Intro: How CoinMarketCap (CMC) manipulates the market by showing fraudulent information to the community.

CoinMarketCap.com is LYING to everyone while profiting from it.

It has come to our attention that CoinMarketCap.com, the Number 1 website in the crypto-currency industry, is showing immensely fraudulent and scam information (on purpose) to its users. As a site that is used frequently for reference points by many news organisations, trading outlets, companies, informational sites and individuals, we thought it would be in the best interest of the community to write about what has been really going on with this “trusted resource”.

Please note, our research indicates that multiple attempts to fix information by many coins on CoinMarketCap.com through contacting them through their support requests or online social media sites such as BitcoinTalk.org, reddit.com and other places has gone unanswered, ignored and/or explicitly overlooked/denied. By explicitly overlooked/denied, we mean that after contacting their support with up-to date and obviously correct information, they refuse to update the data. Many hundreds of coins on CMC are affected very negatively (or positively) by this. A lot of them have given up trying to get CMC to put correct data on their site, and have made sticky posts in their own respective forums as to this issue instead.

We also believe that there is massive insider trading going on with the employees, owners and others involved with CoinMarketCap. Our research, including talking to multiple coin creators, shows anomalous buying of coins between times that the coin creators asked CMC to list their coin (through their google form) and between when it actually gets listed on the site. This could mean that CMC insiders know that certain coins will pump, and go on a buying spree to front-run the listing of the coin and the public market sentiment. This can be seen over and over again when analysing the action on coins when being listed.

Pump and dumps are also being actively allowed and managed by the team at CMC without the knowledge of the coin creators or coin communities themselves. This can be seen by the direct manipulation of the circulating supply of some coins. CMC puts the circulating supply as very high at certain points (increasing the market cap), then drops it down to a much lower number later (lowering the market cap). This moves these coins up or down their numbered list causing massive buys and sell offs at the whim of CMC. Luckily this fraud can only be made to happen once or twice with each coin as the public outcry from the coin communities (sometimes) usually puts an end to it one way or other.

There is also evidence of CoinMarketCap effectively “killing” off coins as it sees fit. How does it “kill” a coin? Well it removes it’s circulating supply to “?” or a very low number arbitrarily, and keeps it there for a prolonged period. As the coin goes lower and lower in the rankings, daily volume on the coin dies off until such a time that it is zero (even though the teams behind the coins are still active and growing their ecosystems). This leads to exchanges delisting the coin, and the ecosystem being entirely dead after a period of time. There is plenty of evidence of coin communities complaining and coin creators “begging” CMC to update their information with no luck. CMC literally decides which coin lives or dies with it’s own agendas. In defence of CMC, some coins do lose their circulating supply due to faults of the coins (the data end-points for circulating supply stop working on the servers provided initially by the coins), but many are brought down even with the objections and outcry of the coin creators and communities behind them.

Also of concern is the possible bribery of CMC officials and other nefarious behaviors that could very obviously be extrapolated from their current actions. What if one coin paid a handsome sum to CMC to make sure a “competitor” would have lower market cap? How do you make them have a lower market cap? Easy, refuse to update the circulating supply to what the real numbers are and instead show an arbitrary number of their choosing. This can also be seen on many of the coins listed on CMC. There is ample evidence of coins complaining publicly on many forums yet CMC taking it’s own numbers without any explanation or acknowledgement.

Another area of concern is the outdated/incorrect information of many of the coins listed on CMC. Official coin links being broken or unresponsive, including the main websites, wrong daily volumes (not updated in days or weeks), and hugely different circulating supplies (from those you can officially see on the respective blockchains of the coins themselves) are just some of the additional problems that ring alarm bells with us.

Because of these issues, (and many others including the pseudonymousnature of the founders and team members) we believe it is in the best interest of the entire community to get behind this initiative and make big noise until such a time that CoinMarketCap updates their site to show correct information, or another resource is created/promoted that shows correct and up-to date data on their website. Number 1 can go down to Number 0 very quickly in the space with the right community backlash.

