Dec 7, 2020
Mustafa Yilham, VP of global business development at Bixin, joins the show. Bixin is an early Asia-based Bitcoin miner; they operate a popular wallet app, and they run a Bitcoin-denominated quant fund of funds. We cover prevailing myths around industrial Bitcoin mining and the reality of sourcing energy at competitive prices for mining. In this episode:
- The story behind Bixin's Bitcoin-denominated quant fund
- How Bixin's fund of fund employs a Bitcoin benchmark
- Why Bixin as a firm is not market neutral and does not hedge their mining operation
- Whether miners have a procyclical or countercyclical effect on the price of Bitcoin
- Whether or not miners are fundamentally long Bitcoin
- The key considerations for finding a good source of electricity for mining
- Why Central Asia, Russia, and North America are promising locations for mining
- Why Mustafa expects more hashpower to end up in North America in the near term
- The factors leading Mustafa to expect less hashrate concentration in China in the future
- Whether the CBECI mining map is a reliable guide to where mining is located
- Miner attitudes to Iran and OFAC
- Current electricity prices required to competitively mine
- What sold out hardware means for the price of Bitcoin
- Was the hashrate drop earlier this year was due to the seasonal migration of hashpower in China?
- Bixin's approach to seasonal electricity costs
- Whether the withdrawal issues at Okex and Huobi prevented miners from selling and 'caused' the recent Bitcoin rally
- Mustafa's take on the "China controls Bitcoin" narrative
- Why Bitcoin mining is getting progressively more decentralized
- Why Bitcoin miners are positively disposed towards Bitcoin
- Whether Bixin plans to support Taproot
- Mustafa's view on who controls Bitcoin
- Mustafa's experiences in Turkey and why it is so popular there
- Why central asian and post-Soviet households like gold
Sponsor notes:
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