John Paul Baric's guest appearances

John Paul Baric

Distilling Venture Capital

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Donald Trump

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Trevor Koverko

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Kyle Kistner

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John Paul Baric, Founder &amp; CEO at Aurum Capital Ventures Inc, sits down with Yonah Hochhauser from REIMAGINE 2020 to talk about how the financing of Bitcoin mining works, the role of regulation in the mining space, &amp; why it is the best business model you never heard of. Twitter John Paul Baric: https://twitter.com/jpbaric Twitter Aurum Capital Ventures Inc: https://twitter.com/Aurum_Ventures  LinkedIn Aurum Capital Ventures Inc: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurum-energy  Website Aurum Capital Ventures Inc: https://aurumcapitalventures.com/

John Paul Baric, Founder &amp; CEO at Aurum Capital Ventures Inc, sits down with Yonah Hochhauser from REIMAGINE 2020 to talk about how the financing of Bitcoin mining works, the role of regulation in the mining space, &amp; why it is the best business model you never heard of. Twitter John Paul Baric: <a href="https://twitter.com/jpbaric" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/jpbaric</a> Twitter Aurum Capital Ventures Inc: <a href="https://twitter.com/Aurum_Ventures" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/Aurum_Ventures</a> LinkedIn Aurum Capital Ventures Inc: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurum-energy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurum-energy</a> Website Aurum Capital Ventures Inc: <a href="https://aurumcapitalventures.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://aurumcapitalventures.com/</a>

