Episode notes
Mining Bitcoin and swimming in sats
I had the pleasure of speaking to Tech Engineer a bitcoin mining pleb who has built a fully functional swimming pool heating system using bitcoin miners, immersion tanks and automation to thermostatically control everything. Tech engineers focus is on privacy, security and the ability to double spend energy to heat while mining Bitcoin. In this episode we discus Tech’s rabbit hole journey and why mining was so interesting for him, we also discussed the need for decentralising the network and helping smaller miners compete by using the heat produced by mining for something productive. I really enjoyed speaking to Tech and I hope you enjoy listening. I have decided to also add transcripts at the bottom of the show notes as some people have told me this would be useful. Transcripts might not be perfect but they should be pretty good.
If you aren’t already following @techengineer21 I suggest you do it now.
twitter - @techengineer21
twitter - link to pinned video https://twitter.com/techengineer21/status/1523023198287130624?s=20&t=Ct2G5BawqRw4Nc6LcRUaBQ
As always please feel free to reach out and ask me any questions.
twitter - @MaxBitbuybit
twitter - @bitbuybitpod
Website - https://ungovernablemisfits.com
Today you can exchange $1 for 4760 Sats (Sale ends soon.)
Thank you Foundation Devices for sponsoring the show.
Use code BITBUYBIT at check out for $10 off your purchase
00:01.28
maxbuybit1
So hey there mate can you hear me I can hear you loud and clear welcome to the show.
00:03.55
TechEngineer
I am max I can hear you can you hear me.
00:17.49
TechEngineer
Thank you for having me I'd be here.
00:25.00
maxbuybit1
Yeah, well, it's an absolute pleasure to have you On. Um I try and find always people who are doing interesting things and not just the usual podcast circuit and I came across your profile and saw your video you'd done um on this immersion tank and. Pool heating and is something I discussed ages ago with a mate of mine a mate like me with no technical ability and it was just like a thing we talked about but we're too dumb to actually do it. We're like fuck. Someone's got to do this. This is something that's got to happen just makes so much sense and when I saw yours I was like fuck I just need to speak to you and.
01:25.59
TechEngineer
And.
01:44.12
maxbuybit1
You know, find a little bit more out because this is the future. It's fucking cool.
01:51.23
TechEngineer
So right on man. Yeah, let's let's talk about it.
01:59.56
maxbuybit1
So Yeah I mean um, less so we can do rabbit hole stuff later On. Let's just dive straight in with with what you've been doing Obviously I've seen the video but. For anyone who hasn't can you sort of describe the project and and and what made you decide to do it.
02:33.79
TechEngineer
Yeah, absolutely so let me start with a little background. Um back in 2017 was when I kind of went down the bitcoin rabbit hole. It was November of None I heard on the radio bitcoin cross $10000 and I was like. What is going on with this. Um and I was I was instantly intrigued and wanted to look into it more and immediately was drawn to the technology aspect of it and the mining aspect of it. Um. So I started looking into mining and at that time. Ah the miners went up in cost dramatically kind of similar to what happened in 20202021 and I tried to put to order a miner and it. It got delayed and that eventually just never shipped. Um, but there it so it was ah an it was an expensive endeavor for me to get into but I was still very interested. But at the time I knew like I was living in Colorado and I wanted to somehow use the heat that was. Being put off of these devices because I knew they put just put out a ton of heat. So that time I was thinking well maybe I'll just put in my basement and ducked something up to my upstairs long story short. It never ended up up working out just because the miner never showed up and then um. Price kind of dumped and then we went into a bear market and the profitability equation changed and I just decided that I just couldn't I didn't get into it at that time but that kind of built in the back of my mind like.
05:54.36
maxbuybit1
Here.
06:16.35
TechEngineer
Want to mine. It's important for the bitcoin ecosystem for mining to be very decentralized but we need some sort of other factor that helps it be more productive to like a home miner so hard using the heat was in my mind. So fast forward to 2021? Um I finally decided you know what I need to just take the plunge here and start building a heater out of a minor so I don't know if you saw my original video but it was a a minor that I put inside of a box. And then aducted into my hvac system my heater my the heater in my house and then I put in some dampers and thermostatically controlled the airflow from the heater from the from the miner into my heater. So I basically he did my entire house all winter using using this system. So I'm I'm guessing you haven't seen that one I think you saw my ah.
