Meet the new mining tycoon BitDeer and its leader

Author: Hu Yiying

Calmness is probably the first impression many people have when they see Lu Haiyi, and beauty is secondary.

BitDeer participated in the "2019 New Era Mining Summit" hosted by Biyin Mining Pool. Lu Haiyi arrived at the venue early. She met partners at the summit one after another, which made her look like a star. When it was time to give a speech, Lu Haiyi sat quietly in the VIP seat, muttering something to herself, and quietly preparing for the next speech.

The name "Xiaolu" is quite consistent with the appearance of the founder: her big eyes like a deer, when she looks at you, you can easily feel her concentration, and at the same time her charming temperament makes people worry about disturbing her.

However, this worry is completely unnecessary. Standing on the stage, Lu Haiyi was not like other speakers who walked around the stage and spoke eloquently. She stood firmly behind the podium, occasionally taking a few steps, and spoke slowly and confidently about how to prepare for the flood season and the future plans of BitDeer.

The mining industry sounds like a male-dominated industry, but in recent years, some female teams have begun to emerge, such as Chai Hua of Tiantian Mining, Xu Jiajia of Computing Power Interconnection, BitDeer, which rose in the difficult period of the industry, and the mysterious leader Lu Haiyi. These "female forces" are reforming all links of the mining industry chain with innovative thinking, and Lu Haiyi chose the entry point of "time-sharing of mining machines".

From a gaming beauty to a mining rookie

Since being announced as the founder of BitDeer, the name "Lu Haiyi" has become increasingly famous in the circle.

"I have been working in BAT companies before, and have served as the head of the game platform. I also have experience in multiple positions such as product, operation, and strategic investment." Lu Haiyi said in an interview.

Perhaps it was the years of hard work at BAT companies that cultivated Lu Haiyi's ability to think globally, integrate resources, and establish a resource matrix system, which is precisely what serves BitDeer's long-term business.

When asked about the reason for transitioning to the mining circle instead of entering the more relevant blockchain game industry, Lu Haiyi said that as a content-based product, games place more emphasis on interactivity and quality, which are derived from the development and maturity of the underlying technology and the improvement of user awareness. Therefore, it is too early to talk about blockchain games now, but it is an area worthy of attention.

The mining industry is quite different. Since the birth of Bitcoin, the early mining industry has gradually differentiated into specialized jobs such as mining machine manufacturers, mining pools, and mining farms. After ten years of development, the mining industry has formed an industrialized situation. Lu Haiyi believes that the integration of industry development is a future trend that cannot be ignored.

Therefore, since its establishment, BitDeer has been playing a big game: to penetrate into every link of the mining industry chain, from mining machine sales, mining farm hosting, mining pool services, to the trading of mined currencies and other value-added services. "The imagination space is huge, and the market is expected to be at least tens of billions of dollars."

"We have been planning this product for a long time, including penetrating the industrial chain and various links," Lu Haiyi said frankly.

Market-oriented computing power division

At the "2019 New Era Mining Summit", Lu Haiyi once again proposed that "a good business model is not about how companies make more money, but about how users make more money". So what is BitDeer's current business model like?

"Time-sharing of mining machines" can be simply explained as the leasing of divisible computing power, and its underlying logic is the result of large-scale operations. Lu Haiyi commented that this model allows everyone to participate and is a market-oriented model; it allows more experienced people to integrate inefficient links, making the entire industry chain more efficient and effective.

“[This] is the result of a fully market-oriented economy. There is no need to tell us how to promote it. The participants themselves will push the chain forward. This business model is relatively advanced.”

BitDeer has innovatively introduced the "computing power cutting technology". For example, the computing power of the Antminer S15 is 28 T. In the traditional mode, at least 28 T of the whole machine needs to be purchased. However, with BitDeer's computing power cutting technology, the computing power of the whole machine can be cut into 1 T of unit computing power, which can be directly connected to the mining pool, and the operation and income of the computing power in the mining pool can be detected at the same time. This technology gives users flexibility in the use of computing power.