John Paul Baric - Aurum Capital Ventures - Bitcoin Mining Pays

Introduction  Welcome to Distilling Venture Capital.  I am your host, Bill Griesinger Distilling VC is a visionary podcast that provides an insightful and informed view of the key trends affecting the VC and tech startup world.  My mission is to cut through and go beyond the hype that tends to dominate the tech landscape.  And provide you with information you can use.  Episode Introduction:  Welcome back everyone.  Well, today I have the pleasure of welcoming back to the program JP Baric, CEO and Founder at Aurum Capital Ventures, which is engaged in the crypto-mining business.  JP thank you for coming back to join me on the show.    So, the last time we did a program was in mid-May, about 5 months ago, and I introduced Aurum Capital Ventures then as a technology/energy company directly involved in multiple aspects of the crypto-mining industry – and we delved into the many interesting aspects of your business model.  I have received a lot of positive feedback to that show – so glad you’re here to do this again… Crypto-currency Mining involves sourcing and utilizing the most advanced equipment, for sure, which you guys provide, but also one of the key components that has a huge impact on the cost and viability of crypto-mining itself – is the cost and amount of energy consumed – and, therefore, the energy component and its costs have a huge impact on the industry and its success Aurum has developed a truly innovative vision and approach to this aspect (Energy) of the business.  And I wanted to provide a platform here today for you to explore in-depth how you think about and approach the idea of generating, producing and sourcing energy at the core of   Please introduce and present this in the way you think would be most helpful and useful for our listeners to appreciate the impact of this vision  Energy Utilization &amp; Economics of Crypto-Mining:  JP provides a deep-dive into the interrelated metrics and dynamics of Energy and Crypto-mining.  Here is what you will learn:   Terahash Rate – core measure of energy usage in crypto-mining Can predict and model the Terahash rate for mining equipment.  USD per terahash – how much we make on a USD basis - the speed of how fast a mining machine runs.   Price per terahash dropped to 7.5 cents – when BTC crashed (March).  Was 13 cents per terahash.   Today, sitting at 8 cents per terahash with BTC at roughly $12,000 today.    Amount of new machines on the network has grown – at 8 cents per TH – betting that price of BTC will continue to rise… Miners all over the world are thus, searching for most cost-effective energy costs.   Cost/Mwh Rates in crypto-mining Old machines vs. New machines and economics Revisit the halving event from May 12, 2020 – when reward for mining was, by design, the reward went from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC – Impact? Inflation Rate of BTC (1.8% infl. Rate) compared to USD inflation…digital currency has a lower effective inflation rate than the fiat currency! BTC price may be volatile but depends on what you compare it to New equip. is coming online line as fast as the manufactures can produce them.  Most are made in Taiwan and China Coming into facilities that have power in the 4cent to 5 cent range Mining Machines: The S-9s are the older;  Newer are the Ant Miner S19 Pros are 30 Juuls per terahash.      Square Announces Purchase of $50MM BTC for its Balance Sheet  Here’s a perhaps diversion from our main topic related to mining &amp; energy, but it’s related to Bitcoin and the larger ecosystem.  So, here’s some industry news I wanted to get your opinion on re Square – We all know them as the POS payment company. not only does Square have the retail app and footprint now, but they’ve also got a lot of very granular, small business merchant data. They've turned that into Square Capital and the small business lending business.  And the data on the consumer side, the spending side, the merchant acquiring side, and visibility into SMB finances to drive the business forward, creates a pretty tight loop, closed ecosystem.  Square just recently announced – put out a press release actually – that they had purchased around $50MM of Bitcoin…Now other major financial services companies have bought substantial sums of BTC too, but didn’t necessarily announce it by press release – What’s going on here in your view?  This from another podcast I listen to called ReBank.  Their comments regarding Square purchase of BTC  Will Beeson (ReBank):  “It's like investing in treasury assets, and you use them to run your business.  It's about 1% of Square's assets.  And I think the bigger question is, is this Square, or is this a representation of broader investment theory?  Like is Bitcoin now something of an asset class that institutional investors and traditional institutional investors are taking more seriously and are viewing either as an inflation hedge or an option on potential future upside.” Lex Sokolin (ReBank/Consensys):  “All you have to do is look at venture investments and Andreessen Horowitz with hundreds of millions of dollars in dedicated crypto funds and that being true for the long tail of Silicon Valley players as well. And so when people who want to be like Square and want to have that same outcome, or like Twitter or venture funds that want to be like Andreessen, which is by the way, 100% of anyone who is an entrepreneurship, when they see these actions being taken, they're both symbolic, but they're also inspirational.” Then, if that weren’t innovative enough, Aurum Capital Ventures is also focused on leading efforts to bring much needed liquidity and financing to the mining and cryptocurrency markets themselves…Can you elaborate on why this is important and what you are doing to facilitate attracting mainstream forms of capital to the industry?  Other Learnings from Today’s Episode:  Define Cryptocurrency-Mining &amp; How it Works   The Future of Crypto-Mining Crypto-Currency and Crypto-Mining are Fully Transparent Markets, by Design The Search for the Best Equipment and Cheapest Source of Energy  How Aurum Capital Ventures is Changing the Game and Mindset Regarding Crypto-Mining and the Production of Energy Aurum is Both a Buyer and Seller of Energy Aurum is Redefining How Energy is Consumed and Transmitted Aurum is Creating Unique Investment Vehicles to bring needed liquidity – both debt and equity capital – to the Crypto-Mining and Crypto-Currency  How Crypto-Miners are Rewarded What is a Halving Event and What does it Mean for Cryptocurrency Mining? And Much More…  Business Model Characteristics  Your Bus. Model has Multiple Revenue Sources:   Turnkey Mining Equip Deployments &amp; hosting services;    Speed &amp; Efficiency through repeatable process of Power procurement, infrastructure deployment, and remote management   Running your own Mining servers Managed Services Selling used equipment to established network  Competitive Advantages  Modular, mobile equipment deployment – more efficient Rapid Payback/Utilization of “Stranded Energy” - Aurum’s mobile mining deployments profitably monetize any type of stranded energy anywhere in the world Situation where the value of the underlying collateral (mining equipment) can increase in value during life of the equip. and related financing, due to a halving event of Bitcoin Allows you to build inventory of equipment for deployment now, in advance of halving event that you know occurs approx. every four years JP Baric explains Aurum’s business model advantages relative to competitors such as Genesis Mining  Closing RemarksContact Information for Aurum Capital Ventures  Those seeking additional information and wishing to learn more about Aurum Capital Ventures:   JP’s Twitter Account – @JPBaric Email:  jp@aurumventures.com Sign up for Investor Newsletter at: Aurumcapitalventures.com Launching new podcast called “Digital Gold”      Thank you for joining me for this edition of DVC.  I hope you found our discussion today with JP Baric and Aurum Capital Ventures interesting and useful.   Stay tuned for my next Episode, where I will have a very special guest of a high-profile company getting lots of buzz, that just went public via a SPAC in just the last few weeks.  Think electric truck technology – like big, 18-wheeler truck – industry.   That’s all I’m giving you for now.  Stay tuned… Thank you again and I look forward to joining you for my next Episode of Distilling VC.

