Meet Jared. Here’s the mastermind in charge of Digital Gold, a cryptocurrency mining operation based in Pennsylvania. He’s a little crazy, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. Part of it is because, like so many miners, he’s in the midst of a roller coaster ride across the Wild West.
Like many pioneers, he came from humble beginnings.
The day before Thanksgiving 2013, he had his first mining rig operational. It was a homebrewed concoction he and his friends fashioned out of graphics cards wired into milk crates. That day, the dollar value of a Bitcoin hit $1,000 for the first time.
Bitcoin value has since multiplied seventeen-fold.
“Never, ever sell your coins,” Jared advises. He learned that the hard way. “If I kept everything I would be in a much different place in life—however, I would be doing exactly what I am doing now, hosting rigs.”
Cryptocurrency hosting business model
His company, Digital Gold LLC, sells custom-built mining rigs and collocates them for a $1 per CPU, per day. It gives investors a chance to earn cryptocurrency by hashing block chain transactions. He takes care of parts procurement, setup, and maintenance of the equipment. He builds the rigs, and builds community as well—his Youtube channel is dedicated to schooling new prospectors on how to mine for profit, and has a healthy subscriber total nearing 20,000.
He makes his career like this. He graduated to entrepreneur after working in retail, first for RadioShack and then at the Genius Bar at an Apple Store. Building PCs interested him from a young age; he started tinkering at age 10, then in sixth grade he sold his first custom build to a family friend.
“I wrestled with my entrepreneurial instinct for many years,” Jared says. “I am a guy that practically failed high school and decided to live and experience life.”
In the four years since embarking on his own business, he knows only full speed ahead. “Basically I am always working. Even with my family I am planning in my head the next advancement or issues that need fixed. This is a struggle with any self-employed person, how do you shut off your brain? Better yet, is it even OK to shut it off?”
The biggest challenges for maintaining a cryptocurrency mining operation?
Jared has dealt with blown circuit breakers, ISP BS, floods, hand injuries that need multiple stitches—but a rig that runs hot is his worst enemy.
“The heat is the most underestimated thing. Everyone thinks they will throw a fan on it, open a window, put it in the garage, and literally everyone I have met that runs a rig says I just can’t handle the heat issues.”
He lists the big four non-negotiables for mining. “Internet. Storage. Electric. Cooling—dealing with one of the four malfunctioning is manageable, but when you combine them it is a complete disaster. It really has taken me years of experience to learn.”
“I know I sound crazy—OK, I am crazy—but yes, I can feel the rigs breathe. I know if a rig is alive, if its 100 percent efficient, just by being near it.”
Cryptocurrency mining and NeweggBusiness
Newegg and NeweggBusiness are long-time supporters of cryptocurrency mining operations. For obvious reasons, we try to cater to miners’ needs as best we can. One way is accepting Bitcoin for purchases. Moreover, often times it is challenging for miners to source the number of graphics cards they need to grow their rigs appropriately, and we try our best to deliver for the community.
“From the very start in 2013 you can see our mining equipment sourced by Newegg and NeweggBusiness,” he says. “Over the last four years you have been amazing. I plan to continue this relationship in the future.”
One suggestion that Jared has for us: sell packages of computer parts for building a cryptocurrency mining rig. “That would be remarkable—now let’s just see who can get to that dream first, you or Digital Gold.”
Thanks for the heads-up. We’d better get to work.
hahaha, All Your Base Are Belong To Us ..
uhh, I mean bitcoin..
hacked, all gone..
nicehash.com I mean.. gone.. don’t use it.. hacked..
The following line “His company, Digital Gold LLC, sells custom-built mining rigs and collocates them for a $1 per CPU, per day.” should be $1 per GPU correct?