Weekly Mining Newsletter
Essential mining discussions at Bitcoin 2022; Miners boost hashrate in Q1; Update on Ethereum's PoS switch, and more.
Highlights of the week
It was great to see more presence and more engaging discussions of mining during Bitcoin 2022 in Miami last week. For those who didn't attend, you can read more from this CoinDesk story on the pulse of event and this piece from The Block on what mining executives had to say on stage. BlocksBridge hosted and moderated a panel on the "State of the ASIC market," whose live recording can be viewed here.
Meanwhile, North American bitcoin miners have steadily grown self-owned hashrate during the first quarter. Like what Marathon's CEO Fred Thiel said on a Bitcoin 2022 panel: "All of us are moving full speed ahead, guns blazing." And our chart above shows a lot.
Elsewhere in the industry, Ethereum developers have tried out PoS for the first time on a fork of the blockchain. It went well. But developers also said the switch will come in the few months after June, which was the previously supposed deadline.
Regulatory
Student caught with crypto mining equipment in NUS UTown Residence — www.straitstimes.com
Crypto mining rigs pose a fire hazard and the risk of power outages, UTown Residence said.
Finance
Marathon’s Thiel Says Company Not for Sale, as M&A Chatter Picks Up — www.coindesk.com CoinDesk spoke to the CEOs of Marathon Digital and Bitfarms at last week’s Bitcoin 2022 Conference.
Bit Digital Says 2021 Bitcoin Mining Revenue Rose to $96.1M
Bit Digital said it earned 2,065.3 bitcoins from its bitcoin mining business last year, compared with 1,510.2 in fiscal year 2020.
TeraWulf stock slumps by 30% on pricing $20.6M stock offering
TeraWulf has priced its previously announced underwritten public offering of common stock for gross proceeds of ~$20.6M.
Bitcoin miners' metrics improve in March as cryptos makes modest gains
Bitcoin miners performance metrics improve in March as the network hashrate remained steadily at around 200EH/s.
Infrastructure
Bitcoin Miner Crusoe Mostly Not Affected by North Dakota Oil Site Explosion — www.coindesk.com
The incident wasn’t caused by Crusoe’s equipment and damages were minimal, the company said.
Bitcoin Mining Giants Eye Middle East, Europe for Expansion — www.bloomberg.com Large-scale Bitcoin miners in the U.S. are looking to Scandinavia, the Middle East and other regions to expand their energy-intensive and lightly regulated industry.
Ethereum largely passes first major test for proof of stake switch Ethereum developers tried out proof of stake for the first time on a fork of the blockchain. And it went well.
Ethereum Merge Pushed to Q3 as 'Final Chapter' of Proof of Work Looms - Decrypt The Ethereum 2.0 upgrade that will see the network switch to proof of stake will come ‘in the few months after’ June, according to devs.
Iris Energy increases installed capacity to over 1.1 EH/s
That was due to the commissioning of the first 0.3 EH/s (9MW) at Iris Energy's second site, in Mackenzie, BC Canada.
Argentinian town to invest in crypto mining to fight inflation and upgrade infrastructure
A 6000-strong community hopes to raise funds by immediately selling the mined crypto to avoid price volatility.
General & Features
Bitcoin miners move to Georgia, drawn by inexpensive land, low electric rates — www.ajc.com
They're noisy, generate few jobs and consume vast amounts of electricity. But certain Georgia communities are courting new facilities.
Four key takeaways about mining from Bitcoin 2022 Here is a look at some of the ideas discussed in the mining stage during the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami.
Bitcoin 2022 Miami: Mining Gets Its Moment Under the Sun The mining industry took up plenty of space and mindshare at Bitcoin 2022 in Miami, with one participant calling it “a real deal center.”
North Dakota aims to draw Bitcoin miners with promise of world’s ‘cleanest crypto’
Some state leaders see the booming sector as one pathway for diversifying an economy dependent on oil and agriculture.
Bitcoin Mining Competition Soars Despite Declining On-Chain Activity - Decrypt Though the transaction count and fees are down, Bitcoin mining has become more difficult than ever before.