Ep. 16 Politics and Bitcoin Mining

06/07/23 • 53 min

On today's show, I have a very special guest joining me. I have Lee Bratcher on, and Lee is the President & Founder of The Texas Blockchain Council. If you listen to the show you will know that they are a sponsor for the podcast and have been a very good partner for the show. The Texas Blockchain Council is an industry association that works to promote the interests of their member companies. They exist to combine the influence of their members, to advocate for blockchain-centric public policy initiatives, and to educate members of government about the benefits of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Lee joins me for this conversation with a deep background in policy and government experience as well as a broad range of knowledge of the bitcoin mining industry.

During today’s show, Lee and I discuss what stakeholder management looks like for bitcoin mining and why bitcoin miners should be mindful of it; we talk about some examples of legislation and incentives that bitcoin miners are benefiting from by locating in Texas; We dive into how bitcoin mining is disrupting the ancillary services market in the energy industry and why that is a net positive for the citizens; and lastly we wrap up with how bitcoin mining is having an outsized positive impact on the local economies where these facilities operate. As I mentioned at the top, Lee brings phenomenal insight and perspective on the legislative side of bitcoin mining and the energy industry. These topics are hugely important right now as the US is actively trying to sort out how to treat this new asset class and this new tool for the grid system and so its increasingly more important to understand what is going on locally within the government.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by our sponsor, the Texas Blockchain Council; a bitcoin-first nonprofit industry organization working to make Texas the jurisdiction of choice for bitcoin mining and blockchain innovation. They will be hosting North America’s premiere policy conference for the bitcoin and digital asset ecosystem on November 15-17 in Fort Worth Texas. For more information, please visit their website at texasblockchaincouncil.org

Support for today's show comes from SunnySide Digital, the leading wholesale distributor of data center and digital mining hardware and infrastructure.. Contact their sales team today at [email protected].

bitcoin, cryptocurrency, mining, energy consumption, renewable energy, sustainability, power grid, blockchain, technology, innovation, business, finance, investment, climate change, environment, energy efficiency, electricity production, utility companies, power companies, energy industry

Previous Episode

Ep. 15 Bitcoin Mining and Renewable Energy

On today's show, my guest is Chris O’Donnell. Chris is the Director of Power & Environmental Strategy at CWP Energy Solutions. CWP aims to help clients optimize revenues and mitigate risks associated with renewable and energy storage investments. They achieve this through services including AI-enabled Active Asset Management, Computing Infrastructure Optimization, Battery Storage Optimization, and Price Certainty Products/Project Valuation Advisory. With a customizable and client-focused approach, CWP Energy Solutions strives to ensure your portfolio is managed effectively and your assets are protected from market risks. Chris is also coming to the conversation with nearly a decade of power industry trading and business development and so his perspectives on how bitcoin mining is starting to enter the renewable energy scene is a valuable one.

During today’s show, Chris and I talk about how his company’s mandate to build out a renewable energy book was what actually facilitated the move into working with bitcoin miners; we also talk about how Chris’s perspective on the next 2, 5, and 10 years of evolution in the energy industry and how bitcoin mining will play a role in that; We discuss what the hell the duck curve actually is, how it might be coming for ERCOT, and how bitcoin mining can help smooth out that demand curve; and finally we wrap up the discuss on what challenges Chris foresees in the convergence of the energy industry and the bitcoin mining industry in the near future. This was one of my more enjoyable conversations for the show, Chris and I could have easily cracked another beer and recorded a whole other hour talking about all of this.

Next Episode

Ep. 17 Bitcoin Mining Live from Miami

This episode is very special because not only did I sit down with my friend Kyle Herron but we were recording live from Miami for the bitcoin 2023 conference. We recorded this live on the rooftop pool and had an absolute blast. I think we could have recorded a whole other episode on more philosophical topics but we had to get to the Satoshi Action Benefit dinner that Cryptech Solutions hosted. Kyle is the COO at Frontier Mining. Frontier Mining is a bitcoin mining hosting provider company that has over 25 years of IT experience. They leverage the latest in large-scale mining infrastructure and work hand-in-hand with local governments to ensure that your miners are online, all the time. Kyle comes to this conversation with a very unique and wide spanning background as a serial entrepreneur, extensive experience in the music industry and has considerable exposure to the traditional data center industry.

During the show Kyle and I discuss his transition from music, entrepreneurship, and creativity into the world of technology and bitcoin mining; we dive into how Frontier Mining operates within the bitcoin mining ecosystem; we walk through the differences and similarities between a traditional data center and a bitcoin mining facility when it comes to power procurement; Kyle shares his insights on how traditional data centers are going to start emulating bitcoin mining facilities due to their unique cost saving operations; we discuss what edge computing is and how it will start to decentralize the traditional data center industry; and lastly we wrap up with how small towns are embracing the data center and bitcoin mining facilities as a way to usher in new age jobs to an otherwise stale work environment. As I said at the top, we were fortunate to be able to record this episode live from Bitcoin 2023 and kyle and I had an absolute blast recording this episode.

Support for today's show comes from SunnySide Digital, the leading wholesale distributor of data center and digital mining hardware and infrastructure. Contact their sales team today at [email protected].