On November 9th, 2021, the world of Bitcoin mining came together to kick off the World Digital Mining Summit in Dubai, UAE, organized by Bitmain. As the world’s largest producer of cryptocurrency, Bitmain facilitated a weekend of exciting discussion and presentation with some of the most prominent mining and energy companies in the world, unveiling their new Antminer S19 XP. The annual event is an opportunity for global companies to come together and explore partnerships, current and future innovations, and much more.
Dubai is a beautiful city, likened to New York (though we may be biased) in its grandiose architecture and other-worldy feel, however its differences are highlighted in size, cleanliness, and obvious novelty. There is no doubt that Dubai should be at the top of your must-see destinations list.
Amidst novelty and architecture was born the Palm Jumeirah, an archipelago of artificial islands forming the shape of a palm leaf when viewed from above. To put this landmark into perspective, approximately 100,000 Bitcoins (today’s value) would allow you to create this city on water, in just under 6 years time.
The vastness of Dubai is felt on your flight there, with 20-year old Scotch from the plane menu preparing you for the reality that there are more Lamborghini's than taxis in the impressive city. However, with luxury car rentals being a quarter of the rental price seen in New York, it is safe to assume that not all of these vehicles have permanent owners. Nonetheless, money and status are highly valued in Dubai, with costs of other pleasures such as food and accommodation being more than twice the prices in New York City.
Money, status, and Bitcoin mining.
Upon arrival at the summit, Wattum was not immediately recognized, which came as a bit of a shock in contrast to our well-known and approached presence across conferences hosted in the United States. An even greater shock was the number of exhibitors that were offering colocation services and opportunities in Russia. Out of all locations being promoted, Russia occupied 90% of every conversation.
In fact, when calculating the number of megawatts that will be going online in Russia over the next 12 months, it would be equal to all of the mining operations that are going online in New York, Texas, and Georgia. Combined. We have estimated that there are approximately 2,000 MW of new colocation being built for hosting opportunities.
Why is this good news? Not only has Wattum once again shown our capacity for scoping out up and coming mining hubs, with our insights on Russian mining operations dating back to September of this year, but these insights are reflecting a shift in the crypto industry as the United States and Russia actively try to gain as much of the global hash rate share as possible, leaving others in the dust over the next 18 months.
The United States has upwards of 5,000 MW scheduled for deployment, while currently holding approximately 42% of the global hash rate share. Russia has upwards of 2,000 MW scheduled for deployment, and holds 14% of the hash rate share, with the images above demonstrating only part of this deployment. With the assumption that these percentages will increase and average out, it is not unexpected that the U.S. will reach upwards of 48-55%, while Russia surpasses Kazakhstan for second place at above 25-30%. Amidst these future developments, Dubai is currently running a test pilot with an expected 20 MW next year; upon a successful test pilot, this number will see an increase to 200 MW in 2023.
This year’s World Digital Mining Summit highlighted the global stage Bitcoin is now dancing on, and the success of the event paired with the unveiling of a new Antminer model continues to spotlight the long future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency that awaits. Wattum is excited to be a part of this future, and we look forward to diversifying our service offerings of colocation hosting and management, mining equipment, mobile mining containers, facility build out and much more as we both lead and move with the industry into new corners of Bitcoin’s legacy, and the world. Get in touch with us to diversify your mining operations today.