Some may say that these issues may be due to incompetence of the team at CMC or them having limited resources. One of the parts of our analysis will take a much closer look at what kind of income CoinMarketCap really makes. You would be surprised. CMC is one of the most profitable businesses in the entire industry. The user is the product. The ads are the money maker. There are backroom deals, and much more happening beyond the scenes that the public does not know.

Most people here are concerned about centralised mining cartels, hardware producers, banks, governments, regulators and/or core developers being points of issues in this industry. We strongly believe that none of those come even close to comparing to the obvious fraud that has been going on at CoinMarketCap for many years.

The volume of money that is traded on information taken from CMC alone pales every other issue into oblivion. If traders are making buys and sells according to falsified data on CoinMarketCap.com, then they are being manipulated and lied to in one of the biggest frauds in the entire crypto-currency space.

We’re not just shocked at the level of incompetence, negligence, fraud, and outright lying that CMC perpetuates, but at the lack of information about this so far in this industry. For a community that prides itself on self-regulation through transparency and openness, it should be ashamed at not having blown this massive fraud into the public eye much sooner.

” Bitcoin Mining Datacenters by the Megawatt

• Last edit: November 27, 2016,

This is an index of publicly known industrial-scale mining operations across the globe.

• Disclaimers:

Because I want to list as many things as possible, this thread has a low standard of proof. Some of the operators listed below may be unethical, scammy, nonexistent, or have rituals where they sacrifice innocent children–I don’t care about that, I just want to make a list.

• Note that there are likely many (secret) mines that aren’t listed here.

• Operational Mines :

• 60MW | BW/ANTPOOL | Unnamed | Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

Note: Power draw is an estimate based off their claim of 100PH, I assumed 0.6W/GH given that this was Feb 2015. Any of you guys have information about this one?

Here’s an interesting paper that explains perhaps why this large datacenter is in this region.

Source :

http://qntra.net/2015/02/inside-the-bitcoin-mine-of-antpool-bw-com/

• 40MW | BITFURY | Tbilisi Technology Park Free Industrial Zone | Tbilisi, Georgia

Source:

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151211005837/en/BitFury-Launch-Energy-Efficient-Immersion-Cooling-Data

• 25MW | HAOBTC | Unnamed | Tibetan Autonomous Region, China

Note: Their official bitcointalk account has claimed a hashrate of 72PH and capacity of 25MW as of 2016-06-10.

Source :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1328580.msg15158126#msg15158126

• 25MW | Lee Group | Unnamed | Chengdu City, Sichuan province, China

Note: It was stated they their farm was expandable to 25MW about a year ago, so it’s likely they are around the high end of that range by now.

Source :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=934581.0

• 10MW | BITFURY | Unnamed | Gori, Georgia

Source :

BitFury Reveals New Details About $100 Million Bitcoin Mine

• 10MW | C7 | “N-0.5 design” | Utah, USA

Source :

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2014/07/10/massive-bitcoin-mines-spring-up-in-warehouses/2/

• 6MW | Great North Data | Lab City | Labrador City, Labrador, Canada

Source :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1328580.msg16915395#msg16915395

• >5MW | Verne Global | “Hybrid Data Center” | Kevlavik, Iceland

Note: This is where Genesis Mining runs their hardware (I think)

Source :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1328580.msg17010137#msg17010137

• 5MW | Hashrate.biz | Secret Name | Quebec, Canada

Source: PM from the owner

• 4MW | MegaBigPower | Unnamed | Washington State, USA

Note: This is the facility from this youtube video :

Note 2: Although MBP claimed to be building a 32MW and 12MW mine, they never materialized

Source :

http://megabigpower.com/themine

Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/jjXXCMW.png

• 4MW | Telco 214 | Unnamed | Labrador, Canada

Note: Some napkin math with blocks found from November 13th-27th puts this miner at ~22PH/s, which makes 4MW a plausible amount of capacity.

Source :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1328580.msg17010137#msg17010137

• 3MW | Zoomhash | Unnamed | USA

Note: This may be rented space in a larger datacenter.

