A Conversation with ViaBTC CEO Haipo Yang: How Is Clean Energy Changing Bitcoin Mining?

Since 2019, rising fossil-fuel prices have pressured the mining trade to rethink the “price–reliability–compliance” triangle: on one aspect, hydropower, photo voltaic, and wind have develop into more and more cost-effective; on the opposite, storage, grid flexibility, and interconnection lead occasions are nonetheless catching up. Against this backdrop—and the anxiousness miners really feel about all-in energy prices (capex + opex)—we sat down with ViaBTC Founder and CEO Haipo Yang for a deep dive.

How a lot of Bitcoin mining is utilizing clear vitality at present, and the place is it headed?

Haipo Yang: The share of fresh vitality has been rising steadily. As fossil-fuel costs climbed after 2019, extra miners moved to cleaner sources with a greater price curve. From what we see in ViaBTC’s consumer pattern, roughly 40%–50% of miners nonetheless depend on fossil fuels; the remaining primarily use clear vitality. Hydropower stays the dominant clear, dispatchable supply—it accounts for about 30%–40% by itself. Solar, wind, related fuel, and different rising sources collectively are nonetheless beneath 20%, however that share is clearly trending up.

Miners who stick with fossil vitality are often in resource-rich areas. Texas is an effective instance: robust grid and infrastructure, ample pure fuel, and loads of websites. In different locations the place fossil sources are plentiful however transmission is constrained or wheeling prices are high, operators will monetize surplus energy regionally by way of mining.

Hydropower has lengthy been the favourite clear supply. Russia, Canada, components of South America, and Africa all have plentiful hydro. Leading Russian miners are likely to cluster in hydropower-rich Siberia; Paraguay, Bhutan, and Ethiopia have attracted giant operators similar to Bitdeer and HIVE Digital due to utility-scale dams.

Solar has drawn numerous consideration just lately, however firming photo voltaic with storage stays a constraint, so most setups run on a PV-plus-grid mannequin to maintain provide secure. Using related fuel from oil and fuel fields can be frequent in Canada, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Argentina. Nuclear hasn’t seen broad adoption in mining—high capex, siting, and licensing cycles lengthen timelines. And whereas waste-to-energy usually carries increased technology prices, non-recourse financing and coverage help have enabled some early pilots.

At a high stage, the trade’s vitality combine is clearly shifting towards clear energy, at the same time as firming, storage, and grid build-out proceed.

What’s the most important problem in increasing renewable-powered mining?

Haipo Yang: Power is a miner’s largest ongoing expense—typically 30% to 70% of income—so the core trade-off is worth versus firmness. Mining is hypersensitive to each. You want lengthy, secure runtime for predictable rewards, and you must push electrical energy costs down to guard margins.

Fossil fuels have stayed related as a result of they’re secure and the ecosystem is mature—however prices hold rising. Since 2019, increased coal costs have pushed up thermal-power prices; in lots of areas internet hosting tariffs listed to thermal have climbed by 50% and even doubled. That’s one cause clear vitality’s share has grown.

Among clear sources, hydro is probably the most mature. The infrastructure is confirmed at scale. But it’s constrained by geography and hydrology (seasonality). In earlier years, miners even “chased the facility,” relocating throughout dry seasons to areas with surplus electrical energy. Fortunately, hydro pairs effectively with pumped-storage hydropower (PSH)—the world’s largest type of grid-scale vitality storage. Some Siberian stations can retailer water multi-year to maintain provide balanced.

Solar and wind are advancing shortly and already work in sure situations, however 24/7 availability nonetheless leans closely on grid entry and storage. Their levelized price of electrical energy (LCOE) is usually decrease than conventional energy, but storage LCOE stays comparatively high. Where PV is effectively developed, PV tariffs is perhaps round ~70% of thermal or hydro charges, however storage can price ~2× the PV tariff, materially lifting the all-in worth. To supply some ranges: in Latin America, giant wind typically runs round $0.018–$0.035/kWh, PV round $0.017–$0.023/kWh. In observe, some miners can procure PV at roughly $0.035–$0.042/kWh, whereas the related storage will be about $0.085/kWh. That’s why many operations mix PV with industrial grid provide or PPAs to handle whole price.

Policy can be pivotal. Many international locations are investing by way of capital subsidies, manufacturing or funding tax credit, capacity-market mechanisms, and grid-upgrade funds to combine renewables. **Canada’s good renewables initiatives, Russia’s capacity-agreement subsidies, and Gulf sovereign buyers—Saudi Arabia’s PIF, the Qatar Investment Authority, Oman’s nationwide vitality entities—**are accelerating photo voltaic and wind. As coverage help and capital flows deepen, renewable infrastructure turns into extra compelling for miners.

Do you count on extra mining firms to embrace renewables? What must be in place?

