1. Bitcoin Mining Adventures William Ross

2. Approach To Bitcoin Mining Technology – Programming, Hardware design, algorithms Investing – Purchasing Mining Equipment in large quantities Enthusiast – Futurism, buying a non-profitable miner to learn more

3. My Education University of Michigan – challenging program which was heavy on theory. Emphasis on theoretical computer science such as discrete math, Turing machines, and algorithms. Programming in C/C++ was expected to learn on own. Johns Hopkins University – Concentration in Artificial Intelligence. Completed program while working.

4. Work Experience - Lockheed Martin Research projects involving Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) returning satellite imagery Programming with Java, C#, Javascript, and Google APIs Worked on next generation of army communication networks Obtained top secret clearance

5. Poker Professional Played poker professionally for 4 years in worldwide tournaments and online Moved to Estonia after America banned online poker 4 th place LAPT Rosario, 11 th place RPS Kiev, 3 rd place WPT Johannesburg Pokerstars hall of fame for 5 million lifetime VPPs

6. Discovering Bitcoin Skepticism about Bitcoin – no name on account, vulnerable to hacking, converting back into fiat, how to pay taxes First interest was from an investing perspective – diversification from Dollars, Euros, and stock market Investing principle: never invest in something that can lose 100%

7. Satoshi White Paper Solved the Byzantines General problem which was considered unsolvable computer science problem Double spending is no longer an issue Paper is a work of genius; on par with Einstein Combined with an actual C++ implementations, makes it one of the greatest inventions ever

8. Mining Calculator Bitcoin Wisdom has a mining calculator Shows current machines will never return a profit Can adjust key assumptions such as Difficulty, Electricity, Hardware Price, etc.

9. Mining History Used to be able to mine with CPU Then with a graphic’s card Then with a computer dedicated to mining Bitcoin (ASIC) Then a 2 nd generation ASIC 65 Nanometer, 28, 20 coming soon Each ASIC more efficient

10. Bitcoin Mining – 1 st attempt Ordered in March 2013 Friend was ordering machines and was looking for investors Mining seems like a profitable path, so bought two 30 GH/s machines from Butterfly Labs Each machine cost $600, $400 for shipping, $240 import tax (20%) Total cost: $1,840

11. Butterfly Labs Setup Machine used cg-miner Connected to computer as USB Specified which mining pool to join Can search for blocks on your own, or join a guild Joining a guild is much less risky

12. Lessons Learned; Mining Fail #1 In March 2013, price was below $100 Machines arrived in November 2013 due to countless delays; were supposed to arrive during June By the time we got machines price was over $300, heading to a peak of $1,200 The first month provided most of the returns before the difficulty shot up by 30- 40% each 2 week interval Lesson Learned: Could have used the $1,840 to buy way more coins than the machine produced, and had less risk Electricity costs surpassed mining results after about 4-5 months

13. Bitcoin Mining – 2 nd Attempt CoinTerra 2 TH/s $6,000 unit cost + $700 shipping + $1,200 import tax = $7,900 Mining calculators showed we could make 20-25 coins from the machine Also planned to mine alternative coins

14. Mining Fail #2 Delayed by 1-2 months; counts for a lot when difficulty rising so fast Actual speed was 1.6 TH/s rather than 2, although they offered discount for next machine Difficulty jumped significantly as soon as these machines hit market

15. Mining Fail #2 Continued Machine cannot cover electricity costs right now, costs 170 EUR/month to run, earning about 130 EUR Bitcoin As loud as 70 decibels, equal to 10+ desktop computers, massive heater Greatly reduces air quality and may be dangerous to health Sun coming through window may have shut off one miner

16. Risks Of Mining Delays from manufacturer Difficulty in setting up device Loudness of device, 70+ decibels Quality of air Hardware malfunction or other disaster Hardware does not perform as advertised Dust collection Traditional Mining Is No Longer An Option

17. Cloud Mining Advantages: No hardware/failures, ventilation problems, noise, heat, or delays Disadvantages: Long contracts, lack of control and flexibility, possibility of scams and fraud Three types of clouding mining: hosted mining, virtual hosted mining, and leased hash power Losing proposition: High enthusiasm on Bitcoin Talk in 2013, later replies warn of fraud

18. Solar Mining Lots of potential due to small or zero electricity costs Needs to be in an area with high sunshine year round Still have to protect physical hardware from being outside and possibility being stolen

19. Mining Furthering Technology Many hardware advancements since Bitcoin’s introduction Fastest evolution of computer chips ever? ASICs that were state of the art 6 months ago, are obsolete now Going faster than Moore’s Law Second generation of ASICs were 10-40x faster than their predecessors

20. Who Is Mining Still? Mining not a thing for ordinary people Mining is becoming centralized by corporations Worry that only a few groups will control mining soon Next phase of development is 20 nanometers chips with low power consumption What to do next?

21. Starting Bitcoin Company Needed to keep a residence permit in Estonia Easiest way was to create a business First idea was to create a Bitcoin price display site Price display was more challenging at first, tried hiring someone off Odesk.com to create it

22. Bitcoin News Created a bitcoin news service while waiting for price display to be completed Experimenting with different article styles Where to share articles?

23. Sharing Different Articles Reddit – by far most traffic, but does not allow for self promotion Bitcoin Talk – most knowledgeable Bitcoin posters Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, VK, StumbleUpon, Tumblr Email company, post in topic specific forums Different Article Styles: Market Moving, Opposite Views, Company Features

24. Lessons Learned From Bitcoin News Bitcoin News probably not profitable path Display ads do not generate enough revenue Other companies such as CoinDesk or CoinTelegraph have full time 9-5 writers Without Reddit, difficult to get enough traffic People do not bookmark the site Best article had about 9,000 total views, but traffic disappeared after

25. Conclusions How one understands Bitcoin depends on perspective Bitcoin Mining Not Profitable (At current difficulty) Bitcoin News Difficult Bitcoin Trading