Mining bitcoin has developed into a multibillion-dollar industry, with Fortune reporting that it may now be the world's most profitable industry, surpassing established leaders such as Big Pharma and software suppliers.
The Tampa Bay area now has a leader in this quickly developing business, courtesy of Russel Bruno and Ace Host.
Bruno is the chief executive officer of Ace Host, a data centre operator situated in Tampa, Florida. Ace Host operates both a standard data centre equipped for crypto mining and a self-contained mining facility. A data centre is a facility that holds computing hardware and networking equipment. At their heart, data centres supply enterprises with three essential components for meeting their computing requirements: power, connectivity, and cooling.
"We've been in the mining business for about eight years," Bruno explained. "We've been doing this for a long period of time and have a firm grasp on the crypto and mining markets."
Additionally, data centres are mission-critical infrastructure; they must stay secure and operational at all times, even in the case of a broad outage. With no tolerance for downtime, it is vital to have several power sources and links to the broader network architecture, and Ace Host assures 99.9% uptime.
Additionally, these particular properties make data centres ideal for crypto mining.
"I am capable of instantly reactivating them (miners)," Bruno asserts. "That is how everybody interprets it.
"Mining has become an obsession for everyone. Everybody is after profit."
Along with self-mining, Bruno rents out his facilities to other firms and individuals for mining operations. Prospective customers can complete a brief online form to receive a free quote for colocation services based on the equipment required and the coin they intend to mine.
Colocation data centres enable miners to quickly and affordably bring their machines online. Along with redundancy and security safeguards for essential infrastructure, Ace Host's autonomous downtown Tampa facility is also hurricane-rated to Category 4.
The company has grown considerably in recent years as popular usage of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies has surged.
"I've had 400 mining leads in the last month alone; it's ridiculous," Bruno explained. "At one facility, we will be without electricity."
Bruno is constantly on the lookout for extra power, as mining activities rely heavily on it. Bruno informed us that he is a member of a consortium that had signed a letter of intent to acquire an abandoned power plant in Auburndale. He stated that he is seeking partners and talks with municipalities about erecting equipment and occupying vacant spaces.
"We are true miners, but I am first and foremost a true telecommunications engineer," Bruno explains. "I believe in the industry and in its future."
Bruno, who began his mining career years ago by establishing operations in Iceland for a corporation, refers to himself as a pioneer in the space. He argues that word about the expanding sector has been sluggish to reach the general public due to the close-knit character of the mining community and the lengthy history of self-mining. He is now urging others in the sector, particularly in the Tampa Bay area, to share in the prosperity.
"I'm here, I've done an outstanding job with it, and I believe in Tampa," he stated.
Bruno has been a resident of the Tampa Bay area since 1994 and attended the University of Tampa, where he played baseball. He serves on the alumni board and has utilised his mining and Bitcoin abilities to develop innovative methods to raise money for the programme.
Along with supervising two big sites in Tampa, Bruno and his crew oversee operations for two of the country's top mining companies. Bruno stated that for nearly three years, he has managed approximately 8,000 workers "out west." The majority of the labour is performed by automation software, and a team of professionals ensures that the programme is operational at all times.
"At the end of the day, hardly many individuals do what we do on this magnitude," Bruno explains.
Bruno stated that he invested approximately $2 million and 3.5 megawatts in his downtown Tampa buildings. Auburndale's ancient power plant, which is capable of producing up to 300 megawatts, will take around a year to restart. Bruno employs a team of scouts to comb the country for potential power sources, and they recently got eight megawatts from Indiana.
Bruno, on the other hand, makes it abundantly plain that he want to keep his activities in Florida, preferably in the Tampa Bay area. He recently met with the Florida Power Commissioners Association and is in talks with Lakeland Electric to acquire many of the utility's properties.
Many of these older plants and localities have excess electricity but no use for it, and their operators lack the know-how to convert them to mining operations. Mining enterprises that have the potential to provide significant additional revenue for a community.
"We're really down the road with a lot of different groups to see if we can take on places with a lot of power," Bruno explained. "We recently struck a contract with a place that possesses five megawatts of energy - sitting idle."
Bruno expresses a desire to return to the St. Pete area, stating that all he requires is space and power. He urges city officials to contact him or other miners to determine what they require and how the activities may benefit the community.
Bruno previously occupied a 90,000-square-foot facility in the Gandy neighbourhood and registered the domain name "Silicon Gandy." Bruno thinks it amusing that, years later, the region is now being compared to a young Silicon Valley as a result of its rise as a financial technology industry leader.
"I'm not taken aback," he continues. "We require additional businesses to invest in the Tampa Bay area.
"The economy is doing well, and housing is reasonably priced. It's an excellent neighbourhood."
