The Mining Pod | Blockspace Media

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Will and Colin are back from the holiday break with the latest news, plus an update on the ASIC hosting market from our friends at Compass. At the top of the news docket, they touch on Russia’s bitcoin mining ban, particularly which miners the ban actually affects (and which ones it doesn’t). Also in the rotation, BitFuFu’s massive 80k ASIC order from Bitmain, and an update on a few of Rhodium’s outstanding litigations. And for this week’s cry corner: pour one out for all the folks who were sad/big mad that they didn’t get invited to Michael Saylor’s $100k New Year’s Eve party…

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:00 Start

01:51 Difficulty update

06:17 OMG Russia bans Bitcoin mining!!!!!

11:59 ASIC hosting market update

23:20 BitFuFu 80k miners

30:50 More trouble at Rhodium

36:46 Cry corner: No invite to Saylor party!

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! 

👉Enjoying the show? Check out our newsletter at miningpod.blockspace.media!

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show!

Follow our hosts on Twitter: @wsfoxley, @cbspears, @AsILayHodling, @MatthewKimmell

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Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.

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

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Max Guise, a team member from Block’s Proto division, joins to talk about the company’s new ASIC chip. A veteran of Block, Guise has worked on everything from the Proto mining ASIC, to Square’s point-of-sale, and its hardware wallet Bitkey. During the discussion, Guise gives us a brief history of Proto’s origins, discusses the challenges of designing (and manufacturing and marketing!) a bitcoin mining ASIC, provides a timeline for the Proto ASIC rollout, and even graces us with a demo of the chip!

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

03:21 Max bio

03:56 Working at Square & CashApp

04:58 Building the point of sale product

06:20 Building hardware

09:48 Genesis of Proto

12:33 Open development

13:37 The team

14:59 What is Proto

16:59 Selling chips

19:56 Closed sourced firmware

21:38 Lifecycle examination

23:32 Market strategy

24:33 Financing

25:05 Hashrate as payment

26:16 Deployment

28:29 When new rig?

28:59 Ecosystem of products

30:13 Other components

30:58 Working with competing miners

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! 

👉Enjoying the show? Check out our newsletter at miningpod.blockspace.media!

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show!

Follow our hosts on Twitter: @wsfoxley, @cbspears, @AsILayHodling, @MatthewKimmell

-

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.

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

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Advanced Crypto Services (ACS) Founder James Scaggs and Co-founder Will Middleton join to talk about all the pertinent operational considerations for bitcoin mining, including the biggest question of all: whether it’s better to buy or mine bitcoin. They touch on the repair side of the business, how some of these older generation ASICs are holding up, which models are the best bang for your buck, and common failure points for ASIC hardware.

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:37 Bios

04:20 10-20 MW mining operation

06:51 DIY mentality

08:24 Revenue

11:17 ASIC resale market

15:45 Rig prices vs hashprice

23:13 Are S19s the new S9s?

27:31 Aluminum backed hash boards

30:19 Advice for beginners

39:30 Off peak hour mining

44:31 Upgrading rigs

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! 

👉Enjoying the show? Check out our newsletter at miningpod.blockspace.media!

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show!

Follow our hosts on Twitter: @wsfoxley, @cbspears, @AsILayHodling, @MatthewKimmell

-

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.

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

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! For this week’s Bitcoin Stock Show, we’re joined by a great friend of the show, Pennyether. Some of y’all might recognize Penny from a couple of the earnings calls we streamed on The Bitcoin Stock Show earlier this year. He’s one of the most insightful independent bitcoin mining stock analysts in the game, and in this episode, he shares his methodology for valuing bitcoin miners, which metrics he finds the most (and least) useful, and his thoughts on the AI boom in mining.

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

03:53 The mining metrics that matter

10:33 More important metrics

19:24 Valuing AI and miners together

26:55 A note on Bitfarms

28:32 What does the market actually care about?

33:10 Thoughts on convertible debt

36:55 How to hedge convertible notes

45:31 Bigger narratives in mining 

48:10 The future of bitcoin mining and data centers

52:55 What metrics aren’t worthwhile?

43:02 What does 2025 look like?

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! 

👉Enjoying the show? Check out our newsletter at miningpod.blockspace.media!

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show!

Follow our hosts on Twitter: @wsfoxley, @cbspears, @AsILayHodling, @MatthewKimmell

Follow this week's guest on Twitter: @penny_ether

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Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.

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

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Riot’s VP of Research, Pierre Rochard, joins Will and Colin to discuss a variety of topics. The fellas start by talking about what a second Trump presidency and Republican Congress means for Bitcoin miners, especially in light of the last administration and Congress’ hostility toward all things Bitcoin. He also weighs the merits of a national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, as well as one in Texas, and the pod closes on discussion of Riot’s $594.4 million convertible note and the miner’s expansion outside of Texas. 

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

03:09 Pierre's bio

15:13 Elizabeth Warren

17:03 Expecting positive regulation?

20:36 Texas mining bills

27:32 AI power demand on Texas grid

31:54 Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

33:42 National SBR?

34:45 Riot convertible note

40:24 Why not invest in infrastructure?

42:43 Why debt financing now?

45:16 Convertible debt niche

51:41 New Kentucky mining site

45:31 Bigger narratives in mining 

48:10 The future of bitcoin mining and data centers

52:55 What metrics aren’t worthwhile?

43:02 What does 2025 look like?

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! 

👉Enjoying the show? Check out our newsletter at miningpod.blockspace.media!

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show!

Follow our hosts on Twitter: @wsfoxley, @cbspears, @AsILayHodling, @MatthewKimmell

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.

