Episode 6 An Overview of Crypto Mining

Episode 6: An Overview of Crypto Mining

Episode 6

An Overview of Crypto Mining

Mike Colyer is the Chief Executive Officer of Foundry. We cover how mining works, what brought Mike into the mining market, and what lies ahead for Foundry.

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[00:01:55] - [First question] - What he was doing before Bitcoin and what attracted him to crypto and mining specifically

[00:03:21] - Overview of how Bitcoin mining works and the complexity and computing power necessary to participate

[00:05:58] - What role luck plays in mining and winning a block

[00:08:41] - Why some people say that mining is a horrible business

[00:10:42] - The turning point for DCG to get involved in the mining side of crypto

[00:14:03] - Whether or not equipment financing is always the core focus to support miners

[00:15:19] - How a mining pool works and whether or not pools can attack the network

[00:20:19] - His belief as to why China decided to ban mining 

[00:21:46] - Why manufacturers still make Bitcoin’s network vulnerable 

[00:23:17] - How the team at Foundry reacted to China’s decision to ban mining 

[00:24:45] - Thoughts on his role as a distributor and deciding which countries to empower

[00:27:24] - Whether or not Foundry plans on becoming a public company

[00:28:28] - What miners do mechanically on a day-to-day basis 

[00:29:14] - The average return on invested capital when setting up a mining company

[00:29:51] - Why they only mine a small amount of Ether compared to Bitcoin

[00:24:17] - Can miners switch back and forth between assets they mine?

[00:32:14] - How chains convince Foundry to deploy capital and stake on their blockchains

[00:33:18] - Differences between proof-of-work and proof-of-stake blockchains

[00:35:45] - How Ethereum attracts miners and when they’ll move to proof-of-stake

[00:37:05] - The most challenging part of running a mining operation

[00:37:42] - Will we see a world where we can use phones and consumer tech to mine?

[00:38:45] - Can we expect to see energy companies stepping into the mining space? 

[00:41:43] - The countries he’s most excited about that are making strides in mining

[00:42:32] - Thoughts on energy use, consumption, and environmental impacts

[00:45:28] - Educating politicians on the advantages and necessity of participating in mining

[00:46:18] - What he’s most excited about seeing built in the short term and mid-term 

[00:48:05] - Learn more about mining; foundrydigital.com

An Overview of Crypto Mining

Introduction

Eric
Today, I am joined by Mike Colyer, the chief executive officer of Foundry, one of the largest players in crypto mining, staking and financing.

How Mining Works

Eric
I thought a fun place to start just because your background is unique is just to explain what were you doing before Bitcoin? How did you found Bitcoin and what was it about mining that attracted you?

Mike
I'm originally from Rochester, New York, went to school at the University of Buffalo, got an engineering degree, MBA and then I went to work at GE back in the early '90s. In the last half of my career, I was really a hired gun for private equity. I took over like fixed companies. Honestly, I was between assignments in the summer of 2017 and I started reading about blockchain technology and it was like, wow, this changes a lot of things. It fixes a lot of problems that can't be fixed with the current tech. Reminded me very much of the start of the internet. So I was college when Mosaic and Netscape came out and didn't have the guts to move to Silicon Valley. I always wondered what would've happened had I moved from Buffalo to Silicon Valley, and didn't get to do that. And I loved the idea that anybody could participate in these networks. They're truly decentralized. You could be anybody anywhere in the world. And I thought, why not Western New York? And I went all in and I fell in love with the mining aspect of it.

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