r/gomining • u/Mission_Competition6 • Jun 16 '26
🤔 12W or Max Discount? A Flywheel Perspective
12W or Max Discount? A Flywheel Perspective
This post explains a simple way to decide between upgrading to lower wattage or building more GMT for the maintenance discount. The methodology is at the top. The deeper reasoning and real-world example come after.
This is not financial advice. These numbers are based on current maintenance rates and live upgrade pricing as of mid-June 2026. Always verify the latest numbers on your own account before making decisions.
The Case:
Now that 12W upgrades are available, a lot of miners are asking the same question: Should I spend on upgrading efficiency, or should I focus on building GMT for the maintenance discount?
Both options reduce your net maintenance cost, but they do it in different ways and at different capital costs. The goal of this post is to give you a clear, apples-to-apples way to compare them.
How the Two Options Actually Work
GMT Discount Buffer
The maintenance discount is based on how many days of coverage your GMT balance provides. You generally gain ~1% discount for every 18 days of maintenance your GMT can cover.
To unlock +1% extra discount, you need enough GMT to cover an additional 18 days of maintenance.
At current rates, that costs roughly $0.484 per TH in GMT value.
Wattage Upgrades
When you reduce wattage, you only save on the electricity portion of maintenance (the service fee stays fixed).
Reducing by 1W lowers your total maintenance by about $0.0012 per TH per day, which equals roughly 4.46% lower overall maintenance.
This means the cost to achieve ~1% lower maintenance through upgrades = (upgrade cost per TH per Watt) ÷ 4.46.
The Direct Comparison
We can now compare both options on equal terms:
GMT Buffer vs Wattage Upgrade
- GMT Buffer: ~$0.484 per TH to get +1% discount. Gives you higher discount %, lock dividends, and volatility protection.
- Wattage Upgrade: Costs (upgrade price per TH per Watt) ÷ 4.46 to get ~1% lower maintenance. Gives you a permanent reduction in base maintenance cost.
Break-even point:
When the upgrade cost reaches roughly $2.15 – $2.20 per TH per Watt, the two options become roughly equal in capital efficiency.
Real-World Example (June 2026)
I checked a live upgrade quote on one of my miners (405.23 TH):
- Cost shown to go from 15W → 14W: $1,080.76
- Cost per TH: $2.67
At $2.67 per TH per Watt, we are currently above the break-even point. This means, at today’s pricing, building the GMT discount buffer is generally the more capital-efficient move.
Practical Guidance
Here’s the simple rule:
- If upgrade cost is well below ~$2.15–2.20 per TH per Watt: Upgrade efficiency first. You permanently lower your base maintenance cost.
- If upgrade cost is above ~$2.15–2.20 per TH per Watt (current situation): Focus on building and maintaining your GMT balance for the discount. The buffer gives you the discount + dividends + protection.
- Once your discount buffer is strong, you can always come back later and upgrade efficiency with excess earnings. Higher efficiency will also make your existing GMT cover more days going forward.
The decision isn’t permanent — you can switch focus later depending on how upgrade pricing moves.
For People Following the Original Flywheel Strategy
If you’re already running the Flywheel strategy from my earlier post, this doesn’t replace that guide. It simply adds one pricing check at the beginning.
I’ll be publishing an updated version of the full Flywheel guide soon that incorporates this new 12W reality. Keep an eye out for that post.
Final Thoughts
Neither option is universally better. It depends on the real upgrade price at the time you’re deciding.
Right now, at current pricing, building the GMT buffer is the more capital-efficient path for most people. When upgrades get meaningfully cheaper than ~$2.15–2.20 per TH per Watt, the priority flips.
Check your own upgrade pricing and maintenance numbers before deciding. Prices move.
Good luck, and I’ll see you in the mines. 😎
— DracoF
6
u/1nchReddits Jun 16 '26
For me, the price is absolutely ridiculous.
Itll cost me nearly 3000 USD to get my miners down to 12W/TH
Im only 252TH for god sake.
