BBW25 - Day 3 - Keynote: "Dirty Coin" The Movie

a jam-packed afternoon. So, thank you for being with us. I hope people from the lounge are enjoying lunch and we'll come back and enjoy some of these wonderful panels that we have straight through on till 6 today. So, our next talk is going to be given by a filmmaker from Puerto Rico named Alana Media. She is the producer and director of a movie called Dirty Coin.

Please join me in welcoming Alana to the stage. All right. Hello. And let me just see. Are you guys seeing the first slide?

Oh, no. You're seeing me. Okay. Well, hi. I'm Alana and thank you guys for coming.

I really appreciate your time here. Um, nope. Back. I have been working as a filmmaker in the tech space for 15 years. I started in Silicon Valley and my job was to basically humanize tech, make tech palpable for people that were outside of tech.

And the way that I did that was by basically looking at well ultimately what was the tech doing for people. You know, like Steve Jobs said, it's about 10,000 songs in your pocket. It's not about, you know, the the motherboard and the it's not about the technical aspect of the thing. People are interested in what does this thing do for me? And so I um went down different rabbit holes when it came to the internet.

I was a techno optimist. Now I'm a little bit more hesitant to use that label. But um one of the things that I was really kind of enamored by was the cipher punk manifesto and the idea that privacy was something that um was a human right. And so going down the cipher punks and what they represented and how they wanted an open and neutral internet, I eventually stumbled into Bitcoin and um kind of started my journey understanding Bitcoin. Now are you guys saying that halfway?

Yeah. Okay, that's fine. Well, in 2020, I was working at Google as an executive producer and um basically producing a lot of their video content. And um I had reached the top of my ladder and I was like, well, I'm 35. I'm way too young to have reached the top of my ladder.

And my job is not as fun anymore. I now get to sit in meetings with producers that are doing the fun work and look at spreadsheets all day and that's just not fun. And so I decided to quit and I did my eeky guy which was what are you good at? What does the world need and what can you make money at? Um I was a really good executive producer.

I was really good with global launches, global product and I felt that the whole narrative around Bitcoin mining was an interesting narrative and I was starting to see regulation around it that was starting to basically we were having discussions on who deserved electricity and who didn't and for what purposes. And so on the one hand, you had people that were saying,"Well, Bitcoin miners should not be getting the electricity that um that they're paying for. They they shouldn't get it, and we should outlaw it. We should outlaw these computers that are basically doing math." And I was like, "Wait a second, but who gets to decide who's what's a worthy use of electricity?

I mean, Pornhub is hosted on a data center somewhere and that's consuming a lot of electricity. Are we going to now start going down that road where we're going to decide who is worthy of an electron and who isn't? And you know that's an important conversation to have, but ultimately who is at the top making the final calls. And I kind of have never really trusted a lot of the people at the top. And so I felt like, you know what, I'm going to create a documentary on Bitcoin mining and I'm going to find out for myself if it's actually any good or bad or what the heck is going on in this industry.

And so I traveled to four different continents and recorded over 78 people. I and well I recorded 78 people. I interviewed more than 78 people. 78 people were just the ones that were willing to be on camera to talk about what um they were doing when it came to mining, selling power, selling hardware. And I interviewed at people not just that were mining, but that were basically surrounding the industry.

And so that took me to some really interesting places. This, for example, this is in Vega, Texas, and that mining facility is five football fields long. It doesn't look like that, but it is. And when you walk it, you're like, "Oh, damn." It is.

Um, I interviewed experts in every area, experts in Bitcoin. Um, the expert against Bitcoin, which is Alex Dere, dig economist. He's also in the film. And I got to talk to him about why he why it is that he um embarked on really the same research as me. Is Bitcoin mining good, bad, what is it?