Source :

http://zoomhash.com/pages/hosting

• 1.3MW | ASICSPACE | Unnamed | Washington, USA

Source :

http://www.asicspace.com/pictures-of-our-data-center/

• >1MW | Great North Data | Goose Bay | Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada

Source :

Home

• >1MW | Hashplex | Unnamed | Washington/Seattle, USA (I need more data)

Source :

https://hashplex.com/frequently-asked-questions/

• >1MW | Oregon Mines | Unnamed | The Dalles, OR, USA

Source :

Bitcoin Mining Hosting – Litecoin Mining Hosting – Dash Mining Hosting – Specialty Server Hosting

• 1MW | Bitcoin ASIC Hosting | Unnamed | Douglas County, WA, USA

Note: Second site is being spun up, so they will have greater capacity in coming months.

Source :

http://www.bitcoinasichosting.com/

• 0.75MW| Toomin Brothers | Unnamed | Pacific Northwest, USA

Source :

http://toom.im/

• 0.75MW | Hashrate.biz | Secret Name | Quebec, Canada

Source: PM from the owner

• 0.64MW| JeffColo | Unnamed | Portland, OR

Source: [Citation Needed]

• 0.58MW| Cryptominer Canada | DC0001 & DC0002 | 2x in Joliette, Quebec, Canada

Source :

https://cryptominer.ca/page/hosting

Also to be added :

Cryptominer Canada run by maximeAD and the Lee Group datacenter.

I was considering adding genesis-mining but they provide no specs on their datacenter.

Dead Mines:

• 20MW | KnC | Unnamed | Boden, Sweden

Note: KnC is bankrupt. It doesn’t look like they’re finding blocks anymore, so this facility is presumed dead.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3014471/bitcoin-miner-knc-is-planning-another-four-week-datacenter-build-out.html

• 20MW | KnC | Boden 2 | Boden, Sweden

Note: KnC is bankrupt. It doesn’t look like they’re finding blocks anymore, so this facility is presumed dead.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/knc-miner-will-build-new-20mw-data-center-node-pole/

• 10MW | KnC | Unnamed | Boden, Sweden (probably)

Note: KnC is bankrupt. It doesn’t look like they’re finding blocks anymore, so this facility is presumed dead..

Source :

Click to access Analysis_of_Large-Scale_Bitcoin_Mining_Operations.pdf

• 10MW | BlockC | Unnamed | San Francisco, CA, USA (probably)

Note: RIP BlockC. You never proved you actually had the hashrate, but you definitely proved you couldn’t stay in business.

Source : blockc.co

• 3MW | Spondoolies/BTCS | Unnamed | North Carolina, USA

Note: RIP Spondoolies, this is probably shut down.

• TL;DR : Hashrate is concentrated in China, Georgia, the Western US, and Northeastern Canada.

But awesome list. Crazy to see how many farms there are using that much power.

Yeah, but when you get down to it 128MW are owned by one entity–which also happens to be the entity that claims to have the most efficient chips. That’s kinda scary!

• What percentage of the overall MW do you think is with home/retail miners ?

Very little. Most hobbyist miners colocate now unless they can score power for less than $0.06/USD/kwh, otherwise they save money by letting other people take care of their hardware for them. I’d say (and this is a total guess) at most 3MW are being run in homes/businesses. Everything else is probably in datacenters.

When you get down to it 128MW are owned by one entity–which also happens to be the entity that claims to have the most efficient chips. That’s kinda scary!

I find it very scary aswell they seem to be only one pumping out next gen and if they have specs that were reported they are making a killing.

Also they chances will ROI on a lot of machines before other companies even get next gen chips. So when they have ROI’ed and rest is pure profit… that is really scary as what do they do?

My fear is they sell tons of BTC and drag down price. I hope that does not happen though.

it would be nice to have some info, on the maximum megawatt that their location can handle, so they will be forced in the end to split in two or more location

which means better decentralization

I’m pretty sure that MegaBigPower’s mine has grown quite a bit, or they’ve added additional facilities.

Zoomhash also has a biggish mine in the same area, given they’re shipping the used A2 units they have for sale out of there. No clue on size though.

If it’s still owned by the same group of people it’s not decentralized.

I’m pretty sure that MegaBigPower’s mine has grown quite a bit, or they’ve added additional facilities.

Turns out that MBP and hashplex share space in this datacenter :

Data Centers Join the Bitcoin Train

http://www.serverfarmrealty.com/data-centers/titan/

Assuming 60% is used for hosted mining hardware, and the rest is used for other clients–4MW.

