Clean Energy & Self Mining with Russell Cann at Core Scientific

Today we’re talking to the Chief Customer Success Officer at Core Scientific, Russell Cann. With a background in tech, Russell began his career at a consulting firm where he spent 20 years in startups and growing them towards an exit. In 2017 someone approached Russell about a data center he owned, asking if they could use it to mine crypto. Russell then went down the rabbit hole and was hooked. They did a lot of GPU mining with Ethereum. While they do some hosting they’re mostly focused on self mining. Russell says it’s an exciting environment to work in where things move quickly. When it comes to sustainability and energy, Russell is watching the space mature in North America. Where bitcoin uses more energy than Switzerland, clean energy will begin to accelerate. Part of inexpensive power is taking abandoned power infrastructures for use as data centers. In a town of 300 people in North Carolina, an old denim plant was turned into a massive data center. Russell reminds that a lot of the affordable power is green, such as solar or hydropower. Core Scientific is already 50% carbon-neutral and Russell says as bitcoin network matures, green energy is where it will go. Also, every year bitcoin machines become more efficient. At Core, it used to take 350,000 machines to power 450 megawatts, and now takes 150,000 machines. Core uses software to be more efficient as well. They currently have 75 patents with a majority around software. While Core doesn’t really cater to individuals, a year ago they were serving mostly family offices and now are seeing a tremendous move by hedge funds and public companies. A lot of people are looking for diversification in digital assets. With clients all over the place they have 10’s of thousands of GPU’s. Right now they’re BTC heavy, but they will bounce between coins to make the most revenue, making them very competitive. Russell expects to see bigger payment processing companies like PayPal and Facebook Pay get involved. He says we’ll see tokenization of payment systems with an easier user interface. Where it’s still a pain to set up a wallet and transfer money, things need to be easier for everyday use. If you’d like to learn more about Core Scientific, visit their website at corescientific.com. They’re also active on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Telegram. --