BTC Mining

Bitcoin Mining Operations Continue to Expand Amid the Crypto Winter, While Converting ‘Wasted Gas to Energy at Scale’

12/08/2022 by Idelto Editor

The bitcoin mining industry continues to expand as companies are obtaining more megawatts of capacity, building new facilities, and acquiring thousands of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining rigs. On Friday, the firm Validus Power revealed it has acquired two natural gas power stations in Ontario, Canada, that will become crypto mining facilities. On the same day, the firm Applied Blockchain got a $15 million loan to fund growth and “buildout of its data centers.” While the bitcoin mining industry’s growth has been exponential, at the same time, bitcoin mining operations are making a significant dent toward cleaning up the world’s CO2 emissions.

Applied Blockchain Secures $15M in Credit to Build Out Data Centers

While cryptocurrency markets saw a significant downturn during the last few months, it has not stopped specific bitcoin miners from expanding. For instance, this week, the bitcoin mining company Genesis Digital Assets announced that the firm secured 708 megawatts (MW) in capacity during the first half of 2022. After securing thousands of ASIC mining devices at a discount, the bitcoin miner Cleanspark announced earlier this week that it acquired a plug-in-ready facility with 86 MW of capacity.

On Friday, the bitcoin mining hosting company Applied Blockchain announced that it secured a $15 million loan to continue expansion. “[Applied Blockchain] intends to use the facility to repay its existing debt and provide additional liquidity to fund the buildout of its data centers,” the company noted during the announcement. “The new credit facility doubles our loan-to-value on our Jamestown facility and provides us with additional capital to fund our growth plans and deliver on the increasing demand from our customers,” Applied Blockchain’s chairman and CEO, Wes Cummins, explained.

Validus Power Expands Ontario Presence With Plans to Convert Waste Gas Into Bitcoin With Propriety Clean Energy Technology

While Applied Blockchain got a loan to pay off existing debt and build out infrastructure, Validus Power, a blockchain power solutions firm, announced that the company is building out more data centers in Canada. Validus Power is in the midst of developing two crypto mining facilities in Kapuskasing and North Bay, Ontario, and it has plans for data center construction in Iroquois Falls, Northern Ontario. The company acquired the natural gas power stations from Northland Power in April 2022.

According to Validus, the Iroquois Falls plant is 120 MW and a natural-gas-fired power center. The Kingston location is also a natural-gas-fired power center with 110 MW of capacity. Last October, Validus announced its North Bay Power Plant and it also inked a partnership with Hut 8 Mining Corp. Like a myriad of bitcoin mining firms today, Validus Power also converts wasted gas into crypto.

On June 3, the company wrote about the “Mad Maxx Mobile Power Fleet,” which converts “waste gas into Bitcoin with propriety clean energy technology.” Validus joins Crusoe Energy, Greenidge Generation, Upstream Data, Vespene Energy, EZ Blockchain, and a number of others transforming wasted gas into bitcoin. The expansion of the bitcoin mining industry in 2022 is not only seeing growth, but the technologies behind bitcoin mining operations are helping the environment. The blog post Validus published last June says:

Through the use of propriety and proven technology, Validus Power is able to take undesirable and unusable waste gas created in the oil refinement process and convert it to energy at scale.

What do you think about Applied Blockchain getting funding for expansion and Validus Power expanding operations in Ontario, Canada? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Cleanspark Acquires Plug-in-Ready Bitcoin Mining Facility With up to 86 MW of Capacity

10/08/2022 by Idelto Editor

On Tuesday, the bitcoin mining company Cleanspark announced it acquired a plug-in-ready bitcoin mining facility that is scalable to 86 megawatts (MW) of capacity. Presently, the newly opened site in Washington, Georgia, has 36 megawatts, which is expected to give Cleanspark’s hashrate a 38% boost this quarter.

Publicly-Listed Bitcoin Miner Cleanspark Expands Operations in Georgia

After Cleanspark Inc. (Nasdaq: CLSK) revealed last month that it acquired 1,061 bitcoin miners at a “discounted price,” the company announced it has acquired a new facility in Washington, the county seat of Wilkes County, Georgia. The new facility has the capacity to host up to 86 MW and Cleanspark purchased the facility for $16.2 million. The mining firm also bought 3,400 Antminer S19 mining rigs for $8.9 million.

The Antminer rigs are currently in operation with 340 petahash per second (PH/s) of hashpower. “[Cleanspark] will fill the balance of the 36 MW with machines already paid for and on hand,” Tuesday’s announcement details. The new facility will be Cleanspark’s third clean-energy bitcoin mining facility in Georgia. The company says that it looks forward to growing the facility’s infrastructure and bolstering local jobs in the region. The site leverages low-carbon energy sources such as nuclear, Cleanspark’s announcement explains.

