.30 maxbuybit1 So hey mate. Yeah I heard that can you hear me Yeah excellent and were recording
.28 maxbuybit1 So hey there mate can you hear me I can hear you loud and clear welcome to the show.
.70 TechEngineer You Yes I can hear you can hear me. Okay.
.55 TechEngineer I am max I can hear you can you hear me.
.49 TechEngineer Thank you for having me Id be here.
.00 maxbuybit1 Yeah well its an absolute pleasure to have you On. Um I try and find always people
.46 TechEngineer But the worst.
.85 maxbuybit1 So so Im not sure where we exactly cut off there I was probably waffling about
.16 TechEngineer I Cant remember either to be honest um.
.77 maxbuybit1 Tell me a little bit more about because obviously youd said youd started with
.12 maxbuybit1 You know find a little bit more out because this is the future. Its fucking cool.
.23 TechEngineer So right on man. Yeah lets lets talk about it.
.56 maxbuybit1 So Yeah I mean um less so we can do rabbit hole stuff later On. Lets just dive
.20 TechEngineer Yeah so once I had completed my original heater and then I realized that immersion
.79 TechEngineer Yeah absolutely so let me start with a little background. Um back in 2017 was when
.56 TechEngineer The longevity of the miners being in oil I have heard that as well and it makes
.38 TechEngineer Immersion is the capability of where you can move that heat to you can go longer
.69 maxbuybit1 And so you know the other thing that you were talking about was like this being in ah
.35 TechEngineer Want to mine. Its important for the bitcoin ecosystem for mining to be very
.22 TechEngineer Hey you just cut out again. Can you hear me Okay okay.
.87 maxbuybit1 Yeah I just saw that it cut out. Um yeah I can hear I can hear you sorry Im almost
.96 TechEngineer Okay yeah.
.30 maxbuybit1 Yeah So ah you were saying about you know this potentially being used um in boilers
.54 maxbuybit1 Amazing. I havent no um I havent seen that one I have seen it done before but I
.56 TechEngineer So yeah so in terms of efficiency. Um all electricity turns into a to heat 100
.51 TechEngineer So yeah and actually I dont live in Colorado anymore I mean Im in Nevada now. So
.18 TechEngineer So if youre comparing directly to say an electric pool heater that is just using
.39 TechEngineer Step into this whole arena here was when I built that that system and that was kind
.60 maxbuybit1 Here here.
.57 TechEngineer And I had proved out that I can actually heat my house all winter with this system.
.64 TechEngineer Heater to an electric heater. Its near near None efficiency theoretically and and
.77 TechEngineer Um but you can only do so much with redirecting air. You cant move it very far.
.72 maxbuybit1 Here. Okay.
.60 TechEngineer So from a pure ah pure cost perspective gas could theoretically still be cheaper.
.81 TechEngineer Oh my God I gotta try this out because I.
.56 maxbuybit1 What what was what was that like finding bitcoin Twitter for the None time because I
.30 TechEngineer And it was ah it was ah a game changer for me as well. I mean I have always kind of
.38 TechEngineer The electric cost relative to gas but I also made up enough bitcoin to cover to
.99 maxbuybit1 Yeah yeah yeah yeah that makes sense and I guess the other thing is like getting
.51 TechEngineer Solo on my own Thats how Ive always done it and Ive always wanted to kind of
.17 TechEngineer Awesome.
.22 maxbuybit1 Yeah thats so fucking cool and and like you said is it is so useful for so many
.28 TechEngineer So yeah absolutely and I mean that goes back to um you know more of a hardcore
.34 maxbuybit1 Its so important to help decentralize this thing because otherwise whats going to
.36 TechEngineer Um but to get this into a broader Market. Its got to be more more um profitable
.53 TechEngineer So yeah absolutely and that is one of my biggest drivers behind what Im doing is
.20 TechEngineer So when youre looking at that equation. Its hard to be like yes Im going to I
.15 maxbuybit1 Yeah dramatically um and so what are people who youre working with and friends and
.20 TechEngineer And why I think thats kind of bad I dont I dont I dont one hundred percent
.35 maxbuybit1 What is this crazy invention that youve got or are you starting to orange pill
.92 TechEngineer Yeah when when my friends and family see it I mean it depends on who it is you
.93 TechEngineer Eighteen where I was interested in mining. But then I realized that the
.21 TechEngineer And theyre also making bitcoin Now we have a different equation altogether.
.44 maxbuybit1 And the other the other interesting thing for me when it comes to this stuff like
.75 maxbuybit1 Swimming in sets. Ah.
