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Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Scot Johnson from Digital Shovel joins us from Toronto during Consensus 2025. Digital Shovel manufactures Bitcoin mining containers and electrical infrastructure in Canada. He discusses the impact of Trump's 10% tariffs on bitcoin mining infrastructure, Digital Shovel’s plans to open US assembly operations, the company’s upcoming gen 3 container design, and their new Blue Ax home miner.

# Notes:

- Digital Shovel makes vertically integrated mining containers

- 10% tariff from US to Canada affecting business

- Electrical infrastructure was majority of 2023 sales

- Blue Ax home miner launching at $99

- 7.2 TH/s pro version coming July 1st

- Newfoundland has 1.9¢/kWh Canadian power

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:14 What is Digital Shovel?

02:42 General compute infrastructure

03:52 Competing with bigger manufacturers

05:23 AI hardware

06:12 Made in North America

07:51 Adapting to tariffs

08:46 Modular vs permanent buildings

09:50 Example of AI & minings build

12:42 Who's buying?

14:36 Texas market

16:10 New Canadian government

17:28 Tariffs are taxes on business

19:38 Container design changes

21:12 Air vs liquid cooling

21:31 New chip cooling designs

23:33 BluAX

27:27 Canadian facts

👉 Fractal Bitcoin, Reduces up to 50% of your pool fee. No new hardware, no extra energy.

And it’s easy. FB rewards go straight to your existing Bitcoin wallet address. Over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower is already merge mining Fractal. Get more from the same resources — start on Fractal today!

👉 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.

👉 @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 for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear.

For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

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

Seth for Privacy, VP at Cake Wallet, joins us to discuss the ongoing Samurai Wallet legal case and its implications for Bitcoin privacy. Seth explains how the DOJ's prosecution of Samurai developers threatens the entire crypto privacy landscape, despite FinCEN's admission that self-custodial wallets shouldn't be regulated as money services. He breaks down Bitcoin's current privacy limitations, highlighting promising technologies like Silent Payments and Payjoin V2, while candidly addressing why Monero offers superior privacy by design. Are we re-living through the same cryptography battle we fought in the 90s?

Follow our guests: @Sethforprivacy

Notes:

- Samurai indicted April 24, 2024, despite self-custody

- 98% conviction rate in Southern District of NY

- DOJ hid key FinCEN evidence from defense

- Silent Payments gives one reusable static address

- Payjoin V2 coming to Cake Wallet this week

- Bitcoin privacy tools fighting transparent design

Timestamps

00:00 Start

01:04 Samurai wallet legal case

06:30 Jurisdiction & charges

11:59 How significant is this case?

16:28 Arch Network

17:00 Current privacy on BTC

19:47 Silent payments

21:54 Payjoin V2

24:43 Privacy tech limits of BTC

27:42 Privacy soft forks

32:51 Future of oh-chain privacy

37:31 OP_RETURN debate

-

👉 Brought to you by Arch Network! Arch brings the speed of Solana & the best of crypto UX to Bitcoin. Tap into the rich app ecosystem on Arch & try out the testnet while you’re still early! Visit arch.network to learn more.

-

👋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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FILL OUT THE MINING POD SURVEY BY CLICKING HERE

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 16,000 Bitcoiners.

Check out our free report on forecasting Bitcoin’s hashrate.

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Recording live from Consensus in Toronto, Colin and Will break down American Bitcoin's aspirations to go public via merger with Gryphon Digital. Plus, IREN’s $100M tariff spat with U.S. officials, Bitdeer’s deployment of SEALMINERs in April., and CleanSpark's bitcoin-option strategy for its latest Bitmain purchase.

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# Notes:

- Hash rate down to 867 exahashes/second

- 2.6% difficulty adjustment expected

- Hash price rebounded to $55/PH/day

- American Bitcoin merger to go public

- IREN facing $100M potential tariff cost

- CleanSpark ASIC miner bitcoin option

👉 Fractal Bitcoin, Reduces up to 50% of your pool fee. No new hardware, no extra energy.

And it’s easy. FB rewards go straight to your existing Bitcoin wallet address. Over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower is already merge mining Fractal. Get more from the same resources — start on Fractal today!

👉 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.

👉 @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 for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear.

For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

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

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Check out ⁠our free report on forecasting Bitcoin’s hashrate!

FILL OUT THE MINING POD SURVEY BY CLICKING HERE

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 16,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Welcome to The Mining Pod! Today, Will and Colin dissect Galaxy's report on the crypto lending market. The crypto lending sector crashed 80% after peaking at $64.4 billion in Q4 2021 following failures at Genesis, BlockFi, and Celsius which fissured the lending landscape during bitcoin’s 2022 bear market. Since then, DeFi lending has surged 959% to $19.1 billion and has now overtaken centralized lending. Plus, Tether emerged from the bear market as the dominant player in centralized lending, why ASIC-backed loans haven’t recovered from 2021’s go-go days, and why bitcoin miners will increasingly leverage their HODL to access financing.

