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John McAfee-led Bitcoin Mining Operation Aims to Scale 5 PetaHash in 2016

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:51 PM
Samburaj Das
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:51 PM

 

MGT Capital Investments, the John McAfee-led investment firm that owns operates a bitcoin mining facility in Washington has begun “Phase Two” of its mining operations, which sees a goal to expand its processing power to more than five PetaHash this year.

New York-based MGT Capital has begun what it calls as “Phase Two” of its bitcoin mining operation in central Washington, a location chosen for its proximity to low-cost hydroelectric power. As the miner turns up the dial, it expects its processing power to exceed five PetaHash by the end of 2016.

In comments, CEO and executive Chairman John McAfee stated:

The cash flow opportunity in the Bitcoin market provides tremendous financial benefit to our operations and balance sheet.

The bitcoin mining operation was announced in July 2016 by MGT Capital after the company had roped in two prominent names in the bitcoin space, in bitcoin industry executive Erik Voorhees who is serving as an advisor and bitcoin investor and evangelist Roger Ver, as the company’s advisory board chairman.

The mining endeavor commenced operations in August 2016, generating over 2 PetaHash in processing power. In mid-September, the company revealed that it had generated 2.6 PetaHash in the days since its launch, mining 90 bitcoins (approx. $55,000) at the time. The company aims to expand to 10 PetaHash in the first quarter of 2017.

McAfee claims that the mining operation is – at current output – among the top five Bitcoin miners in the U.S. 16 nanometer ASIC chips are being used by the facility to mine the cryptocurrency.

McAfee also hinted at other bitcoin blockchain endeavors by MGT Capital, particularly when it comes to security applications, a field that he is famously associated with. He stated:

Moreover, I cannot emphasize enough how an operation of this scale provides us with a key competitive advantage for developing security and privacy applications and platforms using the Blockchain.

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