I have about 2.5 years of experience in the space. This is my first halving on the mining side of things. I got interested in Bitcoin in 2018 and have been obsessed since.
I know a lot about the mining hardware itself, and am learning a lot more about the mining ecosystem. I'm not a macro thinkboy, or technical thinkboy, so prepare for midwit answers if you ask technical questions.
One thing that makes me passionate about mining on a small scale is how much it teaches people about energy and electricity. Many people do not think about it before plugging in their first S9.
this territory is moderated
What's one thing you would change about the bitcoin mining hardware industry if you could?
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I would like to see distribution of where mining hardware is produced, including the computer chips. I think it's something that's coming, and the more valuable Bitcoin is, the more we will see this.
Having most of the chip production in Taiwan is a liability for the industry in my opinion.
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Why can't companies produce things in third-world countries like Canada or Japan?
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I have a much higher confidence in Japan than Canada. The only thing Canadians know how to build are igloos.
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I think syrup
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434 sats \ 2 replies \ @Car 26 Mar
What is it about Stacker News you appreciate the most besides the sats?
Also what is your favorite taco?
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I like you Car so I want to support things you're involved with.
I really like the quality of engagement on here. It is substantially better than Twitter. I see people putting more thought into the things they post and say, you do not have a character limit so you can expand on your thoughts.
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130 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car 26 Mar
Awe, thanks brother! Same def a great vibe here, unlike anything else on the web.
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What do you think about pool distribution?
How do we get more pools away from #1 Chinese-owned and #2 finance thinkboy pools backed by the deep state?
Pools 3,4,5,6 are irrelevant in today’s distribution; how do we fix it?
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Pools are what keep me up at night. I always try to shill smaller pools that I know are not selling their hashrate to Chinese pools.
Right now my two favorite are Lincoin Ocean
Both of these pools appear to be part of the solution. I really hope there's a lot more transparency in the pool side of mining in the future.
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289 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 26 Mar
What's something you believe about bitcoin mining that hardly anyone agrees with you on?
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I think it's better for most people to buy Bitcoin than to mine. I also think that buying Bitcoin is a lot better option than mining stocks. I don't think either of those are very controversial.
One that is is that I want to see hashrate distribute more globally and not continue to be deployed in North America at a rapid pace.
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289 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 26 Mar
I know a lot about the mining hardware itself.
What's something we'd all be surprised to learn about mining hardware?
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It's all made in China and there is high failure rates that are a headache.
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Wen Bitaxe on Kaboomracks?
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What are your thoughts on potential mining integration into HVAC, industrial machinery and maybe eventually household appliances?
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Bitmain made a residential heater that wasn't well received. https://blog.bitmain.com/en/antminer-r4-apw5-silent-bitcoin-miner-home-use/
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Canaan has one that they will be selling here pretty soon as well.
I don't think we will see ASIC chips integrated into normal heading hardware because it won't be cost effective.
I heat my home with miners in the winter. I have one running now. A lot of people have done really interesting things heating their homes with miners which is definitely a growing trend.
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I really like this topic, the hashtub is one of my favorite projects,
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Ok thanks
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I was browsing your website and got the impression that your racks are targeted at large-scale miners. Do you have any solutions for small/micro miners?
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Yes we do a lot of work with small scale miners. Many of our minimum order requirements are only 1 unit.
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242 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b 26 Mar
Is it a fantasy to expect bitcoin miners to be put in every heating device?
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Yeah I think it's a fantasy. It's not really cost effective. It makes a lot of sense for weirdos like me to repurpose older machines as heaters than it does to make specific products.
The only way this would make sense would be if it was cheaper to manufacture a mining heater than a traditional heater.
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30 sats \ 0 replies \ @kevin 26 Mar
not really cost effective. It makes a lot of sense for weirdos like me to repurpose older machines as heaters than it does to make specific products. The only way this would make sense would be if it was cheaper to manufacture a mining heater than a traditio
...and if you could make them more effective than regular old heat pumps (which is impossible)
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219 sats \ 1 reply \ @Ge 26 Mar
Show us your racks!!!
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You first
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164 sats \ 3 replies \ @kr 26 Mar
which country will have the most bitcoin mining hashrate in 2030?
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I don't know which country has the most energy but that's likely the answer to that question. The United States has a good shot depending on whether the politicians try to mess up our industry or not.
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25 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 26 Mar
if you were a politician in the US and your task was to mess up Bitcoin, what is the most effective way you could do that?
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The 3 letter regulatory agencies are more of an attack vector than elected politicians. Most of the battles are going to be fought in courts instead of voting.
Force everyone to KYC when buying mining hardware would be a big one.
The EIA survey that recently got paused was a good one.
Going after the pools to KYC customers is another huge one.
I'm kind of afraid to say a whole lot because I don't want to give anyone ideas but it's very important to be thinking adversarially right now.
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140 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 26 Mar
One thing that makes me passionate about mining on a small scale is how much it teaches people about energy and electricity
what are the biggest energy lessons you see small miners learning while getting started?
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  1. How important it is to have reliable electricity.