# Notes:

- Crypto lending market: $36.5B in Q4 2024

- DeFi lending grew 959% since Q4 2022

- Tether controls ~70% of centralized lending

- ASIC-backed loans collapsed in 2022

- Large miners beginning Bitcoin lending operations

- Interest rates lower in DeFi vs. OTC markets

00:00 Start

03:34 Why does lending matter?

05:56 Lender types

07:02 DeFi loan market

08:30 Lending market growth

24:47 Future of the lending market

25:41 Lava

27:02 AAVE

28:22 Interest rates

31:54 Predictions: Miners using BTC as collateral

33:22 Predictions: Rates converging with tradfi

35:10 Predictions: Retail lending products

👉 Fractal Bitcoin, Reduces up to 50% of your pool fee. No new hardware, no extra energy.

And it’s easy. FB rewards go straight to your existing Bitcoin wallet address. Over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower is already merge mining Fractal. Get more from the same resources — start on Fractal today!

👉 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.

👉 @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 for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear.

For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

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

What started as a technical proposal has exploded into community division, with accusations of "destroying Bitcoin" flying around. The hosts break down what OP_RETURN is, why some devs want to increase its size limit, and why others view it as enabling "spam" on the blockchain. At its core, this fight reveals deeper tensions about who controls Bitcoin's future and what the network should be used for.

Notes:

- OP_RETURN limit currently set at 83 bytes

- Proposal would increase limit to ~1 megabyte

- 30-45% of Bitcoin transactions are "non-financial"

- Bitcoin Knots node usage has grown to 7-8%

- Out-of-band transactions bypass node relay

- Core devs facing diminished community trust

Timestamps:

00:00:00:00 Start

00:00:36:16 Why's everyone so mad?

00:02:04:14 Claim your bias

00:04:00:03 The backstory

00:08:27:09 Changing the OP_RETRUN limit

00:11:24:06 Post to relax the limit

00:15:39:23 Out of Band payment

00:17:39:06 Standard vs valid consensus

00:19:52:29 What is spam?

00:28:41:05 Arch Network

00:29:13:14 Cons of increasing the limit

00:32:34:25 That's too "woke" bro!

00:35:56:27 Knots

-

👉 Brought t

o you by Arch Network! Arch brings the speed of Solana & the best of crypto UX to Bitcoin. Tap into the rich app ecosystem on Arch & try out the testnet while you’re still early! Visit arch.network to learn more.

-

👋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!

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.

Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

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

FILL OUT THE MINING POD SURVEY BY CLICKING HERE

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 16,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Bitcoin’s back above $100k and hashrate is rebounding above 900 EH/s with it. In this week's news roundup, Kelly Greer from Crucible Capital joins to explain trends in the GPU financing and hosting markets – and what ASIC market cycles can tell us about where they might be going. We also cover Alpha's IPO valuation, the Digital Energy Council's push against tariffs on ASIC miners, and how Bitfarms is joining other miners in halting hash expansion to focus on HPC and AI infrastructure builds.

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

# Notes:

- Network hash rate rebounding to ~900 exahashes

- GPU rental prices down to $1.45-2.10 per hour

- Alpha IPO valued at $250-300 million

- Tariffs on ASICs could reach 24-36%

- BitFarms halting hash expansion for HPC/AI focus

- Trump admin signals support but tariffs persist

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:33 Difficulty Report Presented By Luxor

04:42 GPU rental, financing landscape is shifting

18:00 Antalpha valuation

23:55 ASIC tariff exclusion

29:00 Bitfarms pauses mining to focus on AI

👉 Fractal Bitcoin, Reduces up to 50% of your pool fee. No new hardware, no extra energy.

And it’s easy. FB rewards go straight to your existing Bitcoin wallet address. Over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower is already merge mining Fractal. Get more from the same resources — start on Fractal today!

👉 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.

👉 @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 for a complete datacenter, including Smart PDUs and switchgear.

For more information, visit www.DigitalShovel.com

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 15,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Masih Alavi, CEO of ViraMiner, joins us to discuss an overlooked mecca for bitcoin mining: Iran. He estimates that miners in the country operate with just 5 MW of legal, while 2 GW of mining activity hums away in the shadows of basements, offices, and even jewelry stores. Plus, Alavi discusses how Iranian citizens use outdated mining equipment to evade sanctions, convert crypto to USD, and survive capital controls from within and sanctions from without. Alavi explains why the government's hardline stance and tax code pushes miners underground and the ingenious methods Iranians use to hide their operations from authorities.

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

# Notes:

- Only 5MW legal mining vs. 2GW illegal in Iran

- Outdated S9 miners still profitable in Iran

- Illegal miners caught by authorities

- High tariffs push miners to operate illegally

- 18 million Iranians own crypto assets

- Iran Bitcoin hashrate dropped 10-15% during protests

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

01:47 Mashi background

07:03 Mining ETH

07:37 ViraMiners

08:11 BTC mining in Iran

10:09 Illegal mining operations

13:33 Mining with older hardware

14:14 Electrical tariffs

17:49 Industrial scale mining

21:16 Exchanges or under the table

30:21 Obtaining hardware

32:41 Legal routes for hardware?