In addition, BitDeer has also independently developed a computing power monitoring and self-scheduling system and a fluctuation self-balancing system. When the computing power fluctuates abnormally, it can automatically switch the computing power to other mining farms or mining machines in time for balancing, ensuring that the user's average computing power meets the standard during the package period.

At the same time, BitDeer has the idea of ​​making Internet products, and will constantly adjust product strategies based on user feedback and platform data. For example, the initial contract period ranged from 60 days to 480 days, but because the 480-day contract did not perform as well as the 360-day contract during the sales process, the upper limit of the contract was lowered to 360 days. Currently, the 60-day package is still retained, mainly for new users to experience the service.

When BitDeer’s hashrate contracts were first launched in early December last year, they were in short supply. According to an interview with Odaily Planet Daily, “People in the (Bit) mainland were rushing to buy them.” Even now, BitDeer’s hashrate contracts remain popular. On the official website, 12 out of 16 BTC/BCH hashrate contracts have been sold out.

However, some mining farm owners pointed out online that BitDeer's business model is more suitable for "pure speculators who want to take a chance on the increase in per-T revenue in the ultra-short term, or ultra-micro miners who are looking to reduce marginal costs." However, BitDeer responded that from the actual situation of the platform, current users prefer long-term cycles and pay more attention to stability and risk resistance.

To this end, CoinWorld interviewed Xu Feng, a senior miner in the industry who came to Sichuan to mine in 2014. He believes that in a bear market, "everyone comes to mine with the hope of skyrocketing prices", but real veteran miners often do not buy computing power.

Therefore, the computing power sharing business may be more attractive to new miners. "Traditional businessmen come in and think that buying computing power can bring a decent return, and they don't have to worry about buying machines and finding electricity."

As for how to help users make more money, we must go back to the original intention of BitDeer’s establishment - adapt to the integration of industry development, obtain more bargaining power and reduce costs through large-scale operations.

BitDeer’s starting point can be said to be very high. Thanks to the matchmaking of Bitmain, it has now reached cooperation with the world’s first and second largest Bitcoin mining pools BTC.com and Ant Pool. Another company closely related to Bitmain, ViaBTC, and China’s oldest mining pool, F2Pool, have also been included in its portfolio.

According to the reporter of CoinWorld, the mining machines used in various contracts of BitDeer are only Antminers under Bitmain. Taking the BTC/BCH contract as an example, the mining machines used range from Antminer S9 series to S17 series. According to the official website of Bitmain, the S17 series will not be publicly sold until April 9, and BitDeer will be able to mine on April 30. The fact that they can get the spot so quickly shows that the cooperation between the two is quite in-depth.

There are many mining machines with excellent or even better performance on the market, so why does BitDeer favor Bitmain's mining machines so much? Lu Haiyi believes that accessing Bitmain's mining machines cannot be equated with "squeezing out other mining machine manufacturers". BitDeer will continue to look for more high-quality partners in cooperation with mining machines and mining farms.

In addition, in terms of mining farms, according to Lu Haiyi, BitDeer already has a production capacity of more than 100,000 mining machines, and is actively looking for high-quality mining farms with electricity price advantages for more cooperation.

Xu Feng said that based on the average computing power of 14 T per unit, 14 T multiplied by 100,000 units equals a computing power output of 1.4 E. According to the latest forecast released by Zhu Yu, co-founder of CoinIn Mining Pool, at the 2019 New Era Mining Summit, the computing power stock on the market during the flood season can reach 70 E, so BitDeer can account for about 2%.

"There are only a few people who own 100,000 units, including the big guys in the mining circle," Xu Feng commented. "They are in the upper reaches. 10,000 units is quite impressive."

Later, Lu Haiyi introduced that BitDeer, which was born in the depths of the bear market, is currently the number one in the computing power sharing market in terms of user sales, and is among the top three in the industry in terms of user visits.

Next is the much-anticipated flood season in Sichuan. When asked how BitDeer will cope with it, the official said that it is increasing cooperation with local mining farms and will launch a special flood season package with an electricity fee of 0.22 yuan per kilowatt-hour. It is expected to be launched in mid-to-early April.