.82 TechEngineer Opens up the conversation and theyre like Wow This is so Interesting. What is this
.25 maxbuybit1 Ah yeah well its ah it certainly looks cool like um it its just I dont know
.45 TechEngineer Yeah absolutely and I mean I see you know more of the hardcore bitcoiners. Theyre
.15 TechEngineer The next layer of people that you know arent that into it. It needs to be either
.53 TechEngineer And 10 years is like these are just appliances that are that the average person is
.57 TechEngineer Integrated into every part of our system because I mean if if this is going to be
.72 TechEngineer This is.
.56 maxbuybit1 Yeah absolutely and so obviously you youre a very like technically minded guy. Um
.55 maxbuybit1 You know the engineering side or whatever it is. Theres always something for someone
.98 TechEngineer Yeah absolutely and I mean and I mean speaking of the normie and their reaction to
.95 TechEngineer So I was I was at None very interested in money go up I saw 10000 I was kind of an
.30 TechEngineer I Mean do you like free water heaters. Do you like free pool heaters. Do you like
.15 TechEngineer And I looked into it for None nutes and was like um yeah I dont know what this is
.58 TechEngineer Not only understanding bitcoin but also integrating mining and further
.70 maxbuybit1 And so is that something that youre trying to push now I mean I know that you ah
.22 TechEngineer I Guess you could say its kind of the angle that Im working within the bitcoin
.38 TechEngineer Longterm trend of of bitcoin mining and the importance of decentralizing it. So I
.92 maxbuybit1 Yeah I couldnt agree more I think were fucked without it.
.47 maxbuybit1 Yeah definitely and and getting to find other people who are iterating on this as
.35 TechEngineer Um yeah.
.58 maxbuybit1 So yeah its interesting to see somebody come in from the textile I mean almost
.21 TechEngineer Yeah so.
.92 maxbuybit1 Ah you know if truth be told its Its always for the money and um yeah its um
.16 maxbuybit1 We arent tied to these psychopaths who are doing the crazy shit theyre doing at the
.42 TechEngineer So yeah theres theres a ton of applications. Um yeah Ive seen greenhouses and
.33 TechEngineer Yeah absolutely I.
.46 maxbuybit1 Especially with the background. Youve just told me its like um youre almost made
.32 TechEngineer Like I can I can I can work on a ah micro part of the problem build something
.35 TechEngineer Amen youre cutting out a little bit and.
.64 maxbuybit1 Or or are there any concerns that you have with the system now.
.35 TechEngineer Hey sorry max you you cut out a little bit like I missed a bit of that question.
.68 maxbuybit1 Fucking Hell have I lost you ah.
.93 TechEngineer Can you hear me.
.81 TechEngineer Can you hear me relax.
.86 TechEngineer Like and just make it simple and then the system just handles the background of
.70 TechEngineer Okay can you hear me max.
.98 maxbuybit1 Okay mate what Im gonna do then if you cant hear me I am going to close this out
.17 TechEngineer Can you hear me can you hear me at all. Yeah oh theyre moving for me.
.76 maxbuybit1 If youre speaking now I cant hear you can you You maybe can see the sound waves
.55 maxbuybit1 Thats really fucking cool. So so what are they doing you you dropping the power of
.40 TechEngineer Exactly Thats exactly right.
.31 maxbuybit1 And is that brains thats doing that or is that a separate bit of software or or
.38 TechEngineer Yeah so Im using Brains Os Plus as the firmware and they have an api. Um and
.28 TechEngineer And therefore increases the the output of the heat and and heats faster Ideally
.82 TechEngineer Ah destination. So say you have a fifty Thousand Gallon pool its going to be
.38 TechEngineer Pretty much all the time. But if say it was cold One day you could over clock quite
.90 TechEngineer Using these automated integrations.
.55 maxbuybit1 Are there any concerns with overclocking and under clocking and and adjusting these
.74 TechEngineer Yeah thats a good question and I mean I think in general overclocking of any
.40 TechEngineer Ideally youd youd keep it running at actually an efficient level or a standard
.64 TechEngineer In that kind of use case I dont think its Its bad and from what Ive seen
.20 TechEngineer Um but that is a good question to actually look at the longterm impacts of that
.63 maxbuybit1 Yeah definitely um but that I mean thats thats so key like having this
.17 maxbuybit1 Youre not going to have people say like oh yeah Ill put one of these in and then
.62 TechEngineer Right And and the other issue is its got to be maintainable I mean you dont want
.42 TechEngineer To to kind of control things and I mean the miners firmware usually have that kind
.26 TechEngineer Building it themselves you know So Ive Ive had people already like hey I want to
.87 maxbuybit1 Yeah I think therell be a lot of people who do want to and the other thing Ive
.90 TechEngineer I Dont see why not I dont know a ton about Saunas but I think that would just
.39 maxbuybit1 Here here.
