All is not lost if you end up paying the Social Security/Medicaid taxes from self-employment (due to making a profit of $400 or more). Half of it can be deducted from your income for income taxes. (The actual math is a bit complex.) Also, these are legit Social Security taxes, meaning you do get SS credits for paying them. This probably doesn't matter unless you don't have a job elsewhere. But hey, if you quit your job to work on bitmining full time, there you go.
If, as quite possible, your bitmining is unprofitable, you could theoretically use it to reduce your income taxes from another job or business. If you can convince the IRS it's not just a tax shelter disguised as a business. See: the hobby loss rule.
If you are planning to go into business as a bitminer, please research Section 179, since it will probably make your life much easier. Or, as @cryptotax says, consult a tax adviser on it.
Disclaimer: I'm not a tax professional, but I am a small businessman, so I learned this stuff.
Thanks for the thoughtful post as always. Agree, the 1/2 self employment is an "adjustment" to AGI. I kept it out of the example because it would muddy up the charts.
Also agree on Section 179. Depending on the time of the year of the purchase, it might be feasible to forgo 179 so establish a small positive profit for the trade/business argument or avoid hobby loss limitation (although I may have to double-check how the test and limit mechanically works). Planning with a tax adviser is best because other non-crypto related tax return activity should be considered in overall decision-making.
Today, I see the biggest grey areas are electricity deductions (i.e. how it is blended through home office / hobby rules) and and classification of mined crypto as (a) capital asset or (b) ordinary income asset.
Disclaimer: This is not tax advice (see general disclaimer for authored post above).