Haipo Yang: I’m optimistic. Power techniques worldwide are greening, and since mining is hyper cost-sensitive with transportable load, our trade will undertake sooner than many others.

We’re already seeing extra generator–miner partnerships to soak up curtailment and shorten payback. Marathon Digital acquired a 114 MW wind farm in Texas to seize curtailed off-peak wind. HIVE Digital final yr introduced plans for a 100 MW hydro-powered knowledge middle in Paraguay. Riot Platforms invested in Reformed Energy, which makes use of plasma gasification to show municipal waste into electrical energy.

Looking forward, three goal circumstances would be the decisive drivers. First, economics: as soon as renewables—on a full-cycle, storage-inclusive foundation—decisively undercut fossil energy, miners could have no financial rationale to depend on coal or fuel, and incremental hashrate will naturally migrate to wash, firmed vitality. Next, infrastructure and storage: solely when grids supply larger dispatchability, ancillary companies, and congestion aid, and storage prices drop materially, can miners run at regular, year-round output, eliminating the necessity for fossil fuels as a “baseload” backstop.

Policy alerts are the third catalyst. When main jurisdictions introduce clear incentives—inexperienced tax aid, clean-power credit, accelerated depreciation, preferential wheeling, or express clean-energy necessities for compute—these measures develop into inflection factors. We’re already seeing this within the Middle East, the place a number of oil-producing international locations have introduced carbon-neutrality roadmaps: Saudi Arabia targets 50% renewables by 2030, the UAE goals to raise renewables to 32% by 2030, and Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar are accelerating PV and wind build-outs. These insurance policies and investments won’t solely pace native vitality transitions but additionally open new siting choices and contracting constructions for Bitcoin mining firms.

Stepping again, because the financial, technical, and coverage circumstances mature in tandem, I’m assured extra Bitcoin mining firms will shift to renewables and design for “firmed” uptime.

Large miners can use coverage and capital to safe cheaper electrical energy. Does that danger concentrating world hashrate? What does this imply for smaller miners?

Haipo Yang: Large operators do have benefits. They can make investments instantly in technology and procure energy beneath grid costs, or signal long-tenor PPAs to lock in prices and cut back danger. Public miners like Marathon can faucet fairness markets to deploy latest-generation, high-efficiency ASICs and again clean-energy tasks at scale. That helps continued enlargement. To give a way of scale, TheMinerMag famous that in January 2024, 19 public miners with self-mining produced 22% of community BTC; this yr that determine is round 30%, reflecting their rising share of hashrate.

It’s more durable for small and mid-sized miners to match these energy prices, so the bar is increased—however they aren’t out of the sport. We nonetheless see many small-rig operators on ViaBTC who depend on the pool for regular money stream. At roughly $0.06/kWh, break-even BTC costs for mainstream rigs—together with frequent residence models—typically fall within the $50,000–$70,000 vary, nonetheless beneath spot ranges close to $100,000. Smaller miners additionally profit from flexibility and ingenuity. In higher-latitude areas, some repurpose ASIC waste warmth for residence heating, which lifts general vitality effectivity and lowers efficient price.

With prices rising, how do you see the function of mining swimming pools evolving?

Haipo Yang: If capital and vitality benefits assist large miners scale, swimming pools are what hold Bitcoin mining open and decentralized.

Pools lowered the barrier to entry dramatically. Early mining was for tinkerers—you configured software program and even wrote your personal. I do know this firsthand; I wrote the preliminary ViaBTC code myself and keep in mind how high these hurdles have been. Today, you join your rig to a pool and also you’re in. Whether you run a big farm or a few machines at residence, swimming pools ship secure, predictable payouts.

Block discovery is probabilistic: extra hashrate means increased odds. Without swimming pools, small miners would battle to win a block in any cheap timeframe and would exit, which might push the community towards centralization. Our PPS+ payout mannequin helps contributors of all sizes share rewards pretty, sustaining broad participation and conserving the community safe.

There’s additionally a false impression that swimming pools create a decentralization danger as a result of a number of manufacturers seem to “management” many of the hashrate. Pools don’t personal hashrate—miners do. They can change swimming pools at any time. If a pool acts in opposition to miners’ pursuits, hashrate migrates, which is a robust market verify that protects decentralization in observe.

In 2021, ViaBTC open-sourced its Bitcoin pool stack—mining companies, protocol implementations, and modules for numerous merged-mining cash. Any technically inclined miner can construct on it to optimize or launch their very own companies. I consider in open supply; it’s good for the neighborhood’s well being and invitations extra folks to take part and profit from mining.

At the top of the day, whether or not your hashrate is very large or modest, whether or not you’re deeply technical or not, swimming pools are the coordination layer and payout infrastructure that make becoming a member of and incomes easy—and so they’re a key pressure pushing Bitcoin towards larger openness, transparency, decentralization, and shared prosperity.

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