Recently a few videos have been released to the public by Eric Mu, the Chief Marketing Officer of HaoBTC a Chinese-based bitcoin wallet company, exchange, and mining facility. The videos called “HaoBTC Kangding mine walkthrough” show the company’s operations first hand within the mountainous region of western Sichuan province.
Unlike some of the “secret” mining companies located in China, HaoBTC is a registered Chinese corporation and complies with the region’s regulatory policies. The company says they boast years of experience in the cryptocurrency space and “know the ins and outs of the industry, thus are better equipped to avoid the loopholes.” What’s unique about the facility in Kangding is that the mine is powered by running water. They say that some facilities have found ways to get really cheap even free electricity but cannot beat the rate of “off-grip hydropower.”
HaoBTC Kangding Bitcoin MineThe first filmed Kangding mine that is toured is one of three data centers and currently generates a 33PH hash rate. Inside the mine viewers are shown what looks like thousands of Avalon 6’s and Bitmain S7’s operating at full capacity. The humming sound inside the facility is very distinct and can be heard immediately when the doors are opened.
In part two of the video series the crew visits another HaoBTC mine that is also located in Kangding, which operates at 10PH. In this particular guided view of the mine, it shows its large mountain river flowing next door proving the source of its hydro-powered data center. This particular operation also has multiple rows of metal racks filled to the brim with mining equipment. The company does acknowledge via its website that’s it’s easier for them to garner mining gear by being located in the region stating:
HaoBTC Team“Most mining equipment are manufactured in China. Being located in China afford us the advantage of shorter shipping time and less cost.”
The mining center is clean and rigged with wires coursing through its metal racks that hold all of its specialized hardware. In a description of the mine published at Bitcointalk.org Eric Mu explains the mine is more efficient than standard operations located in China. Mu states the facility in Kangding achieves its ROI by using the waterfall system and leaves less of a carbon footprint. He also states that the mining operation is fully transparent and anyone can drop him an email for a visit.
There has been a lot of videos and tours lately of mining facilities located in China and some in Iceland. Most likely the reason for this has been because of fraudulent activity and mining Ponzi scams associated with cloud operations that pretend to own a facility. Just recently Business Insider talked about this situation with Genesis Mining CEO Marco Streng. During a visit at Genesis Mining’s Icelandic mine the founder tells the publication with scams:
“They don’t ever even own their own mining facilities. They just take pictures from other companies, Photoshop them, then pretend they are theirs.”
HaoBTC says they operate with full transparency, and they alway publicize their real-time hashrate which is currently 71,325 T/S according to the company website. Mu states via the Bitcointalk thread that the laws in the area still “lack and taxation is minimal” for the company’s operational costs. The business says they are big believers in Bitcoin and keep as much as they can but do sell a portion to pay for bills. The mining operation the firm owns looks rather impressive when watching the two walkthrough videos, and its seems the company is pulling in quite a bit of Bitcoin. With the price at what it is today, that’s gotta be exciting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f38gaRoo1cE
Source: Bitcointalk.org, HaoBTC’s website, Youtube
Images courtesy of HaoBTC’s Bitcointalk.org thread & Youtube