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

Most "Quantum FUD" you hear is probably BS. But there are some ways Bitcoin is vulnerable to quantum computers. Hunter Beast helps us understand what these threats look like and explains a solution.

Follow our guest: @cryptoquick

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Bitcoin Season 2 is brought to you by Botanix!

Botanix Labs is pioneering a new direction for DeFi with the first EVM L2 running on Bitcoin that’s built to be forward secure, decentralized, and share gas fees generated by the network with users.

See the future of DeFi from botanixlabs.xyz

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Follow our host on X: @cbspears

Bitcoin Season 2 is proudly presented by Blockspace Media, Bitcoin’s first B2B publication in Bitcoin.

Follow us on X and check out our newsletter for the best information in Bitcoin mining, Ordinals and tech!

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03:13 Hunter’s Quantum Resistance Work

05:05 Google’s Willow Chip & Its Implications

07:29 Early Quantum Computers vs. Today

09:31 Quantum Noise & Error Correction

11:30 How Quantum Computers Challenge Bitcoin

13:07 Is Quantum a Real Threat?

14:00 The Four Vulnerability Scenarios in Bitcoin

15:35 Public Key Hash Addresses: Safe or Not?

19:40 The Importance of Operational Security

23:25 Satoshi’s Coins as a Quantum Shield

28:09 Proactive Quantum-Resistant Solutions for Bitcoin

33:45 Should Bitcoin Take a Proactive or Reactive Approach to Soft Forks?

43:00 Bitcoin’s Resilience Remains Unshaken

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

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! For today’s roundup, the Blockspace boys cover Cango, the largest public bitcoin miner that you’ve never heard of, and they dig into breaking news of oil and gas giant Halliburton investing in Bitcoin mining. Plus, an investor lawsuit against Rhodium, MARA and Hut 8’s bitcoin buys after issuing convertible notes, and in this episode’s cry corner, Bitcoin Twitter’s favorite squabble this week: the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. 

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

03:24 Difficulty update

07:01 Cangoooooooo

16:25 Halliburton mining bitcoin?

24:05 Miners & debt instruments

31:17 Rhodium sued for fraud

37:04 Cry corner: Bitcoin strategic reserve

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! 

👉Enjoying the show? Check out our newsletter at miningpod.blockspace.media!

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show!

Follow our hosts on Twitter: @wsfoxley, @cbspears, @AsILayHodling, @MatthewKimmell

-

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.

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

Welcome back to The Bitcoin Stock Show! Today, Russell Cann, the chief development officer at Core Scientific, joins Colin to discuss the public miner’s multi-billion dollar AI pivot. At the start of 2024, Core Scientific came out of its 2023 Chapter 11 bankruptcy swinging when it announced that it would be retrofitting some of its existing bitcoin mines in partnership with CoreWeave. Fast forward to the end of the year, and Core Scientific is converting up to 800 MW for CoreWeave’s GPU fleet in a deal valued at $8.7 billion over 12 years. During the show, Cann gives us a brief history of CoreWeave and how the two companies arrived at the deal; the challenges, conditions, and considerations for retrofitting bitcoin mines for AI/HPC load; what we should expect from Core Scientific going forward, especially with regard to its bitcoin mining business; and everything in between.

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! 

👉Enjoying the show? Check out our newsletter at miningpod.blockspace.media!

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show!

Follow our host on Twitter: @AsILayHodling, 

-

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.

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

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! On today’s show, were joined by CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford and CFO Gary Vecchiarelli to discuss their convertible note offering. In this show, we go through the mechanics of the note (it’s complicated, trust me), the purpose for using the funds, growing to 50 EH/s and why CleanSpark chose not to buy Bitcoin with the capital on hand. Lastly we talk about the institutional space for Bitcoin investments including metrics and topics to watch out for in 2025!

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:10 Cleanspark update

04:11 How the note works

07:53 Why not buy Bitcoin?

13:35 Why 0% interest

16:16 Why the cap call?

19:34 Choosing the right financial option

25:38 Why convertible note bull market?

30:16 Deal coordination

31:17 Bond market new to miners?

32:31 Shareholder value

36:51 ATM

38:05 Why not deploy capital immediately?

40:12 Institutional investors

41:34 Best metrics to watch

43:02 What does 2025 look like?

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! 

👉Enjoying the show? Check out our newsletter at miningpod.blockspace.media!

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show!

Follow our hosts on Twitter: @wsfoxley, @cbspears, @AsILayHodling, @MatthewKimmell

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.

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

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! In today’s show were ripping on Hut 8’s $12 billion build out in Louisiana for a full hyperscaler facility. Yes, that’s nearly 6x the marketcap of Hut 8 currently! We also go into Crusoe’s $600M raise from Founders Fund, our scoop on DCG spinning out Foundry’s self-mining assets, Riot joining the HODL gang with Microstrategy and MARA and some final thoughts on Coinbase listing random tokens for ‘just the funsies.’ Oh, also Texas is going to do a Bitcoin Reserve!

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

01:54 Difficulty update

04:29 Hut 8 plans 1,000 MW in Louisiana

10:19 Crusoe Closes $600M Raise

13:35 DCG creates new company

18:56 Riot Offering of 0.75% Convertible Senior Notes

27:52 Coinbase lists Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) memcoin

33:20 Texas Bitcoin Reserve

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! 

👉Enjoying the show? Check out our newsletter at miningpod.blockspace.media!

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show!

Follow our hosts on Twitter: @wsfoxley, @cbspears, @AsILayHodling, @MatthewKimmell

-

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey Inc. with Senior Producer Damien Somerset.

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