: in Iceland, the air reaches the machines at 5 to 10 °C, so they can run without strain.
• Reliable power and internet: frequent outages damage the hardware, and a slow connection wastes work. He mentions a miner whose share rate dropped to 50% because of a connection that was too slow.
• Security: to enter the Icelandic site, you had to hand over your passport, go through an airlock with a code and badge, and be escorted; the site is surrounded by barbed wire.

At the time, Blobb offered sites in the United States and Iceland, at 7.8 to 8 cents per kWh.

The model offered by Blobb

According to Florent Gabriel, Blobb's clients own their machines: it is not an investment product in mining. The set-up he describes:

• each machine mines in parallel to the client's wallet and to a wallet dedicated to electricity, which takes the share matching the power consumed as it goes;
• Blobb is paid by taking 10% of the net amount mined by the client, after electricity;
• an additional warranty, on top of the manufacturer's warranty, cost about €400 for an S19k Pro at €2,700 and €1,000 for an S21 at €5,000;
• the team says it has increased the machines' hashrate by about 20% without affecting their energy efficiency: an S19k Pro, rated at 120 TH/s and 2,750 W, reaches about 140 TH/s in Iceland.

Machines, profitability and risks

Two Bitmain models are discussed: the Antminer S19k Pro, available from €2,750, and the Antminer S21 (200 TH/s for about 3,500 W). The S21 was announced at around €6,000 in January–February, then €5,000 in the second quarter and €4,500 in May–June. The minimum ticket was then around €11,000 to €12,000.

Before the halving, Florent Gabriel mentioned returns of around 70% net per year. But he insists: no one can guarantee a return, and anyone promising you a precise figure is, in his words, "a liar, a scammer or incompetent". The Bitcoin price, the difficulty, fees and the purchase price of the machine all change the result.

He describes mining as "a marathon followed by a sprint": a gradual payback over one to two years, then much faster gains when the market takes off. A personal example: S9 units bought for €30 each in 2019 were worth €600 during the bull market. He puts the lifespan of the hardware at 5 to 6 years, although some series had problems after a year or a year and a half. Finally, he warns: if you cannot put €10,000 to €15,000 into mining, it may not be for you.

What about today?

The halving discussed took place in April 2024: the block reward went from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. The prices, rates and returns mentioned in the video date from before this event and should no longer be used as a reference.

To choose a machine, browse our Bitcoin miners and estimate their earnings with our Bitcoin mining profitability calculator. No space or no cheap electricity at home? Have a look at our miner hosting, or contact us to talk it over.

This article summarises the content of the video and does not constitute investment advice.