Bitcoin – Genesis Mining

Top 10 TED Talks to Learn About Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency

Genesis Mining — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 08:37:00 +0000

We’re excited about the future of digital currency here at Genesis Mining, and we want you to be too. Whether you’re first hearing the term “blockchain,” or you’ve been mining Bitcoin yourself for a while, there’s always more to learn. That’s why we’ve compiled our favorite TED Talks about blockchain and Bitcoin for you.

These talks will educate you on the technological innovation that is the blockchain, how Bitcoin is mined and used, and how digital currency might be the future of money and society. But truly understanding cryptocurrency requires shifting your mindset about money, and these talks will challenge you to think differently about the world around you.

Marco Streng – How I Built a Bitcoin Empire

We may be biased but we’re big fans of the talk our founder and CEO Marco Streng gave. Marco talks about what Bitcoin is and why it offers up a better alternative for banking, but the appeal here is really about the journey: Marco started mining Bitcoin with a few computers in a crate in his dorm room. He then established Genesis Mining, gathering whatever equipment he could to fill their first location. Genesis Mining moved to a massive facility in Iceland, one of the largest mining facilities in the world, which uses so much computing power it has a $1 million monthly electric bill!

Why we like it: We like it because it’s our origin story!

Don Tapscott – How the Blockchain is Changing Money and Business

In this talk Don Tapscott, Co-Founder of the Blockchain Research Institute, walks listeners through the basics of how the blockchain works, including how a transaction is posted, what a miner is, what a block is and how it’s created, and how it relies, at its core, on trust. But more than simply managing transactions, Tapscott argues that blockchain technology can solve large global problems, from wealth disparity to intellectual property protection.

Why we like it: Tapscott is an expert in blockchain, and this video is a great intro to the function and scope of blockchain.

Bettina Warburg – How the Blockchain Will Radically Transform the Economy

Blockchain researcher and entrepreneur Bettina Warburg looks at the reasons why the decentralized blockchain can be a great benefit for society from an economic perspective, and explains how it can reduce uncertainty and create value for everyday consumers in three new ways: by knowing better who we’re dealing with, by getting visibility into transactions, and by having recourse when something goes wrong.

Why we like it: Warburg gets us thinking about economics in a fun, thought-provoking way.

Jeremy Rubin – What the #?!* is Bitcoin?

Jeremy Rubin, Technical Director of the MIT Bitcoin Project, explains what Bitcoin is and how it works by simply recreating the system from scratch in front of the audience, showing how Bitcoin evolved to answer security and authentication issues. Rubin also defines Bitcoin and blockchain terms, and proposes higher-level ideas about Bitcoin to show that not only is Bitcoin versatile, but that it can change money usage how we know it.

Why we like it: At lightning speed, Rubin recreates Bitcoin before our eyes, so we see why it was made the way it was made.

Neha Narula – The Future of Money

Is it possible to rethink how money works? Neha Narula, Director of Digital Currency Initiative at MIT, believes we can, and challenges us to think about money not as a piece of paper but as anything we assign value to and exchange. That shift in thinking will allow us to see how our current systems have too much friction to them and how cryptocurrency is the first step towards what she calls “permissionless innovation.”

Why we like it: Narula’s easy-to-understand examples end up challenging us to rethink ideas we’ve always held.

Jad Mubaslat – What is Money? And Could Bitcoin Be the Best One?

What are the key properties of money? Jad Mubaslat, VP of engineering at a crypto brokerage firm, details the dangers of our fiscal systems — inflation, no longer being on the gold standard, no government accountability — and how Bitcoin is a better way forward, embodying all the properties of money in an even better way than gold.

Why we like it: As the most recent TED Talk on our list, Mubaslat is able to include the most up-to-date examples to show how far Bitcoin has come.

Juan Llanos – Digital Currencies like Bitcoin Are Coming Very Fast (and It’s a Good Thing)

Could Bitcoin equalize the global economy? Anti-money laundering expert Juan Llanos tells his story of living through Argentina’s inflation crisis and sovereign debt default. Most countries have no formal banking system and rely upon remittances from other countries — at the expense of high service fees. Llanos argues that Bitcoin — accessible to all, corruption-proof, and secure — could be a great economic equalizer and uncover economic value where we haven’t seen it before.

Why we like it: Llanos makes the case that Bitcoin can benefit everyone, especially those in unbanked countries.

Rachel Botsman – We’ve Stopped Trusting Institutions and Started Trusting Strangers

Once there was a time when you would never get a in a car with a stranger or rent someone’s home, but today, we do it all the time. Leading expert and author on trust Rachel Botsman explains how trust in institutions has decreased, while trust in complete strangers — Airbnb, Uber — is the new norm in our digital world. The shift happened because of a shift in our trust. Could we do the same with blockchain?

Why we like it: In order to adopt cryptocurrency, we need a shift in mentality and trust like the kind Botsman talks about.

Galia Benartzi – The Value Revolution: How Blockchain Will Change Money & the World

“Imagine a magical book,” begins Galia Benartzi’s explanation of the blockchain. “And the magic is math.” As co-founder of a cryptocurrency protocol company, Benartzi has worked with a myriad of cryptocurrencies, and details not only how they work, but their possibilities. She shares the story creating of a local cryptocurrency and how it bloomed in the community, allowing users to earn currency by doing good deeds, creating what she calls a “much smarter money supply.”

Why we like it: Benartzi has created a local crypto currency, and its story shows a whole new way of doing society.

Elyse Barg – Cryptocurrencies — Cool, So What?

When high school student Elyse Barg heard about cryptocurrency in a class, she wanted to find out what it was — and discovered that most people didn’t know either. Barg addresses some of the bigger questions of how cryptocurrency will affect the world economy, from challenging current banking systems to holding governments accountable for their fiscal actions. “So what?” She says cryptocurrency can be a massive force of change, if we know how to use it.

Why we like it: Barg brings up great Devil’s Advocate questions about cryptocurrency — and where else can you learn about economic systems and fiscal policy from a high schooler?

Why We Mine and Hold – by Marco Streng

Genesis Mining — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 09:08:00 +0000

Eight years ago, I was at university studying to become a mathematician. For my entire life, mathematics had been my passion and I was a few short years away from turning it into a promising career. But in 2012 my entire life plan changed. This was the year I first discovered Bitcoin, and from that moment on, it was all I could think about.

I was fascinated by the mathematics behind it, fascinated by the idea of a non-government currency, and fascinated by all the possibilities it could bring to the world. But what really fascinated me the most was the process of mining. How could a network of computers work together to power an entirely new global financial system? How was this network compensated? Who was paying them?

