7 lessons learned from building and scaling Bitcoin mining operations

It began with mining Bitcoin (BTC) in a dorm room. What began as a interest with just a few mining rigs scaled into twenty industry-scale mining farms throughout the globe. As a result of we scaled our operations in a brand new {industry}, we needed to uncover what labored and what didn’t via trial and error — as a result of there’s no handbook for this.

Building a multi-site, scaled operation like ours isn’t simple, however should you’re trying to begin your mining operations, scale what you might have, or spend money on a mining firm, listed here are the seven greatest lessons we learned that can assist you navigate your subsequent strikes.

Associated: How to mine Bitcoin: A beginners guide to mine BTC

Lesson 1: It takes (plenty of) cash to generate income

There was a time when you would mine Bitcoin from a laptop computer, or arrange some mining rigs in your room and mine, profitably. However as soon as extra miners created extra competitors and those that needed to remain worthwhile needed to scale their operations.

Quickly a interest miner could not sustain with mining in a dorm room however wanted a warehouse — or warehouses — stuffed with mining rigs working day and night time to remain worthwhile. We scaled with the {industry} and bootstrapped our progress as we went, however these wanting to hitch at the moment not have the choice of beginning on the backside and working their approach up. Meaning investing in capital-intensive initiatives from the get-go.

Lesson 2: Set up long-term relationships

Whereas the Bitcoin mining {industry} has been rising rapidly, it is nonetheless very a lot consolidated with only some key gamers holding the ability. For instance, a large-scale mining operation can’t merely simply order new {hardware} from no matter vendor they need.

There are only some distributors supplying {hardware} at this level, and their manufacturing cycles are based mostly on just some chip producers who’re tightly controlling the availability — to not point out that we’re at the moment in a worldwide chip scarcity. Which means that success depends not simply on environment friendly and well-run operations however on building relationships within the {industry}, lots of which will likely be for the long run.

Lesson 3: Obsess over operational effectivity

Talking of operational effectivity, large-scale miners keep worthwhile after they have the sting over their rivals. This implies optimizing electrical energy, having essentially the most up-to-date {hardware}, and not having any downtime or points that may trigger a lack of computing energy.

Make operational effectivity a precedence. For instance, in March 2020, when Bitcoin dropped beneath $4,000, many miners could not survive the uncertainty and volatility, and had been compelled out — but we survived as a consequence of our operational effectivity.

Lesson 4: By no means cease innovating

The adage is “innovate or die.” In Bitcoin mining, the place information facilities have to remain highly effective and quick to remain worthwhile, there is no choice however to maintain innovating. Most significantly, this implies retaining your tools up to date and not letting it get out of date. Mining operations have to plan forward to exchange tools and time it appropriately as {hardware} could also be on backorder for some time. Do not forget that any kind of downtime will price you.

Innovation additionally means creating higher, extra environment friendly methods on your firm to run, like creating software program applications particularly designed for mining operations administration. On this {industry}, know-how offers you the sting, and even the smallest enchancment will preserve you forward of your competitors.

Lesson 5: Select your location correctly

“Location, location, location,” they are saying. Regardless that Bitcoin may be mined wherever, large-scale mining operations want to contemplate their location when organising store for a wide range of causes. Not all places will supply the identical sources of electrical energy for a similar costs, so miners want to seek out places that not solely have plentiful, low cost electrical energy however to make sure that that electrical energy is inexperienced and sustainable as properly.

Associated: Clearing the air: Renewably sourced Bitcoin may ensure a clean energy future

Lastly, go to a location that is encouraging of Bitcoin miners, where you know political winds won’t shift overnight and shut down all operations will likely be shut down, like they had been not too long ago in China and Iran.

Lesson 6: Time is cash

I’ve mentioned it already, however time actually is cash, and any downtime or lag in computing energy may be pricey. This implies having nice operational management over {hardware} upgrades, a plan for serving mining rigs, and software program that may handle operations effectively. It additionally means getting inventive: In 2015, we knew that having to attend months for mining {hardware} shipments was going to chop into our income. So we rented 747s to get the machines to us faster, which allowed us to generate hundreds of thousands in additional income that may’ve been misplaced as a consequence of normal transport.

These are the varieties of calculated strikes you need to not solely be prepared to take however be educated sufficient about your operations to know to take.

Lesson 7: Scale is every little thing

Lastly, scale is every little thing. I mentioned earlier than which you can not begin on the backside and work your approach up. The race as an alternative is to be as massive as you may as a result of scale is straight correlated with income: The bigger you might be, the extra revenue you make.

Building ahead

The time period “larger, higher, sooner” actually does apply to Bitcoin mining, so should you’re not able to strategize, make investments time and cash, drawback clear up, and take dangers, then one other {industry} could also be for you.

There are a lot of extra lessons that we have learned, and loads of lessons that we’ll study within the years to come back. At the moment, we’ll proceed to construct this new {industry} that’s already making a way forward for decentralized forex and new methods to trade worth all through the world.

This text doesn’t include funding recommendation or suggestions. Each funding and buying and selling transfer entails danger, and readers ought to conduct their very own analysis when making a call.

The views, ideas and opinions expressed listed here are the writer’s alone and don’t essentially replicate or characterize the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.