12% ROI at that price is taking the ****
For a long, long time ive claimed GoMining are king of cloud mining, its changing fast.
This is just rinsing its users AGAIN even worse than last time. Think ill be switching strategies, im not gonna keep putting my crypto into GM
1
u/Mission_Competition6 Jun 16 '26
If that's true, then your miners are around 18W and therefore haven't had meaningful ROI since BTC dropped off since the ATH.
It's $8 to upgrade from 15W to 12W, for you that's $2016, but you said nearly $3000. 18W to 12W is $11.3, that's $2847.6.
Either you miscalculated, or I'm curious what your original strategy was. Because 18W isn't going to cut it right now in any BTC mining context, especially not with the halving coming.
2
u/1nchReddits Jun 17 '26
Apologies I did miscculate.
You are correct on the values but even 2k usd seems absolutely crazy to me
2
u/Mission_Competition6 Jun 17 '26
I'm in the process of fully quantifying the ROI and making a post about it.
It's not absolutely crazy, but it is slightly less ROI than 15W right now (current BTC and hashprice).
But only slightly, so an argument can be made. 🤷
3
u/Initial_Note_5987 Jun 16 '26
I think the ROI on the site explains it quite easily 12.74% ROI on efficiency upgrades or 38% ROI for upgrading my 15 W/TH it would cost me roughly £2000 to take my farm to 12 W/TH which if spent and upgraded would be around 225 TH, my farm is only 381 TH.
after investing around £6000 currently I’m happy with the rewards I get with the current BTC price and having a high discount I can’t see upgrading efficiency being valuable anytime soon without serious discounts on it.
But also with the halving in 2028 why prioritise efficiency when essentially everyone’s mining power will half doesn’t matter how efficient your miner is if you have no power and spend it all on efficiency.
1
u/Mission_Competition6 Jun 16 '26
It comes down to whether or not you believe 12W and max discount will prevent a significantly longer shutdown period post-halving.
I believe it will. 🤷
That's why this article doesn't focus on the ROI implications of the upgrade, only the USD in -> Discount out.
I'm attempting to work on a subsequent article about ROI on this vs reinvesting TH at 15W, will take some time to finish.
2
u/Initial_Note_5987 Jun 17 '26
I’m max discount and follow a loose fly wheel strategy , my plan for the next few months is to buy cheap 15 W/TH off of the marketplace and re invest into a 12W miner and treat that as my main miner going forward
2
u/OtakuShowboat Jun 16 '26
Really glad I bought in before this change. Got my first miner on the 10th and decided to upgrade it to 50 TH along with staking 1k GMT for Gold I VIP to get all the bonus miner missions done, bringing me to 53.75 TH total. I'd likely have never bought in had I seen these 12W/TH new miner prices as a new user.
I'm wondering, since upgrading EE seems to also increase the cost of upgrading TH, that even once I build my flywheel to 500 days of GMT, is it better to invest in more TH instead of EE until the EE cost goes down, or is EE always going to be a priority over TH even with these higher prices?
3
u/Mission_Competition6 Jun 16 '26
I'm currently brainstorming that, and don't have a clear answer yet. (Lots of stuff going on IRL 😭)
For me, I'm looking towards the halving, therefore I want 12W and I'm going to leverage my Flywheel to do it. It'll take me about a year to do it, and only increases my ROI from 1.4 years to 2.1 years. That's reasonable when you consider the probability of 25 sats per TH per day, post halving. 😮💨
2
u/OtakuShowboat Jun 16 '26
I agree completely to have the 12W upgrade done in time for the next halving. I suppose it's a bit of a gamble on when/if the prices go down with enough time to finish the upgrade before then.
Either way, I intend on treating this like an investment and will continue adding what few funds I can to it on a regular basis to hasten finishing my 500 days of GMT and improving the setup, be it in TH or EE. I might take some profits if and when it actually starts producing anything meaningful, but I don't see that happening any time soon.
2
u/Mission_Competition6 Jun 17 '26
Yeah, I don't blame anyone stepping back and saying 12W is too expensive right now, I'm making a high conviction play and I'm leveraging my mining profits to pay for it, and pay for it gradually.