“We are excited to expand our footprint in Georgia,” Cleanspark’s CEO Zach Bradford said in a statement. The market has been preparing all summer for consolidation, and we are pleased to be on the acquiring side. Our focus on sustainability and maximizing value for our stakeholders have put us in a unique position to take advantage of the unprecedented opportunities that the current market has created.” Bradford continued:

We are especially excited to be working with the citizens of Washington, GA, who have been so welcoming to us. We look forward to maintaining and growing jobs and infrastructure at our new campus in Washington.

Cleanspark shares CLSK have seen gains during the last 30 days rising 10.51%, but one-year statistics show CLSK has lost 67.86%. A number of other publicly-listed mining companies have seen shares follow the same downward trend as cryptocurrencies in the current bear market. For instance, Marathon Digital Holdings (Nasdaq: MARA) reported that it recorded negative Q2 results, but the company saw increases in bitcoin production.

The price of bitcoin has hurt BTC mining revenue and the leading crypto asset’s hashrate slipped 1.7% lower in Q2 in comparison to the first quarter. Despite the crypto winter, Cleanspark has continued to expand and when it acquired two bulk orders of ASIC miners in July at a discount, Bradford highlighted that Cleanspark was seeing “unprecedented opportunities in this market.”

What do you think about Cleanspark acquiring a facility in Washington, Georgia with up to 86 MW of capacity and purchasing 3,400 Antminers? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.

Bitcoin’s Mining Difficulty Rises for the First Time in 57 Days, BTC Hashrate Slipped 1.7% Lower in Q2

04/08/2022 by Idelto Editor

The mining difficulty tied to the Bitcoin network increased for the first time in 57 days, rising 1.74% higher than the last two weeks. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s hashrate has been below average as the network’s computational power is down 1.7% lower in the second quarter than in Q1 2022. After reaching 292 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 8, Bitcoin’s hashrate today is coasting along below the 200 EH/s mark at 182 EH/s.

Bitcoin’s Difficulty Increases, Making It More Difficult to Discover Block Rewards for the Next 2 Weeks

Following the three consecutive difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) reductions over the last six weeks, the DAA has shifted upwards for the first time since June 8. On August 4, at block height 747,936, the difficulty increased by 1.74%, bringing the metric up from 27.69 trillion to the current 28.20 trillion.

The DAA, or difficulty epoch, changes every 2,016 blocks or roughly every two weeks. The DAA increases when the 2,016 blocks are discovered too fast and the metric decreases when the discovery time is too slow. Satoshi Nakamoto’s design makes it so roughly every ten minutes, a new BTC block is found as the DAA system is modeled by a Poisson distribution scheme.

Since the 1.74% increase on Thursday, it is now harder to find a bitcoin block than it was during the last two weeks. Prior to the rise, the DAA shifted downwards three times in a row after June 8. Currently, the network’s 28.20 trillion difficulty metric is 9.76% lower than the all-time high in mid-May when it tapped 31.25 million.

With lower BTC prices and the latest difficulty increase, the changes could affect miners negatively during the next two weeks. At press time, the network’s computational power is under the 200 EH/s zone, as it’s coasting along at 182 EH/s today.

The overall Bitcoin hashrate slipped 1.7% lower in Q2 2022 compared to the first quarter, according to statistics compiled by stockapps.com’s fintech expert Edith Muthoni. “In the second half of the second quarter, Bitcoin’s overall hash rate grew more irregular and variable,” Muthoni notes in her research. “This behavior indicates miners are struggling to adapt to the changing market conditions.”

At 182 EH/s, Bitcoin’s hashrate is 37% lower than the 292 EH/s all-time high posted on June 8. Second quarter data indicates that Foundry USA was the top mining pool, capturing 22.27% of Q2’s overall hashrate. Foundry discovered 2,843 BTC blocks out of the 12,766 blocks found in Q2.

Antpool followed Foundry with 14.77% of the global hashrate as the pool discovered 1,885 blocks during the three-month period. The third largest mining pool in Q2 2022 was F2pool, with 14.31% of the global hashrate, as it mined 1,827 out of the 12,766 blocks discovered in the second quarter.

What do you think about Bitcoin’s difficulty rising 1.74% higher? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.

Bitfarms Adds 18 MW of Capacity to ‘The Bunker’ — Miner’s Daily Production Taps 16.8 BTC per Day

29/07/2022 by Idelto Editor

On July 28, the bitcoin mining company Bitfarms announced the completion of the second phase of its facility expansion, by adding roughly 18 megawatts (MW) of capacity to the operation. The mining facility dubbed “The Bunker,” now has approximately 3.8 exahash per second (EH/s), after the 18 MW increase boosted the computational power by 200 petahash per second (PH/s).

Bitfarms Adds 18 MW to ‘The Bunker,’ Firm Says Daily Production Reaches 16.8 Bitcoin

Bitfarms Ltd. (Nasdaq: BITF) has announced the company has improved The Bunker by adding 18 MW of capacity to the facility. The company completed Phase 2 of The Bunker’s construction and there’s a total of 9,450 bitcoin miners installed. The Bunker started operations in March 2022 and Phase 3 will see the data center built out. Phase 3 aims to add an additional 3,250 miners to the facility which will add 325 PH/s of hashrate.

