In this week’s Mining Pod, Charlie, Matt, Will and special guest Walt Smith of Cyber Fund discuss the talks from Bitcoin developer conference Bitcoin ++ in Austin, Texas, with special focus on new soft forks for Bitcoin that could bring more programmability on-chain.

00:00 Start

01:37 What is Bitcoin ++?

05:09 Specter of MEV on Bitcoin

11:49 Defining MEV

17:23 Slipstream & Data Blobs

21:08 Protocol Ossification

23:56 OP_CAT

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show.

👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

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Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey LLC and distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Damien Somerset.

In this week’s Mining Pod, we talk with the Galaxy Digital Bitcoin mining team about their Helios Bitcoin mine in Spur, Texas, population 900! We discuss the latest film, The Big Empty, how it was received by the community and what it means to have a Bitcoin miner join rural American towns like Spur.

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00 Start

00:02:01 Guest Intros

00:02:36 Helios Mine Scale

00:03:21 Guest Bios

00:07:59 Helios Facility Size

00:11:26 Immersion Mining Process

00:13:21 Living in Dickens County

00:20:13 Suspicion of New Companies

00:23:42 Bitcoin Adoption in Towns

00:27:15 Community Interactions

00:29:32 Money & State Separation

00:33:41 Communication Barriers

00:35:06 The Legendary Pool

00:38:50 Wrapping Up

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show.

👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

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Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining!

We go through this week’s news in Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining, including ViaBTC’s 33.3 BTC auction reward, Jack Dorsey’s Block announcing its 3 nm chip plans for a Bitcoin ASIC, and a behind the scenes look at TSMCs Arizona chip fab!

00:00:00 Start

00:07:27 Post-Halving Difficulty 

00:12:16 Via BTC's Epic Sat Sale

00:16:14 Block's 3nm Mining Chip

00:20:01 Challenges for New ASICS

00:24:28 Jack Dorsey's Support

00:27:28 TSMC's Arizona Fab Issues

00:32:26 Wrap-up

👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show.

👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!

👉 Watch our livestream on Samourai Wallet!

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

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Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey LLC and distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Damien Somerset.

Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation and Diverter, a pseudonymous Bitcoiner known for his non-KYC Bitcoin guides, joins The Mining Pod to discuss why Bitcoin mining matters for individual liberty and how Bitcoiners can take mining to the next level.

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00 Start

00:03:13 Diverter's Bitcoin Journey

00:06:12 Alex Gladstein's Bitcoin Story

00:10:22 Why Mining Matters

00:13:07 Value of Non-KYC Mining

00:20:27 Mining & Financial Sovereignty

00:24:27 Clean Spark Ad

00:24:47 Bitcoin Mining Bifurcation

00:28:45 Vitamin Ad

00:29:26 Mining: Suits vs. Home Miners

00:37:36 Regulatory Capture of Mining

00:51:50 Bitmain Ad

00:52:37 Compromising on Privacy

00:57:53 Inevitability of Bitcoin Adoption

01:03:17 Cypherpunk Ethos & Nuance

01:04:20 What if Bitcoin Succeeds?

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday! 

👉 Check out our other shows and content by going to Blockspace.media today.

👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

-

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey LLC and distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Damien Somerset.

Matt, Will and Charlie dig into this week’s biggest news stories ahead of the Bitcoin halving, where Bitcoin’s rewards are dropped by 50% by the network! We go through Bitcoin data, Riot energizing Corsicana and Foundry playing halving block games!

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00 Start

00:02:15 Bitcoin Having Discussion

00:04:28 Sponsor: Clean Spark

00:06:06 Miner Mag Data Review

00:09:17 Miner Sell Pressure

00:11:18 Riot's 1 GW Mine

00:14:23 Sponsor: Foreman

00:15:25 Foundry's Rare Sat Auction

00:20:36 Sponsor: Bitmain

00:21:24 Testnet Reorgs & Hash Bender

00:31:39 Mining Innovations & Topics

00:33:42 Upcoming Shows & Events

00:35:36 Wrap-up

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday! 

👉 Check out our other shows and content by going to Blockspace.media today.

👉 Join our Bitcoin Halving party in Denver, Colorado on April 20th! 

👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey LLC and distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Damien Somerset.

Parker Merritt from Coin Metrics and Will Foxley discuss key metrics, trends, and insights in Bitcoin mining. Topics include mining pools, hash rate, transaction fees, hardware fingerprinting, energy consumption, miner efficiency, and the performance of publicly traded mining stocks.

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00 Start

00:01:45 Foreman ad

00:02:28 Sponsor message

00:02:52 Introductions

00:03:50 Bitcoin Halving update

00:05:12 Bitcoin Cash price surge

00:09:08 Bitcoin Cash mining revenue

00:11:23 Bitcoin Cash blockchain growth

00:13:41 Big blocks in Bitcoin

00:17:35 Mining pool distribution

00:20:40 Mining pool payout analysis

00:25:53 ASIC breakeven power costs

00:28:50 ASIC fingerprinting methodology

00:34:20 Bitcoin energy consumption

00:35:58 Mining & grid load balancing

00:38:50 Average network efficiency

00:41:52 CleanSpark's on-chain data

00:45:53 Miner market cap dominance

00:49:01 Miner stocks vs. Bitcoin in 2024

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday! 