So after working on um you know interviewing all of these different people and mind you this is 21 2021 2022 2023 2024. So Bitcoin is going through a bare market at this point. So the only people that are still hashing are the people and hashing the only miners that are still going are the ones that could do it profitably. Um, and we're basically using the cheapest power because anybody that wasn't doing it right, basically got wiped out in 2022, 2023. And so after a little while, after the three years working on the film, I premiered it on October 31st.

We did premiere at a festival on 420, 2024, which was the day of the having in Warsaw. So we premiered officially then at the film festival and then we premiered in Puerto Rico. and we have done small independent movie theater runs. We don't pack movie theaters, but we do pack other venues. I had over 500 people come to watch Dirtycoin in Nashville during the Bitcoin conference, but this was a separate venue that people had to come to.

And in movie theaters, we consistently see 20 to 30 people showing up to watch a documentary. And so this is really interesting because ultimately there is a desire to understand this more and while I was producing the film I was like well nobody cares. And why did I think that? Well because people kept telling me nobody cares. So that's where I got the information.

Um but turns out that people do actually care about Bitcoin and they do actually care about what it is that is going on in the space and they want to if they're going to be investing in Bitcoin they want to know is it good, is it bad. Now, I don't think that things are that easily uh described as just good or bad, yay or nay. I often get asked, well, is it good or is it bad? Is it pro or is your film pro or is it anti? And it's like, well, hopefully you have enough information that we can critically think about this industry together moving into the future because this is not going to go away.

And saying that oh it's good doesn't immediately mean that everything about it is um positive or that there are not areas that cannot be improved upon and also saying that it's bad and looking the other way is not going is not going to prevent uh people from continuing to mine. So I do believe that this is an important conversation to have. I have a short clip that I want to show you guys of the film of the documentary. Currently, we were just at the Honolulu Tech Week. We just screened at Honolulu Tech Week this week.

And we continue to screen at different meetups and different conferences around the world. Um, and we're going to be in Thailand in a couple weeks, in Bulgaria, and Mexico City. Again, there is an appetite and a desire to understand what this industry is about. And I feel really honored to kind of have created something that I felt like the world did actually need. And so, let's watch this video and I'll be right back.

the opportunities to electrify and monetize not just wasted hydro but like literally waste right. So the world's trash [Music] I started mining Bitcoin in 2013. So, I've been around almost a decade now. Mining Bitcoin is very energy intensive. It's your biggest cost.

I'm a co-founder of Nodal Power. We saw the the wasted energy opportunity at landfills. So, that's what we do now is we develop power plants at landfills and mine Bitcoin at landfills were appropriate. The average American produces about 5 lbs of trash a day. So, there's trash being collected everywhere.

uh it goes to the landfill, gets dumped off. All that trash decomposes over time. That decomposition process creates methane gas. That methane gas is the stinky stuff that you're kind of smelling at the landfill that everyone's afraid of. And that landfill gas can actually combust.

When you dispose of your garbage, put it in a can, garbage truck, takes it to a landfill. Once that garbage gets to the landfill, it's typically put into a large hole or pit, that garbage is covered with kind of a membrane system to trap.

All right. So, the documentary is a bunch of different countries and a bunch of different case studies of how mining looks like in that particular location. Um, and so it was very interesting that I feel like that's another another point that everybody is mining differently. So there isn't really one way that people are doing it. Even though it is one ASIC, it is a application specific chip that is being executed in many many different ways, different power sources, different countries um, at different scales.

And so Bitcoin mining really does look differently all over the world. And so I feel like it's and it's an it and it's a phenomenal opportunity for an industry to come and consume wasted electricity. 60% of the electricity that we produce goes nowhere and it goes to waste. And I that's you know working on this documentary I had to really wrap my head around what electricity meant. What were the capital expenditures that it took to electrify a country?

And it was so interesting to me that an industry that consumes so much is able to basically help and enable the production of more electricity and the availability of that electricity in other places. Now that's one of the ways that that Bitcoin miners consume electricity is wasted electricity. And that can be electricity that's just not being consumed. electricity from power generators that are not connected to the grid. So, they are creating electricity in the middle of nowhere and they're still not connected to the grid.