For now, Phase 2 was an 18 MW increase which added 200 PH/s to the operation, and the company claims to manage a total of 3.8 EH/s today or roughly 2% of the current global hashrate. “Completing Phase 2 of The Bunker expansion is a strategic milestone that contributed to growing our hashrate to 3.8 exahash per second (EH/s), up 5.5% from the beginning of July,” Geoff Morphy, the president and COO of Bitfarms said in a statement.

Morphy added:

Together with an additional 3 MW of low-cost hydropower that went online this month at our mining facility in Washington state, our total operating capacity is now 158 MW. Significantly, with our higher hashrate came an increase in our current production to 16.8 BTC/day, a 15% increase from 14.6 BTC/day at the end of June.

Bitcoin Mining Industry Weathers the Storm, Bitfarms Exec Expects a ‘Gradual Increase in Hashrate’ to Reach Company’s August and Year-End Goals

Bitfarms completing Phase 2 comes at a time when digital asset prices are much lower than they were a few months ago. Damian Polla, Bitfarm’s Latam general manager explained during the first week of June, that falling bitcoin prices constitute a challenge. “The biggest challenge facing the sector in the short term, both in Argentina and globally, is the fall in the price of bitcoin, which reduces revenues and increases operating costs,” Polla said at the time.

There’s been a lot happening within the bitcoin mining sector and the network’s difficulty adjustment just recently made it 5% easier to find BTC block rewards. The bitcoin mining operation Marathon recently secured 254 MW of power to enhance operations and the mining company Cleanspark says crypto winter has shown “unprecedented opportunities.”

In addition to The Bunker, the company’s Washington state farms just got an additional 3 MW of capacity and the low-cost hydropower and stable electricity rates give the facility an advantage over the company’s other mining sites.

“This past week, we have been selectively redeploying some mining assets while continuing to bring new miners online,” Morphy added. “Coupled with slight delays in receiving new mining shipments, the net effect is we expect to experience a more gradual increase in our hashrate and reach our 4 EH/s goal in early August. In addition, we remain confident in executing our current international growth plan and achieving 6 EH/s by year-end.”

What do you think about Bitfarms expanding The Bunker and reaping 16.8 bitcoin per day? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Foundry Digital Launches Logistics Arm to Advance Standards in the Cryptocurrency Mining Industry

28/07/2022 by Idelto Editor

On Thursday, Foundry Digital LLC, the mining company and subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), announced the launch of Foundry Logistics in order to advance standards in the cryptocurrency mining industry. The newly launched arm of the company plans to “bridge the gap between hardware manufacturers and buyers by providing an all-in-one solution for mining hardware deliveries.”

DCG Company Foundry Launches Mining Logistics Arm

Foundry, the crypto mining, staking firm, and DCG company has announced the launch of a new company venture called Foundry Logistics. The new mining logistics arm follows the firm launching staking services in mid-November last year, and Foundry’s mining machine marketplace the following month. Foundry Logistics aims to enhance and set “high standards of transparency, efficiency, and dependability in the cryptocurrency mining industry.”

Foundry Logistics leverages offices worldwide, and on-the-ground contacts in order to bolster “cost-effective and streamlined deliveries” in the crypto mining industry. The company provides “clients with customs clearance, insurance guidance, ocean shipment solutions, national warehouse solutions, and other domestic surface logistics.” Foundry Logistics customers can also access the company’s mining machine marketplace Foundryx and other services the crypto business offers.

“With Foundry Logistics we want to do exactly what Foundry has done with other business verticals: provide the increasing number of institutions in this maturing industry with products, services, and resources that are at par with those that exist in older and more established industries,” MK Sathya, the senior vice president of infrastructure at Foundry Logistics said in a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News.

Foundry Logistics Launch Follows Company’s Mining Industry Academy

The New York-based company’s mining pool Foundry USA is also the top mining pool in terms of BTC’s three-day global hashrate percentages. During the last three days, Foundry has captured 18.55% of the Bitcoin network’s global hashrate, which equates to 38.42 exahash per second (EH/s). While 469 blocks were collectively discovered by 13 mining pools, Foundry found 87 block rewards. Year-to-date statistics indicate Foundry USA was the top mining pool capturing 16.16% of the global hashrate in 12 months. Out of the 53,864 block rewards found during the course of the past year, Foundry USA found 8,705 blocks.

The Foundry Logistics launch follows the company introducing Foundry Academy on July 19. The academy offers a one-week program to train technicians so they can participate in the bitcoin mining industry. Foundry Academy detailed that registrations for the class are open as the program’s first session concluded in May. Foundry’s academic courses are conducted at a mining facility located in Rochester, New York.

What do you think about the newly launched Foundry Logistics? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.