BT Daily News: The future is promising for Bitcoin and Ethereum miners

1. The future is promising for Bitcoin and Ethereum miners

The future is promising for Bitcoin and Ethereum miners and enthusiasts, and it’s a potentially rewarding enterprise for anyone who wants to give it a go.

Crypto mining requires very high computing power to solve complex mathematical equations to verify transactions and add them to the blockchain digital ledger. This can use large amounts of power with consequent environmental impact.

In the last five years, the energy used by crypto-mining has multiplied tenfold, reaching over 91 terawatt-hours annually, or around 0.5 percent of the world's electrical use. The rising rate of energy use has sparked a drive for greener energy and lower electricity usage.

One company resolving the issue is Mecobit. With the inspiration of creating a safer and environmentally friendly electric power source, the Mecobit team has been able to come up with a compatible Solar system that can work perfectly with their Mecobit M100 Miner, Mecobit M200 Miner, and Mecobit Meco-Rack. All three mining rigs work equally well mining both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

This would appear to be an environmentally friendly and cost-effective method of entry into the world of crypto mining.

2. Crypto Miner Consolidation Imminent as Some Industry Players Struggle

As more miners report dire financial pressures tied to low crypto prices, high energy costs and debt, a pickup in consolidation is inevitable, industry watchers said.

After Core Scientific revealed in filings last week it was considering bankruptcy, Argo Blockchain became the latest large bitcoin miner to reveal financial pressures, saying an expected capital injection of $27 million had fallen through. A company spokesperson declined to comment.

As small to midsize firms struggle, larger mining rig operators have expressed interest in buying opportunities. Among the possible acquirers is Marathon Digital, which previously said it was more focused on building organically than buying.

We like having an agile strategy…and the capitalization to be able to take advantage of opportunities like this,” Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel told Blockworks.

Thiel declined to comment on whether the firm has engaged with Core Scientific or Argo, but he said Marathon would keep an eye on cheap hosting assets.

3. Record hash rates may see Big Oil become a major BTC mining player

Surging Bitcoin network hash rates are causing problems for mining companies but might be rolling out the red carpet for energy giants.

The Bitcoin hash rate, the amount of computing power given to the blockchain through mining, has reached another record peak. According to Blockchain.com, the metric hit an all-time high of 267 exahashes per second (EH/s) on Nov. 1 after increasing almost 60% since the beginning of the year.

Commenting on the new peak, Capriole Fund founder Charles Edwards speculated that highly efficient government and oil company enterprises were entering the mining game at scale.

He added that this was bullish and not a sign of a miner capitulation. However, in the short term, it could be considered bearish as miners sell coins to cover their expenses and remain in business.

This scenario would result in a stagnation or fall in hash rate which hasn’t been seen yet, adding more weight to the premise that rigs are being deployed by other entities.

4. Bitcoin mining firm Bitdeer could delay public offering till 2023

Bitdeer, a crypto mining firm spun off from China-based mining manufacturer Bitmain, may see its public offering on Nasdaq delayed a year depending on a vote from shareholders of Blue Safari Group Acquisition Corp.

In a Nov. 2 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Blue Safari said it will be holding a shareholders meeting before the end of 2022 to vote on whether to extend the deadline of its deal with Bitdeer. The mining firm announced in November 2021 that it had entered into a definitive merger agreement with Blue Safari in order to go public through a special purpose acquisition company in the United States.

The SEC filing stated that shareholders could give the company the option to extend the deadline up to four times until December 2023, as well as move the meeting to a later date if there is an insufficient number of votes. If successful, the two firms could merge under the name Bitdeer Technologies Group for a listing on Nasdaq.

If the Charter Amendment proposal is not approved and we have not consummated a business combination by the Current Termination Date, we will (a) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (b) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, subject to lawfully available funds therefor, redeem 100% of the public shares,” said the SEC filing. “In the event we wind up, there will be no distribution from the Trust Account with respect to our rights to receive ordinary share upon the consummation of an initial business combination and the rights will expire worthless.”

5. Russia Plans to Allow Mining of Any Cryptocurrency, Lawmaker Unveils

After rejecting one crypto mining bill for being fragmented and ambiguous, Russian lawmakers accepted to review another draft law, which more comprehensively regulates the extraction of digital currencies in the country.

The main goal of the latest legislative proposal is to permit the minting of all cryptocurrencies, according to Anatoly Aksakov who heads the Financial Market Committee at the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s bicameral legislature.

Aksakov emphasized that the circulation of the produced coins should take place outside of Russia’s information systems, in other words, not in Russian jurisdiction. He noted, however, that a draft law that will be filed soon opens the door to using the digital assets under experimental legal regimes.

Within their framework, the lawmaker explained, it will be possible to employ cryptocurrencies to pay for parallel imports, for example. Most institutions in Moscow do not want to threaten the status of the Russian ruble as the only legal tender in the country but the idea to use crypto in cross-border payments has gained traction amid increasing pressure from Western sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine.