AUSTIN, TX – Setup began Wednesday afternoon for what is billed as a mining conference. The gathering of cryptocurrency experts and vendors comes at a time that has been described as a crypto crash.
Brad James, the event organizer, said they were selling belief.
“The belief, the trust that this is happening and the understanding of this has gone through many cycles,” James said.
The three-day conference at the Kalahari Resorts Convention Center features over 70 speakers, 4 stages and 30 vendors. James believes the conference will help crypto miners big and small prepare for a rebound
“And now they understand and remove that risk and the panic around it, right now everyone is selling fear, there’s no need to be afraid, just understand what the industry is, how it works and how you can leverage it especially in an industry that we’re starting to professionalize,” James said.
Surviving an economic downturn isn’t the only topic discussed at the conference. Other hot topics include supply chain and emerging regulations.
“The problem is just that they’re saying you can’t do that with your power,” said Clark Vaccaro of the Blockchain Security Industry Coalition.
Vaccaro worries that new regulations, like in New York, will be adopted in other parts of the country.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point people try to say ‘no mining, you can’t’ this energy to mine which is crazy,” Vaccaro said.
Building a grid-capable mining operation is among the services offered by providers such as Denton-based Moonshot.
“Mining is like a battery, especially when you have curtailment programs, so it allows the power infrastructure to create demand so we can build the power infrastructure and when there’s a power event reduction, that energy is redirected to the homes and businesses that need it, so I think it’s a great solution for on-grid energy demands,” said Ethan Ellenberg, owner of Moonshot.
Ellenberg said the demand for their services is strong. But the costs continue to rise. Fueled by inflation and ongoing supply chain issues.