As Bitcoin has evolved, and the industry around it, so has mining. The dream of a decentralized system, where anyone can mine, has at times become something very different. Marco Streng, CEO of Genesis Mining, joined CoinGeek.com’s Becky Liggero at the Malta Blockchain Summit to discuss how his company is helping people taste that dream once again.
Genesis isn’t one of these latecomers, it’s been involved in the Bitcoin industry for several years now, and mining isn’t the only thing it does. “The group has grown ever since, now also in other sectors. Like for example, high performance computing,” Streng points out. “We have started the Genesis Cloud, which makes use of our computing resources and delivers high performance computing solutions to the masses. And also, for example, DQR as an exchange, and many other companies, like, for example, Blockchain Infrastructure Fund.”
The mining business is doing great though, and its focus is on providing opportunities to those who might not otherwise have them. “Genesis Mining has more than 2 million customers right now, and I think we are the leading provider for mining,” he told Liggero. “Our goal is to really let everybody in the space have the possibility to start mining and to join.”
Decentralized mining is an important aspect to Bitcoin, and one that Genesis is focused on preserving. “It all started with Satoshi’s idea,” Streng said. “The vision was that Bitcoin and the blockchain can be validated in a decentralized way. And that’s what the mining was about. And that ideally could happen with everybody using his own computer at home and mine.”
The problem for so many has been competing with mining farms. Streng noted, “Of course, at one point, people realized ‘Oh, people have an advantage if they move for example to Iceland, or to a place where there’s much lower electricity than in the average home.’ And also, people realized, if they build large-scale facilities, they have a lot of advantage because of economy of scale. So, there was kind of this trend where the large mining giants have a big advantage. And that made this decentralization more centralized.”
Genesis combats that by making their tools available to anyone. “We basically wanted to work against this centralization, we wanted to make it possible for everyone to have that gains and that efficiency increase, and all these benefits that you have as a large scale miner, but offer it to everyone in the world,” he noted. “Everybody should have the right to participate and to mine.”
Liggero asked Streng his thoughts on how Malta is doing with its prioritization of blockchain technology. “I think it’s remarkable to see Malta really stepping forward in a progressive way,” he responded. “They want to make this the Blockchain Island, and they are putting a lot of incentive and a lot of efforts into the regulatory framework to basically give the companies that are coming here more regulatory certainty, which is an essential driver for that.”
That drive will help the industry inspire more confidence in enterprises that crave it. “The big businesses in this space need certainty,” Streng explained. “Because it’s an important decision where they are, what they do. I think that it’s also a great example for them to show other countries, being a good example for other countries. And we will have probably other countries to follow that. And that sets a whole new push on a global scale.”
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