👉 Check out our other shows and content by going to Blockspace.media today.

👉 Join our Bitcoin Halving party in Denver, Colorado on April 20th! 

👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

Matt, Charlie and Will discuss Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining news, from Bitmain’s large US operations to Ordinals marketcap projections to mining pools playing games with new transaction types. Senator Elizabeth Warren might even drop by!

Watch a video version of the show here.

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00 Start

00:01:54 Intro & Bitcoin Halving

00:03:27 Difficulty Adjustment 

00:05:01 Bitmain & BitFuFu

00:07:08 New US ASIC Maker

00:10:07 Promising or Flop?

00:11:15 Ordinals Corner

00:15:31 Ordinals Hype Chart

00:18:33 Ordinals vs. ETH NFTs

00:20:15 Ordinals & Block Space

00:23:45 Ordinals: JPEGs for BTC?

00:26:16 Mining Fees & Ordinals

00:28:41 Bitcoin Pool Revenues

00:31:17 Pool Decentralization

00:33:20 Sen. Warren on Crypto

00:37:15 Wrapping Up

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday! 

👉 Check out our other shows and content by going to Blockspace.media today.

👉 Join our Bitcoin Halving party in Denver, Colorado on April 20th! 

👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

Steve Barbour, owner of Bitcoin mining and oil and gas services company Upstream Data, joins the show to discuss who should get into Bitcoin mining, what problems Bitcoin mining solves and what he expects going into another Bitcoin bull market.

Watch a video version of the show here.

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00 Start

00:02:30 Introducing Steve Barbour

00:04:12 Bitcoin mining & energy

00:07:33 Upstream Data's origins

00:14:13 Upstream Data's naming

00:19:35 Canadian oil vs. Bitcoin

00:24:35 Upstream Data's services

00:32:54 Colorado oil & Bitcoin

00:36:11 Bitcoin vs oil cycles

00:41:45 Bitcoin & AI

00:45:00 Water vs. air cooling

00:49:05 Advice for new miners

00:53:59 Mining contract tips

00:57:19 When to start mining

01:01:31 Steve on Bitcoin ordinals

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday! 

👉 Check out our other shows and content by going to Blockspace.media today.

👉 Join our Bitcoin Halving party in Denver, Colorado on April 20th! 

👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining!

Welcome to the news roundup! Today we chat about potential delays to TSMCs chip production from the earthquake in Taiwan, Franklin Templeton on Ordinals and Poolin selling its 100 MW farm for a fair chunk of change.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday! 

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00 Start

00:01:07 Intro

00:04:21 The Big Empty Documentary

00:05:40 Taiwan Earthquake Impact

00:10:55 Bitcoin Ordinals Corner

00:15:33 Mining Pool Centralization

00:24:23 Stratum V2 Discussion

00:29:35 Poolin Sells Texas Assets

00:35:18 Sauna Miner Test: S21 vs M60

00:38:08 Outro

👉 Check out our other shows and content by going to Blockspace.media today.

👉 Join our Bitcoin Halving party in Denver, Colorado on April 20th! 

👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey LLC and distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Damien Somerset.

Matt Williams of Luxor Tech joins the podcast to discuss hashrate futures, a new trading product that allows miners to forecast and act on the future price of hashrate. We discuss the product, similar Bitcoin futures products on the CME and how mining pool games with Ordinals could alter the equation.

Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday! 

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Start

00:02:52 Matt Williams Intro

00:04:11 Matt's Background

00:09:50 English Major & Skiing

00:12:37 CME & Bitcoin Futures

00:19:58 Luxor Hashrate Futures

00:28:06 Luxor's Product Suite

00:32:37 CME Bitcoin Futures

00:36:14 Futures Explained

00:41:34 Changing Pool Models

00:44:30 Transaction Fee Hedging

00:48:55 Volatility & Derivatives

00:50:54 Futures & Options

Check out our other shows and content by going to https://blockspace.media/ today.

Join our halving party in Denver, Colorado on April 20th! 

https://www.meetup.com/denver-bitdevs/events/299059050/

Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.

-

Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining!

"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey LLC and distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Damien Somerset.

Alan Schroeder of Synota joins The Mining Pod to go through the ins-and-outs of the energy credit system and how the Lightning Network can make it more efficient through real time settlement for energy usage. 

Join our Bitcoin Halving Party! https://www.meetup.com/denver-bitdevs/

Join our newsletter: https://blockspace.media/

Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

Thanks to Foreman Mining for sponsoring the show. Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining.

https://foreman.mn/