Is BlockChain Mining Profitable in the Long Run?
本文对区块链挖矿进行深度财务分析，发现矿工虽初期盈利，但若无高额费用则无法长期维持财务可行性，对研究服务技术与产品的学者及考虑进入该领域的企业家有参考价值。
Blockchain technologies are at the heart of digital innovation and are a harbinger of Industry 4.0. Consequently, popular press and academic researchers alike have focused on its importance. Yet blockchain technologies’ most promising efforts, cryptocurrency and smart contracts, are underpinned by blockchain mining. The blockchain mining service is undergoing change, cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and others are nearing the end of their minting. Smart contracts are in their infancy. The financial impetus for providing the mining service has changed. Here, we add to the literature through a deep financial analysis of blockchain mining regarding its long-term financial viability. Our methods include a financial cost analysis and an analysis of the financial viability of cryptocurrency through focus on Ethereum. It is found that blockchain miners, despite initial profitability, cannot maintain sustainable financial viability without substantial fees. This article is important to those academics who focus on understanding how service technologies and products underpin Industry 4.0. Finally, this article contributes to the practitioners’ decision-making process to embrace blockchain mining as a technological entrepreneur.