The inner monologue of a miner who has been mining for three generations in the bear market

"My family has been mining for three generations!" This is what he told us when we first met Brother Wei.

“My family has been mining for three generations!”

When we first met Brother Wei, he told us this.

1.

Wei Ge’s mine is located deep in the mountains of Kangding, Sichuan. We first met in a teahouse in a nearby town. The first thing he said to us was: “You are the right person to interview me. My family has been mining for three generations!”

At Wei's request, he cannot be photographed.

I thought that the name would be like his character, and Wei Ge would be a social person with a big gold chain and a small watch, but Wei Ge is a low-key and enthusiastic person. He also explained the name for a long time: his parents were not well educated at that time, so the fortune teller gave him this name. The nickname "Wei Wei" means "tiger-like power". People in the mine called him "Wei Ge", and it was passed down like that. He asked us to call him by his English name "Winston", and added the "Winston" in "Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill."

Because his family is wealthy, Wei Ge studied for his undergraduate degree in London, England, and later went to work on Wall Street in the United States for a few years. When his grandfather passed away in 2015, Wei Ge returned home to attend the funeral, and then simply never went back.

When talking about "three generations of the family have been mining", Brother Wei introduced that since his grandfather's generation, his first, second and third uncles were all workers in the town's coal mine. Because there were many children, the money his grandfather earned in a day was barely enough to make ends meet. Fortunately, his father's brothers worked hard and seized the opportunity to contract a vanadium mine. Later, the family started to get better, and Brother Wei's generation never had to worry about food and clothing. Those who wanted to study abroad went abroad, and those who wanted to buy villas bought villas.

2.

Wei studied finance in the UK. He said that he accidentally came across Satoshi Nakamoto's paper when he was about to graduate in 2012, and he was obsessed with it ever since. He still couldn't stop thinking about it after he went to Wall Street. At that time, there were many early offline Bitcoin salons in the United States, so he had more opportunities to get in touch with it after work. "At that time, we were all focusing on Bitcoin, and few people talked about blocks." After a year and a half of in-depth study, he finally had a sufficient understanding of the architecture of the entire Bitcoin system.

Wei Ge's collection of the paper version of Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper

After getting to know him better, he was hooked on blockchain. From communities to wallets, from public chains to exchanges, from games to mining pool maintenance, he was involved in every aspect. In the end, he returned to his original aspiration and "followed his father's footsteps" and went home to mine.

"My family was against it at first." How could the top student that my family had spent so much effort to train be involved in "MLM"? Mining on the blockchain is different from traditional mining. It is invisible and intangible. My family thought I was involved in MLM. When I showed them the balance in my bank account, they didn't say much. However, "So far, they still don't think what I do is meaningful, but I'm too lazy to explain it to them," Wei Ge added.

3.

The second time we met, we followed Brother Wei to a mine deep in the mountains. It was a very standard mine.

Brother Wei took us to visit the "Buzzing" workshop. There were only one or two workers doing maintenance inside. Facing the various mining machines on the shelf, Brother Wei listed them like the back of his hand. Pointing at the shelf, he said: "The one over here is the Antminer, the one over there is the Honeycomb, the one over there is the Panda, and the one over there is the one I bought in Russia..."

The mining machine is still humming, but the other half is empty.

After leaving the workshop, Brother Wei introduced to us that the factory over there was also full of mining machines, but later the market was not good, so they were all moved out. Only the dilapidated protective nets on the windows seemed to verify and tell of the past glory.

At the peak, there were more than 20 people working here, with nearly 10,000 mining machines. We worked in three shifts, and needed operators to constantly maintain and repair the mining machines. We also had a kitchen to cook for the employees.

However, there are less than 10 people now. One reason is that there are not enough mining machines, and the other reason is the price. "There is a person in the company who posts advertisements for mining machine sales and hosting in various forums and WeChat groups. Now he has the highest salary among the employees." When talking about mining, Brother Wei has endless things to say.

4.

