Bitcoin Mining: A Father-Son Family Business

Author: Cleopatra

In Raleigh, North Carolina, a father and son team is bucking the trend in industrial bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process in which competitors compete to get their next transaction added to the blockchain. The reward is 12.5 BTC — nearly $7,700, or $615 per bitcoin.

It was Jason Gantt and his father, Vernon, who were excited about the new Bitcoin that led the pair to start their own Bitcoin mining operation. They now operate two Bitcoin mining operations in their respective homes and are currently building a third.

In some ways, North Carolina’s history with bitcoin mining dates back to the old days, when bitcoin enthusiasts would build a rig at home, connect it to the internet, and start mining, hoping to get lucky and find some bitcoin.

But over time, bitcoin mining has changed. Due to competition, rising costs, and escalating network problems, the most successful mines are those that can scale most efficiently. As a result, the average mine has evolved from a few computers at home to a data center-based operation with hundreds or thousands of machines running the work simultaneously. What's more, because it has the most competitive electricity costs, this operation model has become more and more popular, and even large-scale mines have begun to appear in the valleys of Washington or the mountains of Tibet.

But the Gantts are different. The father and son run a mining operation on the outskirts of North Carolina’s capital. They post their efforts on YouTube, giving people a glimpse into how they handle the daily ups and downs of digital currency mining.

According to Jason, it was an experience that grew from a hobby to an investment to a full-fledged job, and it also built on their past experience working in the domestic water and heating industry.

He told the media:

“At the time, I only had some Antminer S7s and I didn’t tell my father about it until I completed my first block transaction. He started to get very interested and asked all kinds of questions about Bitcoin. So, he thought it was a great idea and wanted to make it big. That’s how we started Bitcoin mining.”

Early Efforts

Jason told us that the origins of their “family” mining business date back to 2010, when he first started experimenting with digital currencies and received his first Bitcoin. Similar to the early adopters’ comments, in the interview he also complained about why he didn’t buy more Bitcoin at that time.

However, technological tragedy soon struck when the private keys to those early bitcoins were lost during a computer replacement.

“So I lost all my Bitcoins, and at that time, ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) started to appear, so I pretty much quit Bitcoin mining until about 2014 when I started again,” Jason explained.

Their shared expertise working on electrical, plumbing and home heating systems helped them through those early tough times. Vernon said their work experience gave them “an idea of ​​what these machines need.”

Jason first built a mining farm in his home, and Vernon soon built a second one. The two of them mainly used the Antminer series of mining hardware purchased from Bitmain in China.

Those early efforts, in total, gave them about 600 petabytes of mining power per second, according to Jason. After paying 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, the father and son said, they were making about $9,000 a month.

Continuous mining attempts

The rewards they have achieved may have come relatively early, but they were hard-won.

Anyone who has tried bitcoin mining at home knows that it’s not a simple process where you plug in a machine, stand back, and watch it print out your magical internet currency.

The process is more like babysitting: Miners need to keep a close eye on their machines, constantly checking and optimizing performance, watching for temperatures that become erratic and staying alert for power shortages, technical problems and anything else that could disrupt operations.

Like those who came before them, Jason and Vernon have faced the same problems they are facing. A recent video on their YouTube channel details a specific issue with an electrical transformer.

"His transformer broke down many times, and mine broke down many times in the summer when it got too hot," Jason said in the interview.

But the problems we face are not just about electricity.

The father and son have recently been dealing with some flooding issues as Tropical Hurricane Hermine hit the East Coast of the United States early last month. In a video called "Our Mining Pool," Jason and Vernon detail the spate of flooding issues they've been experiencing at one of their mines.

Looking ahead

As can be expected, the future of the Gant family bitcoin mining business is key to growth. The father and son said in an interview that more machines, greater operating capacity and more complex cooling mechanisms are their top priorities, with the latter being the most immediate problem.

Mining has also changed slightly, and now includes the ability to mine other cryptocurrencies. One of the mining farms built with graphics cards is mainly for Ethereum mining.

Jason and Vernon say they are accelerating efforts to bring in additional investors — though the scope and size of investor participation has yet to be fully determined.

Jason explained:

“We are currently considering one or two investors to come in and maybe speed up our development. We are already in talks with one investor, but they seem to want more than we expected. We may do this through crowdfunding.”

The goal: to run at 15 petahashes per second by the end of this year, an ambitious goal that depends largely on the success of my third Bitcoin mining plant. But Jason said they are not alone. When our reporter expressed doubts, they said that they had hit a wall in the construction of the mining plant, and then they sought help from the Bitcoin online community.

Jason said: “The Bitcoin community is the most amazing community. People in the community are very friendly and helpful. If we have any problems, I just need to ask for help in the community, and there will always be someone willing to lend a hand.”