It seems to line up with this next article I found which is the motherlode :

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2014/11/05/bitcoin-clusters-emerge-in-cloud-computings-footprints/

It reveals that MBP was building a 23MW center and was eyeing another location with 12MW capacity. Another (unlisted so far) NA based hosting company in that article that has 4.5MW of capacity.

Zoomhash also has a biggish mine in the same area, given they’re shipping the used A2 units they have for sale out of there. No clue on size though.

http://zoomhash.com/pages/hosting

That’s another 3MW accounted for.

KNC are a reasonably open company about their mine rollout plans. Another 20 MW rollout.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3014471/bitcoin-miner-knc-is-planning-another-four-week-datacenter-build-out.html

Also recent Sam Cole interview talking in detail about mining and KNCs search for cheap mining locations.

Washington State has a stack of miners to the extent it is impacting the cheap electricity.

http://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/High-Capacity-Data-Centers-Blindsided-by-Increase-in-Utilities-Charges.html

And who knows what is in China. Bitfury are likely to be mining on their 16nm chip as fast as they can get them.

Just a comment. A nominal X Megwatt Bitcoin Data Centre is only likely to run at the most 60% of capacity for actual mining. There are overheads (cooling etc) and electrical systems and transformers are normally kept at under 80% of capacity.

There’s also Allinvain with Cryptoboreas in Labrador. Don’t know the size of their datacenter though.

http://www.cryptominer.ca – Bitcoin Miner Hosting Solutions

“

ROI – Return on Investment

 100 AntMiner S9

 # 1 Anno

42.348,48 € + 5.869,2 €/A + 8.400 + 7.448,48 € = 64.065,68 €

132.881,13 € – 64.065,68 € = 68.815,45 €/Anno

68.815,45 € Guadagno Netto #1 Anno

ROI – 107,41 % Anno

 # 2 Anno

132.881,13 € – 5.869,2 €/Anno = 127.011,93 €

127.011,93 € Guadagno Netto #2 Anno

ROI – 2.164,04 % #2 Anno

 # 3 Anno

132.881,13€-5.869,2 €/Anno=127.011,93€

127.011,93 € Guadagno Netto #2 Anno

ROI – 2.164,04 % # 3 Anno

 500 AntMiner S9

 # 1 Anno

181.948,48 € + 293.460 € + 8.400 =
= 483,808.48 €

664.229,42 € – 483,808.48 €=180,420.94 €

180,420.94 € Guadagno Netto #1 Anno

ROI – 37,29 % Anno

 # 2 Anno

293.460 € + 8.400 € = 301.860 €

664.229,42 € – 301.860 € = 362.369,42 €

362.369,42 € Guadagno Netto #2 Anno

ROI – 120,05 % Anno

 # 3 Anno

293.460 € + 8.400 € = 301.860 €

664.229,42 € – 301.860 € = 362.369,42 €

362.369,42 € Guadagno Netto #3 Anno
ROI – 120,05 % Anno

 1.000 AntMiner S9

 # 1 Anno

356.448,48 € + 8.400 € + 7.448,48 € + 586.920 € = 959.216,96 €

1.330.461,81 € – 959.216,96 € = 371.244,85 €

371.244,85 € Guadagno Netto #1 Anno

ROI – 38,7 % Anno

 # 2 Anno

8.400 € + 586.920 € = 595.320 €

1.330.461,81 € – 595.320 € = 735.141,81 €

735.141,81 € Guadagno Netto #2 Anno

ROI – 123,49 % Anno

 # 3 Anno

8.400 € + 586.920 € = 595.320 €

1.330.461,81 € – 595.320 € = 735.141,81 €

735.141,81 € Guadagno Netto #3 Anno

ROI – 123,49 % Anno

Specification

Manufacturer : Canaan

Model : Avalon Miner 921 A.k.a Avalon A9, A921

Release September : 2018

Size : 150 x 136 x 370mm

Chip name : A 3207

Chip size : 7nm

Hashrate : 20 TH/s

Cooling : 14038 FanFan(s)1

Power : 1800W

Voltage : 12 V

Interface : Ethernet

Humidity : 5 – 95 %

• HashRate : 20 Th/s

• Algoritmo :

• Consumo : 1.800 W/h

• Minining BTC

• 20 Th/s × 1 = 20 Th/s

Day – 0.00070001 BTC

Week – 0.00490007 BTC

Month – 0.0210003 BTC

Year – 0.25550365 BTC

Day – 3,99 €

Week – 27,91 €

Month – 119,60 €

Year – 1.455,14 €

1 BTC = 5.695,19 €

Price : 1.029 € VAT incl.

