At the time of writing, Bitcoin was knocking on the door of $3,900. With a price like that, it's easy to see why mining has become a game for only a few participants. But there's an even more fascinating aspect: the facilities they use. Abandoned factories, residential complexes, and even old hangars have been transformed into Bitcoin mines, packed with racks, cables, and fans to keep everything at the right temperature.
One of the most frequent complaints among gamers focuses on the price of graphics cards. The reason is simple: every model with an ideal cost-benefit ratio for cryptocurrency mining has disappeared from the market, or costs much more than originally announced. Some currencies heavily favor GPU mining (Ethereum tops the list), allowing an interesting number of solo operations. But once we move to Bitcoin, the rules change completely. These days, Bitcoin is the domain of ASICs—thousands of them working together to break the brutal difficulty of the calculations. And that leads us straight to the mines. Other outlets prefer the term 'farms,' but to be honest, they are small universes. A couple of years ago, we had the chance to get to know one of them:
That was just one of the six mines that existed in the city of Dailan, China. And I say 'existed' because their existence isn't particularly stable. Those in charge try to cut costs by any means, and if that means moving to another city, they'll do it without hesitation. Today I'd like to share a few examples of large-scale Bitcoin mining around the world. In general, they are remote places, with limited access, and without too many details that could identify them. In fact, they don't even have a name, unless there's a company behind them.
Unknown (China)
Genesis Mining (Iceland)
A Hangar in Russia
Sichuan Mine (China)
