00:00Talk to us a little bit about this hash raised which hash rates which is basically the cost of powering computers with energy prices up. How much more difficult and how much more expensive is it to mine. Yes a good question Francine obviously. No. To be a minor in the crypto world. In the bitcoin mining world you need three things. You need power you need machines you need capital. So obviously the effective energy that the cost of power is is going to have a big impact on UN miners. Fortunately most miners that are set up in various places around the world are set up in industries or rather in locations where power is cheap where prices are locked in. Think in the short term the cost of energy is not really going to affect miners in a huge way. But I think in the long term obviously miners need to always move to where power is really inexpensive. We're setting up in Texas right now. We don't anticipate having you know the cost of power having a huge impact on on are our work there. But obviously it's something we watch. Peter. Yeah. And actually I mean we've just hired one of the most wonderful reports on cryptocurrency. She's Emily NIKKEI. And we were talking about you know some of what will happen in Texas. And she was reminding me that basically the number of power required because of all the miners wanting to move to Texas is equivalent twice New York City and how much it powers. So they want to increase by 6 Giga Watts the power used to mine. This is for the state of Texas. Overall about 17 gigawatts would be needed. So again what does that mean for a company like ours will block change. Well Texas is interesting. You know there's 100 gigawatts of power on the the particular grid there. It's an energy island. It's not connected to the rest of the national grid. And so there's there's no shortage of power in Texas. Six gigawatts will not have a big impact overall. In fact there's more than that. That's coming online. There's about 20 gigawatts that's coming online in solar power in Texas just in the next two years. So minors can play an important role particularly in a place like Texas in a jurisdiction jurisdiction like Texas where there's a lot of renewable power. Miners can help stabilize the grid can can turn their power off. It's one of the very few large low load users that could turn power off. How about gator our back to the grid. I mean there's a big store. I mean I keep on being told that you know one of the big questions is what will miners do when demand outstrips supply. But in general what are you expecting out of U.S. regulation later this year. What does it mean for mining companies in Bitcoin in general or all crypto currencies. Yes. So listen I think you know regulation is coming to the world of crypto. We've seen it kind of coming in stages. And I think it depends on which jurisdiction you're in. Obviously there's there's places like China which have very heavy handed on their approach to mining. There's places like Texas which have been very open. And we mined also in Quebec where they have very clearly set what the with the guardrails are for. For miners. And we work within those guardrails. And that makes sense. And part of that is what we just talked about curtailment giving a certain amount of power back to that to the grave when it's very cold. When Paris needed elsewhere. And so I think in the United States the approach that they're taking is a pro innovation approach. They've they've said listen we're going to set some guardrails. And those are coming. But we don't want to hold back innovation. And I think that's the right approach. Peter as a U.K. company is there any appetite to actually support some of the mining over here was. Miners are always going to move to where that power is cheapest. So you've got some places in the northern part of England and Scotland where there's low cost wind power. That's interesting. But it's still going to be more expensive than other parts of the world. So likely it's going to it's going to take a few years before we see any mining happening at scale. Texas is such an attractive place right now because of the grid because of the amount of power that's there. So we're focused on Texas for now. There's other parts of North America where you see lots of growth. Some folks are moving to South America. The European market is there. Some parts of Scandinavia others have mining happening for the most part. Most most money most mining growth right now is happening in North America. Peter given mines don't really create a lot of jobs. Do you have a lot of questions from politicians or governors and states. You are. Who's the beneficiary of this. Is it really a worthwhile use of energy. Well I think mines do create jobs in rural areas. We're working in Pickens County. You know there's 3000 people in that county where we've hired 40 people in that region or from that region. That is a big impact for a community of 3000 people. So if you if you go and you speak to the judge indicates county for instance he's very happy to have us there because there's not a lot of industry that's happening in that particular part of the state. So and what we've seen in you know in other parts of the world like where we're operating in Quebec we have. We've had a similar experience in a smaller community there and then in terms of being able to be a stabilizer for the grid to use some of the power that most of the time is available. I think a lot of large jurisdictions are recognizing that that mining can have a lot of benefits for for communities large and small. Also you were twenty twenty 21 revenue jump was of course supported by China's exit from the mining industry. What is revenue looking like without that added benefit going forward. Yeah I think revenue is strong. I mean mining margins are still very very good. You know we've been putting out our numbers since you know since the China band. They've continued to be strong. Our mining margin for the first quarter of this year was it was in the 70s that we've been putting out. So I think it's still a very profitable business. Obviously 20 21 was remarkable year. You had the China band as you mentioned you had the price of Bitcoin network cash rate continues to go up. That's just part of part of the story with Bitcoin money. So you need to be in the upper tier of efficiency. You need to be in the right place for it for power costs. But it's still a very profitable business. Peter thank you so much. Peter while their chief executive officer of our Go BLOCK Chain.