1.029 € – 851 € = 178 VAT

Energy Consuption : 1.800 W/h

1.800 W/h ÷ 1.000 = 1,8 kW/h

1,8 kW/h × 24h = 43,2 kW / 24h 1 “921”

43,2 kW/24h × 365 = 15.768 kW/Anno

1 kW/h = 0,08 €/kW

15.768 kW/Year × 0,08 €/kWh=1.261,44 €/Y

1.261,44 € ÷ 12 = 105,12 €/Messe

43,2 kW/24h × ×0,08 €/kWh = 3,456 €/24h

• Usefull links :

Asic Producers :

https://canaan.io/
https://www.bitmain.com
https://gmominer.z.com/en/spec/
http://www.baikalminer.com/
https://shop.futurebit.io/
https://bitfury.com/
https://obelisk.tech/
https://pangolinminer.com/
https://ibelink.co/

Asic Resellers :

https://www.antminerdistribution.com/
https://www.bitshopper.de/
https://blokforge.com/
https://mineroo.io/
https://mineshop.eu/
https://www.cryptominerbros.com/
https://bitech-mining.com/
Asic Resellers :

https://www.cryptosupply.eu/
https://coinminingcentral.com/
https://www.cryptosupply.eu/
https://bitcoinmerch.com/
https://prominerz.com/
https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3136559
http://51asic.ru/
https://www.bitmart.co.za/
https://cryptodrilling.com/
https://itopshop.net/
https://www.eastshore.xyz/
https://bitech-mining.com/
https://bitcoinmerch.com/
http://www.minersworld.nl/
http://asicminer-shop.de/
https://www.usbminers.nl/
http://www.minersworld.nl/
http://www.pcandmining.de/
https://minereu.com/
http://technobit.eu/
http://www.protact.net/
http://www.hash-core.com/

Asic Miners Profitability :

https://www.asicminervalue.com/
https://www.coinwarz.com/calculators
https://whattomine.com/
https://minethecoin.com/
https://whattomine.com/
https://crypt0.zone/

Refference site for the prices of the CryptoCurrencies :
https://www.coingecko.com/en
All the media and so on are taking as a refference the prices from https://coinmarketcap.com but we miners know better as you can make a conclusion yourself in these sites :
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@intelliguy/oh-no-coinmarketcap-com-pumps-scam-coins-by-accident-marketcap-price-x-available-supply

Crypto Exchanges :
https://www.cryptocompare.com/exchanges/#/overview
https://bytex.io/
https://www.kucoin.com/
https://changelly.com/
https://stratisplatform.com/
https://altcoin.io/
https://bisq.network/
https://www.bancor.network/
https://blocknet.co/
https://ethereum.org/
https://www.hodlhodl.com/
https://loopring.org/
https://coincodex.com/crypto/airswap/
https://ethereum.org/

Trading Bots :
https://www.haasonline.com/
https://gunthy.org/
https://profittrailer.com/
https://cryptocatbot.com/buy-cryptobot/altcoin-bot/arbi-triangular-arbitrage-bot/

Crypto News :
https://www.the-blockchain.com
https://www.ccn.com/
https://cointelegraph.com/

Pools :
https://antpool.com/
https://kano.is/
http://ckpool.org/
https://www.f2pool.com/

Crypto Loans :
https://nexo.io/

Earning Crypto :
https://litecoin-faucet.com/
http://cointiply.com/r/vo771
http://faucethub.io/r/46573824

