Show Notes
Curtailing your mine can cost you more than running it. Dan Lawrence, CEO and co-founder of OBM, started mining in a garage in Maryland in 2017 and built Foreman to stop driving an hour to reboot machines. Today Foreman turns Bitcoin miners on and off based on power prices, profitability and grid stress. Now Dan is building Vantage, a platform that reads the utility meter every 10 seconds and shows miners what their power bill really looks like.
Dan explains why demand charges punish miners who shut down, how one peak early in the month sets your bill for the entire cycle, and why many sites overshoot demand response events and give up production for nothing. He says the era of 100 to 300 MW Bitcoin mines in North America is ending, and the future belongs to smaller sites on stranded wind, underutilized transformers and co-located power.
I also ask Dan about how customers vote on Foreman's roadmap, why OBM won't build firmware or run a pool, whether AI-built software can replace fleet management, the total addressable market problem of a Bitcoin SaaS company, what the AI pivot means for large miners, and why ASIC manufacturers are now mining their own machines.
Nothing discussed is financial advice. Do your own diligence before making mining or hosting decisions.
Guest: Dan Lawrence, CEO & Co-Founder of OBM (Foreman) OBM: https://obm.io Foreman: https://foreman.mn Email: [email protected] Telegram: https://t.me/foreman_dan
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro 1:25 What Foreman is and what it does 3:35 From garage miners to fleet management 4:40 How customers vote on the roadmap 5:44 OBM, Foreman and Vantage explained 6:49 Paying for power the day after you use it 8:58 No firmware, no pool: why partnerships win 10:24 Can AI-built software replace fleet management? 12:33 The TAM problem of Bitcoin SaaS 15:04 Hashrate volatility and the AI pivot 16:08 Stranded wind and smaller sites in North America 17:35 Sponsor: Altair Technology 17:56 Why giant Bitcoin mines are over 21:53 Manufacturers mining their own machines 23:19 Off-grid solar and niche customers 25:06 Why miners don't switch software 27:16 Vantage: real-time meter data every 10 seconds 29:46 Demand charges: paying for capacity you don't use 31:34 Billing cycles most miners don't understand 32:38 Overshooting demand response events 33:43 Wrap-up
Sponsored by:
Altair Technology. ASIC hardware, replacement parts and mining infrastructure Code: HASHRATEUP https://altairtech.io/aff/125/
HashrateUp Hardware Deals: https://t.me/hashrateup Free 5-Day Bitcoin Mining Course: https://hashrateup.com/newsletter-sign-up/
#BitcoinMining #Foreman #OBM #DemandResponse #EnergyCosts #MiningSoftware #HashrateUp
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