Two cryptocurrency mining companies want to make it easier for companies in North America to mine Bitcoin.
Minnesota-based Compute North has provided hosting facilities and 47 megawatts (MW) of power for 14,000 Whatsminer M30S mining machines supplied by Foundry Digital of New York under an agreement to provide a “turnkey” hosted mining solution. (Foundry is a subsidiary of CoinDesk’s parent company, Digital Currency Group.)
Foundry CEO Mike Colyer said Foundry has hosted mining equipment at Compute North for over a year. This latest group of miners, sent to Compute North for hosting, will be deployed in the first quarter of 2021. From then on, investors will be able to purchase machines hosted through both companies.
Over the past year, general interest in mining has risen along with the price of Bitcoin, causing investors to rush into public North American mining companies and causing the stocks of most of these companies to significantly outperform Bitcoin, CoinDesk reported.
However, the ability of an individual investor to actually mine is often severely limited by a high barrier to entry due to the cost of hardware and power resources. That barrier is now even higher as mining equipment manufacturers continue to be stifled by the overwhelming demand from incumbent companies resulting in a lack of available machinery.
With their new agreement, Compute North’s “low” operating costs and the foundry, which will secure access to future batches of mining equipment through a partnership with leading manufacturer MicroBT, the two companies hope to attract potential miners by reducing them significantly Access barrier.
