A possible future global currency, Bitcoin has gained a lot of attention recently. Because of its exceptional price performance and the improving regulatory landscape, more high profile individuals and corporations are taking note.

Background of Bitcoin mining

Bitcoin is created by a process called mining. Miners attempt to solve complex math problems through brute-force guessing, and if successful, they earn the right to add a new block to the Bitcoin Blockchain. They also get paid 12.5 Bitcoin every time they successfully mine a block.

Bitmain and its expanding operations

Mining Bitcoin can be quite profitable, particularly in areas with cheap energy and low-cost labor. Founded in 2013, Bitmain is one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies in the world. Bitmain uses ASIC chip technology to produce specialized Bitcoin mining computers.

The company started with a product called the Antminer S1 and now offers a line of more advanced miners. This is important, since as hardware improves, so does the difficulty of solving the mining puzzles. Miners must run more advanced mining ASICs in order to keep up. Jihan Wu, the co-founder of Bitmain, runs a mining pool called Antpool in addition to his hardware manufacturing operation. Antpool is currently the top mining pool in the world.

Bitmain has 25,000 machines which are continuously mining for Bitcoin on the company’s behalf. Bloomberg reporter Tom Mackenzie was granted access to take a peek at Bitmain’s facility to witness how it works first-hand.

During Mackenzie’s interview with Wu, the mining magnate confidently predicted: