The Mining Pod | Blockspace Media

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Daniel Leslie, CTO of Coin Safe Limited, joins us to discuss Bitcoin mining in Australia. Despite Australia's massive size, its mining footprint remains tiny at around 100MW total capacity. Daniel explains how Australia's renewable-heavy grid (35-39%) creates price volatility and operational challenges similar to Texas. He shares insights on how miners could become crucial grid-balancing assets by consuming excess renewable energy and acting as "buyers of last resort." With abundant resources and a secure business environment, Australia could follow Texas's path to becoming a mining powerhouse.

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:30 Australian Bitcoin mining market

04:47 Homegrown mining or foreign investment?

06:30 Energy mix

13:41 have renewables hindered mining growth?

19:45 Using coal as flex generation

24:41 Gov incentives for grid connection

27:29 New interest in BTC mining

34:16 Grid connection approval times

41:10 Huddles to adoption

Notes:

• Australia has ~100MW of Bitcoin mining capacity

• 79% of installed renewable capacity gets curtailed

• Miners operate at grid edge due to price volatility

• Nuclear plants proposed for each Australian state

• Energy operators now open to Bitcoin mining JVs

• Grid regulates coal down when renewables produce

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👉 CleanSpark (CLSK), America’s Bitcoin Miner!

Cleanspark develops infrastructure for Bitcoin, an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion. Learn more by visiting https://www.cleanspark.com/!

👉 Digital Shovel, All Things Crypto Mining!

Are you a Crypto miner looking to expand your operations leading into this next Bull Market? Digital Shovel is a leading manufacturer of modular mining pods, as well as PDUs & Switchgears. Industry leading prices starting at $69,000/MW for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear. For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

👉 Nicehash, Hashrate, Bitcoin payments and mining!

NiceHash is the world leading hashrate marketplace providing a full suite of tools and software for miners to optimize their operations. Based in Switzerland, NiceHash is a fully regulated crypto mining platform.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the

Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews

on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charlie and Matt fill in for Colin and Will on this week's Mining Pod. They discuss Core We've's public listing plans and its 12-year, $10.2B contract with Core Scientific, making it the AI darling of American markets. They debunk rumors about Microsoft canceling CoreWeave contracts, cover US customs releasing seized Bitcoin miners after months of delays, and analyze Cathedra's $21M sale of a 60MW North Dakota mining site. The episode wraps with insights on market volatility driven by Trump's tariff policies and how Scott Bessent's Bitcoin knowledge influences economic decisions.

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Notes:

• Difficulty adjustment expected at +1.16%

• Hash price bottomed at $45/PH/s/day in February

• CoreWeave 2024 revenue: $1.92B (77% from 2 clients)

• Cathedra sold 60MW site for $350K per megawatt

• Mining equipment being released by US customs

• Market volatility from Trump's tariff policies

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

01:55 Difficulty update

05:12 Coreweave IPO?

09:39 Coreweave MSFT FUD

14:54 Customs mining rig seizures

24:09 Cry Corner: Tariff Tug of War

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

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You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 8,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

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Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Haley Thomson, director of energy trading at Luxor

Technologies, joins us to dive deep into ERCOT's unique energy market and how Texas plans to manage the incoming wave of AI and HPC data center demand. We explore battery storage solutions, creative power generation approaches, and why Texas has become the epicenter of both crypto mining and AI computing infrastructure.

Notes:

• ERCOT expects 150GW peak demand by 2030

• ERCOT current peak load is 84GW (2024)

• 6GW of data center demand expected next year

• 24GW solar deployment planned 2024-2025

• 13GW storage deployment planned 2024-2025

• $40B worth of nat gas plants proposed

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:02 ERCOT's surging power demand

05:37 2023 power price spikes

10:42 ERCOT energy storage plans

17:58 Does storage help AI data center demand?

24:02 Baseload buildout trailing demand

30:01 PGM vs energy only

36:33 Creative energy work arounds

39:16 Does off grid power scale?

40:19 Types of AI power demand

45:35 Hyperscalers buying mining sites

48:40 Wrap up

👉 CleanSpark (CLSK), America’s Bitcoin Miner!

Cleanspark develops infrastructure for Bitcoin, an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion. Learn more by visiting https://www.cleanspark.com/!

👉 Digital Shovel, All Things Crypto Mining!

Are you a Crypto miner looking to expand your operations leading into this next Bull Market? Digital Shovel is a leading manufacturer of modular mining pods, as well as PDUs & Switchgears. Industry leading prices starting at $69,000/MW for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear. For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the

Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 8,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Want to mine Bitcoin? Check out the Blockspace Media store today!

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! For today’s Bitcoin Stock Show, MARA’s Chief Strategy Officer Adam Swick joins to discuss the forward-looking plans CEO Fred Thiel mentioned in MARA’s 2024 earnings call. Specifically, Swick unpacks claims that MARA wants to offshore 50% of its operations by 2028 by entering into similar joint-ventures as its Zero Two partnership in the UAE. Swick also speaks to the company’s goal to own more energy-generating assets in the United States and how it would finance such purchases. Finally, why MARA is so hot on the new ASIC manufacturer, Auradine, and whether or not we should expect MARA to enter the inference field for AI compute.

You can listen to MARA's 2024 earnings call here.

• Mara went from 0% to 70% owned mining assets

• Q4 revenue: $214.4M with lower operating costs

• Target: 50% of operations outside US by 2028

• Wind farm acquisition extends life of older miners

• Auradine partnership delivering quality ASIC miners

• Focus on AI inference rather than training models

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

03:53 MARA lowering OpEx

06:24 Trend toward owned assets

09:01 Zero cost mining

14:17 Debt financing BTC purchases

19:27 Considering power production

22:01 Foreign mining sites

27:08 Has Africa been sufficiently de-risked?

30:25 Free-er energy markets vs controlled

33:57 Auradine

40:40 AI & HPC

👉 CleanSpark (CLSK), America’s Bitcoin Miner!

Cleanspark develops infrastructure for Bitcoin, an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion. Learn more by visiting https://www.cleanspark.com/!

👉 Digital Shovel, All Things Crypto Mining!

Are you a Crypto miner looking to expand your operations leading into this next Bull Market? Digital Shovel is a leading manufacturer of modular mining pods, as well as PDUs & Switchgears. Industry leading prices starting at $69,000/MW for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear. For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the

Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 8,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Want to mine Bitcoin? Check out the Blockspace Media store today!

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, hosts Colin and Will dive into the ongoing saga of US Customs and Border Protection seizing Bitcoin mining hardware at various ports of entry. Initially targeting Antminer units in late 2024, the seizures expanded to include equipment from Whatsminer and Canaan, costing some companies millions in detained assets. The hosts explore how industry lobbying - particularly through Senator Lummis and connections to the Trump administration - has begun to resolve the situation, along with theories about why these unprecedented seizures occurred in the first place. Could this push more manufacturing onshore?

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:17 History of seizure trend

09:08 Lobbying the government for release

17:42 Follow on effects

20:13 Bitmain plans

24:20 Conspiracy corner: Evil or Entropy

Notes:

- $5 million worth of hardware seized from one company

- Seizures expanded beyond Antminer to Whatsminer/Canaan

- Detentions began Sep 2024, escalated to seizures Feb 2025

- Shipments being released after industry lobbying

- Sen. Lummis and White House helped resolve situation

- CBP cited unauthorized communications equipment laws

👉 CleanSpark (CLSK), America’s Bitcoin Miner!

Cleanspark develops infrastructure for Bitcoin, an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion. Learn more by visiting https://www.cleanspark.com/!

👉 Digital Shovel, All Things Crypto Mining!

Are you a Crypto miner looking to expand your operations leading into this next Bull Market? Digital Shovel is a leading manufacturer of modular mining pods, as well as PDUs & Switchgears. Industry leading prices starting at $69,000/MW for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear. For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

👉 Nicehash, Hashrate, Bitcoin payments and mining!

NiceHash is the world leading hashrate marketplace providing a full suite of tools and software for miners to optimize their operations. Based in Switzerland, NiceHash is a fully regulated crypto mining platform.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the

Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews

on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 8,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Want to mine Bitcoin? Check out the Blockspace Media store today!

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! For this week’s news round, the boys are back, and they came with receipts on the billions of dollars institutions have invested in public bitcoin miners. Plus, BitFuFu is expanding its presence in the United States with a $20.4 million deal for an Oklahoma bitcoin mine, and Core Scientific could be altering its AI/HPC strategy with an acquisition of its own. The Texas Blockchain Council also has a report for us on just how many jobs bitcoin mining has created in the U.S.A. And for this week’s cry corner, why Argentina's President Javier Milei is staring down the barrel of impeachment after his involvement with a memecoin rugpull.  

Notes:

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

01:30 Difficulty report

05:18 Institutions own 40% of mining stocks

11:34 BitFuFu

19:55 Bitcoin Mining Adds 31k Jobs to US

26:10 Core buying an AI data center?

32:46 Cry Corner: Got them LIBRA blues

👉 CleanSpark (CLSK), America’s Bitcoin Miner!

Cleanspark develops infrastructure for Bitcoin, an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion. Learn more by visiting https://www.cleanspark.com/!

👉 Digital Shovel, All Things Crypto Mining!

Are you a Crypto miner looking to expand your operations leading into this next Bull Market? Digital Shovel is a leading manufacturer of modular mining pods, as well as PDUs & Switchgears. Industry leading prices starting at $69,000/MW for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear. For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the

Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 8,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Want to mine Bitcoin? Check out the Blockspace Media store today!

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Harry Sudock, SVP of CleanSpark, joins us to dive deep into the company's pure-play Bitcoin mining strategy. Harry breaks down their four-pillar approach: energy efficiency, Bitcoin focus, operational excellence, and capital stewardship. We explore Clean Spark's portfolio strategy versus mega-sites, market valuations, and the evolving landscape of Bitcoin mining stocks. Plus, Harry shares insights on institutional investment trends and the future of mining operations.

Notes:

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

03:15 Reflecting on the industry

10:29 Company valuation

17:41 Portfolio vs hyperscale model

21:09 Press release pumping

24:44 Industry analysts

32:59 Mining in the USA

36:54 Miner ETFs

41:43 Courting Wall Street

44:29 Premium in stack value

46:51 2025 & beyond

49:38 Transition to dividend model

👉 CleanSpark (CLSK), America’s Bitcoin Miner!

Cleanspark develops infrastructure for Bitcoin, an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion. Learn more by visiting https://www.cleanspark.com/!

👉 Digital Shovel, All Things Crypto Mining!

Are you a Crypto miner looking to expand your operations leading into this next Bull Market? Digital Shovel is a leading manufacturer of modular mining pods, as well as PDUs & Switchgears. Industry leading prices starting at $69,000/MW for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear. For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

👉 Nicehash, Hashrate, Bitcoin payments and mining!

NiceHash is the world leading hashrate marketplace providing a full suite of tools and software for miners to optimize their operations. Based in Switzerland, NiceHash is a fully regulated crypto mining platform.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the

Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews

on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 8,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Want to mine Bitcoin? Check out the Blockspace Media store today!

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Erik and Phillip from Gridless join us to discuss Bitcoin mining in East Africa. From dealing with wildlife to building custom mining software, they share how they're monetizing stranded energy assets and electrifying rural regions for the first time ever. Learn about their revenue-sharing model, remote management systems, and how Bitcoin mining is transforming energy development across Africa.

Notes:

• East African Mining Expansion

• Stranded Energy Monetization

• Remote Site Management

• Bitcoin Treasury Strategy

• Rural Electrification

• Africa Risk Management

Timeline

00:00 Start

03:15 Bio

05:59 New Biomass Site

07:44 Remote management

11:00 we don't pay for power

14:40 Challenges in the field

17:46 Ethiopia

25:39 History of the TVA

31:41 Risks (theft, climate change)

36:27 Raising money

👉 CleanSpark (CLSK), America’s Bitcoin Miner!

Cleanspark develops infrastructure for Bitcoin, an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion. Learn more by visiting https://www.cleanspark.com/!

👉 Digital Shovel, All Things Crypto Mining!

Are you a Crypto miner looking to expand your operations leading into this next Bull Market? Digital Shovel is a leading manufacturer of modular mining pods, as well as PDUs & Switchgears. Industry leading prices starting at $69,000/MW for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear. For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

👉 Nicehash, Hashrate, Bitcoin payments and mining!

NiceHash is the world leading hashrate marketplace providing a full suite of tools and software for miners to optimize their operations. Based in Switzerland, NiceHash is a fully regulated crypto mining platform.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the

Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews

on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s now openly acknowledged that the crypto industry has been targeted for years by the previous administration’s Operation Chokepoint 2.0 scheme. Charlie & Colin discuss how last week’s hearing saw Senators Warren & Scott addressed the matter before the House Financial Services Committee. We explain how we got here and where we might go as an industry.

Notes:

• History of regulatory scrutiny

• FTX Fallout

• Operation Chokepoint 2.0 Hearing

• Elizabeth Warren changes tune

Check out our Bitcoin scaling conference! Visit opnext.dev to learn more.

Chapters:

03:23 – Operation Choke Point 2.0: Background & FTX Fallout

07:20 – Nick Carter’s Revelations & Chokepoint Analysis

09:23 – Silvergate’s Story & the 15% Deposit Cap

18:09 – House Financial Services Committee Hearing Recap

25:05 – Elizabeth Warren’s Pivot & Broader Political Implications

42:41 – Future Outlook: Could There Be a Choke Point 3.0?

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👋Bitcoin Season 2 is produced Blockspace Media, Bitcoin’s first B2B publication in Bitcoin. Follow us on Twitter and check out our newsletter for the best information in Bitcoin mining, Ordinals and tech!

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You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 8,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! For this week’s news roundup, Colin and Matt talk about the big story Blockspace broke this week: the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is seizing Antminer ASICs at ports of entry, and it’s also started to detain MicroBT and Canaan units. Plus, the $500 billion Chinese tech giant Tencent ups its stake in newly-christened public bitcoin miner Cango to 15.6%. They also touch on Bit Digital’s WhiteFiber AI rebrand, and why Riot’s newest board member signals that it’s getting increasingly serious about an AI pivot. The duo also welcomes Luxor Director of Energy Trading Haley Thomson to discuss what the AI boom means for Texas power prices. And for this week’s cry corner: bitcoin obituaries are dead – all hail number go up.

Timestamps

00:00 Start

01:20 Difficulty report

04:33 CBP crackdown on ASICs

12:08 Tencent owns 15% of Cango

18:05 Haley Thomson, Dir of Energy Trading @ Luxor

30:52 Bit Digital rebrands AI/HPC as WhiteFiber

32:24 Riot appoints Jamie Leverton to board among AI/HPC probe

34:27 Cry Corner: Bitcoin obituaries are dead

👉 CleanSpark (CLSK), America’s Bitcoin Miner!

Cleanspark develops infrastructure for Bitcoin, an essential tool for financial independence and inclusion. Learn more by visiting https://www.cleanspark.com/!

👉 Digital Shovel, All Things Crypto Mining!

Are you a Crypto miner looking to expand your operations leading into this next Bull Market? Digital Shovel is a leading manufacturer of modular mining pods, as well as PDUs & Switchgears. Industry leading prices starting at $69,000/MW for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear. For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power!

Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the

Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices