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by mywittyname
2231 days ago
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Or your both correct. There are two sides to the coin. Miners are more likely to enter or expand in a profitable market. Profitability is measured by income - costs. Thus, costs -- in this case, electricity, real estate, equipment price -- set a long-term price floor for bitcoin. They can be mined at a loss temporarily, in order to drive out competition, but at some point, a miner operating at a loss will go bankrupt. This is no different from the oil industry, where capital outlays so high that most players continue to produce at a loss, temporarily. But long-term, the price must at least match costs of production. |
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Bitcoin is minted at a predefined global rate; the amount minted doesn't depend on the number of miners. Miners compete with each other for a share of the predefined minting action, so some dropping out does not decrease the minting rate of Bitcoin, but instead makes it more profitable for the remaining miners.