Pleb Miner Month EP4 - Ungovernable Misfits

Introduction

• Max (@MaxBitbuybit) and JonPDiGiacomo (@JonPDiGiacomo) host Pleb Miner Monthly discussing pleb miners and Bitcoin mining

  • The show focuses on the experiences and stories of pleb miners in the Bitcoin mining community

• "It's about the plebs. They're just as much as part of the show as anybody else."

Mining Statistics

• BTC price: $27-28k

• Difficulty: 43.55 trillion (expected to increase)

  • Last year's difficulty went up 30%, up over 20% with recent difficulty adjustments this year.

• Global hash rate: 334 exahash

• Lincoin Pool’s hash rate: 641 petahash

Breakeven points:

• Antminer S19 XP (140TH) - $0.15 per kWh

• Whatsminer M50 - $0.116 per KWh

• Antminer S19 J Pro - $0.11 per kWh

The 10 Benefits of being a Pleb Miner

1. You stack hashrate and sats.

2. IT senses get sharper

3. Find cheaper power resources.

4. Gain a better understanding of Bitcoin

5. Improve skills working with “exotic” tools e.g soldering irons

6. You see why we need to defend the Bitcoin network

7. No more erectile dysfunction

8. Hal Finning is near (halvening)

9. You get to laugh at large bloated mining operations when they fail

10. You figure 10 out yourself

“The pleb miner may not be at the top of the food chain, but make no mistake. Its ingenuity, scrappy nature, and unquenchable thirst for sats make it a force to be reckoned with.”

Jeff’s Story

Jeff Hotz (jchotz) shares his awesome story and some great pictures of his dog Dot

Dot finding the Big Blocks at Jeff’s Bitcoin mine.

• Started mining Bitcoin in 2018 with three DragonMint miners.

• Initial setup was in a cottage with a 100-amp panel - started plugging in miners until he couldn’t anymore

• "I decided to build a fleet. And the best way for me to build a fleet was to buy 10s, 20s, 25 at a time as I had the cash and keep them hosted until I had them all built up in hosting. And then I would build a one-megawatt mine. It didn’t quite work out like that"

• Had 100 machines in Blockware's Calvert City, Kentucky plant

  • Worked well, but in the fall of 2020 Blockware’s property got rugged, and Jeff’s machines were “dormant” for 9 months.

  • When he plugged them back, the credentials were different!

• In 2022, decided to pull the trigger - bought land, containers and transformers and built a mine in Iowa

  • Searched for cheap power by emailing 35 CEOs of small rural electrical co-ops in Iowa

  • 4 responded positively, leading to the establishment of his mining facility.

“It’s not the things that you don’t know that’ll get you — it’s the things that you know for damn sure”

Pleb Miner Tips

• Making assumptions leads to the biggest mistakes - don’t hide your ideas, ask questions & seek input from others

  • use the Plebminer community, Bitcoin Twitter and Telegram groups for advice and feedback.

• Play the long game

• Many miners do not take everything into account when starting operations

  • three buckets: physical, financial, and regulatory risk

• Careful when you purchase your ASICs

  • "Buying mining machines at the bottom of a bear market, as opposed to buying at the top of a bull market, can make a huge difference."

originally posted on https://2minutebitcoin.org and https://2minutebitcoin.org/podcasts/summaries/ungovernable-misfits-pleb-miner-month-ep4

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• Word Count: 12893 (27 minute read)

• Posted Date: March 27, 2023

• Podcast Episode - https://youtube.com/watch?v=0L58xD1tt8A

A summary is never a good substitute for an episode from Ungovernable Misfits. A lot of details, jokes and the general vibe were all missed in this summary. We recommend listening to the original episode in full.

• Follow us on Twitter at @2minutebitcoin or Nostr at npub1p63d4vekvuql9zltpp4dezzfk2xxfgjsfqyglf4ju4syalekn4csn9ej3v