Bitcoin Mining KINGS. We are just kids with our powers)

 

Cryptocurrency mining has become not only a multi-billion business,  but also an area for artistic self-expression. Considering the fierce  competition on the market, miners have to come up with unusual  solutions. In this feature, ForkLog covers some of the most breathtaking  projects in bitcoin mining industry. 

Dave Carlson’s Secret Farm in Washington, USA

 Businessweek Dave Carlson’s farm is located in the state of Washington on Pacific  coast. According to the owner, the farm is the biggest in the entire  Northern America. This software expert and experienced entrepreneur  decided to go for mining after facing financial trouble at his previous  job at an advertising company. MegaBigPower,  which he founded in his own basement, has become a multimillion  business in just a year’s time. Nowadays, the farm is located separately  on a former industrial warehouse, but its exact location is kept  secret. Carlson says that Washington’s low prices for electricity were  as important for his success as his desperate desire to put a lid on  financial tribulations. After the enterprise’s expansion, its monthly expenses, according to  Carlson, comprised upwards of $1 million, including wages 15 people  working therein. He states that the resulting rate of 1.3 petahashes  totally pays off. Moreover, he managed to attract additional investment  to start manufacturing mining equipment using BitFury chips as  a template. The business’s target audience will be other bitcoin mining  enthusiasts. All in all, Carlson seems to be doing good. 

Genesis Mining in Iceland

Initially, Genesis Mining had several farms in Bosnia and China, but  now it’s mostly active in Iceland. This Northern country has probably  the perfect combination of mining conditions: cheap electricity, great  internet connection, and cold environment. The latter is especially  important as it allows miners to save on cooling, thus decreasing the  mined bitcoins’ prime cost.

  Nevertheless, according to Genesis Mining CEO Marco Streng’s recent  statement, the company still uses serious amounts of electric power and  may, in fact, be the biggest power consumer in entire Iceland. In addition to bitcoin mining, Genesis recently launched Ethereum  mining, while the respective farm known as Enigma is said to be the  world’s biggest.  

Allied Control’s Farm in Hong Kong

The region’s hot and damp climate didn’t turn Allied Control against  building Hong Kong’s biggest mining farm. The company put its stake on  so-called two-phase immersion cooling. The farm was built specially for Chinese investors. Its  distinguishing feature is the amazingly low noise level. Initially, the  farm used ASIC chips, however, in January 2015 Allied Control was bought  by BitFury. The latter produces its own chips, and, while the deal’s  details remained undisclosed, one may assume that replacing chips was a  part of the contract. Two-phase immersion cooling, by Allied Control 

BitFury’s Data Center in the Republic of Georgia

December 2015, BitFury opened a 40 MW mining data center in Georgia.  The facility is located in the free economic area of the country’s  capital Tbilisi, and also uses two-phase immersion cooling approach.  BitFury deems it necessary to maintain maximum possible  eco-friendliness, so it uses the power from local HPP. The company chose Georgia for its optimal climatic conditions,  minimal regulation, cheap electricity, and viable labor conditions. The  new data center uses 28 nm and 16 nm chips to process bitcoin  transactions. In addition, the company has another data center in  Georgia and some mining facilities in Iceland. 

Linthal, Switzerland

Photo by srf.ch The farm founded by bitcoin pioneer Guido Rudolfi of Aplereum  launched this April in a village of Linthal in East Switzerland.  Earlier, Rudolfi ran a mining farm in Zurich, but thought the  operational costs were too high. Eventually, after almost two years of  searching, he chose Linthal as the dream location, as it offers the  country’s lowest electricity costs. The new farm located in the building of a former factory is the  country’s biggest. Even though the issue of cooling remains vital,  Rudolfi insists that possible financial profits aren’t what determine  his decisions. The world, he believes, needs Bitcoin for political  reasons. He compares cryptocurrency to the internet in the nineties,  when the phenomenon was also considered with excessive scepticism. April 16 this year, the mining farm held a doors open day and a bitcoin meetup one may check out on the video below.  

China

Analyzing the world’s leading mining pools shows that more than a half of the entire hash power belongs to three pools from China.  Saying almost nothing about the community’s worrying about this state  of affairs, it’s still reasonable to note that China has some advantages  when it comes to mining. First of all, it’s relatively cheap workforce  and willingness of workers to live in simple conditions. China is also  known for its superpower of manufacturing nearly anything, including  mining equipment. Finally, mining bitcoin here is economically  profitable due to the country’s cheap electricity. Still, the political environment in the country causes most operators  to conceal their activity. It also impacts local data centers’ visual  appearance.

  Utility  space for workers at a mining farm in China with a monitor showing  what’s happening in the data center. Photos by NYTimes Last year, HaoBTC’s marketing director Eric Mu spent nearly three  months at the company’s farm in Sichuan mountains. Speaking at  bitcointalk, he noted that thanks to the cheap power from the local HPP  and cheap cooling systems, the data center shows high efficiency and low  carbon exhausting. Current hash rate of the farm comprises 4.7 PH, but  the company intends to increase it to 12 PH in a few months. One may  find some of Mu’s photos below.  

  In fact, there are many diverse mining farms in China, with each of  them unique in some way. For instance, there is a major farm in a secret  location in China, which accounts for 3% of the network’s overall hash  rate. 

 

Bitcoin Group (China / Australia)

Photo by Bitcoin Group Following a series of failed attempts to enter the Australian Stock  Exchange, Bitcoin Group still remains one of the world’s biggest bitcoin  operators. The company owns five data centers in China accounting for  6,000 computers overall. Apart from that, Bitcoin Group has some facilities in Iceland and  Australia. The company pays much attention to ecology, so it uses  renewable energy sources wherever possible. Thus, 82% of the company’s  hash rate in China uses power from HPP’s, while the Iceland-based data  center uses geothermal energy as there are lots of hot springs located  therein. Overall, Bitcoin Group accounts for 1.19% of bitcoin network’s  entire hash power (6.2 PH). Notably, the company’s headquarters in Melbourne hosts the world’s  possibly only bitcoin mining museum exhibiting devices and gadgets used  for cryptocurrency mining. 

 This overview is hardly exhaustive, as there are much more unique and  somewhat amazing mining farms out there. In a while, ForkLog will tell  about other interesting facilities of the Bitcoin world. 

Source: forklog.net

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