Mining
Proof-of-work, hardware, pools, energy, and the geopolitics of hashrate.
The empirical landscape of the Bitcoin mining industry as it exists in 2026. Four clusters: Industry structure (ASICs and mining hardware, Mining pools) covers the hardware-and-coordination layer; Economics and operational dynamics (Hashrate dynamics, Miner economics, Public Bitcoin miners landscape) covers…
Cluster 1 — Industry structure
The hardware-and-coordination layer of the mining industry
ASIC generations (current-gen Antminer S23, ~9.5-11 J/Th; J/Th efficiency curves); manufacturers (Bitmain, MicroBT, Canaan, Intel, Block); supply-chain dynamics (TSMC/Samsung foundry…
pool architecture (block-template construction, share verification, payout calculation); the principal payout schemes (PPS, PPLNS, FPPS) and their economic implications; current major pools…
Cluster 2 — Economics and operational dynamics
Network-level metrics, firm-level financials, and the publicly-traded mining-company landscape
hashrate growth patterns since 2009; difficulty-adjustment-in-practice (vs the protocol-level mechanism in Difficulty adjustment); post-halving capitulation cycles; hashrate-price…
revenue model (subsidy + fees, projected post-halving evolution); cost structure (electricity at ~80%+ of opex; hardware capex; cooling and infrastructure; operational overhead); break-even…
the publicly-traded mining companies (Marathon, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, Cipher Mining, Iris Energy, Core Scientific, Bitfarms, Hut 8, Bitdeer); corporate strategies (HODL vs distribute…
Cluster 3 — Energy and sustainability
The energy-empirical layer of the mining industry
the stranded-energy thesis (gas flaring, hydro spill curtailment, demand-response monetization); ERCOT/Texas as the contemporary case study; mining as marginal-load buyer…
Daniel Batten's BEEST methodology (52.6% sustainable energy at its 2023-2024 baseline, growing +4.49 pp/year — ~56-57% by 2026); methane-mitigation framing (168 MW of flare-gas mining at…
Cluster 4 — Geography and geopolitics
The geographic distribution of the mining industry and the sovereign-mining-and-policy dimension
post-2021 China-ban migration patterns; current major jurisdictions (US ~37-40%, Russia ~15%, Kazakhstan ~10%, Paraguay/Bhutan/Ethiopia emerging); energy-availability as the principal…
sovereign mining programs (Bhutan via Druk Holding & Investments; Paraguay's Itaipu Dam; El Salvador's geothermal mining; emerging African programs); strategic-reserve dimensions (post-2024…
Cross-listed critique and controversy notes
Substantive analytical critique and event-level engagement live in dedicated notes that home elsewhere; cross-listed here for navigation:
analytical critique of geographic, manufacturer, and pool concentration
analytical critique of mining's energy footprint, with Daniel Batten's BEEST methodology integrated
contemporary event-level treatment of the 2024-2026 AI-infrastructure pivot among public miners and its centralization implications
the post-2030 fee-revenue and security-budget question; analytical critique that interacts directly with miner-economics realities