My First Miner

To answer these questions and to satisfy my desire to learn more, at the end of 2012, I set up my very first Bitcoin miner in my dorm room. Every night I would fall asleep to the loud hum of these computers and soon, Bitcoin mining quickly consumed every thought I had.

Our First Commercial Farm

A while later, I left university and along with my partners, we built our first commercial mining farm. It was extremely challenging but was also an incredibly exciting time as a young entrepreneur. There was no playbook on how to build a large-scale mining farm and most of the other miners at that time were hobbyists mining from their basements and garages (or dorm rooms, like me!). Most of what we did, we learned through trial and error. The more time we spent thinking about mining, the more we began to realize why mining matters so much. Bitcoin is not possible without mining. Mining is the backbone of the network that makes it all possible.

The Birth of Genesis Mining

As we researched the mining landscape, a few things became clear to us. First, the industry was rapidly growing and more and more commercial farms like ours were being built. This meant that the ability for someone to profitably mine Bitcoin at home was declining and that power was shifting from the hands of many into the hands of a small group.

Second, a new category of companies was beginning to emerge that offered users the ability to mine Bitcoin via the cloud. But when you dug deeper here, it became clear that nearly all these new companies were made up of bad actors.

Third, there was a growing number of institutional players interested in gaining exposure to Bitcoin by supporting the infrastructure that powered the ecosystem. But when it came to building and managing their own mining farms, they had no one to turn to.

And fourth, the more people that had access to participate in mining, the more the ecosystem would grow.

This eventually led to the formation of our company mission: Bring as many users as possible into the crypto mining ecosystem. Seven years later, I am incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved as an organization to turn that vision into a reality. We’ve bootstrapped our way from that dorm room into a company that employs hundreds across the world. Our hashpower for rent division, which makes up roughly 20% of our business, grew incredibly fast and today serves over two million users. Our R&D team has quietly developed industry-leading innovations for hardware and software that maximize our efficiency when it comes to mining. And our institutional division has helped dozens of billionaires, hedge funds, and other professional investors enter the mining ecosystem.

Has all this been easy? No. Absolutely not. We’ve faced countless crises, made many mistakes, and have had to navigate an industry that’s incredibly volatile. But through it all, we’ve had the incredible opportunity to learn. We know the ins and outs of the entire crypto mining process from start to finish. There is not a single company in the world that has more experience than we do when it comes to building, managing, and scaling crypto mining farms. Today we have twelve datacenters in five countries. Some of the facilities serve our hashpower for rent division, some we manage for our private institutional customers, and the rest are mining farms that mine Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for ourselves.

While it’s largely known that we are a big miner, there’s one thing we’ve never said publicly, until now:

We mine Bitcoin, but very rarely sell.

Since 2013, apart from the small percentage we’ve sold to cover our electricity bills and other datacenter operating costs, we’ve never sold any Bitcoin. All the Bitcoin we’ve mined remains securely tucked away in cold storage and we have no intention of touching it anytime soon. Every day, our Bitcoin holdings grow. But no matter what happened in the industry, we’ve maintained our commitment to hold. And that’s not changing anytime soon.

Why We Hold

In 2015, I wrote an article titled “5 Reason Why I Am Bullish About Bitcoin.” Today, I am more bullish than ever. In recent weeks we’ve watched as governments around the world fire up their money printers and pump new money into the system. The US alone has added over two trillion dollars to stimulate the economy. All of this printing will lead to massive inflation. As billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones said:

“If you take cash, on the other hand [from Bitcoin], and you think about it from a purchasing power standpoint, if you own cash in the world today, you know your central bank has an avowed goal of depreciating its value 2% per year. So you have, in essence, a wasting asset in your hands.”

Until recently, the fear of inflation was not a real day-to-day concern in the Western world like it is for those in countries like Zimbabwe, who infamously saw inflation lead to trillion dollar note denominations.

But all that is changing. As more and more money is printed out of thin air, more people are finally starting to ask, Where exactly is this money coming from?

The benefit of being non-government-backed will become more appealing to more people in the years to come. At some point in time, we will face grave consequences for the actions taken over the years by our governments — not just the actions in recent months, but the actions taken over the past hundred years that created our entire flawed financial system.

Bitcoin is a hedge against this all. It’s controlled by math, not a central bank. Not a politician. Not a government. Math. We believe that in our lifetimes we will witness the fall of government-backed currencies and the fall of many governments as we know them. This will not just happen in third-world countries. This will happen to countries that are recognized as global leaders.

While this may sound crazy and that I am being an alarmist, take a moment to reflect on the past few months. At the start of this year, would you ever have believed a virus would put the entire global economy on hold? Would you have believed that governments around the world would order businesses closed and their citizens to stay inside? If you are like most, myself included, everything that we are seeing today would have been hard to predict even just a few months ago.

That’s why I am a bull. And that’s not going to change. I accept the risks that come along with being on the front lines because I believe in all the potential this industry has to offer. I’ve been through bull markets and I’ve been through bear markets many times over the years. I know where they end up. With this most recent halving behind us, many are focused on the short term price impact. Our belief is that the price today is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter. It may go up, it may go down. But focusing on the short term is not the point.

I encourage you to remind yourself what brought you here in the first place and to really consider where you think the industry is today. Look at the fundamentals, look at the problems the world is facing, and look at all the promise Bitcoin can bring to the world. Then you can decide from there. I’ve already decided. I think we’re still headed to the moon. And despite all the risks, stress, and pain that will likely happen along the way, I’m ready for it.

Are you?

Follow Marco on LinkedIn for more of his articles!

Bitcoin Mining and China: Everything You Need to Know

Genesis Mining — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 09:16:00 +0000

China can’t seem to make up its mind on Bitcoin. In 2013, the People’s Bank of China prohibited financial institutions from using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for transactions, yet Bitcoin itself was not made illegal. In April 2019, Bitcoin mining was on the list of “wasteful” industries which were to be eliminated, yet disappeared from the list in November. That was possibly because a month before, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that the country would go all-in on blockchain technology, in order to be a world leader in the space — yet cryptocurrencies, which feature blockchain technology at its core, weren’t mentioned.

But despite the pendulum swings on policy around Bitcoin, China continues to be the global leader in Bitcoin mining. With over 65% of market share, China is also poised to become not only a leader, but a controller of Bitcoin mining as well.

Before the pandemic, we’d conducted a survey about the State of Crypto Mining to get a sense of how much Bitcoin owners knew about Bitcoin mining, how they felt about the future of Bitcoin pricing, and how much they knew about China’s place in the Bitcoin market. Read on to learn more about Chinese mining and what it means for the future of Bitcoin.

What is Bitcoin mining?

