Barry Silbert – crypto entrepreneur and the leader of the Digital Currency Group (DCG) – has announced that he is looking to remove some of the heavy bitcoin business that’s been going on in China and move it back to the United States. How will he do this? Through a company he’s created called Foundry, via which he will invest roughly $100 million into mining operations situated throughout North America.
Barry Silbert: Now Is the Time for the U.S. to Shine
The fact that China has become so powerful in the world of bitcoin has got a lot of people worried as of late. The country boasts a large majority of the world’s bitcoin hashing power and is contributing approximately 65 percent of this power to the mining arena. By comparison, countries such as the United States – which in many ways, are just as powerful if not more powerful – are only contributing about seven percent.
Silbert is concerned about this and doesn’t want to see the United States fall behind, but so far, China has held a dominant lead in the crypto space. Aside from powering much of the bitcoin mining, it was also first to release its own national form of digital currency. The digital yuan is now being tested on various American businesses such as Starbucks and Subway. By contrast, the United States has talked about releasing such a currency of its own, but these talks have not turned into actions.
Silbert believes that the time is now to help move the United States and North America ahead. He has placed Mike Coyler – a veteran businessman of General Electric (GE) – in charged of Foundry, a man who thinks access to energy-efficient mining equipment is the key to helping place the U.S. on top when it comes to mining.
In addition, he believes it’s also time for Foundry and other bitcoin mining operations to be more transparent when it comes to their operations. This will ultimately attract more investors as people become more trusting of the industry.
The team has further stated they’re looking to set up Foundry-based mining firms in areas such as Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and upstate New York. These areas are all known for their low-cost energy, something that both Silbert and Coyler think is extremely important. In addition, the company is also looking at regions within British Colombia and Quebec, Canada – areas which offer hydroelectricity.
A Lot of Failure in the Past
Despite all this, Silbert comments that things won’t be easy, and that many mining companies have completely failed to complete similar setups. In a recent interview, he stated:
The mining space is littered with the carcasses of failed mining efforts.
One of the big things that the mining space depends on is the price of bitcoin. If it’s doing well, the mining space does well, whereas if BTC is in the gutter, the mining industry will follow. This up-and-down nature of things could potentially be hard for Foundry to tackle.