ROCKMINER: Putting The Shine Back Into Cryptocurrency Mining
Established in 2013, ROCKMINER is a pioneer in large scale cryptocurrency mining using specialized equipment. Over the years, we have built a reputation for being an honest and proficient cryptocurrency mining operator that caters to both enterprise and retail investors.
Today, we operate 5 mining farms distributed strategically across China, with further developments underway. Our mining network is home to investors from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and China among others, all of whom place their trust in us to operate their mining equipment for productive machine performance and consistent uptime.
Leveraging on our expertise in cryptocurrency mining operations, our cloud mining services was introduced in 2018 to establish an easy access for retail investors to participate in cryptocurrency mining, as we continue our efforts in realizing mass-adoption of cryptocurrency.
Founding ROCKMINER
Our story began in the year 2013 with a 6-member founding team. Back then, Bitcoin in its budding state was already garnering interests, seducing buyers with its disruptive potential — promising, risky, fascinating, and uncertain. The prospect however was enough to secure a small yet passionate community bonded by their faith in blockchain, many of whom found solace in fellow crypto-brethren on BitcoinTalk. There was an electrifying air of excitement surrounding the technology, its growth matched only by the surging prices of BTC. Somehow, blockchain had emerged from obscurity to solidify its relevance in our society.
To capitalize on the opportunity, we collaborated with ASICMiner as their appointed equipment distributor in Asia Pacific. Back then ASICMiner was the dominant ASIC manufacturer in the market, with customers spanning across the globe.
Just as we were gaining traction, we became one of the first projects to raise funds in the form of cryptocurrency from the public, and in turn offered stakes in the company equity. Through strong community support, we raised 3,000 BTC (approximately $1.5 million at that time) in less than 10 minutes.
Following the event’s resounding success, the money raised was primarily channeled to covering equipment manufacturing expenses, with the aim of fulfilling the order demands for our first ASIC miner, RBOX from the public. At the time of its launch, RBOX was the top bitcoin miner in the world, boasting 32Gh/s mining capacity that led to its instant sell-out. The product itself was an immediate success, and it propelled our standings in the cryptocurrency sector from an unknown brand to a trusted name for mining reliability and efficiency.
After witnessing the success of our mining machine, we doubled down on our mining equipment development efforts, releasing subsequent products in the forms of R1, Rocket, Prisma through 2014. In addition to mining equipment, we also partnered up with ASICMiner to operate the first ever cloud mining operation, called AMHash. Upon the announcement, we closed 1,000 terahash (out of 250,000 terahash in the entire network) of hashrate sales, which amounted to approximately 2,000 contracts in less than a week.
First Winter
2015 was a tough year for many in the blockchain sector. The market was lethargic and bleak, riddled with long periods of inactivity; talk around cryptocurrency was cold and gloomy, much akin to the despairing outlook of a barren winterland. For the first time since its conception, the cryptocurrency sector had entered into an extended bear market. Some braver souls soldiered on with new blockchain or cryptocurrency ventures, hopeful of a better tomorrow, but many who were starved of success fled the scene for greener pastures. The sudden plummet in activity was jarring and drastic — what was once a technological breakthrough suddenly became a notoriety that no one wanted to be associated with.
Like most, ROCKMINER was too not spared from the harsh winter blow. During this challenging time, we were confronted with significant challenges.
The changes in the market forced the birth of ROCKMINER’s first ever restructuring. As core members of the team, Alex, Tommy, and Suki bore the heavy responsibility of guiding the company through a period of uncertainty and inactivity.
Resurgence
We attempted to recover our businesses by partnering with other chip makers and to restore the trust between us and our users, however our inability to turnaround swiftly handicapped our production. Our market share as an ASIC mining equipment manufacturer dwindled, to the point where it became practically insensible for us to make a comeback.
Knowing that the market never waits, we were convinced that we had to change our strategy. And we needed to do so quickly. So after a thorough evaluation of our situation, we decided to suspend our ASIC miner production because we could not justify our involvement as an equipment manufacturer in view of the growing influence of Antminer in our sector.
There were several options that we were considering at that juncture. For one, it was challenging for anyone to acquire Bitcoin as exchanges were sparse, so setting up trading platforms to facilitate crypto-transactions was an obvious business opportunity. However, the presence of exchanges such as OKCoin, BTCC, Huobi, and a few dominant exchanges in the market meant that it was difficult for us to acquire market share.
In view of the explosive rise in network activity from 2012 to 2014, another opportunistic route was lending computation power for proof-of-work protocols such as Bitcoin in exchange for block rewards. Back then, there weren’t many large scale mining operators, and we saw more and more interests in mining from large institutional investors. Given our relationship with some of the biggest mining equipment manufacturers such as Bitmain and Canaan, we were confident that we could secure enough mining equipment to fulfil the increasing demand for large scale cryptocurrency mining from institutional investors. So we decided to venture into mining farm operation.