.17 maxbuybit1 So interesting. Its like once once your brain starts ticking with like these sort of
.64 TechEngineer So hey you just cut out for a None are you can hear me again. Okay.
.59 maxbuybit1 Yeah yeah yeah it seems to just cut out for a none or 2 but I was just saying I
.98 TechEngineer I know theres theres so many applications its its unreal I mean I had a guy in
.50 maxbuybit1 Ah really.
.40 TechEngineer I Mean its like the the amount of the amount of areas that are cold and neat heat
.77 maxbuybit1 Yeah absolutely massive. Why is their power So so low is that like a ah dam or like
.40 TechEngineer Um yeah it was some ah like small mining town like old school mining town that
.51 maxbuybit1 Here here.
.90 TechEngineer None cost power and they were all theyre already using like electric heat. So I
.30 maxbuybit1 Here. Yeah.
.78 TechEngineer I Mean its not. Its not E Its not easy. Its but its a it makes sense
.81 maxbuybit1 Yeah definitely and and for people who have cheap power. The other thing I was
.90 TechEngineer Is this.
.19 maxbuybit1 Presumably for you know someone who has 0 None near 0 power. Its actually going to
.34 TechEngineer Yeah exactly and thats kind of always been in the back of my mind too is that we
.14 TechEngineer I See that trending towards slowing down. Um the the quickness of how fast the
.56 TechEngineer In terms of hash rate and efficiency if that makes sense.
.49 maxbuybit1 Yeah yeah yeah um and and do you think Also youre going to have more players
.64 TechEngineer Yeah so I know theres so I know Intel is getting into the space as well as Jack
.58 TechEngineer To the the Asics. So instead of buying like an ant miner. You could just buy a
.12 TechEngineer Ah an s nineteen it can just it can just be more integrated directly into like an
.70 maxbuybit1 Yeah that makes a lot of sense and and like space wise that would make that would be
.84 TechEngineer So yeah so I mean thats kind of where I see it going longer term is it. Itll be
.13 maxbuybit1 Yeah because the the other thing is like if youre getting these ah the hardware as
.64 TechEngineer Yeah absolutely were were kind of repurposing a product for something. It wasnt
.44 TechEngineer Thats a whole other scale. Thats you know probably 5 10 years out I would think
.75 maxbuybit1 So you obviously spend loads of time thinking about bitcoin and mining and everything
.10 TechEngineer Yeah its a good question. Um I I hope for a bitcoin standard eventually I think
.46 TechEngineer And nobody has control or now its now its more secure from my mind.
.35 maxbuybit1 Definitely so. Thats a concern for you as like this centralization of the mining. Um
.18 TechEngineer Yeah and I mean I can see in the future I mean if if bitcoin becomes a standard
.22 TechEngineer Impactful that is I mean and yeah I pose the question of um decentralization
.38 TechEngineer And they are decentralized from the perspective of having mines in multiple
.44 TechEngineer Somewhat decentralized um us but still if if you know in 10 years when you know if
.75 maxbuybit1 Yeah definitely.
.64 TechEngineer Thats the potential threat in the future. But if we have ah None heaters all over
.77 maxbuybit1 Yeah definitely. Um yeah its definitely um a potential issue. The other thing
.50 maxbuybit1 You can write off the cost of your energy and so effectively you can do like sort of
.40 TechEngineer So yeah absolutely I do and I dont I dont know if you saw a recent post I did
.86 TechEngineer During that one to 7 pm period the price like quadruples. But then the rest of the
.49 maxbuybit1 Here here.
.46 TechEngineer And now all we got to do is use some automation and I actually use my Tesla power
.20 TechEngineer And what youre doing is essentially filling in the valleys of power demand for the
.71 maxbuybit1 That makes a lot of sense.
.34 TechEngineer Between None and 7 pm for like 22 a kilowatt or Twenty Eight cents kilowatt hour
.86 TechEngineer Further into that and basically miners can turn off and and on quickly and I mean
.64 TechEngineer More power so integrating with with the the power companies will be good in general
.26 TechEngineer Because they can incentivize it in different ways.
.37 maxbuybit1 Yeah um because yeah yeah exactly because you can overproduce and theres always
.76 TechEngineer Right ah.
