A user contacted CCN.com with information related to Giga Watt , a Bitcoin mining company finally going out of business after declaring bankruptcy in November 2018. The firm lasted a little over a year, launching with an ICO model in September 2017.
The business model of Giga Watt was slightly different than other hosted mining solutions. Clients owned the mining hardware and paid for upkeep out of their earnings. Giga Watt offered competitive power rates which turned out to be unsustainable. A representative for the company told clients on their Customer Support Telegram channel that users could pay to have their mining hardware shipped home.
Hacked.com gave Giga Watt’s WTT token a one-time rating of 7.0 during the ICO boom. The rating was, all such ratings are, related to the liklihood that an ICO buyer would make a profit on buying ICO tokens. The rating would have been accurate if buyers timed their sales with the market – WTT saw prices as high as $4.62 after it first went on the market.
Its ICO price was $1.20 or less, depending on when during the sale that the holder purchased. This reporter, who did his share of ICO ratings during that time, can see why such a high rating would be issued. Nevertheless this reporter would have included a note that his feelings were based on the probability of the token performing well initially. Long-term performance of the token would depend on the performance of Giga Watt itself.
The WTT token is a utility token. It represents 1 Watt worth of mining equipment hosted with Giga Watt for 5
0 years. A typical Bitcoin mining hardware solution like the Antminer S9 uses more than 1300 watts. It’s not hard to see why the platform would be attractive. Definitively not cloud mining, the program offered a powerful boost to miners.
When it actually worked, that is.
Two days before the news circulated that Giga Watt had filed for bankruptcy, customers had been experiencing problems for some time with miners randomly shutting off. On November 24th, a company representative told clients: “We still have power in Moses Lake.”
Two days later the news hits. The following document surfaces:
Among the creditors owed is Neppel Electric , which is reportedly owed nearly $500,000.
Mining operations for some clients continued until very recently, when utilities were finally cut off completely due to nonpayment. The tight-lipped staff at Giga Watt would only say publicly:
Shutdown due to non payments. Revenue from the hosting less than expenses.
This reporter attempted to get further information from Giga Watt representative Andrey, only to be effectively stonewalled:
Our speculation: “Andrey” is likely “Andrew Kuzenny,” head of investor relations.
You can read the full whitepaper below. An interesting thing to note is that one of their staff is named “Brian Armstrong,” not to be confused with the crypto billionaire and CEO of Coinbase.
Bitcoin Mining Company Fina… by on Scribd
Featured image from Shutterstock. Chart from CryptoCompare .