Operational Excellence: It’s Not Just a Job, It’s a Mission
Ann Willmott, Senior Product Manager at Foundry, tells us how her background in Hollywood put her on the path to Bitcoin, and how Foundry OptiFleet™ is putting miners on the path to success.
Authored by Foundry OptiFleet™ Senior Product Manager Ann Willmott.
My Story
I work at Foundry as the Product Manager of OptiFleet™, our miner management software. Let me start by sharing a fun fact about me: I first got interested in bitcoin back in 2013. But until mid-2021, I was a line producer on a daytime soap opera called The Bold and the Beautiful, living and working in Los Angeles. The Bold and the Beautiful is widely seen around the world, and is especially popular in countries like Italy, South Africa and Australia. It’s all about the beautiful people of the fashion world in LA.
As a line producer, I managed a multimillion-dollar budget, negotiated talent contracts, worked with the Hollywood talent unions, and created a ground-breaking safety policy during the pandemic, resulting in our show being the first in Hollywood to return to work. Our team produced a massive 125 hours of television a year. Have you ever insured a live bear? I have.
I loved working in television production. But over the years, as I went down the blockchain rabbit hole, I began to think that I needed to spend more time on it, that there was an opportunity cost to working in any other industry. And bitcoin was my first love.
So, I left a great job in Hollywood to pursue my next adventure. I jumped off a cliff — and the parachute opened. I was very lucky to find my way to Foundry in the process.
Why Bitcoin
I am broadly interested in blockchain technology, having spent some time in DAOs and DeFi. I remain interested in all the possibilities, but I’ve become much more of a bitcoiner during my time at Foundry.
I believe that a censorship-resistant, permissionless, decentralized currency can promote freedom for people around the world. This is what I want to advance, and I’m proud to work in a corner of the bitcoin mining universe.
Bitcoin mining is an interesting and essential business. Miners secure the Bitcoin network by mining. They produce new bitcoin, keep the network resilient, and help sustain its decentralization. Navigating the complex economics of mining every day helps ensure that the network grows stronger and more robust, enabling more miners to join, which fosters healthy competition.
As Michael Saylor pointed out in his recent “Bitcoin for America” speech, miners are also supporting cybersecurity. “Cyber power requires Bitcoin miners operating ASICs.”
This is the work: transmitting the Bitcoin idea to the future a quadrillion hashes at a time.
The Daily Drama
Let’s get real: the day-to-day of mining operations isn’t as glamorous as a soap opera. There’s no red carpet. But there’s still plenty of drama, ranging from site buildouts to extreme weather, shipping issues, hashprice volatility and energy management. Tumbleweeds in the filters. Forklift training. Installing ASICs in a blizzard. You know, “just a Tuesday” in bitcoin mining.
If I had to pick who to be with in an apocalypse, it would be mining technicians. They solve problems — managing ASICs, infrastructure, people, safety, logistics, and much more, every day.
Unlike in a soap opera, they never cry and they hardly ever slap anyone. Impressive.
Why OptiFleet™
I’ve spent the last few years working with an incredible team to develop this software. In industrial-scale bitcoin mining, “operational excellence” isn’t just an ivory-tower goal — it’s a day-to-day survival strategy. And that has guided us throughout the development process.
OptiFleet™ helps miners deliver operational excellence, providing tools to handle daily challenges and execute their unique and competitive strategies. Here are a few things you may not know about OptiFleet™:
- Battle-Tested: OptiFleet™ has been developed over the last 2+ years, with invaluable collaboration with Foundry’s Site Operations team and with our sister company Fortitude Mining. It’s been honed with real-world experience. Today it’s running on 30+ sites across various power regions, with a range of miners and firmware.
- User-Centered Design: At Foundry, we’ve focused on creating a top-notch user experience (UX). We work with a product designer on UI/UX, with the goal of making the data clear, the functions easy-to-use, and to pack in the ability to take fast action at every level of the application. We developed and continue to enhance the software by listening closely to our customers to create features that have the greatest impact.
- Firmware Integration: Foundry will be rolling out a Firmware product that integrates seamlessly with OptiFleet™, offering flexibility to respond to a wide array of conditions with granular control. Fleet tests are showing promising results, and we’re excited to start rolling it out in the coming months.
- Curtailment: OptiFleet™ helps manage energy with automated curtailment. Miners can set curtailment triggers, such as price and system demand, as well as scheduled shutdowns. OptiFleet™ integrates with demand response providers like Voltus and cPower, as well as directly with power providers and customers who have their own systems for calculating curtailment criteria. OptiFleet™ delivers curtailment reliably, based on strategies miners set. It has successfully handled 4CP in Texas for Fortitude Mining for two years running, allowing them to meet 100% of their 4CP goals.
The Big Picture
This industry is by necessity both competitive and collaborative. Miners compete every ten minutes to create blocks and win a mining reward, and everyone is looking for an edge. When profitability is high, more miners enter the space, creating greater competition — but also bringing a greater number of nodes onto the network, for better security. We collaborate on network security and create new bitcoin, advancing Satoshi’s original, and radical, idea.
“What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.”
If you spend some time learning about Bitcoin, you will start to see just how profound these ideas are. You can learn the basics of Bitcoin in a relatively short time, but you can also spend the rest of your life learning about it. We are creating a resilient network and carving the path for the future of Bitcoin. This is the road we’re on, together.
Disclaimer
The contents of this post have been provided by Foundry Digital LLC (“Foundry” or “we”) for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as giving legal, financial or any other kind of advice. Although we strive to provide quality information, we do not guarantee or warrant any particular results from the use of this information or any opinions provided. Foundry accepts no liability whatsoever for any damages, costs or any other consequences resulting from any actions taken on the basis of the information or opinions provided. Furthermore, Foundry has no control over information provided in any third-party sites linked herein, and Foundry accepts no liability whatsoever over any consequences resulting from any actions taken on the basis of that information. Foundry reserves the right to make changes to this information at any time without prior notice and makes no commitment to update the information contained in this post.
