For most of its history, mining has been a misunderstood industry. In this livestream, author and journalist Ethan Lou talks about his new book, “Once A Bitcoin Miner.” Lou’s book is based on what he learned after exploring this new, volatile, and rapidly growing industry.
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Show Notes
Introduction and about the book
- I ran a mine previously.
- This book was written from the perspective of the human condition vs a technical perspective.
General thoughts on mining
- Bitcoin mining is still very institutionalized.
- China’s mining ban caused a dispersion of hashrate around the world, which so far has been bullish for the network.
- China may see bitcoin as a competitor to their CBDC. This may be why they banned it.
Do you expect another “China like” event in other parts of the world
- It may happen in the far future.
- El Salvador may reverse course with future leaders since their laws can be easily changed by the sitting president.
- Canada might ban mining that isn't deemed "ESG compliant".
Canadian mining
- Alberta is like the “Texas of Canada”.
- Alberta is populated due to economic growth.
- Many Canadian oil drillers are beginning to understand the positives of placing mining rigs on their fields.
ESG narrative
- The narrative will get worse before it gets better.
- Every activity practiced around the world uses as much electricity as a country but bitcoin mining is criticized because many people don’t see the value.
- Bitcoin’s beginnings on the dark web hurt its reputation among some demographics of people
Lou's personal mining journey
- I started with Antminer S9s.
- I also found computers that I repurposed, bought GPUs for them, and started mining Monero.
- I rented out a space for the miners and began scaling my operations, reaching 700 ASICs.
- We had to bootstrap in the beginning, and even made our own Ethernet cables.
- I am not currently mining but hold significant amounts of crypto.
Traders vs miners
- Mining used to be more of a blue collar activity, many miners were electricians by trade.
- Traders typically came from a white collar finance background.
How to handle success in crypto
- Its important to be mindful of lifestyle inflation and learn how to manage your gains.
Crypto in North Korea
- North Korea has started using it to circumvent sanctions.
- North Korea organized a crypto conference.
- Seeing someone get arrested for speaking at a crypto conference was shocking but also a sign that regulatory involvement will only increase.
Advice for would-be miners
- Don’t try mining if you don’t hold bitcoin first.
Hosted by Zack Voell and Will Foxley