08:08.54
maxbuybit1
Amazing. I haven't no um I haven't seen that one I have seen it done before but I haven't seen that specific one and I'm right in thinking it's fucking cold in Colorado. Been been there skiing before and fraze my boocks off. So I assume you need a lot of heat when you're living in there.
08:55.51
TechEngineer
So yeah, and actually I don't live in Colorado anymore I mean I'm in Nevada now. So it's a much warmer climate but um, still need some heat in the winter. So I mean that was that was my None big.
09:04.50
maxbuybit1
Okay.
09:30.39
TechEngineer
Step into this whole arena here was when I built that that system and that was kind of before I had joined bitcoin Twitter even and realized everything that was going on. So um, so once I had ah finished that system.
09:40.60
maxbuybit1
Here here.
10:07.57
TechEngineer
And I had proved out that I can actually heat my house all winter with this system. Um the the next level for me was immersion. So the original system was just taking the air and redirecting it.
10:30.76
maxbuybit1
Here.
10:43.77
TechEngineer
Um, but you can only do so much with redirecting air. You can't move it very far. You can't do anything other than really heating air with air. But I knew in the back of my head that ah like liquid cooling like I have I build um my own computers. And the cpu are liquid cooled so that was already in my mind like that's a thing I just didn't know that an immersion existed yet. So once I so once I kind of got on to bitcoin Twitter saw some other people do an immersion once I realized that was a thing I was like.
11:24.72
maxbuybit1
Here. Okay.
11:51.81
TechEngineer
Oh my God I gotta try this out because I.
11:58.56
maxbuybit1
What what was what was that like finding bitcoin Twitter for the None time because I know for me, it was an absolute lifesaver like it just changed the game.
12:20.30
TechEngineer
And it was ah it was ah a game changer for me as well. I mean I have always kind of been doing these projects and I mean my name is my name is tech engineer because I love technology I Love engineering I'm mean the home automation I'm always doing Diy engineering projects but I'm just kind of doing it.
13:02.78
maxbuybit1
A.
13:00.51
TechEngineer
Solo on my own That's how I've always done it and I've always wanted to kind of like branch out and like start documenting these things like because I know that what I'm doing has interest to other people and so finally I was like you know I just got to do this and I made a video about it posted on Youtube and then then it just kind of. Ble up on Twitter and went around in in through bitcoin Twitter and I realized all these people have a big interest in this and I was like oh my god these are these are my fucking people right here like so it was ah it was a game changer for me then I I mean I I love it like it's.
13:51.94
maxbuybit1
Are.
14:16.22
maxbuybit1
Yeah, that's so fucking cool and and like you said is it is so useful for so many people because you know there are people like me who like us a really great idea like it's It's a logical thing that you use this heat. But then we're too dumb to actually do it and then so you have this this stuff documented and.
14:14.17
TechEngineer
Awesome.
14:50.77
TechEngineer
So.
14:55.34
maxbuybit1
It's so important to help decentralize this thing because otherwise what's going to happen if you don't have people like you and acono alchemists and people out there who are pushing and documenting you just have everyone putting their minors in huge warehouses with shit shows like compass or things like that. And then it's really so much easier to attack and um, yeah, that's why I'm just I'm so excited when I see this kind of innovation and and people tinkering and and building and um, this is this is the stuff that like really moves this space. Forward. This is what it's all about.
15:58.53
TechEngineer
So yeah, absolutely and that is one of my biggest drivers behind what I'm doing is to further decentralize mining because I see the trend happening of centralization of mining whether it be into. Big mining companies or like you were saying like hosted solutions and that just that just introduces a whole host of of problems. Um, when you have centralization and I actually have an article coming out in the next few days that I talk a bit more about it. Um.
16:41.14
maxbuybit1
Here.
17:12.20
TechEngineer
And why I think that's kind of bad I don't I don't I don't one hundred percent think that like big bitcoin minds are bad but we need both. We need we need. We need to decentralize as much as we can um, but…