When I walked into Brother Wei's office, the thing that impressed me most was the four big characters "Hou De Zai Wu" on the wall. Brother Wei said that these were specially made by his classmates who studied design.

The four characters "Virtue and Virtue" are prominently displayed on the office wall.

In addition to these four big words, the most eye-catching thing in Wei Ge's office is the safe. Wei Ge enthusiastically introduced his safe to us. When we opened it, there was neither cash nor gold bars inside, only a bunch of hardware devices like USB flash drives and mobile phones, which turned out to be hardware wallets.

Brother Wei said: "Don't underestimate this thing because it is small. All my wealth is stored in it. Since the price came down, I have not been so focused on trading and mining. Currently, the mine is maintained by previous savings. Now my attention is on how to store coins safely."

This is the French Ledger Nano S, the Czech Trezor, the Chinese Kushen, and some other recently released cold wallet devices. We counted and found that there are more than 10 types.

Wei Ge is very familiar with the names, origins and functions of these cold wallets. He explained that when the mine was first started, a partner gave him a cold wallet device, but he didn't take it seriously at the time. In the background, coins were lost in South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as if the whole world was losing coins. He studied cold wallets overnight and had a deeper understanding of them. Now he basically puts all his coins in cold wallets.

When we asked Brother Wei how much assets he had now, Brother Wei waved his hands helplessly and said: "Forget about this question."

5.

When we asked him which wallet he was most satisfied with, Wei thought for a long time and replied: "Ku Shen 3 is slightly better, it feels good, has a large screen, and doesn't require a computer."

Some hardware wallets of Weige

Brother Wei showed us the whole family series of Kushen wallets, from the first generation to the second generation to the upgraded version of the second generation to the current third generation. "Last time my partner gave me a gold version but I refused it. You see, the big guys in the cryptocurrency circle all have one, so it's okay to show off," Brother Wei joked.

When we asked him why he was satisfied with this product but not with other wallet devices, Brother Wei seemed to be thinking about something for a while.

"In fact, I am also quite satisfied with other wallet products, especially Ledger and Trezor. They are all international first-line brands, and they have been doing asset storage for a long time. But I use it very well. When I recommend it to others, those mining friends can't teach me at all. I can't understand English, and I have to climb over the wall every time I use it. The key is that the people in my factory don't know how to operate it. I have taught them many times but they are still stuck."

Later, Ledger was hacked by a 15-year-old hacker, and I was a little worried. Although I didn't fully understand the principle, I always felt that it was not safe enough. Now, I don't have many coins in my Ledger Nano S. But Kushen is actually not convenient to use. Although there has been no security incident, I have to scan the QR code many times every time when using the second generation product. I have to do it myself every time, which is too laborious. If I let others do it, I have to keep an eye on it more or less.

Now that the third generation has come out, it is much more convenient to use the NFC function. When making a transaction, just touch the phone to synchronize. "But this machine doesn't support iPhone, so I specially bought a Huawei one to support domestic products!"

"We understand that they are quite expensive. If I remember correctly, it should be more than 4,000." When our reporter asked this question, the reporter and Brother Wei looked at each other and smiled. "Haha, this amount of money is nothing to Brother Wei."

6.

When talking about the future at the end, Brother Wei still had a lot to say.

“In fact, I still admire Satoshi Nakamoto very much. His Bitcoin promoted the blockchain and gave me a lot of inspiration. But now it’s not the case anymore. I’m almost forgetting the little financial knowledge I learned.” Brother Wei believes that he will continue to move forward firmly on the path of mining.

A corner of the mine

What if... there really comes a day when everything is calm? Brother Wei said that he might take a look at other projects, but he is not sure whether they are in the blockchain field.

Before leaving, Brother Wei looked at the roaring workshop and said, "I am still very cheerful at the moment. To borrow a popular saying, "My family has a mine! The old man is urging me to go back and inherit his father's business, but he is in good health, and I think he can still work for a few more years."

After the interview, Wei sent me a WeChat message: Mining is just a way for me to make a living, but I am actually a believer in Bitcoin. He also told us to call him by his English name "Winston" next time we meet.