Business leaders from across the mining industry attended the mining stage of the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami last week.
Let’s take a look at some of the ideas discussed in the three-day panel.
There is no compromise for miners
Many of the largest mining companies are scaling up at an ever-faster pace. In one of the panels, the speaker pointed out that if the miner weren’t, it would be very difficult for the miner to catch up. We use the latest and most efficient machines that are very cost competitive.
“We are all moving forward at full speed and the guns are burning,” said Marathon CEO Fred Thiel.
Mike Levitt, Chairman and CEO of Core Scientific, He said the capital markets have tightened in the last few months and have become difficult for anyone among very small or large miners. He said that at this point you are “scaled and efficient” “Make a little money by being very small [and] Light. “
“I don’t want to start a big business today. It’s not easy to do that,” he said.
According to Levitt, balancing product costs (including electricity and equipment) with productivity levels by building well-designed operations is a key factor.
Riot CEO Jason Les added that know-how is the biggest barrier to entry into the industry.
Decentralization at the geographic and ownership levels
What does distributed mining look like? Is it a geographical issue or is it the ownership of the machine? This topic was taken up several times during the conference, with several speakers pointing to the latter as the most important aspect.
“Historically, we’ve seen decentralization as just a physical place,” said Ben Gan-young, chief mining officer at Bitfarm. “But if you look at its vulnerability to 51% of attacks, it’s not the physical distribution of the mining equipment that matters. It’s the ownership of that mining equipment. I have 51% of the hash rates around the world. You can control it. You don’t have to manage everything in one place. “
Upstream Data owner Stephen Barbour also pointed out hashrate ownership as the most important factor.
“”[Hashrate] It can be expanded jurisdictionally. If they are the same owner, it doesn’t make a big difference if they are geographically dispersed, “he said.
CEO Barefoot Mining Bob Burnett said decentralization needs to be considered from other perspectives such as power supplies and ASIC technology.
“There are various places where centralization can occur, and I honestly say I think we are more centralized. For now, I don’t think we’re dangerously focused, but I think there are some vectors that are worried about me, “Burnet points out. Move from China to the United States.
“I’m worried that most of the megasite development is also a publicly traded company. I think it’s a really, really dangerous place,” he said. It’s about taking a Bitcoin-centric company and forcing it into a flat mindset. “
The future of consumer product approaches to the home mining industry?
During the meeting, there was no shortage of praise and encouragement for home mining. At some point, when one speaker asked how many participants had done some mining at home, many hands of the audience popped out.
Some speakers shared their views on how future products will make it easier for non-technical people to have miners at home and combine their key functions with thermal applications.
On another scale, CoinHeated owner Jonathan Yuan has partnered with other companies to already use waste heat from Bitcoin miners as a product.
“I work in a whiskey distillery, but they want to preheat all the water. (…) That is, because I’m cooling the ASIC, I get hot water. Winwin.” Said. “Wherever I’m looking for an industrial application right now, wherever I have a fever, I’m like,” Oh, I can heat it. ” “
Yun also shared that he used only heat from miners to heat the entire pool during the colder months.
Miners want stability
The crackdown on China’s mining industry, and more recently the outflow of miners from Kazakhstan, has changed the industry.
Marathon CEO Fred Thiel pointed out in the panel that stability is a major factor in finding new mining sites.
“You have invested a lot of capital to work in a place and it will take years to get that money back. And the last thing you want is a lot of people with AK-47s jeep. “Thank you for building such a wonderful facility, I don’t need it anymore, goodbye,” he said.
© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be provided or used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