The process for mining Bitcoin is fundamentally mathematical. Bitcoin miners solve complex calculations in order to “win” the right to add a block of transactions to the blockchain. In return, the miner receives newly minted Bitcoin as their reward, and any transaction fees that may be present as well. Anyone with the right hardware can be a miner, and individual miners can set up rigs in their home. Other individual miners can pool their resources, which gives them a higher hash rate and better chance at mining a block. Bigger, commercial-grade companies are getting involved as well, with hundreds or thousands of rigs, and massive computing power. Bitcoin works because of its decentralization, with miners spread across the world.

How much of the Bitcoin network do Chinese companies control?

The Bitcoin ecosystem itself uses 73.12 terawatt hours (TWh) annually. China produces about 65% of global hash rate, or the energy used to mine Bitcoin blocks. Mining operations are spread across individual miners and large-scale commercial operations. China also has a number of mining pools, where individual miners can pool their resources with bigger mining companies in order to increase their hash rate.

Why are there so many miners in China?

The biggest reason there are so many miners in China is because of the low lead times and cheaper materials and labor available. Because hashing requires a massive amount of electrical power, it makes sense to locate mining companies in areas with low-cost resources. But while regions of the country like Sichuan use abundant hydroelectricity, much of the energy comes from coal. Over three-quarters of electricity in China is produced by coal-burning plants, which is more expensive than hydro or wind power. Unfortunately, this means that new Bitcoin are being mined at the expense of unsustainable energy solutions. Philip Salter, Head of Operations at Genesis Mining, covers this topic in more detail in his short videos: check this one out!

What are the risks of Chinese companies contributing the majority of the computing power to Bitcoin’s network?

Bitcoin was built on the idea of decentralization, in that it would be a peer-to-peer currency without the intermediation of a third party (like a bank). Bitcoin mining is also available to anyone with the right hardware, and transaction verification is based on network consensus. By having mining power in the hands of one country, there’s a risk of undercutting the currency entirely by centralizing it to a majority controller. The Bitcoin community talks about a 51% Attack, where anyone with a majority control of the hash rate could change transactions, or affect the blockchain. Having China produce more than the majority of the world’s mining may prove that threat. Especially after the pandemic the world is now actively considering the role of China in all areas of life.

What’s the Chinese government’s view on Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining?

As mentioned above, the Chinese government has taken a firm stance on Bitcoin usage, yet hasn’t on Bitcoin mining. Financial institutions were prohibited from using Bitcoin in 2013, and in 2017 cryptocurrency exchanges and initial coin offerings were banned. While Bitcoin mining was allowed to continue, pressure began in 2018 to shut down the mining industry, with mining included on a list of 450 “wasteful” industries slated for elimination. But in October 2019, China’s president announced a massive investment in blockchain technology, the core of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. By November, crypto mining was removed from the list of wasteful industries. China is known for developing their own digital currency “Yuan”, which is currently tested in Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and Xiongan. As of June 2020, laws could have already been drafted to outline the future of a new form of the Chinese Yuan.

China certainly has the corner on the Bitcoin mining market, and while it seems that China’s new commitment to blockchain technology will allow the industry to flourish, it’s yet to be seen what the future of mining in China will look like. Still, the fact that China produces over half of the world’s hashing power may, in the long run, be a threat to Bitcoin’s foundation of decentralization.

What’s interesting is that the Corona crisis had a very mild impact on the mining industry. Production of mining equipment was delayed due to the virus, but general mining activities continued as usual. Still, for many countries COVID was a reminder that some of their industries are too dependent on China. Some countries already took steps towards relocation, and perhaps miners will take note too.

At Genesis Mining, we were focusing on expanding in several countries outside of China already before the pandemic hit. Because regardless of any virus, the only sustainable strategy for miners is to prefer locations with cheap, green energy, and crypto-friendly leaders.

Download our full report here!

The Halving – And What To Expect As A Miner

Genesis Mining — Mon, 04 May 2020 09:23:00 +0000

“How would you feel if you got a 50 percent pay cut? What if you knew in advance exactly when it was going to happen, and still there was nothing you could do to stop it?

It’s an unpleasant idea for anyone, but it’s pure reality for anyone deep into crypto.”
– Philip Salter, Head of Operations, for Hackernoon. October 3rd 2019

As you probably already know the reward for mining Bitcoin will drop from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC sometime in May 2020. This is what us miners are facing all over the world. Blockhalving is hardcoded into how Bitcoin operates. It’s business as usual and it only means that Bitcoin is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do according to the original design of Satoshi Nakamoto.

There can only ever exist a maximum of 21 million bitcoins. Therefore, the reward for making new ones needs to be reduced periodically in order to bring sustainability to its value. That’s exactly what blockhalving accomplishes once every 210,000 blocks (roughly every four years).

What is the goal of the Halving?

Thanks to the Halving, generating new bitcoins slows down. This is a good thing, because unlike fiat currencies that can be printed in infinite amounts, Bitcoin is scarce. The fewer bitcoins are circulating or the scarcer the supply, the more they could be worth – making bitcoin a deflationary currency.

Previous Halvings

Bitcoin Halving in May 2020 will be only the third in its existence. Since only two Halvings have ever taken place in the history of Bitcoin, it is difficult to draw generalized lessons. But we can try!

So far we’ve had two Halvings, in 2012 and 2016. The times and circumstances were different, but it’s still interesting to look back.

2012

In 2012, the main tools for miners were GPUs and only a few large scale farms existed. The first Halving occurred on November 28, 2012. The Block reward dropped from a massive 50 bitcoins to 25. A month later mining difficulty had dropped by ca. 12%, even though the bitcoin price was going up. Bitcoin’s value gained almost 50% in two months.

But the real upward movement started two months after the Halving, and that was the start of a bull run which lasted until the end of 2013 when Bitcoin reached an All-Time High of around $1200.

2016

The effects of the 2016 Halving were somewhat different. ASIC miners were practically the only way to mine. Mining difficulty was growing less radically but more steadily than in 2013, both before and after the Halving. Large miners already had the benefits of cheaper and more efficient farms due to economies of scale.

One month after this Halving during which block reward dropped from 25 to 12.5 Bitcoin, mining difficulty decreased by approximately 5%. Surprisingly, the Bitcoin price also dropped by about 10%.

It took around three months before confidence returned and prices stabilized again. That was the start of another bull run, longer and more volatile than the one in 2013, but it also led to a New All-Time High of about $20,000 per Bitcoin by the end of 2017!

Market Cap

Around the time of the first Halving, the market cap of Bitcoin was about 1 billion USD. By the time of the second Halving, that market cap had increased to 10 billion. Interestingly enough, for the current, third Halving, the market cap is again 10 times more than that of the previous Halving! With that kind of money involved, a Halving can be nerve-wracking for some, causing immediate turmoil. This would mean that the Bitcoin price would take more time to stabilize and pick up speed again after the Halving. In 2012 two months, in 2016 three months, and in 2020 …?

