The state of Virginia which I reside in allows me to grow up to four cannabis plants at a time. Selling what I grow is illegal, but I can give away to adults as much as I want without expected form of reciprocation. I consume everything I grow, minus what I give away. But I was curious how profitable it is to grow cannabis compared to if I had to buy it. Though we do not have a legal established market here to estimate exactly the costs, but knowing around what it goes for in my area will help me figure out costs.
First lets look at how profitable mining bitcoin is, since I use solar I will not be including any cost basis for power consumption.
24 hour profit my Bitcoin miners is $12.21 each right now. But I only plan on running them during the day when I am using solar. So really only eight hours a day will be actually mining. So that is closer to $4.07 a day at current prices. So a Bitmain S21 Pro miner can earn me around $1485.55 a year using just solar power. That would be considering every day is a clear sunny day, enough to power a miner.
Running the grow lights longer than day time solar production hours would affect this calculation a little. As the lights need to be ran anywhere from 18 hours to 12 hours. But my solar batteries can provide the small amount of power a LED grow tent setup needs. It uses a fraction of what a ASIC miner would. So I will still consider this without using any grid power.
Now for me to compare the two, I need to consider how long one grow takes. I will say four months. I will say a harvest of four plants will be around half a pound.
I can grow that 3 times a year indoors. So that would be 1.5 pounds a year of cannabis grown within my legal limit of four plants.
1.5 pounds of cannabis can be grown a year. Four plants with three harvests. Valued at $4800
Mining bitcoin for 8 hours a day for a year on a single rig will earn me $1485.55
There are other costs for growing weed, like acquiring seeds and fertilizer costs. But it would not be more than $250 a year so its such a small expense it would not be included.
What about start up costs? Well a Bitmain S21 Pro is around $3200 right now. And the return on my investment is two to three years.
Cost to start growing cannabis is around $1200 for the tent, light, fans, ducting, timers and enough fertilizers to get you started. So even considering start up costs, the first grow will pay for itself.
Based on these calculations, growing weed is more profitable than mining Bitcoin. But.. as the price of cannabis drops, and as the price of Bitcoin rises.. that could possibly flip one day.. maybe not but its possible, just not probable. The price of cannabis has dropped a lot over 10 years, and maybe we will see it drop even further as more places allow you to grow cannabis legally.
So if you live in a place its legal to grow cannabis, and you get high on your own supply. Maybe consider growing cannabis before mining Bitcoins.
Source:
Or do both! You can even grow Bitcoins in a grow tent if you want. Though I recommend keeping the plants and miners in separate tents.
Ask me again when Bitcoin’s cost a million dollars each, my answer may have changed.
Dang, only 4 plants? We get to have 12 or something like that in Michigan. I feel like the quality has gotten better with weed too. Which is pretty rare. Lower prices and better quality.
$43/ oz in NM.. good weed too..
Is that where you landed? I haven't bought weed in 20+ years and that was before it was legal! $100 for a ounce or less of stuff that was probably pretty weak by today's standards.
Yeah not many but just glad I can grow at all.
Indeed the price of cannabis has dropped while just getting better. That's nice...
I don't grow myself, but 12 honestly seems like way more than most people would need. Especially hearing now that you can only grow 4 and you make it work.
1.5 pounds off 4 indoor plants is very good.. you should get 2 pounds per plant outside.. more if you give them some love..
LOL, definitely allocate more resources to growing weed. It could be ten years before we see BTC at a million dollars...
Haha it could be awhile but who knows for sure.
I think it's very wise to do both if possible.
How interesting what you tell us about the cost of marijuana and its processing. I wasn't personally aware of that.
A big hug of light!
Ah glad you found my post insightful.
Thanks
Mining crypto in a cannabis grow tent is awesome!
Hehe it sure is. Cuts down on noise and dust.
!BBH
Growing weed pays off after all... lol
It makes sense and it's a lot cheaper than mining BTC. The cost of the miner itself is so expensive that your ROI comes in 2-3 years. That's assuming that nothing goes wrong with the unit as well. But some BTC profit is better than none, especially since you have free power on clear sunny days.
Even though you can't sell your cannabis you still come out ahead since you don't have to buy any. Plus what you grow will tend to be better quality that you will typically buy. It's too bad you can't sell it legally, maybe that will change one day and increase the amount you are allowed to grow. But I wouldn't hold my breath...
Mining BTC here in southern California is prohibitively expensive unless you have all solar on the property. I have some but not complete, and the cost to do so wouldn't see an ROI for many long years. Long after I will have sold the property and moved on. But for you it makes sense to keep up both, you end up in the money either way and even more so with both at once!
Indeed seems like mining Bitcoin is a more risky investment if both are legal where you live.
Glad I can grow without worry.
Ah yeah if I was using grid power I would barely even break even.
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It's an illegal business in many countries, so it's really hard to do this in a legitimate way
Yeah but hopefully the laws will change one day
I can't legally grow the plant where I live, unfortunately.
Hope they legalize where you live one day so you can grow too.
Whoa bro why you gettin' so many downvotes? Downvotes suck. But yeah, I live in a state surrounded by legal states, but it's controlled by liquor and bars that don't want weed legalized.
Some people on blurt do not like me. So they downvote me when they leave. It's all dust so does not do anything much to my rewards or rep.
I feel ya. I lived in a state where it was illegal for a long time. Funny how the more dangerous drug alcohol is legal in those places.
Yeah, man... alcohol and benzos are basically the only drugs that will kill serious addicts who quit cold turkey. Alcohol is served at like craft fairs here and stuff. I'm not saying it should be illegal, but I wish they'd be consistent.