Bolt Miners -
I hope all of you are doing well and finding some time reflect on the last year as you lay plans for 2022. Here at Bolt, we’re full speed ahead tying out site development and onboarding as we draw nearer to firing up the first 3 MW of our new facility. This week’s newsletter is lighter than last, but I hope you still enjoy this most recent dispatch from our team. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, comments and/or suggestions. The goal is to keep you informed and share topics of interest to the Bolt Miner community.
Site Progress
As I mentioned in last week’s update, we have all of the core infrastructure components onsite and near fully configured. By the end of this upcoming week the only outstanding requirement to begin testing our mobile data center will be the power company’s installation of a new primary meter, which is currently slated for the first week of the new year.
While we wait on the power company, we’ve shifted our focus towards tightening site security and finalizing the design of warehouse storage. A new perimeter fence is slated for installation before end of the year as are some custom shelving units. An often overlooked element of mining is the sheer space required to house tools, workspace & each individual boxed received when miners are delivered. Fun fact — at peak capacity we’ll be storing approximately 4430 cubic feet of rig packaging. It’s important to us that all original packaging is handled with the same care as the rigs themselves. I’m super stoked on the designs and looking forward to sharing pics of the warehouse interior once renovation is complete!
A quick recap of where we stand on the site is below for those of you following along at home.
Phase 1 site launch checklist
Warehouse renovation — in progress, ongoing
Mobile data center (Smartbox 3000) delivery3000 kVA transformer delivery4000A fuse disconnect deliveryDedicated transmission line & conduit installationPrimary meter installation — scheduled for the week of 1/3
Smartbox 3000 power up & testing -- expected for the weeks of 1/10 & 1/17
Rack & bring customer rigs online -- expected for the week of 1/24
Onboarding
A few topics of interest emerged this week as we welcomed 12 new Bolt Miners to the community.
Rig Insurance: Something we haven’t spoken about enough is our commitment to making it easier for Bolt Miners to ensure their hardware. Those of you that have been mining for awhile know that it’s quite challenging to obtain insurance coverage on mining hardware due to the potential volatility of their value and varying quality of hosting sites. We’ve been working IMA Financial to underwrite our facility so they can provide well-priced individual policies to Bolt Miners interested in covering their rigs. Please get in touch with me directly if you’re interested in a warm introduction to their team to explore their offerings. We also hear good things about Bitsure and Evertas if you’d like compare quotes.
Recurring ACH: While we’d prefer to transact purely in crypto, the reality is that even the most fervent Bitcoin miners need to maintain USD balances to handle recurring operating expenses. And when it comes to legacy payment rails, ACH happens to be the lowest cost method for us to receive monthly hosting fees. If you choose to pay in USD, we recommend you check with your bank’s bill pay service to see if they allow a recurring ACH draft free of cost. If not, we recommend using a service like Melio Payments to eliminate the hassle of manually setting up monthly drafts.
Mining pools: Last week I mentioned that we were considering expanding the list of eligible mining pools. I’m excited to announce that we’re officially taking this step to give you more control over your mining operation. As of today, we’re officially whitelisting Luxor and Slushpool for miners operating fewer than 10 rigs. For those with 10 or more rigs, we recommend looking into Foundry USA who we’re in the process of getting setup with for our own mining to be done at 0% fee. Interested in whitelisting another preferred pool provider? Just send me a note with the specific pool and we’ll work on getting them added to our list.
Hardware Market
I’m super stoked on the revamp of Luxor’s hashrate data and rig index. If you aren’t regularly checking out their data and content you definitely should be. This week the launched a new look and feel along with some cool new interactive tools.
Lastly, below is a quick snapshot of available inventory. Apologies to those of you that experienced a hiccup in purchasing the S19XP units last week. After some back and forth with our broker, we were finally able to secure the XPs albeit at a slightly higher price point. Please get in touch if you’re interested in any of the remaining units or other inventory listed here.