.27 maxbuybit1 Its mindblowing stuff some.. Its absolutely mindlowing. So Um I mean obviously
.84 TechEngineer I am into everything I Just dont have time for everything so I would say so Ive
.92 TechEngineer Doing all those things. Um I dont have enough time in the day to explore as much
.21 maxbuybit1 Yeah well I Really look forward to seeing what you come up with there. Thats gonna
.22 TechEngineer And yeah absolutely ah privacy is is a big concern to me and especially with how
.79 maxbuybit1 Absolutely well. Um thats probably a good place to wrap things up I dont want to
.00 TechEngineer Thanks sounds good. Its been. Its been a pleasure and good to talk to you. Thanks
.93 maxbuybit1 Awesome or I may Ill speak soon.
Show Notes
Mining Bitcoin and swimming in sats
I had the pleasure of speaking to Tech Engineer a bitcoin mining pleb who has built a fully functional swimming pool heating system using bitcoin miners, immersion tanks and automation to thermostatically control everything. Tech engineers focus is on privacy, security and the ability to double spend energy to heat while mining Bitcoin. In this episode we discus Tech’s rabbit hole journey and why mining was so interesting for him, we also discussed the need for decentralising the network and helping smaller miners compete by using the heat produced by mining for something productive. I really enjoyed speaking to Tech and I hope you enjoy listening. I have decided to also add transcripts at the bottom of the show notes as some people have told me this would be useful. Transcripts might not be perfect but they should be pretty good.
If you aren’t already following @techengineer21 I suggest you do it now.
twitter - @techengineer21
twitter - link to pinned video https://twitter.com/techengineer21/status/1523023198287130624?s=20&t=Ct2G5BawqRw4Nc6LcRUaBQ
As always please feel free to reach out and ask me any questions.
twitter - @MaxBitbuybit
twitter - @bitbuybitpod
Website - https://ungovernablemisfits.com
Today you can exchange $1 for 4760 Sats (Sale ends soon.)
Thank you Foundation Devices for sponsoring the show.
Use code BITBUYBIT at check out for $10 off your purchase
00:01.28
maxbuybit1
So hey there mate can you hear me I can hear you loud and clear welcome to the show.
00:03.55
TechEngineer
I am max I can hear you can you hear me.
00:17.49
TechEngineer
Thank you for having me I'd be here.
00:25.00
maxbuybit1
Yeah, well, it's an absolute pleasure to have you On. Um I try and find always people who are doing interesting things and not just the usual podcast circuit and I came across your profile and saw your video you'd done um on this immersion tank and. Pool heating and is something I discussed ages ago with a mate of mine a mate like me with no technical ability and it was just like a thing we talked about but we're too dumb to actually do it. We're like fuck. Someone's got to do this. This is something that's got to happen just makes so much sense and when I saw yours I was like fuck I just need to speak to you and.
01:25.59
TechEngineer
And.
01:44.12
maxbuybit1
You know, find a little bit more out because this is the future. It's fucking cool.
01:51.23
TechEngineer
So right on man. Yeah, let's let's talk about it.
01:59.56
maxbuybit1
So Yeah I mean um, less so we can do rabbit hole stuff later On. Let's just dive straight in with with what you've been doing Obviously I've seen the video but. For anyone who hasn't can you sort of describe the project and and and what made you decide to do it.
02:33.79
TechEngineer
Yeah, absolutely so let me start with a little background. Um back in 2017 was when I kind of went down the bitcoin rabbit hole. It was November of None I heard on the radio bitcoin cross $10000 and I was like. What is going on with this. Um and I was I was instantly intrigued and wanted to look into it more and immediately was drawn to the technology aspect of it and the mining aspect of it. Um. So I started looking into mining and at that time. Ah the miners went up in cost dramatically kind of similar to what happened in 20202021 and I tried to put to order a miner and it. It got delayed and that eventually just never shipped. Um, but there it so it was ah an it was an expensive endeavor for me to get into but I was still very interested. But at the time I knew like I was living in Colorado and I wanted to somehow use the heat that was. Being put off of these devices because I knew they put just put out a ton of heat. So that time I was thinking well maybe I'll just put in my basement and ducked something up to my upstairs long story short. It never ended up up working out just because the miner never showed up and then um. Price kind of dumped and then we went into a bear market and the profitability equation changed and I just decided that I just couldn't I didn't get into it at that time but that kind of built in the back of my mind like.
05:54.36
maxbuybit1
Here.