Gamble with Altcoins :

http://www.coincasino.cc
http://www.litecointogox.com
http://cryptoblackjack.kicks-ass.net
http://alt-co.in/slots.php
http://REDCOINCASINO.com
http://redcoinlotto.com
http://coinjack.com/
http://lotto.coinworld.us/
http://litecoinkamikaze.co
http://fckamikaze.com
http://minikaze.com
http://bit-loot.com
http://www.litecoinlottery.com/
http://rapidballs.eu
http://litecoinkamikaze.com
http://fckamikaze.com
http://minikaze.com
http://www.l8.lv/
http://dogespin.l8.lv/

Links of sites & Companies that accept BitCoin and AltCoins in exchange for goods and services :

https://www.bitdials.eu/
https://www.bitgild.com/
https://bitcoin-realestate.com/
https://coinpayments.net/
http://www.nexwave.ca/
https://coincable.com/
http://www.cryptocoinwalletcards.com/

Interesting projects :

https://account.worldwifi.io/
https://simpleledger.io/
https://www.presearch.org
https://cryptocurrencytalk.com/topic/29841-discussion-boinc-whitelist-monitoring/
https://neo.org
https://dapp.tech/loki-service-nodes-how-to-get-started/
https://othernet.is/products/dreamcatcher-3-0

No crypto without a safe :

https://www.ledger.com/collections/all-products
https://keepkey.myshopify.com
https://trezor.io/

Business Improvements possible :

A wider perspective in a link 😉

https://qz.com/1287701/bitcoin-golds-51-attack-is-every-cryptocurrencys-nightmare-scenario/
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&t=1209&v=q8R71WGO3qU
https://medium.com/coinmonks/vertcoin-vtc-is-currently-being-51-attacked-53ab633c08a4
https://www.jonpeddie.com/reports/pc-gaming-hardware-market-report/
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-history-part-3-turning-on-the-faucet/?utm_source=OneSignal%20Push&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=Push%20Notifications
https://tse.bitnation.co/documents/
https://hacked.com/insights-into-bitcoin-futures-contracts-part-1/
https://news.bitcoin.com/wendy-mcelroy-avoiding-fraud-by-going-crypto-anarchist/?fbclid=IwAR3awkrt3lW3PqUGDoxPNmwlEbGJkbhIEzoSNbUonmE4r16rXpnut7rLtN4
https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/12/05/institutions-still-bullish-on-crypto-grayscale-owns-1-of-all-bitcoin/
https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3136559
http://blog.ezyang.com/2012/07/secure-multiparty-bitcoin-anonymization/
https://www.mynightwatch.org
https://tse.bitnation.co/passport/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H_mcZhI55Wu2n51pUjwtb-j0yGQQ60aej8Cr0IcQhWQ/htmlview
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/industry/digitalcurrency/
http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/ENERGY-BITCOIN-NORDICS/0100618T2MK/index.html
https://altcointoday.com/coinbase-just-moved-5-billion-in-crypto-to-prepare-for-token-expansion/?fbclid=IwAR3kwrMOveLZXsr1Dw1M_J4avZZoaP4HUt36EMNbpZ3BAAbr_KiJDU2PIm8
https://insidebigdata.com/category/resources/research-reports/
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/82-of-security-pros-fear-hackers-using-ai-to-attack-their-company/#ftag=RSS56d97e7
https://www.coindesk.com/when-theres-blood-in-the-street-why-its-not-quite-time-to-be-long-crypto?fbclid=IwAR3qL6SoVDxmZQ7mE2QlE9RAonAoSjmluhXcQ3Jo7WxZXx6PJE7XSOaLGQ0
https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html
https://www.chepicap.com/en/news/5991/tributes-to-one-of-bitcoin-s-godfathers-cypherpunk-tim-may-passes-away.html?fbclid=IwAR1bnWeJ-oa5LT4sJh4GRTDm1DCcGzY1YftBKlhswYxkhiYWdGOgmlJvcxg
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/4-ways-ai-artificial-intelligence-impact-financial-job-market
https://www.ccn.com/700-million-bitcoin-mining-farm-coming-to-upstate-new-york/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-crypto-market-fall-influences-mining-hardware-sales-and-producers-revenues

Planning Your Bitcoin Mining Operation

Operating  a Bitcoin mining facility can be profitable, but you need to treat it like a business. I operate a small Bitcoin mining facility, and there is a lot more that goes into it than just plugging in the equipment and letting it run.

