Key Points from the 2022 Bitcoin Conference: Analysis of Future Mining Trends

The Bitcoin 2022 conference took place last week in Miami, with the mining industry occupying nearly half of the space at this year's exhibition and hosting multiple speaking sessions. Foreign media The Block has summarized the four key points about mining from this conference. Let's take a look at what they are!

1. Miners Have No Middle Ground

Today's mining companies are rapidly expanding in scale, making it difficult for ordinary miners to keep up with these large companies unless they have cost competitiveness and utilize the latest and most efficient equipment.

"In recent months, the capital market has tightened, making it more difficult for miners in the middle ground between small and large mining companies to profit," said Mike Levitt, CEO of blockchain infrastructure company Core Scientific.

To address this issue, miners may need to downsize their equipment unless they achieve "scale" and "efficiency" to trade flexibility for profit.

2. Decentralization by Geography vs. Decentralization by Ownership Level

Discussion at the conference touched on what "decentralized mining" means, whether it refers to geographical location or mining equipment ownership.

"Historically, we have always viewed decentralization as purely physical location. However, when it comes to a 51% attack, what will matter is not the physical distribution of mining equipment, but the ownership of that equipment. To control 51% of the global hash power, it does not need to be concentrated in one geographic location," said Ben Gagnon, Head of Mining at mining company Bitfarms.

From this statement, it can be inferred that ownership of hash power is the most critical factor.

Note: A 51% attack refers to an attacker controlling over 51% of the network's hash power. When this occurs, the attacker will have enough mining power to intentionally exclude or modify the order of transactions, or even reverse transactions, leading to double-spending issues.

3. Home Mining and Heating Applications

As home mining becomes more common, the conference also mentioned cases where the heat generated from mining is combined with other applications.

The owner of the Twitter account Coin Heated stated that they are collaborating with a whiskey distillery. The distillery requires a large amount of preheated water, and the heat generated during the cooling process of mining equipment can meet the distillery's needs, creating a win-win situation.

Additionally, some shared the use of mining heat energy to heat swimming pools during winter.

4. Miners are Seeking Mining Stability

With China's crackdown on mining and the exodus of miners to Kazakhstan, the international landscape of mining has changed significantly. Fred Thiel, CEO of mining company Marathon, believes stability is a key factor in finding new mining locations.

"When you invest a lot of money in a place, it takes a few years to recoup it. The last thing you want to see is a group of people with AK-47s and jeeps telling you, 'Thank you for building such great equipment, you don't need them anymore, goodbye,'" said Fred Thiel.

Further Reading

• Bloomberg's anonymous news: Oil giant "ExxonMobil" to mine Bitcoin with surplus natural gas, planning to expand to multiple countries
• Laos may provide mining power with hydropower, hoping to solve economic difficulties with cryptocurrency

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