And so, being able to bring a buyer of that electricity, whether you like Bitcoin or not, whether you like Bitcoiners or not, is literally revolutionizing the energy industry around the world. And most of the people that are working in this space or I wouldn't say most but a lot of the people that are working in this space really have in terms of the from the energy perspective they really have no stake in Bitcoin yet and they don't really they they just see it as you know a data center that can plug in into my and can pay me in dollars for my electricity. So now I have Campo and today is a really special day because it's 911 and um as we know Charlie Kirk was assassinated just a couple days ago and it's an interesting moment in time that we live in where everybody's kind of searching for the truth. What's the truth? What's the truth?

But all we get is narratives. We have different narratives from different perspectives and how do we get to the truth? And how do we make that truth palpable? because people will get all up in arms about a particular narrative and then just move on to the next one and the next one and the next one. But in order to find truth, you really need to dig in deeper.

And so for me, what I'm doing and what I did with Dirtycoin was I wanted to just push the narrative aside, whether it was pro or against, and actually look at the situation myself. And I believe that as we move forward with all of the new technology that is coming down that is already in our fingertips more than we can even comprehend at this point, we do need to look at not is this technology good or bad, but how is it actually affecting and what are the unintended consequences of this technology as it ripples into other industries and other situations. And so finding the truth is not that easy. And I really implore people to want to have the intellectual maturity to not just think that things are good or bad. That there is a complexity involved and that in that complexity is where you will find whether that's good for you or not good for you.

And so as part of my keynote today, one of the things that I wanted to do was um usually I have a lot more, but I just feel like I want to have more of a conversation with you guys. I wanted to show you what I'm doing, what I've been up to. And as you can tell, I'm I'm I'm better behind the camera than in front of it. So, I appreciate the opportunity to have the microphone. Um, but this is normal.

This is not my, you know, place. Um, but I am good with conversation. So, I would like to open it up for you guys. Um, ask me about what I did, maybe tell me any concerns. We have a panel, a mining panel that's going to happen right after.

And so we're going to have two miners come up and we'll be able to ask them questions and get in on that conversation. But you can ask me mining questions now or Yes, we have a question in the back.

Oh, and we have a microphone for you. Thank you, Keith.

You got it.

Thank you. Uh I'm here because I'm very curious about Bitcoin since like 10 years ago, but I never trust it. So I'm trying to understand the mining process at large cur in Dominican Republic. So because we have the perfect climate land and do you think we can approach also that that uh idea with waste because we waste a lot especially with the tourism is destroying everything. paradise.

So, I'm here for that. If there are resources that we can get me or where, how to, where to.

Thank you.

Of course. Um, there are a couple of experts that are going to be joining me afterwards and I I think you should definitely grab me or Steve or Jake. Yes. Or Jake. Um and because just because you have the available energy, you need to really look at what is the capital expenditure to get that location to a place where you can then you know how much methane are you actually like there are certain studies and geological studies that need to be done.

Not every landfill can be turned into something that's really providing enough electricity for it to be worth the that expenditure. And so those are basically you just need to bring in a good group of experts that understand, you know, kill basically that understand energy and they'll be able to tell you if you're going to be able to create enough electricity where you can hash enough where you can mine enough Bitcoin where all of that was basically kind of worth it for you. Yeah. Do we have another question over here? Oh yeah.

Uh this is wonderful. In your research, what are your thoughts in terms of the consolidation of these miners and these corporations that are coming together to mine Bitcoin? Do you think that, you know, the average everyday person still has an opportunity um when these large conglomerates do kind of take over? And um have you kind of come across anything uh in terms of your thoughts of like what happens when the last Bitcoin is mined? What's the incentive to continue to to I mean how how are are people thinking about that and how are the people that are involved in the industry right now preparing for that?