38:52 IP logging with pools

42:41 Hashrate waiting to come online

👉 Fractal Bitcoin, Reduces up to 50% of your pool fee. No new hardware, no extra energy.

And it’s easy. FB rewards go straight to your existing Bitcoin wallet address. Over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower is already merge mining Fractal. Get more from the same resources — start on Fractal today!

👉 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

Arizona has taken the lead in the race to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, with two bills passing through the legislature and now awaiting the governor's signature. These bills would allow the state to hold and buy Bitcoin and other digital assets with up to 10% allocation. The hosts dissect the different approaches states are taking, from Texas's expert advisory committee structure to New Hampshire and North Carolina's advancing legislation. With 40 strategic Bitcoin reserve bills filed across the US, and states navigating custody options, yield strategies, and political roadblocks, the Bitcoin state race is heating up!

Notes:

- Arizona passed two SBR bills awaiting governor's signature

- 40 SBR bills filed across US states, 6 are dead

- Texas bill allows up to 1% of general fund for Bitcoin

- Arizona bills allow up to 10% allocation to Bitcoin

- $500B minimum market cap requirement in Texas bill

- Oklahoma bill failed in committee by one vote (6-5)

Follow our guests: @cbspears @asilayhodling @btcszn2

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:32 Arizona SBR vote

08:42 State custody

11:50 Arch Network

12:22 Not your keys, not your strategic reserve

15:28 Other states drafting Bitcoin laws

16:51 Texas bill

20:31 Market cap provisions

25:31 Alabama

27:19 Fails: Oklahoma

32:08 Fails: Pennsylvania

-

👉 Brought t

o you by⁠ Arch Network⁠! Arch brings the speed of Solana & the best of crypto UX to Bitcoin. Tap into the rich app ecosystem on Arch & try out the testnet while you’re still early! Visit⁠ arch.network⁠ to learn more.

-

👋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!

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking ⁠here⁠.

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

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You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 15,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Welcome to The Mining Pod News Roundup! The gang breaks down Tether's latest foray into the bitcoin mining sector as it seeks a $25M stake in AntAlpha, Galaxy's CoreWeave deal expanding to a total of 393MW, and the dramatic impact of the 2024 halving one year later. Plus, they dive into Cambridge's latest report showing Bitcoin uses 0.5% of total global electricity, and for this week’s cry corner: the contentious proposal to abolish the OP_RETURN data limit.

# Notes:

- Bitcoin price approaching $97,000

- 100 EH/s hash rate disappeared recently

- 40% difficulty increase post-halving

- Tether eyeing $25M stake in Ant Alpha IPO

- Galaxy secured additional 260MW from Helios

- Bitcoin uses 0.5% of total global electricity

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

07:51 Tether Antalpha stake

12:21 Galaxy + CoreWeave + AI

20:01 1-year after the halving

29:35 Cambridge Report: Miners Turn to Renewables

35:47 Cry corner: OP_RETURN wars

👉 Fractal Bitcoin, Reduces up to 50% of your pool fee. No new hardware, no extra energy.

And it’s easy. FB rewards go straight to your existing Bitcoin wallet address. Over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower is already merge mining Fractal. Get more from the same resources — start on Fractal today!

👉 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

FILL OUT THE MINING POD SURVEY BY CLICKING HERE

You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 15,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Welcome to The Mining Pod! Today, Christian Lopez, Head of Digital Assets at Cohen and Company Capital Markets, joins us to break down Bitcoin mining's ever-shifting capital market landscape. Lopez explains why there's currently a glut of mining sites on the market, why private miners struggle to secure funding, and why the HPC/AI retrofit narrative is more complex than it seems. We also discuss how potential tariffs might affect mining operations, why Bitcoin mining stocks are correlating differently with Bitcoin than in previous cycles, and the evolving relationship between Bitcoin miners and institutional investors.

- 1.5GW of mining sites currently for sale

- Private miners face nearly impossible fundraising

- Site retrofits for HPC require total rebuilds

- Hash rate correlation with BTC price declining

- Tariffs may increase CapEx by 10-30%

- Hyperscalers want 150MW+ sites near major cities

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

01:47 Current market for miners

04:22 M&A landscape

11:42 Fractal

12:04 AI & HPC hype

14:27 Raising capital right now

17:59 Is retrofitting real?

21:36 Tariffs

26:16 Is capital chasing AI instead of mining?

👉 Fractal Bitcoin, Reduces up to 50% of your pool fee. No new hardware, no extra energy.

And it’s easy. FB rewards go straight to your existing Bitcoin wallet address. Over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower is already merge mining Fractal. Get more from the same resources — start on Fractal today!

👉 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