Block reward miners are an endangered species in the blockchain industry—be it from regulators clamping down on their energy consumption, the ‘crypto winter,’ or even the ultra-competitiveness that favors corporations with heavy war chests. However, they still flocked to Miami for Mining Disrupt 2022, and so did CoinGeek’s Chief Bitcoin Historian and GorillaPool founder Kurt Wuckert Jr.
The event caters to miners, and as such, it was dominated by companies that offer services to this group, including ASIC makers, mining pool operators, and even more novel subsectors such as ASIC repairers.
Alex Hays is one of those in unique niches. His company, Orion & Taurus, is on the repair side of the ASIC equation. Hays started as a miner, but in time, he recognized the dire need for qualified ASIC repairers and jumped right into it.
As he told Kurt, mining rigs are easily susceptible to damage. One of the biggest causes is overheating, and with this year’s heat wave being among the worst in history, there was no shortage of ASIC casualties.
Daniel Frumkin was the man to see at the event for those who want their ASIC miners to perform better and make them more money. Frumkin’s company, Braiins, “adds a lot of custom features and flexibility into the firmware.” This allows the miner to tinker with the machine, with the main advantage being the ability to assign “more work to the better quality individual chips and less work to the lower quality chips.”
“The end results of that is that you’re getting more hash rate per watt of energy that you consume because you’re basically giving more work to your best workers,” Daniel said.
For the novices, Evergreen Systems had the best product at the event—the “crypto miner for grandma.” As CTO and cofounder Dylan Rose told Kurt, the Evergreen Miner mines with a hard drive, consuming only 15 watts and retailing at just $300.
One of the concepts that stood out was the advancement of immersion cooling for mining machines. Five years ago, giant, noisy fans were all the miners depended on to cool their mining rigs, but not only was it inefficient, but it was also quite costly. At Mining Disrupt, immersion cooling was all the rage, with several booths showcasing the latest in the technology.
And then there’s the rise of mobile data centers, which were on display at the event. These centers allow users to mine from any location globally, taking advantage of the best power rates and regulations.
“It’s a pretty interesting way to be able to utilize power whenever it is but not having to build a giant warehouse,” Kurt pointed out while inside one of the mobile data centers placed in the parking lot.
Kyle Neigum, the Special Project Manager at the CES Corporation, which makes these mobile miners, revealed that their miners are quite versatile and accommodate every other mining machine, from Bitmain’s Antminer to MicroBT’s Whatsminer and more.
Mining Disrupt was a showcase of just how much the block reward mining industry has grown over the past few years, from the advancements in mining technology to the billions of dollars going into the sector.
“It’s the one sector that has benefitted immensely from the BTC pump that has happened over the last few years,” Kurt summarized it.
An overwhelming majority of the attendees mine BTC. However, as Kurt revealed, there were quite a number of BSV miners who did it on the low.
“A lot of people who recognized me pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey Kurt, don’t anybody but we got 20 ASICs on BSV right now.’ So, we’ve got some allies in places like this too,” Kurt revealed.
Watch: The BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, Blockchain mining & energy innovation
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