So I'll start with that one first because that one's a little easier. So mining, they're not just mining new bitcoins, they're also taking transaction fees. So all of the transaction fees of a block are one of the other um like pay like pay that miners get. And so they will even after the last bitcoin is mined, you will still be able to get transaction fees and depending on who is using the network and for what that could be high, that could be low. Now, it's interesting because you have right now a lot of companies that are buying up the Bitcoin supply.

And something that um I recently found out is that only really 30% of the Bitcoin is actually available and tradable and viable. the of the Bitcoin that's available today, really only 30% is is available to in in wallets that are active wallets. And so if you wanted to buy a large sum of Bitcoin, you might not actually be able to. There might not be a particular exchange or location for you to suddenly buy a hund00 million worth of Bitcoin. And right now, we're competing with Black Rockck.

We're competing with Micro Strategy. are competing with these Bitcoin treasury companies that their their role is to accumulate as much Bitcoin per share and they say they're never going to sell that Bitcoin. They're just going to borrow against it. They're going to do certain financial instruments to but ultimately they're just taking that Bitcoin out of the supply as well. Um, so how do I h what those transaction fees are going to look like in the future is going to be interesting because it depends on how how much Bitcoin is actually moving around.

That's how you get the transaction fee. So that's going to happen in a in a 100 years. Does somebody know when the last Bitcoin is going to be mined? I think it's at 2,100 2140. So we still have some time.

None of us in this room are actually going to see it, but it is going to happen and it is going to be something that ultimately the mining industry changes. So, where now we have this these behemoth locations that are I'll put this one like in terms of behemoth location um that are mining Bitcoin. Um but that might change, you know, it might go back to home miners. Maybe the financial incentive just isn't there as as as much as it is today. So I I do expect people ask me about when are when am I going to do dirtycoin 2 and kind of want to wait for a couple h havingings because that's when you know in like eight years let's see what actually has continued happening and how the industry has changed because every having does kind of change the industry a little bit.

Um, and then for the average person, I would say everybody needs to, first of all, just get off zero. That's, you know, just get off zero is the one thing that I can tell my friends and family. Um, and I do believe that there is an opportunity for mining as well. So, because you can either invest a yourself in mining, you can invest in a company that's mining. There are kind of different ways to get involved.

And ultimately, when you're mining and you're mining effectively, you're buying Bitcoin at a discount if you're doing it right. And so, I do think that it is it's a little bit of a scop to believe that no more people can get into the space. I think it's a convenient narrative, but ultimately, yeah, you can still get in the space. Yeah. Do we have any other questions?

When shooting the movie Dirty Coin, what was like the most interesting thing you discovered while shooting it about about shooting this type of documentary of mining? Well, when I set out to work on Dirtycoin, I was actually going to work on a documentary called Deciphering Web 3 because I wanted to, you know, talk and dis and discover kind of like everything that was coming out of this blockchain consequence. Um, and it wasn't until I started really digging into the energy story behind mining that I felt like that was a way more interesting and better use of my time than talking about NFTTS. There were enough people in the space there enough filmmakers and enough stuff going on. But my time at Silicon Valley really made me realize that there were certain founders that had great marketing plans, great branding teams, and you know, and no no depth or substance to their technology.

And so I saw a lot of that in the crypto space. And then it was just so much there was some interesting projects, but there were so much fluff projects that I felt like the documentary was going to be about how awful the industry actually is. You know, all the rucks and everything. And so I felt that um just kind of focusing on energy and focusing on mining because what the interesting thing about mining and one of the things that blew my mind was that mining will change somebody's life before Bitcoin does. So if you're in a country that you don't have power and a Bitcoin miner has provided the capital expenditure for your local utility to expand and now you have power.

Bitcoin has affected your life and you don't even know what Bitcoin is. See, so that part to me was really interesting because this was it was already affecting people for better or for worse. Some people complaining that their electricity bill was going up. That has been debunked. That hasn't been the case.