Predictions

On the mining side, the economies of scale of large miners have become more important than ever before. Possibly the increased efficiency means somewhat lower impact on mining difficulty, though that might be compensated again by price fluctuations.

The fact is that after both Halvings, a bull run caused Bitcoin to reach a New All-Time High.

The two previous Halvings have enabled us to make some assumptions and therefore imagine scenarios about the effect that the third Halving may have on the Bitcoin price. Only time will tell which of the assumptions will come true.

Potential SHORT TERM (2-3 months) outcomes of the Bitcoin Halving

You must be aware of the short term outcomes that will influence ALL MINERS, including you. As you are mining with us, one of the strongest miners in the world, your hashpower will stay active during and after the Halving, and until the end of your contract.

WE will also take care of the necessary technical aspects, such as keeping an eye on the Bitcoin blockchain and reducing all possible hiccups.

However, the halving of the reward will affect your mining revenue.

The price fluctuations will affect you.

The changing difficulty of mining will affect you.

These are all external factors that you, or us, or anyone have no influence on. They can either go in a negative direction, or a positive direction. The smartest thing to do is to hope it goes the positive way, but to be prepared for the negative outcomes.

The extent of these effects will depend on your mining plan terms (whether you pay maintenance fee, how much, and what your upfront fee was).

The way the Bitcoin price reacts to the event determines pretty much everything else, so here are the most likely scenarios that might happen directly after the Halving, considering Bitcoin price movements:

A: Price goes UP sharply

This is the most anticipated scenario in the Bitcoin world. With the decrease of the reward for miners from 12.5 BTC per block validated to 6.25 BTC, the creation of new Bitcoins will become slower.

Assumption:

Some believe that due to a decrease in supply, the demand for Bitcoins will increase (at least relatively), which could have a quick impact on moving the Bitcoin price upward.

Effects:

Inefficient miners are less likely to drop out, therefore difficulty will remain the same or might increase (depending on how much the price increases). When the price shoots up, difficulty usually rises sooner or later too, as mining Bitcoins – even for inefficient miners – will still be worth it.

In any case, this is a good scenario from the miners’ perspective.

B: Price stays the same

The second possible scenario would be that the Bitcoin price would not be affected.

Assumption:

Many believe that liquidation by miners has already begun weeks (if not months) ago, and therefore the Halving won’t have such a huge impact. This Halving has been so anticipated by investors for several months that it could very well be priced in by the market in the current value of Bitcoin. Moreover, the volume of newly created Bitcoins sold by miners on a daily basis is ultimately not as large – compared to the size of the market – as to have a significant influence on the BTC supply.

Effects:

Perhaps the decrease in the reward that is given to miners will not have as great an impact on the Bitcoin price as some people expect.

Many people believe that a variety of factors influence the Bitcoin price that Halving alone will not have as great an impact. In this scenario most old miners will drop out, and difficulty is likely to fall, at least temporarily.

C: Price decreases

This is an unlikely scenario, but it could happen.

Assumption:

A large portion of people strongly believe that the Halving will raise the Bitcoin price sharply, which will lead them to buy a lot of Bitcoins in anticipation of Halving.

As a result of the Bitcoin Halving, if the price doesn’t increase in the proportions they expect, these people may be disappointed and eventually exit the market by selling their Bitcoins. Such a move could cause the Bitcoin price to fall.

Effects:

In a scenario in which the Bitcoin price falls, miners may no longer be able to pay the costs of their mining activity with the reward falling to 6.25 BTC per validated block. Inefficient miners will drop out. Only the most efficient miners will keep mining, which will then cause the difficulty to decrease substantially, leaving active miners with larger parts of the pie.

In any case, difficulty reacts to price. Miners also react to price, which in turn influences difficulty again. It’s a never-ending back and forth, and the system is always trying to move towards an equilibrium.

Potential LONG TERM (4-6 months) consequences of the Bitcoin Halving

Any short term scenario discussed above might happen, but in the long term (4-6 months) it is expected that the market will stabilize. After probably 2-3 months of stronger fluctuations, things will cool down and stability will arrive.

The previous Halvings suggest that the likeliest scenario is for the price to stay relatively stable or drop in the short term after the halving, but then gradually/exponentially increase over a period of 6-12 months.

As we are all strong believers in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry, we at Genesis Mining are certain that after a short period the market will find its equilibrium and things will get back to normal. Just like it happened with the previous Halvings. In retrospect, the Halvings caused less of a frenzy and price decrease than the Crypto Winter of 2018. In fact, Halvings are mostly associated with price increases, either before or after the event.

What does the Halving mean for your mining plan?

Due to the Halving your coin rewards will drop, just like for all miners worldwide. The magnitude of this drop depends on your maintenance fee. Hopefully the BTC price will rise to make up for this and the USD value of your rewards will stay the same or even increase. It is also possible that the network hashrate and therefore the difficulty will drop and you can mine more coins.

In any case, your mining plan will last for its whole runtime. Runtime is guaranteed, and terms will not be changed. In our 6 years of operation, we have always fulfilled the contracts with our customers.

If you have a Classic type of plan

1. How these plans normally behave

The Classic type of mining plans have a low upfront fee and a daily maintenance fee. This plan is usually chosen by people who

Want to enter mining with the least possible commitment (low upfront fee)
Believe that the BTC price will keep rising (maintenance fee is fixed in USD but gets deducted DAILY in BTC from the mining outputs, so if the price of BTC is higher, the maintenance fee “becomes” relatively smaller in BTC and you get a bigger chunk of the mining output at the end of the day)

Since the pricing of this kind of plan is like a downpayment (your initial cost is low, but then you pay the maintenance fee from whatever you are mining daily), the performance of these kinds of mining plans heavily depends on the daily BTC price.

Why?

The maintenance fee gets deducted in USD at the daily BTC price, which changes every day. You get your mining reward in BTC, so if the price of BTC goes down, the maintenance fee fixed in USD goes up and might take up more of your daily mining reward. Vice versa, if the BTC price goes up, you pay relatively less for maintenance and end up with more coins. This is why usually the Classic type plans are chosen by people who believe in an imminent strong market with a high Bitcoin price. Classic plans work best when the Bitcoin price is increasing.

2. How these plans will behave after the Halving

Simply put: if the BTC price stays as it is or decreases, the maintenance fee becomes relatively more expensive (see explanation above) and takes a bigger chunk of your daily mining reward. In this case you should expect heavily reduced (by more than 50%!) mining outputs until the market stabilizes. In case the BTC price goes up, the USD value of your reward will also grow, and then even though you get fewercoins they might be worth the same or more. Let’s hope for the best!