06:16.35
TechEngineer
Want to mine. It's important for the bitcoin ecosystem for mining to be very decentralized but we need some sort of other factor that helps it be more productive to like a home miner so hard using the heat was in my mind. So fast forward to 2021? Um I finally decided you know what I need to just take the plunge here and start building a heater out of a minor so I don't know if you saw my original video but it was a a minor that I put inside of a box. And then aducted into my hvac system my heater my the heater in my house and then I put in some dampers and thermostatically controlled the airflow from the heater from the from the miner into my heater. So I basically he did my entire house all winter using using this system. So I'm I'm guessing you haven't seen that one I think you saw my ah.
08:08.54
maxbuybit1
Amazing. I haven't no um I haven't seen that one I have seen it done before but I haven't seen that specific one and I'm right in thinking it's fucking cold in Colorado. Been been there skiing before and fraze my boocks off. So I assume you need a lot of heat when you're living in there.
08:55.51
TechEngineer
So yeah, and actually I don't live in Colorado anymore I mean I'm in Nevada now. So it's a much warmer climate but um, still need some heat in the winter. So I mean that was that was my None big.
09:04.50
maxbuybit1
Okay.
09:30.39
TechEngineer
Step into this whole arena here was when I built that that system and that was kind of before I had joined bitcoin Twitter even and realized everything that was going on. So um, so once I had ah finished that system.
09:40.60
maxbuybit1
Here here.
10:07.57
TechEngineer
And I had proved out that I can actually heat my house all winter with this system. Um the the next level for me was immersion. So the original system was just taking the air and redirecting it.
10:30.76
maxbuybit1
Here.
10:43.77
TechEngineer
Um, but you can only do so much with redirecting air. You can't move it very far. You can't do anything other than really heating air with air. But I knew in the back of my head that ah like liquid cooling like I have I build um my own computers. And the cpu are liquid cooled so that was already in my mind like that's a thing I just didn't know that an immersion existed yet. So once I so once I kind of got on to bitcoin Twitter saw some other people do an immersion once I realized that was a thing I was like.
11:24.72
maxbuybit1
Here. Okay.
11:51.81
TechEngineer
Oh my God I gotta try this out because I.
11:58.56
maxbuybit1
What what was what was that like finding bitcoin Twitter for the None time because I know for me, it was an absolute lifesaver like it just changed the game.
12:20.30
TechEngineer
And it was ah it was ah a game changer for me as well. I mean I have always kind of been doing these projects and I mean my name is my name is tech engineer because I love technology I Love engineering I'm mean the home automation I'm always doing Diy engineering projects but I'm just kind of doing it.
13:02.78
maxbuybit1
A.
13:00.51
TechEngineer
Solo on my own That's how I've always done it and I've always wanted to kind of like branch out and like start documenting these things like because I know that what I'm doing has interest to other people and so finally I was like you know I just got to do this and I made a video about it posted on Youtube and then then it just kind of. Ble up on Twitter and went around in in through bitcoin Twitter and I realized all these people have a big interest in this and I was like oh my god these are these are my fucking people right here like so it was ah it was a game changer for me then I I mean I I love it like it's.
13:51.94
maxbuybit1
Are.
14:16.22
maxbuybit1
Yeah, that's so fucking cool and and like you said is it is so useful for so many people because you know there are people like me who like us a really great idea like it's It's a logical thing that you use this heat. But then we're too dumb to actually do it and then so you have this this stuff documented and.
14:14.17
TechEngineer
Awesome.
14:50.77
TechEngineer
So.
14:55.34
maxbuybit1
It's so important to help decentralize this thing because otherwise what's going to happen if you don't have people like you and acono alchemists and people out there who are pushing and documenting you just have everyone putting their minors in huge warehouses with shit shows like compass or things like that. And then it's really so much easier to attack and um, yeah, that's why I'm just I'm so excited when I see this kind of innovation and and people tinkering and and building and um, this is this is the stuff that like really moves this space. Forward. This is what it's all about.
15:58.53
TechEngineer
So yeah, absolutely and that is one of my biggest drivers behind what I'm doing is to further decentralize mining because I see the trend happening of centralization of mining whether it be into. Big mining companies or like you were saying like hosted solutions and that just that just introduces a whole host of of problems. Um, when you have centralization and I actually have an article coming out in the next few days that I talk a bit more about it. Um.
16:41.14
maxbuybit1
Here.
17:12.20
TechEngineer
And why I think that's kind of bad I don't I don't I don't one hundred percent think that like big bitcoin minds are bad but we need both. We need we need. We need to decentralize as much as we can um, but…