So, but but what but either way they are they are people are getting affected by mining and yeah and they might not even know it. And so and so for me that part was really interesting because it was to unlock available energy like Malawi for example, Paraguay were two of the places that we visited. These are landlock countries. Landlock country sucks for building a factory in the middle of a hard terrain that you have to create something and then drive through the hard terrain, exit the one country, go into another country, take it out. I mean, think about it.

If you're going to make a factory, you're going to want to go close to a coastal area. You're going to want to go, you know, to where it's just kind of easier to get the stuff out. But when it comes to Bitcoin, you can bring a city's worth of electricity consumption in just a few containers, use the electricity at source, and just use a little Starlink to upload all of that hash, all of that power that you just did. You don't need to ship anything. Yeah, I mean obviously you need to get the miners there.

You need to, you know, there's obviously you have to go through countries to get it set up. But once it's set up, there's no other industry that can just overnight move a city's worth of electricity consumption to a site that has a energy that's wasted, consume it, pay for it sometimes in dollars, which we'll talk about in the panel, which is phenomenal for these countries. Um, and especially these landlock countries, they really didn't have a financial incentive to build out their electricity grid. And so to be able to have a customer that is interruptible, that wants to buy the cheapest electricity that you can just tell them where to go, um, that has really changed the dynamics. And for me, Paraguay is a little bit of the canary in the coal mine because they've been doing it for longer.

Um, and they have gone through a couple of the of the cycles. So, it's been interesting to see Paraguay's um relationship with data mining. Well, Bhutan um I just don't even know what I can say about Bhutan, so I'm going to have to not say anything about Bhutan. Yes, but they are mining Bitcoin and they have been doing it for longer than they have admitted. Yes.

Which is interesting. One last thing. It's interesting because now we have countries understanding that wait a second, if these guys are coming in and using our our electricity for this Bitcoin thing, whatever, we'll sell it to them. Now, it's like, wait a second, we can mine it, too. We can mine this Bitcoin thing.

So now, countries that are sitting on all of this potential power energy, they now have an opportunity to invest their own money into mining themselves. And then they're getting Bitcoin. now at that discount and probably their power cheaper as well if it's the government directly doing it.

Hi. So, um I know talking a lot about um you know energy waste and you know the effect of mining um on the environment and everything there. Um, is there any other areas of concern with respect to the mining industry that many maybe people don't know, whether it be exploitation or other factors that you found? I would say that the fact that and this this kind of goes for all technology, but I looked kind of more into it because I was looking at all the different aspects of the mining industry. But the fact that our miners are mostly made in China and Bitmain, you know, I think it was like four or five years ago, they discovered that Bitmain had actually installed a back door into their miners that they could remotely shut off the miners.

Um, I think that it is that is a place of concern. The fact that all of these miners, most of them by like 98% are made in China in a country that mining is illegal. So, they are not mining friendly. They are not Bitcoin friendly. And so, I do think that that is um possibly a point of concern.

Um, there's a ton of people in the space that are always like looking for these back doors now. So, it's not like I believe there's a concern of there being a back door today, but if they did it once, um that's a really, you know, you can this is me wearing my tin foil hat and like that suddenly boom more than half of the miners are turned off. China immediately turns on more than half the miners. Now, they wouldn't necessarily take over the nodes in that way. So there is a three-prong attack vector there, but at least one of the prongs could be significantly um affected if some crazy scenario like that were to happen.

So I do believe that um bringing some of that technology at least to countries that are not so anti-freedom and anti- you know freedom technologies whether it's Bitcoin or any kind of open and and neutral protocol um I think it's it is an area of concern at least it is for me no okay I think that that's it for me thank you guys so much we are going to do a panel now thank Thank you. Um, and yeah, I'll be here until tomorrow. So, if you see me and you want to talk, we can talk more. Thank you for your time. And now we're going to go into the mining panel.

Thank you so much, Alana. Okay, we're going to continue the discussion on Bitcoin mining and I'm going to welcome two more uh guests to the stage.