Journalists visited the farm of the largest miner Bitmain, which daily produces bitkoy for 280 thousand dollars and spends up to 39 thousand dollars. On electricityThe representatives of the resource Quartz got on an excursion to one of the largest farms engaged in the mining of Bitcoin and Litecoin crypto currency. It is located in the industrial park SanShangLiang, on the outskirts of the city of Ordos, in Inner Mongolia - an autonomous region of China. The farm belongs to the company Bitmain, which also produces equipment for mining.
The farm is a full-fledged commercial enterprise. Only it does not produce goods or services, but a crypto currency. By approximate calculations, this farm has about 4% of the total processing power of the entire Bitcoin-network. On the farm there are eight one-storey buildings, similar to the warehouse premises. Each of them has a length of 150 meters. Seven hangars are occupied with equipment for Bitcoin mining - only 21 thousand devices. In another building, Litecoin is mined, with 4,000 pieces of equipment installed.
The farm staff includes 50 people. For them, on the territory of the farm there is a separate 3-storey building, where the hostel and dining room are located. There are also some simple entertainments in the form of a basketball court. And, farm employees can simultaneously be investors. Although not all of them have knowledge about Bitcoin and experience with crypto currency. This did not prevent them from investing in mining.
Part of the farm staff makes sure that the equipment is working properly in 24/7 mode. With the help of laptops, they check devices that for some reason are out of order. One of the most common causes of breakage is dust. To prevent dust from entering buildings, they are surrounded by a dense fence. But still it seeps, gets into the devices, causing them to overheat.
Mining crypto currency is quite an energy-consuming process. The Ordos farm is powered by coal-fired power plants. Its daily electricity bills can reach $ 39 thousand. Nevertheless, mining on such an industrial scale is still a profitable business. Given the current volume of emissions and the cost of Bitcoin, the daily aggregate amount of mining brings about $ 7 million. If this farm really has a capacity of about 4% of the entire network, then it can bring about $ 280,000 in revenue daily. Even after paying for electricity and other operating expenses, the miners can have a considerable daily income.
It should be noted that Bitmain operates other farms in remote corners of China, for example, in the mountainous Yunnan province in the south and in the autonomous region of Xinjiang in the east.