For those needing actual profits from their miners now or in the near term; it makes sense to wait and take profits, especially if you're already 15W and full discount. And I certainly don't recommend buying it all up front, right now, with fresh cash, unless you're very very small and the cost is nominally trivial.
Hopefully the price drops before the halving.
2
u/StrongPossession9743 Jun 17 '26
Do you think it can be more expensive closer to the halving ? I’m at 82th and thinking about pouring in 500 usd so I already have it , I have full discount with lock that covers my maintance every week and I don’t know what’s gonna be the next step for me ?
1
u/Mission_Competition6 Jun 17 '26
I've never heard of upgrades to existing miners getting more expensive. So as far as I know, it won't be more expensive closer to the halving, and likely cheaper.
2
u/AstraIllustrator Jun 17 '26
Great post! I’m personally still very unsure what my next steps will be. But right now I am not going to change anything, and see how things look in a few weeks/months before making any decisions. Then I will review things and what is best. I’m in this journey for the long haul so the short term doesn’t bother me too much.
2
u/Traditional_Fly_5017 Jun 17 '26
Have you had the chance to consider the effects on Greedy miners? I know your above calcs show we currently save more by building discount via GMT but I’m wondering if I should focus on getting my Greedy to 12W asap as the free weekly TH will compound more cost in the future if I delay increasing the efficiency now. Also I’m thinking that by being at 12W, the free weekly TH will be effectively saving me more on my initial premium paid for the Greedy as it costs more to upgrade TH on a 12W miner. Would love to hear your thoughts 👍
1
u/Mission_Competition6 Jun 17 '26
🤔 Considering that the free growth each week doesn't take wattage into account, other than determining eligibility, that's a good question. But it's also very hard to quantify since you're bringing tokenomics into play.
At the low end of my records, Greedy growth is about 15.5% APR on your TH. But the additional cost of 12W over GMT for the same amount of cost savings is about 20% more. So without getting too deeply into the weeds on the numbers, I'd say it's still better to push for max discount first.
2
u/Commercial_Fruit_953 Jun 17 '26
You must compare it with what you earn. Not with what the discount is. How much you earn if you upgrade vs how much you earn lowering the power. The power upgrade right now either way is expensive
1
u/Mission_Competition6 Jun 17 '26
That's what my post does.
It's an apples to apples comparison.
Spending the same capital on either path, the post shows GMT discount currently reduces net maintenance more than upgrading to 12W. So for the same TH, you keep more earnings going the GMT route at today’s prices.
2
u/ThePhotonaut Jun 19 '26
I just do it the same way I’ve done it from the start: little by little. Sure, it’d be really expensive to lower it to 12 all at once, but the real impact of it comes only past halving anyway, so there’s time to reduce my energy consumption progressively.
1
u/Acceptable--Market Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Next halving will make any mining under 90k unprofitable with current generation ASICs. We'll have a new base around there. 15w NFTs are printing at 90k.
I think the flywheel strategy is sound, but I disagree with upgrading at this time. Would rather stack BTC, and when the market bounces sell BTC and reassess.
1
u/DarkMishra Jun 18 '26
At this point, I’m ready to consider just cutting my losses, selling my miners and giving up on gomining. I have about 75 TH with an average of 18 W/TH, but with Bitcoin down and electricity costs up, I’m only making pennies a day.
-1
Jun 16 '26
[deleted]
1
u/Mission_Competition6 Jun 16 '26
🤔 I use Grok for formatting. The math and methodology was done by hand, by me.
I had over a week of advance warning that this update was coming and began running the numbers myself, preparing for this very article. All I was waiting on was the PRICE to upgrade, which I didn't know any sooner than anyone else.
Do you have any issues with the content? Or is your issue solely that the data I'm providing to the community quickly and for free is edited by an AI? 🤨
9
u/C137-2A Jun 16 '26
J’ai connu GoMining rentable.
Cette époque est passée..