$2 million+ bitcoin mining facility launched in Iceland

[ohiofarmer]

This is pretty insane: thanks to some outside investors, a former HSBC programmer has dumped more than $2 million (100 computers at $20K a pop) into a custom-built bitcoin-mining facility in Iceland. Energy's cheap there, and the cool climate's used to keep the equipment from overheating. To get into the windowless facility, you have to go past a fortified gate, a guard behind bulletproof glass, then through a "man trap."

"Last Wednesday ... the entire operation unlocked 225 Bitcoins, valued at around $160,000 at recent prices." Not bad! The full story is here:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/into-the-bitcoin-mines/

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[Gabi]

Superior weapons, superior technology, this is the way to the victory.

[fendlestick]

Superior weapons, superior technology, this is the way to the victory.

That reminded me of the Alpha Centauri Spartan Battle Manual.

[Gabi]

Superior weapons, superior technology, this is the way to the victory.

That reminded me of the Alpha Centauri Spartan Battle Manual.

That's exactly from where i took it 

[QuestionAuthority]

Thanks for sharing. It's proof that rich investors are going to get richer off of Bitcoin. These stories are interesting but I prefer hearing about new start ups that actually accept Bitcoins for product over mega miners looking for a quick buck or companies that cater to miners looking for a quick buck. Oh well, I suppose without mining profit Bitcoin wouldn't be nearly as successful as it is now.

[DoubleMyCoins!]

"Last Wednesday ... the entire operation unlocked 225 Bitcoins, valued at around $160,000 at recent prices."

Wow sounds like they will make their investment back pretty quickly.

[fendlestick]

Superior weapons, superior technology, this is the way to the victory.

That reminded me of the Alpha Centauri Spartan Battle Manual.

That's exactly from where i took it 

You have great taste, possibly the best quote in the game.

[DyslexicZombei]

Interesting. Thank you, nice find!

Estimate 600 GH/s for B1 Jupiters and we're talking about 60 TH/s in KnC hardware for 100 units.

Our co-op only has about 8 TH/s online at the moment, with 4 Jupiters online as part of that hashrate. Interesting to note that our tiny co-op of only 4 team leaders that are working this co-op part-time, has 74 TH/s on order with Black Arrow Prosperos alone, at a fraction of this $2MM, albeit in late February.

That's very interesting that he brought up points that has already affected our future planning for our third miner hosting facility which is likely going to be located next to a major river somewhere for power/cooling. I'm guessing that mining power will necessarily evolve to pockets of:

- friendly BTC/ALT stance by govt.
- friendly business stance by govt.
- super cheap electricity
- ample water (which is another one of the 21st century's forms of "Gold") and or frigid conditions

He has a head start on us, but we are catching up with about 92TH/s of nominal hashrate on order so far, because our prices beat the pants off of Cloud Hashing prices.

Then again: as the co-op founder, I'm a bit biased in the matter.  

This hashrate number doesn't include the miners being hosted or to be hosted with my business partner at Miner Hosting LLC, bobsag3, who is also one of our co-op leaders.

Disclaimer: I am his direct competition and instead of being former bankers that helped wreck the world economy, I/we are essentially GB forum vets that banded together to TCB and take care of customers together (apologies if you're a reformed world economy destroying banker).  

[kireinaha]

They'll barely get a ROI given that the difficulty will soon rise again. Would have been better to just buy $2 million of coins from an investor.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Thanks for sharing. It's proof that rich investors are going to get richer off of Bitcoin. These stories are interesting but I prefer hearing about new start ups that actually accept Bitcoins for product over mega miners looking for a quick buck or companies that cater to miners looking for a quick buck. Oh well, I suppose without mining profit Bitcoin wouldn't be nearly as successful as it is now.

I don't know ... I like to think people will look at a story like this and think "ok, this bitcoin is some serious shit, look at that hardcore hardware!" ... basically when you examine a big bank today what you should really want to know about is what their IT hardware set-up looks like ... after all vast majority of money is a fiat number in a database server somewhere.

money is in essence a value information technology ... get the IT bit wrong and the value will disappear

[Barek]

Great news.

We need many independent such operations.

[Frost000]

Well, Iceland's a great place to pick in order to host such a facility. As a country, they have a very forward way of thinking, which goes hand in hand with Bitcoin!

[fendlestick]

Iceland is also becoming a general data centre hotspot, they got lots of cold air for free.

[Gabi]

Superior weapons, superior technology, this is the way to the victory.

That reminded me of the Alpha Centauri Spartan Battle Manual.

That's exactly from where i took it 

You have great taste, possibly the best quote in the game.

Thank you, it is nice to meet someone who know that game, one of the best game out there.

[Kryptox]

They'll barely get a ROI given that the difficulty will soon rise again. Would have been better to just buy $2 million of coins from an investor.

That's fairly narrow minded.  Diff increases, but so does something else.  Think hard enough and it might come to you.

[fendlestick]

They'll barely get a ROI given that the difficulty will soon rise again. Would have been better to just buy $2 million of coins from an investor.

That's fairly narrow minded.  Diff increases, but so does something else.  Think hard enough and it might come to you.

I am going to guess network hash rate? 

[Kryptox]

They'll barely get a ROI given that the difficulty will soon rise again. Would have been better to just buy $2 million of coins from an investor.

That's fairly narrow minded.  Diff increases, but so does something else.  Think hard enough and it might come to you.

I am going to guess network hash rate? 

Nope.  Think waaaaay outside the box.   

[coins101]

They'll barely get a ROI given that the difficulty will soon rise again. Would have been better to just buy $2 million of coins from an investor.

That's fairly narrow minded.  Diff increases, but so does something else.  Think hard enough and it might come to you.

I am going to guess network hash rate? 

I guess he means price. That was hard work, should have put an ice pack on my head while thinking about it.

My 2 cents worth - Difficulty increases, but so does something else - the fully diverse p2p nature of the system.

[Kryptox]

They'll barely get a ROI given that the difficulty will soon rise again. Would have been better to just buy $2 million of coins from an investor.

That's fairly narrow minded.  Diff increases, but so does something else.  Think hard enough and it might come to you.

I am going to guess network hash rate? 

I guess he means price. That was hard work, should have put an ice pack on my head while thinking about it.

My 2 cents worth - Difficulty increases, but so does something else - the fully diverse p2p nature of the system.

Of course I was being a bit sarcastic.

I'm wondering what you mean by the fully diverse p20 nature of the system.  Adoption?

[Barek]

The more secure the network, the more valuable it becomes.

Price drives mining investment and price is (partially) a valuation of the utility of the network.

What is scary is that just a year ago, a special interest group which secretly developed ASICs, could have taken over the network. So be thankful for these operations for strengthening Bitcoin.