Part 6/17:
A critical aspect of mining economics involves the depreciation and maintenance of hardware, especially the Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Early-stage sales involved educating oil companies and other off-grid operators that modern miners lose value rapidly—hardware that can depreciate 90% or more in a cycle. To mitigate this, pre-owned hardware sales and leasing arrangements are common, with companies like Upstream Data often purchasing hardware on behalf of clients or providing fixed power costs.