It’s easy to set up a single Bitcoin mining device and run it. Scaling to something that can make a significant amount of money is a different story, however. To make a profit, one needs reliable revenue and low costs. This means low costs for all aspects of the operation:

Equipment

Electricity

Cooling

Infrastructure

Business Management

Operations and Maintenance

Equipment

Bitmain Tech Antminer S9

Bitcoin mining hardware is the first and most important part of the operation. If you can’t get good equipment at a good price, you might as well stop right there. At this point in time, the best equipment to buy is the Bitmain Antminer S9. You should be able to generate about 0.5 Bitcoin per month (as of July 2016, post-halvening).

The Bitmain Antminer S7 is a good choice to learn about mining. Depending on your electricity prices, it might be profitable for you to operate it.

The power supplies need to be purchased separately. If you have 110 Volt AC, get this setup from Centrix International. If you have 220 VAC, you can use either the Centrix setup, or get the power supply from Bitmain.

Electricity

The Bitcoin mining hardware basically convert electricity to Bitcoin. The lower your electricity costs, the better off you will be. For US Dollars, your electricity costs should be $0.10 per KiloWatt Hour or less to maintain profitability.

Calculating actual electricity cost can be a bit tricky, and if you have a choice of electricity suppliers, it is worth getting their rate sheet to determine the price at the usage. As a starting point, there will be different rates.

Residential – usually low price.

Commercial light – less than 200 amps or 30,000 KWHr per month

Commercial medium – less than 500,000 KWHr per month

Commercial heavy – everything else

Within these rates, there will usually be a few categories of costs. It is best to put together a spreadsheet, add all the costs together, then calculate an effective per KWHr rate in order to compare the two. The costs you will have to take into account are:

Monthly service fee

Usage fee – how many KWHr used

Demand fee – maximum Watts used at any one time

Demand peak – additional fee based on maximum Watts vs. average Watts

If you are in a location where electricity is included in the price of your location, you may be able to operate a single Bitcoin miner. I’ve found that you can turn the fan speed down to 40% or so if you operate in an air-conditioned environment, then it won’t be that loud, and you might be able to run it without anyone noticing…but if you operate more than one of the units the electrical usage will be probably be noticed by the building owner at some point. These devices use a lot of electricity!

One of the first questions I get is the possibility of using solar power. Yes, it’s possible, and let’s think about it for a minute. A solar panel can supply about 100 Watts when the sun is shining on it. Ten of the Antminer S9’s use 12,000 Watts, 24 hours per day. So you would need three times as many solar panels and a storage system. That’s 360 solar panels, and at $100 each, that’s $36,000 in panels! You would also need a place to set them up, wiring between them, and someone to keep them all running. That would be difficult and probably not the best use of your time.

Whenever you have the option, use 220 Volt AC instead of 110 VAC.  The power supplies for the miners run more efficiently at the higher voltage.

Cooling

Bitcoin miners put out a lot of heat. The fans on each of the Antminer units push through about 200 Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) of air. The nice thing is, there are no hard drives in these systems, so they can run hotter than a typical server.

These systems are basically three cards, each running lots of ASIC’s, with heat sinks on the top and bottom of the chips. Here is one that’s open for cleaning.

Antminer open for cleaning.So the good news is that these boxes don’t need to be in an air conditioned environment, they just need a lot of airflow to get rid of the heat. In my first location, I put in place a large exhaust fan that was rated at 10,000 CFM. That size fan would be able to remove the heat generated by 50 Antminers because 50 x 200 CFM = 10,000 CFM. I had to match the intake vents to 10,000 CFM of airflow also, of course. That took up twice the space of the fan.

You will need a way to direct the flow of air so it does not bypass or recirculate around your Bitcoin miners. I built some air flow guides out of wooden 2×4’s with plastic sheeting stapled to it.

Infrastructure

This is all the stuff that you need to get the Bitcoin miners connected and working. It helps to have a little bit of data networking knowledge here. Easiest way to get that is to pick up a Cisco CCNA certification guide from the bookstore and use that as a reference.

