Business of second-hand mining machines: business of acquaintances, pits of strangers

Author: Wang tree

Source: Chain Catcher

Editor's Note: The original title was "The Business of Second-hand Mining Machines"

Unauthorized, declined to reprint

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Buyers in the last second, and sellers in the next second, only miners are their unified title, and the mining machine that produces BTC is the core target of the transaction. Regardless of whether it is a dealer or a mine owner, whether it is a professional sales or a front-line miner, in the second-hand mining machine trading door, identity is based on factors such as the size of the mine, currency price, electricity price, policy, halving, machine iteration, etc The effect of free conversion. (This article refers to the miners directly produced by non-manufacturers, generally referred to as second-hand miners.)

This is a business where newcomers first step into the pit, acquaintances make a profit by hand, and rely heavily on the price of currency.

01

Market price dominated by currency prices

Shenma M20S, computing power 68T, power consumption 48W, special 12XXX. Shenzhen Huaqiangbei, Dafa Mining salesman Lu Yuan, hailed in a circle of friends a week ago, when BTC hovered above 8,000 US dollars.

In recent days, BTC has gone up and down at $ 7,000, and the same model has been quoted at about 100 million. Not only that, the prices of other models have been reduced. All models are based on the same day's price. The BTC price will rise when the machine price rises. ,vice versa.

"The market is not good. No matter what model is losing money, the sales must follow the customer and frequently advertise. The commission is not given according to the 30% agreed previously. Now the old mining machine sells a single 10 —15 yuan, and a single new mining machine will cost 50—100 yuan. "Lu Yuan's direct call was too difficult.

The chain catcher also found in the interview that, apart from Lu Yuan, many sales claimed that the company was located in Shenzhen Huaqiang North Seg Plaza, which was once regarded as the world's largest mining machine distribution center. However, since the industry downturn in 2018, the past has gradually disappeared. Many shops have turned mining machine sales into part-time jobs, and some have set foot on the road of professional mining machine traders.

Although the sales days are not good, Lu Yuan is still optimistic about the industry. He told the chain catcher that the industry has such a low tide every year. Now it looks like it is losing money, but its own mine continues to produce coins and it will still make money when it sells well.

"Some countries have low electricity prices, and some countries have a strong ability to transform mining machines. T9 +, L3 + and other low-power models that can't run in China are selling well in foreign markets, but the new machine market Concentrated in the country, with the current market price of a machine that costs 10,000 yuan, we start out at about 8,000 yuan, and the deficit is the deficit point, and the bull market comes back quickly to make it back. "Lu Yuan said confidently.

The seller's living conditions are relatively poor, while the onlooking buyers are eager to move. Strictly speaking, some people have started to act.

02

Acquaintance business

"Wait a minute, there's something wrong with the mine. I'll take care of it first." In the early morning, Yang Dong received a call from a colleague responsible for the launch of the mining machine, and temporarily suspended the interview.

Two weeks ago, he bought 3,500 Shenma M21S / 56T miners from a large miner at an average price of 10,000 yuan / set, and is currently handling the custody. The machines that were sold out were new machines, and the seller and Yang Dong were acquaintances. The futures settled in Bitmain a few months ago were changed due to the problem of capital turnover.

Yang Dong is a person in charge of an investment fund. He started investing in mining in 2017. Later, he invested in several projects in the wave of love in Western Europe. This year is his second time in the mining industry. "The traditional industry has fewer and fewer investment targets, with annualized returns rarely exceeding 20%, and mining can reach almost 40%. It is currently an investment target with relatively high returns, which is still very attractive for investment institutions. " This is the original intention of his second round.

This time, Yang Dong found a mine in Sichuan through a friend for hosting, and the electricity price was very low. In an interview with the chain catcher, he was leading the team to arrange the related issues of the mining machine.

"The mining machine must be watched on the shelves." Yang Dong said that from the purchase of the mining machine to the shelves, it needs to go through various links such as model selection, quality inspection, transportation, commissioning, and later operation and maintenance. Step on the pit. For the retail type Xiaobai who has no acquaintance relationship, the industry barriers are high, the challenges are greater, and the pits are more.

The chain catcher contacted multiple sellers on a second-hand mining machine trading platform as a retail-type Xiaobai. In the communication, the other party indicated that they had a mine, and it was recommended to directly host the machine after buying it. The cost of hosting mainly includes electricity and operation and maintenance costs. The electricity price ranges from 0.34 to 0.4. Some sellers only charge electricity and operation and maintenance are free.

In this regard, Lao Chen, a miner who is familiar with the doorway of second-hand mining machines, told the chain catcher,

" This is equivalent to selling computing power in disguise. For buyers, it is not cost-effective and unsafe. If they are not familiar with the seller, they will most likely be white gloves with empty gloves. The investment is basically there. Because the stability of electricity and the continuity and integrity of computing power cannot be guaranteed, the authenticity of returns cannot be verified. "

He also revealed that most of the online guarantee platforms are for private second-hand mining machines. They lack authority and there is basically no after-sales. Guarantee is a gimmick. In fact, the seller's credit cannot be guaranteed. However, even if you buy it from an acquaintance, you must do your homework in advance. The machine technology, power consumption ratio, and static / dynamic return cycle must all be considered to avoid paying IQ tax.

At present, the buyers of second-hand mining machines mainly include mines with redundant power resources, senior miners and small white miners.

