Yes, the voltage level is unstable, I noticed that. We were able to put protection for the network equipment, but not for miners.
I also discovered that there's not many companies that offer miner repair, maybe 1 or 2 acceptable places in Bishkek. Even though there's an active warranty for those miners, sending them back to China for repair is a whole new level of bureaucracy that's better to avoid.

Thank you!
About the average rate... the prices are really negotiable and depend on one's connections within the local establishment, so to speak. Same applies to police protection. I am sure foreigners may experience different things, including extortion, but this project included well connected parties, so we haven't faced any of that.
Since the government wants to buy all hydro power available for about 4-5 cents per kWh (I don't remember exactly), I would assume it makes the average price for miners 6 cents per kWh with maintenance.
Security is another "must have" expense, that place has armed guards and walls around it with barbed wire on top.

In regards to Africa, mining became extremely popular in Ethiopia. They got hydropower and tons of investments from leading manufacturers, including Bitmain. But things have been happening there for several years already, so not sure if there's much more power available.
According to Google, Democratic Republic of the Congo has huge potential in hydropower development, but not many investors have the balls of steel to go there.

Thank you! Yes, it is very interesting to do projects like this, especially because of the unique experience you get from different places..

Yeah, it is really unstable, the farm has been off for a week now, something on the main hydro plant could not withstand the load, so no mining, hehe

Hello fellow miners ,

Here is a story I would like to share about the mining adventures I experienced in Kyrgyztan a couple of months ago.

Quick summary:
Crypto, mining, all that is legal and welcomed.
Relatively cheap hydro power plants can be built, the government supports these initiatives and buys power from such plants, but some people opt into mining.
If you have capital, consider this location.

I arrived at the airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan some time in August. The weather was hot and the taxi drivers were trying to charge a fortune, but luckily someone was meeting me there.








I couldn't wait to start working but my local partners assured me that this is the work. Having food with each other is no less important than sitting behind the computer.
That sounded reassuring, so we continued with heavy drinking at the karaoke bar.

In the morning I found myself in a car on a way to the mining farm that is located in the west of the country.
The landscape was fantastic.



Horses:
https://youtube.com/shorts/wMgZWikwi5M

Mountains:
https://youtube.com/shorts/o51Ujckm2O4

Then we stopped at the hotel.


I took few more videos in the morning to show how the beauty of the place.

More mountains:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Y42Tr39irH4

River:
https://youtube.com/shorts/XV-XGZBM3os

Breakfast:
https://youtube.com/shorts/hBMpeMzZk-U

Then we continued our trip and finally arrived at the mining location.

https://youtube.com/shorts/LYFWIROoVa4

We spent a few days there to set everything that's needed to begin mining.





Although the weather gets pretty hot, other socioeconomic factors make this place very appealing.
Total hashpower is over 450 Petahash  .

We launched it all pretty fast using our own software, which also monitors the machines. Hopefully we will have the time to release it in form of a web platform for public use in 2025...

Later we left the place and headed to check someone else who bought some land and building their own mini hydro station.

This river is expected to generate up to 18 MWh:
https://youtube.com/shorts/in82kqyS1rA

The cost to build such thing is about $1M/Megawatt using proper techniques, material, and equipment.


Checking the dam:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Wj71RYeQp2E







Conclusion:

Industrial miners as large as Bitmain do not like to consider locations with less than 30MW. But for us, not yet spoiled by the big money (unfortunately), such places as this offer an opportunity.

In my humble opinion, this will lead to the concentration of miners in the large entities (eventually exposed to the government) that can afford having their own power plants (talking about the U.S. of course).

Please elaborate what stats are you talking about? I am intrigued, I have been thinking about solo for a long time, would love to learn more about this topic.

It is all individual. Talking from my own experience. You can get a deal if you want to.

Not sure about legality, but when you bring clients to them you can get some % off the clients' hashrate, they will just charge higher fees to the ones you bring. Still happening.

Yes, it's very safe.

That is so true

Features of V2 seem to be cool, but there are so many things... is it all expected to be configurable from within each individual miner? Or is it expected that we'll have a LAN device that aggregates traffic and provides configuration interface?

That's quite smart. I just checked Sonoff website, it seems like they have a pretty cheap 16 amps "Smart Switch" https://sonoff.tech/product/diy-smart-switch/minir3/ , which should be fine with Antminer S19 85TH (consuming only 3 kWh)? It will be loaded at ~86% though...

That's nice, especially if they are remotely controlled.

In my humble opinion mining protects you (mentally ) from the BTC/USD price drops, as long as you have very cheap electricity.
You get returns during the bear market, even though they're small, but they are constant, although declining over time.
Generally, not too many miners join during the bear market, so you can collect substantial bag of BTC over time.
Later, when the price is high, you have the coins and the gear, which you can sell for double the price it cost you to buy.
As others mentioned - taking good care of the gear is the key, as it can suddenly break. But it is also usually not very expensive to repair in a bear market.

It's a good topic, actually the best solution I've seen is this:
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-10-22/China-s-first-compressed-air-energy-storage-system-connected-to-grid--14zydqC3KRG/index.html
Not sure if anything is available on the consumer market, but it's something worth making yourself, maybe.

The stuff that was used here was mostly consumer grade, electricians waned about the outlets not capable to withstand high loads, but somehow their warnings were ignored  . Same applies to the power wires, they get heated a lot, but it's expensive to have thicker ones. Anyways, it's all part of the history now, lessons learned 
Best advise to anyone mining is to keep fire extinguisher nearby. The one that was used during this accident is dry powder based, it works just fine, no need for the expensive stuff. After a cleanup with isopropyl alcohol miners are in the working condition again.

Cheap power outlets are causing problems. Confirmed this summer 




High loads combined with the high temperatures caused some irreversible damages.



The fire spread from the board where the outlets were assembled.



Some machines burned.





And some power wires as well.





Here is a short video overview: https://imgur.com/Kte0KG2

The good thing is - those were the old S9 models.
Lesson learned - no more outlets.
The new setup with S19 machines looks much better without them.



When this farm was established, we marked BTC price on the newly laid concrete floor - it was around $8.6k, which is a reminder that there is always light at the end of the tunnel and we shall make it through the hard times again.

I wouldn't suggest, but you could just solder them back yourself, it is easy, 5 mins job.

Thank you for the questions!

1. If Russia decides to cut the net off will its miners be cut off?
- Some will be cut off, but then satellite internet will do the thing; however, due to the high cost and latency, I believe: (a) not all miners will be able to afford it (b) their luck will be lower, so miners in other countries will have a better probability of earning more.

2. Will China 🇨🇳 help the miners in Russia out?
- Very unlikely. From what I see China is really strict on mining. And Kazakhstan will not help either, they are having issues right now, so their miners are partially relocating to Russia even in these uncertain times.

3. This war may finally be a real test for BTC.
- Seems so. As long as we all have internet communication....

4. Will Btc become a free world coin ?
- Hope so.


Thank you 


1. if Russia shuts net down how this would affect global mining picture I wonder??
- That would make miners in other countries richer, but it is still not very likely to happen at this point. I can imagine Chinese version of firewall in place, which can be circumvented with VPN traffic or satellite internet.

2. with most governments trying to implement CBDCs and more and more countries recognising BTC as legal tender bitcoin sooner than soon is to become the new world currency
- We will know it is happening once oil and other important commodities will start trading for BTC.