Eng Taing works in the money business.

His private equity company has $250 million of assets.according to his websiteHe is an investor in real estate and has previously worked in data science, analytics, and other areas. Apple — and he got into bitcoinIn 2013, it was not common to even make a passive wager on crypto assets.

Taing now has 261 personal mining machines that generate the most widely used digital token in the world.

Taing stated to CNBC, “I like making money.”

I invest in many things. My portfolio includes many apartments and senior living communities. Taing continued, “I have GPU mines.” “I just like to look at where I can get some good arbitrage advantage, and I thought bitcoin mining presented that both from just, ‘Hey, I could get more bitcoin by having miners than buying bitcoin, especially at the scale that I can get into it — but also, that I am a big believer in bitcoin’s future.'”

Bitcoin is based on proof-of-work mining, which means that bitcoin miners use powerful computers around the globe to generate new bitcoins and verify transactions. This process is expensive and requires technical knowledge, a lot more electricity, as well as specialized equipment. Taing decided to hire Compass Mining to do most of this work. Compass Mining hosts, supplies, operates and maintains mine rigs for retailers who aren’t interested in the hassle of managing the physical handling of mining equipment.

According to Taing, so far the experiment has been a success. Canaan AvalonMiners and Bitmain Antminer Pros are two of his mining rigs. 200 of them are hosted by Compass, Canada and Nebraska. He provided digital receipts to CNBC that showed they generated about 2.8 Bitcoin per month. That’s about $111,000

Taing makes income by selling and buying mining equipment to customers through Compass’ marketplace. They tend to buy only one or two pieces at a given time, and they are less price-sensitive.

CNBC interviewed multiple Compass customers in order to understand their desire for small-scale mining, as the industry faces increasing competition from large players. Compass CEO Whit Gibbs insists that this is exactly what Compass wants: To grab market share from retail miners, and to put the network in the hands of people.

Gibbs stated that “it will give small miners an effective share of bitcoin network hashrate,” which was our ultimate goal. We want to see 5% of bitcoin’s network controlled by retailers miners and to then increase that to 10%- 15% over the next few years.

Gibbs said that he has noticed that many people, who normally would invest in real property, are now bringing their money to mining. This is because mining offers a much faster return than renting. Private equity also helps to drive up the prices.

Clients of Compass range from self-professed “plebs”, who have the ability to stack only the smallest bitcoin denomination known as satoshis or “sats,” up to “plebs” with an unlimited supply. billionaire bitcoiner Jack Dorsey.

One of those plebs is Jon McClellan, a Texas based lobbyist for AT&T. At the moment, he has one bitcoin miner at Compass Oklahoma that he bought in 2020. His desire to mine bitcoin is partly ideological.

“I wanted to do my part to secure the the bitcoin network — have my own hashrate, under my own power,” said McClellan, referring to his share of the collective computing power of miners worldwide.

McClellan said, “I knew I could buy a miner and I’ll literally be buying bitcoin every single day, every minute of every second, every third hour, no matter what my budget is,” adding that the “easy way to convert a dollar cost average into Bitcoin”

McClellan said that Compass was the only mining company available to everyone. Compass Mining customers can purchase new or used mining machines. between $4,500 and $25,800via their website. Then, they locate them in the data centers of partner companies and take care of all physical logistics.

Personal mining returns vary based on several key factors such as the initial cost to buy gear, how many mining machines you have, and the cost to host electricity. Pool fees allow one miner to pool their mining power with millions of others around the globe to improve their chance of making bitcoin.

McClellan who used a Bitcoin-backed loan to $10,000 from Coinbase for his single miner at an 8% rate, claims his ROI of about two years. While he is currently earning around $400 per month, McClellan still has to pay $150 in hosting fees. He nets approximately $250. McClellan plans to expand his operations in Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming this year, as all three states favor the bitcoin mining sector.

Taing estimates that Taing has approximately 18 months before achieving ROI. He expects to achieve a profit margin of between 65%- 70% in order to fund operating expenses. Taing, unlike other customers, has a special rate at 0% on pool fees via Foundry.

Compass’ CEO Gibbs said that the majority of their customers are retail. This is a term he uses to describe miners who invest anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 in one or five machines.

Gibbs stated that “that’s where most of our business was over the past six months,” but he noted that Compass has begun to service more institutional customers.

Nevin Bannister uses Compass, to create a large-scale Bitcoin mining operation, in the hope of taking it to public markets.

Bannister stated, “They make everything really easy.” They are an excellent turnkey solution. They will help you to buy the machines and then they’ll plug them in. Then they take care of all operations.

Bannister currently owns 6,000 rigs and 1,500 are in operation. They have less than 100 in Canada, while most are located in Oklahoma.

Bannister didn’t reveal his monthly revenues, but he said to CNBC that each of the rigs should generate approximately.015 Bitcoin per month. That hypothetically yields 270 bitcoin per year (or $10.7 million) at 1,500 rigs.

“I am a serial entrepreneur. Bannister continued, “I’ve owned several businesses that I sold, and it’s just fun to learn new things.” He stated that his LinkedIn profile shows that he’s founded three start-ups with a total value exceeding $800 million. This is like getting in on the Internet’s early days.

Gibbs feels that Bannister, an institutional buyer, will prove to be beneficial to smaller-scale miners. Their investment will reduce costs and allow for more space for retail customers.

Jack Dorsey’s payment company Block (formerly Square) is also looking to make it easier for the little guy to start mining for bitcoin.

Thomas Templeton was Block’s hardware general manager and shared the plans of the company in a string tweets this year.

Templeton says the goal is to make bitcoin mining — the process of creating new bitcoins by solving increasingly complex computational problems — more distributed and efficient in every way, “from buying, to set up, to maintenance, to mining.”

The company has identified a major obstacle to entry. Mining rigs can be difficult to locate, costly, and sometimes unpredictable in delivery. Block said it was open to creating a new ASIC (specialized gear that is used to mine bitcoins).

Templeton mentions that Block seeks to enhance reliability and user experience in mining.

We’ve been told that heat dissipation, dust and other issues are the main problems with existing systems. These systems also cease functioning almost daily, which can lead to a lengthy reboot. Templeton shared the following tweet: “We want to make something that works.” They are also noisy and too noisy for use at home.

The mission statement for this project is to open up bitcoin mining.

Dorsey wrote in October that “mining isn’t accessible to everybody” just months after China was overtaken by the U.S. for the first time ever as the world’s top destination for bitcoin miners. It should not be difficult to mine bitcoins by plugging your rig in to a power supply. Individuals aren’t motivated enough to run a miner themselves.

Gibbs stated that he would welcome another player to join the retail bitcoin mining market.

Gibbs stated to CNBC that it would be a huge benefit to Bitcoin and, ultimately, for us all.

Gibbs said that while their product is home-based and low in power, it’s likely to have a lower yield but will give people the first taste of Bitcoin mining. Gibbs believes that once individuals feel the urge to increase their hashrate, they will look to Compass and rival River Financial for help.

Gibbs said, “I think Jack is trying to achieve mass adoption of Bitcoin, and he’s going to spend money on any project that will get people to pay more attention to it.”

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