If you have a Zero type of plan

1. How these plans normally behave

The Zero type of mining plans have a higher upfront fee and no other associated costs.
This plan is usually chosen by people who would rather pay the full price of the hashrate upfront (including maintenance) so that they are less dependent on the daily price fluctuations. The advantage of this structure shows itself exactly when you are uncertain about market developments and how fast they will occur. Simply put, it is usually chosen by people who want to stay on the safe side even if the Bitcoin price decreases.

If you are a ‘Zero’ miner, as there is no maintenance fee deducted from the daily mining rewards you get 100% of whatever your hashrate mines. If the price is temporarily low, you may choose to HODL your outputs and wait for the price to go back up, thereby “increasing” the USD value of your returns.

2. How these plans will behave after the Halving

‘Radiant Zero’ is the best type of plan to have at the time of the Halving, because you already paid for maintenance upfront, and now you are getting 100% of what your hashpower is mining. If you own this type of mining plan, the Halving will affect your daily rewards in the most straightforward way: You will receive 50% of what you used to get. Hopefully, the Halving will result in a BTC price increase, so that the USD value of your rewards might stay the same as before.

What will Genesis Mining do about the Halving?

We have absolutely no influence over the Halving.

The Halving is a natural occurrence that happens automatically every 4 years and we cannot stop it from happening. The hashpower you purchased from us will start producing half of the coins that it used to, or less if you are paying a maintenance fee.

On one hand it seems like a severe outcome, on the other hand it serves a greater purpose. The cut will seem harsh at first, but eventually it will pay off for everyone in the industry.

We also have no influence over other market factors. We are facilitators providing hashpower for our clients and making it easier for them to mine cryptocurrencies. We do not affect the Bitcoin price or the global hashrate (difficulty), the two things that are responsible for the feasibility of mining. However, we wanted to provide you with all the information and let you know what is going to happen and what you can expect.

It is important that you are aware of the short term consequences and that you stay optimistic about the long term outcomes.

Even if your hashpower completely stops generating coins, for example when there is nothing left after deducting the daily maintenance fee, the coins you have already generated until this point may go up in value sometime in the future, thus ‘HODLing’ might be your best bet. It is also possible that the BTC price increases, or the difficulty decreases, so that your hashpower starts producing coins again. Remember, your hashpower will remain yours and active until the end of the contract term, no matter what.

What we can tell you though, is that your hashpower is in good hands and we will manage it throughout the Halving, guaranteeing 100% uptime. If things go well, the market will make up for it. In the long term your rewards will be worth the same or more in USD than before the Halving. Therefore, HODLing might be the best strategy if you believe that the BTC price will go up significantly.

What should YOU do?

You don’t have to do any preparations or maintenance work on your hardware, because you are mining with us, and we will do it for you.

Regarding the decreased mining rewards, there is no avoiding it, no matter what you or us do. At the time you started mining, you made a decision how (with which contract type) you wanted to do it, and you made a bet on how the Bitcoin market is going to behave during your contract period. Only time will tell which was the better decision overall: Zero or Classic.

But if you believe that the price of Bitcoin will go up significantly sometime in the future, the best thing to do right now is probably to HODL. As we mentioned, you should evaluate what you personally think is going to happen in the next few months. All that us miners can do is assume things at this point, and it’s everyone’s own decision on how to go forward.

We wish all miners the best of luck in their cryptocurrency endeavour not just for this Halving, but for the next years ahead.

Did we do a good job in explaining what is going to happen? Please let us know, and feel free to share your experience of these times. Send us a message at halving@genesis-mining.com or get in touch with our Customer Service via contact@genesis-mining.com.

Best,

The Genesis Mining Team

Articles & Sources we recommend for more info

The State of Crypto Mining 2020 [Research]

Genesis Mining — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 09:34:00 +0000

Crypto mining is the method by which Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency transactions are verified and added to the blockchain. This can be done by anyone with mining hardware — from independent individuals to scaled cloud mining facilities. These crypto miners run the “proof of work” math on their computers to verify crypto transactions, and when they add a block to the blockchain, they are rewarded for their work with newly created Bitcoin, as well as transaction fees. Without crypto mining, there would be no Bitcoin, no blockchain — and especially no decentralization to the entire system.

One event may have a significant effect on how crypto is mined in the coming months: the block halving event, when Bitcoin rewards will be cut in half as a way to regulate the system and stop inflation. While halving events have seen Bitcoin prices soar in the past, it may cause individual miners to pull out of their mining efforts.

We wanted to know what Bitcoin owners knew about the mining process, as well as get their thoughts on how the upcoming block halving would impact Bitcoin. We conducted a survey on March 17, 2020 of 750 respondents who either own or have owned Bitcoin at some point in the past.

Key findings:

50% of miners expect to see the price increase after the next halving.
60.8% felt either somewhat or very concerned over Chinese organizations control of the Bitcoin network.
64.9% – believe that a 51% Attack is a legitimate concern for the Bitcoin community and investors.
One third believed that power will shift from large centralized groups to smaller home miners.

Want to read the rest of the insights?

Go ahead and download the full report for free. If you are a Genesis Mining customer, you’ll get a direct download link when you log into your account.

The 3 Worst Scam Stories – Scammer Awareness Day

Genesis Mining — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 09:41:00 +0000

April 1st is the only day of the year where people actually expect to be punked or fooled. But there are 364 other days where you also shouldn’t let others fool you. We are talking about scammers. Of course, it would be exhausting and unpleasant to live like that every day of the year, but a healthy portion of awareness comes in handy.

We have collected the 3 worst scam efforts we ever witnessed to warn you about online thieves.

Mining cryptocurrencies is our passion, and many people would not have the chance to mine if it wasn’t for us. Because mining can be a complicated, intense, and tricky business if you want to do it right, and it is very risky, as sometimes your mining rewards are lower than your expenses to keep your operation running.

However, when you do it right, it can be quite lucrative, and so scammers love disguising themselves as crypto miners to promise exorbitant income. And people love believing they can hit the jackpot. Sure, you can earn some crypto with mining, but scammers sell a different idea: They promise you can triple your money in just a few months, and you just really want to believe it.

It is usually easy to spot a scam if you have common sense, but too many times that bulls**t is really believable.

There are a lot of different types of scam attempts. Luckily, most of them are not very elaborate. They are full of spelling mistakes, unprofessional language or unbelievable statements, but sometimes the creativity is pretty amazing, and too many times it works.

The crypto market has had its fair share of elaborate scams, ponzi schemes or pyramid games… Especially in the beginning (2010- 2017) as it was a largely unregulated industry, every second crypto business was a scam. Things have improved, and thanks to stricter measures and better regulation there are fewer such “businesses”

Since it has become harder for larger, visible entities to scam people, this misconduct now happens under the radar.

