Bitcoin Chicago Podcast – An Interview with Sergii Gerasymovych

What is Bitcoin?

Although this might seem like a straightforward question, there’s actually quite a bit of nuance to the answer. Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto just over 10 years ago as a sort of digital cash meant for decentralized peer-to-peer transactions. Over time, it has become more of a digital asset that has become quite valuable.

Technically speaking, we could call bitcoin a “cryptocurrency.” This isn’t wrong, but we might also consider it to be a type of cryptocurrency that’s in a class of its own. Different legal entities, for example, often classify it in different ways.

What are the Basics of Bitcoin Mining?

Understanding bitcoin and the processes that happen around it is not an easy feat. To better depict what key definitions are in play, we’ll lay out three fundamental pillars of bitcoin mining:

1. Price of bitcoin
2. Price of hardware
3. Energy cost

Talking about these pillars helps us understand why following the bitcoin market can be such a challenge. The price of bitcoin, for example, is tricky to follow and understand. It fluctuates a lot, often in amounts that might seem extreme—and often for reasons we weren’t expecting.

The price of hardware is a little less difficult to follow, but it’s still an essential thing to consider. More than the price itself, it’s important to know that, truly, only a handful of companies create and sell the tools that are needed for mining, and these same companies also mine themselves. The bright side is that there isn’t too much to worry about with fluctuating hardware prices. What might be uneasy, however, is that the businesses providing you the tools are also, in a way, your competition. Whether this is good or bad is mostly up to interpretation.

Perhaps the most interesting pillar to discuss is energy cost. As far as being able to gauge costs themselves, energy is the clearest since it exists in markets that are often much simpler to follow. What makes this a particularly interesting topic for EZ Blockchain, however, is the prospect of creating your own energy on a smaller scale.

Efficient Mining and Wasted Energy Solutions

Years ago, in a struggle to find more affordable energy sources, EZ Blockchain looked into creating their own source of energy. The path was set thanks to the roadblocks and obstacles in obtaining energy outside of what might be considered “conventional” avenues.

That is to say, most plants do not provide energy directly to consumers, and consumers have to go through utility companies to obtain their electricity.

But if you don’t go through the utility companies and the plants won’t sell directly to you, what’s left? Making electricity yourself. 

It sounds ambitious, if not entirely unrealistic. Interestingly, what EZ Blockchain stumbled upon is that natural gas is not just a great way to produce electricity on a small scale but also recycles excess natural gas that is otherwise wasted by the plants.

This means that EZ Blockchain has able to produce cheap electricity by using offset gas, which helps companies get rid of their waste while simultaneously helping the company mine bitcoin.

Listen to the full interview for more details and insights from the Salvi Chicago Live show – here.