Bitmain Will Reportedly Bring 56,000 Mining Rigs to Georgia

News
By Nathaniel Mott
published

The company's partnering with BlockQuarry to head to the U.S.

BlockQuarry's cryptocurrency mining pods
(Image credit: BlockQuarry)

Bitmain will reportedly bring 56,000 of its Bitcoin mining rigs to Georgia following the Chinese government's decision to shut down cryptocurrency mining operations.

The company's lead product offering is the Antminer series, which use TSMC-made cryptocurrency mining application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that can match the hashrate of multiple GPUs, making them popular for large-scale operations. (At least until the crypto-crackdown in China forced it to halt sales earlier this year.)

ISW Holdings, which is mid-transition to the new BlockQuarry brand, announced on Tuesday that it will form one such operation in partnership with Bitmain and Bit5ive. The companies are supposed to host 56,000 mining rigs, set to consume up to 200MW of electricity at a BlockQuarry facility called "POD-CITY" in Georgia.

The plan seems to be for Bit5ive to manufacture "BLOQPODS" that can be grouped into "BLOQ PARKS" operated by BlockQuarry. Each pod is said to feature 280 of Bitmain's Antminer S19J mining rigs to offer a 28,000 terahash per second (TH/s) hashrate while consuming up to 1MW of power via "renewable clean energy."

BlockQuarry's website claims that each pod offers "100% mobility and transportability to any place in the planet"—which could be a selling point for cryptocurrency mining operators who don't want to figure out how to move all their equipment again if other governments follow China in banning the industry.

The company soon to be formerly known as ISW Holdings said it "expects to have the first 20 MW of power paired with rigs and running full-out by October 2021" and "all 56k miners hooked up to all 200 MW of power and running full-out by October 2022." At that point, it expects to make over $10 million per month in service fees.

Nathaniel Mott
Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • husker
    I know this is legitimate, and I know all the arguments about the value of cryptocurrencies. But, is it just me, or does the whole "license to print money" thing just not feel right? Adding endless amounts of monetary wealth to the world without actually adding any kind of real world value or product will undoubtedly lead to a huge amount of inflation just as if money were being printed. This is because goods and services are beginning to be traded in cryptocurrencies themselves without the need to convert into standard currency first, so this is like a de facto printing of currency. If that weren't bad enough, eventually it's going to cost more to create a particular cryptocurrency than it is worth; at which point the coin won't be mined anymore and perception of that coin will head into a downward spiral and any previously mined coins of that type will become hugely discounted with everyone dumping them at the same time. If it can't be mined profitably anymore, the perception of that coin will head into a downward spiral. The only value of the coin is what people think it is worth -- much like any other trendy collectable item. It is true, that the U.S. dollar isn't technically backed by a specific security (such as gold) but it is backed and regulated by the U.S. government which makes all the difference. The really sad thing is that by the time we get to that point where cryptocurrencies are crashing, there will be banks and governments tied into crypto and it will drag all of us down as if we were anchored onto the Titanic itself. Sorry to be such a downer, but oh well.... class dismissed.
    Reply
  • SkyBill40
    husker said:
    I know this is legitimate, and I know all the arguments about the value of cryptocurrencies. But, is it just me, or does the whole "license to print money" thing just not feel right? Adding endless amounts of monetary wealth to the world without actually adding any kind of real world value or product will undoubtedly lead to a huge amount of inflation just as if money were being printed. This is because goods and services are beginning to be traded in cryptocurrencies themselves without the need to convert into standard currency first, so this is like a de facto printing of currency. If that weren't bad enough, eventually it's going to cost more to create a particular cryptocurrency than it is worth; at which point the coin won't be mined anymore and perception of that coin will head into a downward spiral and any previously mined coins of that type will become hugely discounted with everyone dumping them at the same time. If it can't be mined profitably anymore, the perception of that coin will head into a downward spiral. The only value of the coin is what people think it is worth -- much like any other trendy collectable item. It is true, that the U.S. dollar isn't technically backed by a specific security (such as gold) but it is backed and regulated by the U.S. government which makes all the difference. The really sad thing is that by the time we get to that point where cryptocurrencies are crashing, there will be banks and governments tied into crypto and it will drag all of us down as if we were anchored onto the Titanic itself. Sorry to be such a downer, but oh well.... class dismissed.

    I don't disagree. I personally find the whole "crypto currency" thing to be vaporware. It offers nothing for all the energy which is consumed to mine it. As you have said, it has no tangible value and is strictly intrinsic in nature, whereas our US dollar does have actual monetary value despite not having a physical backing as it did when we were on the gold standard.

    The thing that worries me about it all is that our nation continues to teeter on the brink of collapse due to having to borrow more and more to pay off debt which will never, ever be paid off in full. The debt ceiling has to be raised once again or we'll default on our financial obligations and that would lead to a financial cataclysm of untold proportions. Crypto is but a small part in that chain.
    Reply