Among them, the mine mainly buys cheap old mining machines to fill redundant power; senior miners mostly have cheap electricity resources and have independent judgment on the market. Second-hand mining machines are mostly used for stockpiling, which will be profitable when the bull market arrives. .

The little white miners are mostly laymen. I heard that mining income is high, and they want to try water. However, because of its insufficient understanding of the machine model, quality, and hosting, the probability of stepping into the pit is very high. "Not long ago, my relatives found a seller on QQ. The offer was the lowest on the entire network. He greedily bought more than 100 second-hand mining machines and found that 40 of them were damaged. They said that the goods were good, so he asked him to find logistics. In this case, he could only recognize them. "Lao Chen's tone was mixed with helplessness.

In fact, in addition to machine damage and after-sale, there are also cases where the model does not match or is not exchanged, and the temporary price increase is not shipped, and subsequent hosting may also face problems such as stealing computing power.

The existence of these pits is the direct reason for the niche nature of second-hand mining machines.

03

Retail players driven by scale

Lao Chen is not only a senior miner, but also has managed the mine for others. At the time, he was responsible for the start-up and operation and maintenance of the entire mine, with a 50-person operation and maintenance team, managing nearly 40,000 mining machines, and a total of more than 6000 bitcoins. From mine construction, technical procurement, training of operation and maintenance personnel, maintenance of stable computing power, discussions with the mining pool, and value-added currency, Lao Chen knew the whole process.

After 4 years in the mining circle, he passed through bulls and bears, and now he chooses to transform.

Not long ago, Lao Chen joined a quantitative fund team as a grid trader, and mining gradually became a sideline. "The mining industry is too dependent on the currency price. If the fluctuations are too large, the mining machine may face shutdown and the income is very unstable. Especially for retail miners like me, the funds and resources are limited and they cannot withstand large fluctuations. Now national policy It's so tight, I can't continue digging at all. " He sighed.

Due to his familiarity with the second-hand mining machine market, Lao Chen also had the idea of ​​selling second-hand mining machines to make some money. However, due to the high cost of stockpiling and the difficulty of warehousing, it was abandoned. He said, "The market is not good, it is easy to hit your hands, and you ca n’t meet customer needs in time without stocking.

In fact, Lao Chen's transformation to some extent exposed the status quo of retail miners in the mining circle. When the market is good, you are motivated, and when the market is poor, you have to face the dual pressures of funds and psychology. Not only that, but also considering many uncertain factors such as halving, policies, electricity prices, currency prices, machine iterations, and so on, they may not make money.

On the contrary, large-scale institutions with sufficient funds and extensive contacts appear to be more competitive, because they have the ability to withstand the risks mentioned above, as well as the ability to compete for computing power and core competitiveness of the mining industry.

"Are you new to the machine?" The peer asked in the elevator. "Not yet! Have time to talk." Xiao'an stepped out of the elevator and walked towards the fund company where he worked. There are a lot of investment funds in this building, and basically there are mining industries. As Yang Dong said, the annualized income of mining will attract many investment funds.

Xiao'an's company entered the blockchain industry in 2017 and was once in the love of Western Europe. At that time, there were exciting stories and seemingly within reach.

However, after a short carnival, the bitcoin market bottomed out at $ 3,000, and some people couldn't carry it, and some quietly copied it. "Although it was not as rumored as to sell second-hand mining machines, the market was very bearish at the time, and the buyer had the right to bargain. We not only collected 10,000 second-hand mining machines with an investment of more than 5 million, but also copied a wave of Bitcoin. At that time, the market picked up and sold some bitcoins and miners and made about 4 times. "

At that time, Xiao'an did a lot of homework. Like Yang Dong, he bought them through acquaintances. The quality and power consumption of the machine were almost the same as described by the seller. " Although the purchase price through acquaintances will be slightly higher, but the money is not made by one person. It is important to learn to open the interpersonal circle while doing business. After all, doing business is inseparable from human nature. " He admitted.

However, some minor episodes occurred during the hosting, such as the shutdown of the mine due to power outages or power instability, and the computing power was secretly cut off by operation and maintenance personnel. Fortunately, there are a large number of mining machines and the entire volume is large. Such small losses are classified as friction costs and are ignored.

Imagine that if such episodes happen to retail miners, the impact will inevitably be magnified. The so-called friction cost may make a small miner bankrupt.

On the contrary, institutional miners can withstand it. This may be the power of capital. It seems that only it can get a share of the mining industry with increasing computing power requirements. Maybe mining capital is being capitalized, or it is fast. Will be reduced to capital.

Xiao'an revealed that many listed companies and investment institutions have been in the mining business for a long time, but they have not done publicity. Institutional miners have become a trend, and the survival of retail miners is indeed worrying.

Admittedly, buying and selling second-hand mining machines is a profitable business, and will also attract investors in the future, but the above signs also indicate that in the future, this will not be a valuable business, because few people can see It produces value beyond Bitcoin.

"The price of the machine has been reduced again. Do you still plan to start? Now our boss wipes out more than 10 units!" After sending this, sales Lu Yuan opened the WeChat circle of friends who has not yet become a single customer and silently Like, at this time, a new round of price war among peers has quietly arrived again.

(At the request of the interviewee, Lu Yuan, Yang Dong, and Xiao'an in the text are pseudonyms)

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