Individuals with fake pictures on their Instagram accounts try to convince people to join their private trading group.

Others impersonate public figures from the crypto industry (like our CEO, Marco Streng) and promise legitimate investment opportunities in companies.

Many attempt to create fake accounts or user groups of well-known companies (like Genesis Mining) and offer non-existent mining capacities for sale. Some pay “daily mining rewards” for a while, then disappear, some straight out vanish after receiving the funds.

And the list goes on…

Here are the 3 craziest stories that we, Genesis Mining, have experienced in our 6 years of service. They illustrate some of the scammers’ tricks and show the length they go to rid you of your hard earned money.

The best (aka worst) 3 scam stories we have ever witnessed

Number 1

Not so long ago, we started to receive death threats on social media from a “customer” of ours. He claimed he had spoken to our CEO Marco Streng and had invested more than 10 Bitcoins (!!!) via our Telegram group.

Genesis Mining does NOT have a Telegram group, nor does our CEO Marco Streng reach out personally to random people on the internet to convince them to buy mining contracts.

Unfortunately, this poor fellow did not check the official website, nor did he research our social media platforms. He fell victim to a very elaborate Telegram scam. We have full understanding of his anger, but it is a bit uncomfortable to get death threats for something we were not involved in.

How can YOU make sure something similar doesn’t happen to you?

Look for the official check marks on the account, to make sure it is a verified account
Telegram is only safe if you chat with people you know there. You can never know if a stranger writing to you is actually who you think they are. On Telegram, people can impersonate whoever they want.
Always check at least 1 additional channel of the entity. If you were contacted on Facebook by a random account, reach out to the official account. Even better to google the entity and find their official website. Don’t use links provided by the first account, as they might send you to a copy of the original website, giving you a false sense of security, or attempting to phish your data.
In general NEVER PURCHASE ANYTHING from someone on a chat application, always verify that you are on the official website and that it is a traceable payment.

Number 2

Approximately a year ago, we noticed that many people started writing to us about “that job listing” where they “had to have a mining contract if they wanted to work”. Luckily, we eventually got the link to the job posting so we could have it taken down, but also, we could uncover something truly baffling:

Someone created a fake job listing on AngelList in our name. Whoever applied got employed pretty much immediately and the newly hired people got some really weird instructions from a certain MERCO Streng (lol): Applicants needed to apparently have a mining contract with Genesis Mining before starting their actual work.

We don’t know how the company got the funds from the victims. It might have been a fake website, or they may have requested a crypto transfer to a random wallet address. Either way, we are truly disgusted by this specific scam, as it preyed on people who were out of jobs, and for a short moment were made to believe they got employed. It’s unclear how many people got “hired” by this GM copycat, but we hope they did not lose too much money.

How can YOU make sure something like this doesn’t happen to you? Remember:

Our job listings are hosted on genesis-group.com or via some official head hunter agencies. But just to make sure, always ask us if it is real via contact@genesis-mining.com
Genesis Mining does not have any “agents” on any social media platform
The only official way to contact us is via our Customer Support team (chat on the website, or contact@genesis-mining.com, or via an official email address ending with @genesis-mining.com
genes-mining.com, contact@genesismining.com, http://genesisminers.org/, and any other variations are FAKE, so always check if it’s the right spelling, the right letters, and in the right order!

Marco ≠ Merco

Number 3

We get tons of negative comments where sooner or later it turns out that the person complaining never did any business with us… They were just led to believe they did. One of these stories is about a woman who bought a mining contract from a fake Genesis Mining, with the promise that the mining would start in 3 months. Unfortunately, the mining never started, and the scammers had 3 months before the victim realized she had been cheated. The scheme was especially clever, as it is not unprecedented that mining companies offer such products so it could sound familiar and believable.

Unfortunately for this lady, she had no means of reaching out to the fake account anymore, and when she contacted us with her credentials, we realized she never had an account with us, and that an agent on Whatsapp “assisted” her in creating her profile. Apparently, when she checked “our agent’s” LinkedIn, she saw he was working for us, so she trusted the person.

Scammers operate most often on Instagram, Telegram, Whatsapp, Facebook, and cross link their fake accounts. Many create LinkedIn profiles for themselves where they can freely tag Genesis Mining (the real one) as their employer – and we can NOT do anything about it.

These platforms act really slowly, if they act at all. More often than not they just ignore our reports. On Linkedin we have a crazy amount of fake coworkers, because anyone can say anything about themselves, and companies can’t efficiently report it, or remove the tags. And once someone has a full LinkedIn profile, they already seem like a real, professional and trustworthy person.

How can YOU make sure something like this doesn’t happen to you? Remember:

Make sure you purchase things directly on the official website. You should always be suspicious if a merchant asks you on Whatsapp, Telegram or other not-so-formal platforms for payment
Look for verified accounts, or at least ask on the official website if the account in question is related to the company at all
Once again, Genesis Mining does not have any “agents” on any social media platform

What can we, Genesis Mining, do to stop this?

The difficulty of reporting these fake accounts is certainly not an excuse for us to stop – we will never cease to fight scammers.

We have a pretty smooth reporting process for such situations, and we do everything in our power to hinder fraudsters. It’s not only to protect YOU, but also to protect our brand and image. The victims’ negative comments end up on our social media accounts, and we hate that, so you should believe it when we tell you: We do everything to stop scammers.

Unfortunately, the big social media platforms are slow and they request things we can’t provide them with (for example screenshots of a scammer’s messages on Telegram are not enough, we have to FORWARD the messages – but do you think the scammers are in direct contact with us, so that we can forward the messages? Of course not).

Instagram, Facebook, Telegram are probably the worst in this regard, so be careful if anyone contacts you on these platforms. Always look for the blue check mark, because those are verified accounts.

What can You do?

Besides all the tips we gave you above, if you see any account that

– claims to be related to us,

– or pretends to be us, or someone of us,

Feel free to report it. If you engage in any messaging, do not reveal any personal information, and you are welcome to submit screenshots to us, and every possible bit of proof, so that we can also report it! The more people report, the higher the chance that Telegram, Facebook & Co will finally do something about it.

To finish this up, let us say something very important:

Don’t judge anyone for falling for a scam. It can happen to ANYONE. Especially to good people, because they won’t expect the worst from others.

So be smart, and always double check, always look for secure alternatives.

Bitcoin and crypto still have this reputation to this day – that the industry is a wild west and many people still associate cryptocurrencies with criminal activity (and not even just scammer related).

Let’s fight this perception, let’s do something against those who try to exploit all of us, even if the best you can do is to PROTECT YOURSELF!

Bitcoin vs. Gold — The Ultimate Guide

Genesis Mining — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 10:13:00 +0000

Some have called Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies the modern equivalent of gold. In some ways this statement rings true, yet there are distinct and notable differences between Bitcoin and gold that warrant discussion.

The relationship between Bitcoin and gold is one that we believe the general public is not intimately familiar with. In our recently-issued survey titled How Well Do Americans Understand Money?, a substantial portion of respondents did not realize that gold is no longer the commodity-backing for the U.S. dollar. So it doesn’t seem like a stretch to assume the average American is less than familiar with the comparative relationship between gold and Bitcoin. Why would they be?

As a company on the front lines of Bitcoin extraction, we at Genesis Mining fancy ourselves crypto enthusiasts, and that may even be stating things a bit lightly. It’s our job to understand not just the role of cryptocurrency in today’s economic climate, but also what it could be in the future.

To understand Bitcoin’s unrealized potential, we can start with the similarities and differences between Bitcoin and gold, a resource that was once a fundamental element of the global economy.

Similarity: Like Gold, Bitcoin Is A Scarce Resource

One of the more obvious similarities between gold and Bitcoin is that they are both fixed in their total amount, though not in precisely the same manner. While the amount of gold in circulation grows each time more is mined, it does not grow in any way that materially impacts the price of the asset, as other factors pertaining to gold (a crash in the stock market, for example) could.

Bitcoin is an even stronger example of scarcity than gold. When Bitcoin was created in 2009, a limit on the number of Bitcoins that may ever been mined was set at 21 million. This hard cap established a definable scarcity that ensures that supply-driven hyperinflation never drives Bitcoin’s value near zero.

Paper money, a form of fiat currency, stands as a counterexample to these scarce resources. The U.S. dollar and many other national currencies were once made scarce by their status as a commodity currency. That is, they were backed by a finite resource, typically gold. Commodity backing meant that a government had to be able to redeem all of the paper money in circulation for its equivalent in gold at any given moment. This necessity limited the amount of paper money that could be printed.

However, the abandonment of the gold standard has essentially annihilated the scarcity of paper currency. This has led to hyperinflation, artificial conceptions of wealth and value, and the continued diminishment of the dollar’s purchasing power.

Hence why cryptocurrency advocates see Bitcoin as the scarce, intrinsically valuable alternative to fiat currency.

Difference: Bitcoin Is Readily Exchangeable For Goods, Services, And Cash

One gripe with Bitcoin, especially by those who have not truly attempted to use Bitcoin as a means of exchange, is that it is simply not as real-world-ready as the U.S. dollar in its many forms. For example, your local gas station is probably not ready to accept your Bitcoin in exchange for petrol. And while these statements may be largely true as of now, it is not crazy to envision a day when most card readers and online merchants accept Bitcoin debit cards. It is not a pipe dream to think that Bitcoin could be as readily-usable as a means of exchange as the U.S. dollar.

You could not make the same claim about gold, which is far less liquid than the highly-digitized mechanisms that power cryptocurrency. If gold were to replace the U.S. dollar, it would have done so long ago. One of the reasons why gold was the commodity backing for national currency, and not the currency itself, is that gold is simply not a practical tool for purchasing and selling goods and services.

Gold bars are heavy. They can’t be easily broken down (as you could make change for a dollar) or transferred through digital means (as you could exchange funds via debit card, or a Bitcoin wallet). The price of gold is always fluctuating, so even open-minded merchants are hesitant to accept gold as payment unless they receive an amount far above the value of good or service they are selling.

Contrarily, Bitcoin is digital. Just as you can access your U.S. dollars through digital means (debit card, wire transfer, etc.), owners of Bitcoin send digital funds on a daily basis through similar modes. Merchants that have the available infrastructure can accept payment via a Bitcoin debit card just as they can a debit card from Bank of America or Chase.

This real-world, day-to-day utility — even though it has not quite been realized at scale because of minor-yet-real barriers to adoption — is what separates Bitcoin’s potential from the limitations inherent to gold. This difference is critical, and it is why Bitcoin advocates believe that it can one day become a widely-used currency, rather than just the anchor for paper currency, as gold once was.

Gold and Bitcoin Are Alike, Yet Critically Different

Gold and Bitcoin both fluctuate in value. They are both intrinsically valuable, gold because of its physical properties, Bitcoin because of the nodes/users backing it). They can both be traded for paper currency, and their scarcity gives each a measure of intrinsic value that fiat currency — U.S. dollars, Euros, and virtually every other national currency used today — does not have. In these ways, Bitcoin and gold are similar.

But gold is largely a store of value, not a practical means of exchange. Bitcoin does not have intrinsically limiting properties such as weight and indivisibility — limitations that gold does have — stunting its potential to become a widely-used means of exchange.

The fundamentals are there for Bitcoin to become the means of exchange its advocates know it can be.

Dear world, the ball is in your court now.

The History of Money – Money Talks 1.

Genesis Mining — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 10:28:00 +0000

Dollars, Bitcoin, Euros, cash. There are countless ways to refer to the entity that makes the world go ‘round, and there are even more ways to measure its worth. Whether you are exchanging it for a roof over your head or the dinner on your table, money in its many forms is the centrally defining theme that connects the world and defines the quality of our lives.

Even our health — the only thing that anyone even pretends is more important on a day-to-day basis than money — can be contingent on the amount of money we have.

So what do we actually know about money, being so important as it is? What can the average person, who relies so consciously on money in virtually every aspect of their life, tell you about how the money we use today came to be?

A study that we conducted, How Well Do Americans Understand Money, suggests that the average person knows fairly little about how our financial system came to be. Let’s change that by taking a jaunt down the historical path that money followed from its original state to its current forms.

Bartering: Before Money Was Money

Before we had the resources to mass produce coins and bills or credit cards and Bitcoin mines, our ancestors relied on a bartering system where commodities were exchanged for other goods and services.

Instead of exchanging money as we know it today, those in need of wheat would trade something of value that the wheat producer desired — precious metals, wood-fashioned utensils, or whatever they had to offer. This bartering system is the original form of exchange that predates money as we know it.

The obvious problem with bartering: if you didn’t have something that the seller valued, you were S.O.L., left without the good or service that you needed unless you could find another seller who wanted what you were offering. And, even if you were able to secure a deal, you’d ultimately have to schlep whatever you traded or traded for (fifty pounds of salt, for example) in order to consummate the deal. This just wasn’t practical, and so bartering went out of style when a more practical form of money emerged.

Coins and Paper Bills

Metal money is thought to have been introduced circa 5,000 B.C., and the first coins designed as a medium of exchange are attributed to the Lydians in 700 B.C. Metal was an obvious choice as the basis for coins, as it was relatively cheap, could be fashioned easily into coins, and perhaps most importantly, was available in large quantities.