Firewall and router

You’re going to need an internet connection. It does not need to be fast, but it should be reliable. The Bitcoin miners can only earn money if they can download the hashing puzzles from the Internet and upload the solutions.

It would be useful to have a firewall that has remote access VPN capability, so you would be able to access the equipment remotely. I really like the Cisco Meraki MX64W firewall. It’s everything you need, has top level security, and provides remote access VPN along with Wifi.

Network Switches

Each of the Bitcoin miners has a network connection. It needs to plug into something. You’ll need to buy a network switch to make it work. The switches don’t have to be fast. I prefer to buy used Cisco 48 port switches. You can get one of those for less than $100 on eBay.

Power Distribution Unit

The Bitcoin miners use a lot of power – did I say that already? You are going to need an electrician to run electricity to your miners. Tell him that you want a bunch of 220 VAC, 30 Amp connections, and you are going to be using NEMA L6-30P connectors (in North America).

Plan on each Antminer using 6 Amps of 220VAC power, which means if you get a 30 amp Power Distribution Unit (PDU), you can power 4 Antminer’s from it. You can try to power 5 from them, but you’ll pop circuit breakers. This Tripp-Lite PDUH30HV would a good one to get.

Power Cords

You’ll need to get the power cables that go from the PDU to the power supplies also. These can be tricky to figure out. You’ll need the IEC C14 to C13  connectors. There’s lots of different vendors for these.

This is a handy guide from APC to all the different types of power connectors that can be used in North America

Video Surveillance System

These are really inexpensive these days. Connect a cheap 4 camera video surveillance system up to your network. It’s nice to be able to quickly see that everything is working well while you are away. And if someone messes with your stuff, that’s nice to see also.

Shelves

I bought cheap shelves from Lowes and Home Depot. I like the ones from Home Depot better. You don’t need anything fancier .

Things You Don’t Need

There is stuff you could buy if you wanted to be extravagant. But I don’t think it’s worth it.

Smart PDU’s – I first started using these, because I thought it would be nice to be able to reboot the Bitcoin miners remotely. It turns out they are more trouble than they are worth.

Computer Server Racks – These are a waste of money. The Antminers don’t fit on them.

Air Conditioning – Too expensive to run

Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS’s) – Not needed, and way too expensive. If power goes down, you want your miners to shut down. When power comes back on, everything will boot and start running again.

Business Management

This is a business that makes money. There are things that need to be done for business management, both in the initial setup, and in the ongoing operations. It should be registered as a company so that business expenses are deducted from income, and any taxes will be paid only on the profits.

This means you should engage with at least an accountant, so that you can capture the depreciation of the Bitcoin miners.

Business Setup

Form business as an LLC, register with the State

Get an Employer Identification Number from the IRS

Set up a bank account and fund it.

Lease a space for operations

Obtain a Certificate of Occupancy (pro tip – make changes to space after getting CO)

Get account with power company and internet service provider

Bitcoin Mining Operations

Get electrical pulled into space

Set up natural circulation cooling

Configure data network

Configure power distribution to Bitcoin miners

Operate miners and scale up

Keep track of all purchases and expenses for tax purposes.

Business Operations

Set up Bitcoin Miners to send Bitcoin to an account on an Exchange.

Sell Bitcoin on the Exchange to fund operations, send money to bank account.

Pay bills from bank account.

Keep equipment running.

Save enough Bitcoin or money to fund an equipment refresh every two years

Pay taxes as you need to. Understand depreciation. Get an accountant.

Operations and Maintenance

The first few months of operations will be great. As you add more Bitcoin miners, you’ll see your daily, weekly, and monthly income go up.

And then things will start to go wrong. Power, cooling, and other issues will crop up.

So you’ll have to start a regular schedule of maintenance and upgrades to the equipment. There’s many different things that will have to be done, but the biggest one is cleaning.

Get yourself a dust mask and an air compressor, and clean your Bitcoin miners out every few months.

Summary

Remember, keep your costs low. The two biggest costs are the Bitcoin miners and electricity. If you can control those, everything else will work out. If you are planning on setting this up as a legitimate business, plan for minimizing taxes right from the start. If you do it right, you can be cash flow positive yet have a tax loss to offset your other income…good luck!