  2. just the basics of how it works. What a substation is, what a transformer is, watts, volts, amps.
  3. How a lot of energy policies that raise the cost of electricity are super problematic. (Most people don't really understand cause and effect in regards to this.)
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125 sats \ 3 replies \ @k00b 26 Mar
How do you expect mining hardware to evolve over the next 5 years?
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Power density is going to be the biggest one. The machines will keep consuming more electricity and will be less like toaster ovens.
I'm not sold on hydro and immersion yet, so will be interesting to see if those cooling methods gain more marketshare.
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291 sats \ 1 reply \ @freetx 26 Mar
immersion
Could you explain why you have reservations about immersion?
From a laymans PoV, it looks like an obviously good solution for transferring heat effectively. Is the problem that it introduces other problems for the rigs?
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From what I've seen, usually the simplest solutions are best for mining. Limiting initial capital expenditure is a good one.
There are definitely reasons to deploy immersion but the upfront costs are expensive.
Most miners put into immersion are under warranty with Bitmain and dunking them voids the warranty which is an issue. Bitmain can have a significant failure rate in the first 30 days with sometimes around a 6% DOA rate. Taking advantage of the warranty versus paying to repair machines yourself can be useful.
There are some manufacturers making immersion ready equipment which I imagine would not cause the warranty to be voided if they were dunked, and that is pretty interesting.
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What's one advice that you would give someone when he buys his first mining hardware?
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Buy from a reputable seller or someone you personally know. Start small and don't break the bank to figure out if you like it before yoloing into a hosting contract or buying a bunch of equipment to deploy.
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Just a review. I only recommend Kaboomracks. I'm not a Bulk purchaser by ANY means. I have placed orders for only two miners thus far. Alex treated me like his favorite customer, answered all my newbie questions, super responsive on the order and shipping statuses. These guys are the standard of how every online merchant should run. Thanks again Alex!
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I'm glad you had a great experience!
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What’s your strategic vision for growth and next steps?
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For the company?
We are going to grow dramatically over the bull market. In the bear market we have added site buildout and hosting to our portfolio of offerings. Prior to this, we primarily focused on selling mining hardware.
I see us expanding our warehousing outside of only Arizona at some point allowing us to arbitrage rising shipping costs and port disasters.
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What are your thoughts on compass mining?
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Hosting is difficult. It can be done well, and it can be done poorly. I think they expanded way too much in the bull market and should've only sold space they had. There are some people over there that I enjoy and interact with from time to time.
It's really important for people deploying into hosting to know that there is a ton of execution risk and that it's generally easier to just buy Bitcoin.
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Why should people choose you, Kaboomracks, and not the other companies? (sorry if this was asked already)
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One part of the company culture is making customers whole if things go wrong. A lot of people don't have the means or willingness to take care of the customer.
Also we have been around for a long time (for this industry) and have a good track record of taking care of people. There are going to be so many people who get rugged by other sellers this upcoming bull market.
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Thanks.
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Did you ever research about mining prospects in India? If yes, how do you project the future of Bitcoin mining in India?
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I don't know a ton about India. I know it's impossible to ship miners from the US to India but is possible to ship from China to India.
If they have a lot of energy, there will be a future of mining. I believe India is experimenting with different nuclear power options which is interesting.
Having decent import laws and processes makes a huge difference on whether mining is viable or not. Also cheap reliable electricity.
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Thanks for your valuable comment. India is now moving towards solar energy with more speed. Not a single new project for nuclear energy in last two decades. Electricity is cheap but often not reliable.
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solar will kill grid reliability.
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I swear I saw something about them developing Nuclear reactors with Thorium
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Yo Alex, love the content you’ve been putting out btw. Can confirm, running S9s has taught me so much about energy and electricity.
What’s the next step up from an S9 for the pleb miner?
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Sometimes there is no second step and you should just stick with a S9.
A lot of people are doing interesting things with the S19 series by running the units with one hashboard on 120v with the Loki kit as well as using aftermarket fans to make their machines quiet. If you want to tinker and spend money on expensive fans and doo dads, this is the next step
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today its the s19jpro
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Does Kaboomracks have an affiliate program?
When water cooled miners? bigger radiators that are cooled by flowing water (maybe submerged near a watermill or a waterfall) Hey, it's organic!!! :-)
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Bitmain and Micro BT both have water cooled miners. Bitmain has been making them since the S9. They are slowly growing in popularity but air cooled is still dominating.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Ribbit 7 Apr
why don't you accept bitcoin ?
based on your payment methods page you only accept wire/cheques/other legacy kyc stuff
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We do accept Bitcoin. I don't know what you mean.
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How do you find fair pricing for an S21 miner. I am getting an offer for one but I want to see if it’s worth taking
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Look at the pricing on our website. A good portion of the industry uses it as a reference point for their pricing
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How many lightbulbs does it take to change a Bitcoin miner?
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At least 3
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Are you worried about successful collision attacks on SHA-256, as happened to SHA-1 in 2017?
What would happen to bitcoin in that case? Could bitcoin survive a hardfork that makes every ASIC for bitcoin mining obsolete?