Other nations began minting their own currency soon after the Lydians did, and those nations tied the prices of goods to the value of their coins, creating a universal medium of exchange that facilitated trade and economic activity on a level that barter systems could not.

The origins of paper money are most commonly tied to China circa 960 A.D., though some point to the use of paper receipts in modern-day Iraq as the first iterations of paper-based exchange.

Money Becomes Representative, Instead of Inherently Valuable

In its early stages, coins often had inherent value — that is, the metal that the coin was made of had a certain value, which was reflected in the coin’s purchasing power. Eventually, coins came to take on a representative value, which meant that they could be made out of practically anything so long as the value they represented was honored in the marketplace.

These representative coins were a precursor to later forms of currency, such as the U.S. dollar and other international currencies when they were tied to a gold standard. Though a paper dollar or a dime was not worth much in a vacuum, the idea that each of those dollars and coins were backed by actual gold in a reserve somewhere gave each bill or coin representative value.

Eventually, this representative value of money tied directly to a real, tangible asset such as gold gave way to the fiat currency we use today.

LONG TERM FIAT HAS NO VALUE. START MINING CRYPTOCURRENCIES NOW

The Rise of Fiat Money

When the United States took the first steps towards abandoning gold-backed currency in the 1930s, and rang the death knell for the gold standard in the early 1970s, it ushered in the era of fiat money, or as some might refer to it, funny money.

Fiat money is not backed by any tangible asset. Instead, it derives value from a government’s decree that the money has value. People follow the lead of the government, exchanging money for goods and in doing so, proving that the money does in fact have value.

However, even mild cases of inflation show how tenuous the “value” of fiat money can be, especially when a government can no longer pay its own debts and the people’s faith in their economic system collapses.

Next-Gen Money Such as Bitcoin

Through debit and credit cards and online banking and trading, money has taken on distinctly plastic and digital qualities. These mediums of exchange are mere extensions of the fiat, credit and debt-reliant financial systems that we embraced when we left the gold standard.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies represent an entirely new paradigm for the global financial system, and in some ways they are a nod to the past, when currency was backed by tangible measures of value.

Blockchain-based digital currencies such as Bitcoin emerged in 2009, and their premise is that the value of each digital coins comes from the number of users, or nodes, in a given blockchain. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also inherently scarce, as they were limited to a set amount upon creation. That cryptocurrencies require increasing amounts of energy and computing power to be mined over time adds to their inherent value.

In some ways, Bitcoin represents a return to the past, to a time when money had real, inherent value. Some might even say money’s come full circle.

START MINING BITCOIN NOW. YOUR ARE ONLY A FEW CLICKS AWAY FROM GETTING YOUR FIRST COINS.

The End Of Crypto Mining Is Just The Beginning Of Crypto – by Philip Salter

Genesis Mining — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 10:31:00 +0000

A soundbyte news item recently took the crypto community by storm: 85% of the world’s Bitcoin supply has been mined.

It’s a little too easy for newbie crypto investors to interpret this data point as bad news. It sounds too much like “the end of Bitcoin is near,” and suggests a tone of doom for companies that depend on the popular cryptocurrency to function.

But this simply isn’t an accurate portrayal of the situation. We’re nowhere near the end of Bitcoin — we’re just getting started.

We’ve always known we’d one day have no more Bitcoin to mine. The supply of this cryptocurrency has been transparently finite from day one. The number 21 million is hardcoded into the software that drives the network — just as there is only so much gold in the world, there will only ever be that much Bitcoin. (If there was an unlimited supply of Bitcoin, then individual tokens would be totally worthless.)

Bitcoin is beautifully transparent in how it operates. It depends upon a mathematically controlled scarcity mechanism called “block halving” in order to sustain its value into the future. Blockhalving reduces the reward for mining new BTC by 50% every 210,000 blocks. Current production is at 1,800 BTC per day right now and will stay that way until the next block halving in May 2020. Knowing everything we know right now, we can determine that it will take until the year 2140 for miners to actually mine the last Bitcoin.

Yes, we’ve mined 85 percent of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. But it’s still going to take more than a hundred years to reach 100 percent, and even after this point of no return, miners will still have opportunities to generate revenue. They’ll simply move from solving complicated math problems that create new BTC to instead solving complicated math problems that confirm transactions on the network, collecting rewards in the form of transaction fees for their role in supporting the network. At such a time when Bitcoin reaches full maturity with 21 million BTC in the wild, there’s bound to be a lot of transactions to process.

It won’t be the end, it will be a new beginning in which cryptocurrency is far more ordinary and mainstream. With that in mind, here are three actionable takeaways for the crypto enthusiasts wondering what to do in response to this 85 percent news item.

Mine while you still can.

As described above, Bitcoin mining is going to continue for quite some time and can’t accurately be described as done. With 15 percent of the total supply remaining, the crypto community still stands to generate some 3,150,000 BTC before this game is truly over. With BTC price lately holding around $10,000, there’s more than $31 billion up for grabs at today’s market prices. There’s no telling how this value will change going forward. Grab some while you still can!

Bitcoin mining is a much different game with 15 percent of the supply remaining versus when there was still 100 percent remaining. You nowadays need high-powered hardware in order to compete against the centralized commercial mining operations that benefit from economies of scale. These pay less for the electricity that powers their mining rigs, and they run lots of them at once. You might consider getting an ASIC mining device in order to stand a chance of successfully earning some Bitcoin for yourself, or you can rent access to supercharged offsite hardware by engaging a cloud mining company.

Take the opportunity to educate yourself.

If you felt a tinge of doom or panic at this news, then I’m happy to be telling you that there’s no cause for concern, wherever you fit within the crypto community. But I’ll also tell you that this is a great time to be digging deeper and build a fuller working knowledge of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency topics — major players knew not to flinch at the 85 percent statistic, so you’d do well to follow their lead. It just means you need a little more familiarity in this arena.

Read cryptocurrency news sites and think about joining any one of the many crypto meetups that convene in cities around the world. Get into the habit of taking in new information and external opinions on Bitcoin and our crypto-enabled future. You’ll not only expand your knowledge base, but you’ll meet similarly minded crypto enthusiasts looking to do the same thing.

Keep calm and carry on.

Bitcoin mining isn’t even over yet, and its inevitable end still isn’t something to agonize about. This decentralized system is operating exactly according to its design. The individual crypto enthusiast only needs to figure out where he or she wants to fit within this emergent economy.

Bitcoin isn’t going away, it’s going everywhere. If you’ll forgive a poetic analogy, mining the final Bitcoin won’t be like cutting down the final tree in a forest. It will be much more like a flower reaching full bloom.