Stronger Comeback and Competitive Advantage
By the second half of 2015, we had completely moved on from the equipment manufacturing business and established ROCKMINER as a large scale mining operator. The switch was so that we could consolidate our efforts in serving several large clients and in doing so, creating a unique opportunity to enjoy economies-of-scale. We also leveraged our relationship with Antminer, who had since then become our good friends, to acquire their top-notch ASIC miners.
In the period between September 2016 to March 2017, we rose to become one of the largest buyers of S9 miners and Avalon miners from Bitmain and Canaan respectively. The addition of these machines on top of the ones that we already possessed spurred our mining capacity significantly. Our greatest achievement then was that we had approximately 700 petahash per second mining rate, which was the equivalent of roughly 5% of the global Bitcoin hashrate during its time.
How did we manage that? A key advantage that we have crafted over the course of our operation is low production cost, which allowed us to transfer the cost savings to our clients. By opting for large scale mining operation, aside economies-of-scale, we were able to negotiate for more favourable electricity rates to power our miners at different sites. The outcome is that all our data centres were able to benefit from a constant supply of electricity at an attractive rate, which in turn translates to longer lifespan for our miners (intermittent power outages would increase the defect rate of a miner), and higher mining uptime.
In addition to that, we also exercised risk management for our mining operations. We diversified our operations across 5 different sites in different provinces in China. The distance separating each of our mining farms effectively eliminated geographical risks that could jeopardize our mining operation. Also, we constantly substantiate our observations in the market with data to form a more comprehensive thesis for our decision making. As an example, sensing that the market was becoming disillusioned with the cryptocurrency bubble that occurred in late 2017, we halted our data centre expansions and discontinued order placement for ASIC miners, because the costs of acquiring new units began to outweigh the value that we could potentially derive. As events in 2018 gradually unfolded, it became more apparent that we made the right call for being prudent when others were becoming aggressive, and our choice shielded our exposure in a declining market.
As a result of the combination of factors that were mentioned, we were able to ensure a high mining continuity, which gives us the essential and needed advantage in outlasting other operators, thus establishing ourselves as one of the most efficient and competitive in our industry.
Aspiration
We emerged from our struggles and mistakes stronger and wiser, armed with knowledge and experiences. Now, we are the proud owners of some of the most efficient mining operations on a global level, and our refined approaches to the various costs components that exist in a mining farm have given us strong advantages over many other operators in other countries.
As an attempt to introduce the concept of mining to an even greater number of people, we re-entered the cloud mining business in the second half of 2018 by introducing Bitcoin cloud mining contracts, followed by Zcash cloud mining contracts. Our contracts are priced to be extremely competitive, allowing our customers to have a faster ROI. We have taken this approach because we believe that providing true value to our customers is key to ensuring a sustainable and healthy relationship with our customers.
That being said, the trends and volatility of cryptocurrencies will likely inspire and demand new approaches in the mining sector, and we would have to be ready to adapt and tailor our strategies as and when it is required. As we consider and evaluate our leadership, we vow to safeguard our comparative advantages, all while keeping a sharp eye out for opportunities. Indulging in retrospection to frequently assess our strengths and weaknesses, adhering and being faithful to our goals and causes — these are the tenets that have led us to where we are, and these will be the tenets that drive us forward.
All in all, our business agility allowed us to adapt and evolve from being a hardware manufacturer to a service provider for enterprises. Our decision to persist and progress in the mining sector was backed by our vision to play an integral part of the greater Bitcoin network as a miner. And if Bitcoin were to be sustainable in the long run, we had to pull our weight in not just maintaining, but also spearheading and heralding the integrity of the protocol. We will continue to evolve ROCKMINER to be the best cryptocurrency mining operator there is, and strive to push the brand to be an embodiment of operational excellence and exceptional customer care.
About ROCKMINER
Established in 2013, ROCKMINER has built a reputation for being an honest and proficient cryptocurrency mining operator that caters to both enterprise and retail investors.
Today, we operate 5 mining farms distributed strategically across China, with further developments underway. Our mining network is home to investors from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and China among others, all of whom place their trust in us to operate their mining equipment for productive machine performance and consistent uptime.
As a pioneer in the cryptocurrency mining sector, we have skillfully optimized our mining operations for server hosting, and matched it with exceptional services that build superior satisfaction and long lasting relationships.
As a business, ROCKMINER is committed to providing exceptional services to clients of all backgrounds, through the establishment of operational excellence and reliable support infrastructure. In so doing, we seek to set the standard for efficient mining environments and champion blockchain technology adoption.
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For more detailed information, you may visit our website: www.rockminer.com