Introduction <ul> <li>Welcome to Distilling Venture Capital.  I am your host, Bill Griesinger</li> <li>Distilling VC is a visionary podcast that provides an insightful and informed view of the key trends affecting the VC and tech startup world.  My mission is to cut through and go beyond the hype that tends to dominate the tech landscape.  And provide you with information you can use.</li> </ul> Episode Introduction: <ul> <li>Welcome back everyone.  Well, today I have the pleasure of welcoming back to the program JP Baric, CEO and Founder at Aurum Capital Ventures, which is engaged in the crypto-mining business.  JP thank you for coming back to join me on the show.   </li> <li>So, the last time we did a program was in mid-May, about 5 months ago, and I introduced Aurum Capital Ventures then as a technology/energy company directly involved in multiple aspects of the crypto-mining industry – and we delved into the many interesting aspects of your business model.  I have received a lot of positive feedback to that show – so glad you’re here to do this again…</li> <li>Crypto-currency Mining involves sourcing and utilizing the most advanced equipment, for sure, which you guys provide, but also one of the key components that has a huge impact on the cost and viability of crypto-mining itself – is the cost and amount of energy consumed – and, therefore, the energy component and its costs have a huge impact on the industry and its success</li> <li>Aurum has developed a truly innovative vision and approach to this aspect (Energy) of the business.  And I wanted to provide a platform here today for you to explore in-depth how you think about and approach the idea of generating, producing and sourcing energy at the core of  </li> <li>Please introduce and present this in the way you think would be most helpful and useful for our listeners to appreciate the impact of this vision</li> </ul> Energy Utilization &amp; Economics of Crypto-Mining: <ul> <li>JP provides a deep-dive into the interrelated metrics and dynamics of Energy and Crypto-mining.  Here is what you will learn:</li> <li> <ul> <li>Terahash Rate – core measure of energy usage in crypto-mining</li> <li>Can predict and model the Terahash rate for mining equipment.  USD per terahash – how much we make on a USD basis - the speed of how fast a mining machine runs.  </li> <li>Price per terahash dropped to 7.5 cents – when BTC crashed (March).  Was 13 cents per terahash.   Today, sitting at 8 cents per terahash with BTC at roughly $12,000 today.   </li> <li>Amount of new machines on the network has grown – at 8 cents per TH – betting that price of BTC will continue to rise…</li> <li>Miners all over the world are thus, searching for most cost-effective energy costs.   Cost/Mwh Rates in crypto-mining</li> <li>Old machines vs. New machines and economics</li> <li>Revisit the halving event from May 12, 2020 – when reward for mining was, by design, the reward went from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC – Impact?</li> <li>Inflation Rate of BTC (1.8% infl. Rate) compared to USD inflation…digital currency has a lower effective inflation rate than the fiat currency!</li> <li>BTC price may be volatile but depends on what you compare it to</li> <li>New equip. is coming online line as fast as the manufactures can produce them.  Most are made in Taiwan and China</li> <li>Coming into facilities that have power in the 4cent to 5 cent range</li> <li>Mining Machines: The S-9s are the older;  Newer are the Ant Miner S19 Pros are 30 Juuls per terahash.  </li> </ul> </li> </ul> Square Announces Purchase of $50MM BTC for its Balance Sheet <ul> <li>Here’s a perhaps diversion from our main topic related to mining &amp; energy, but it’s related to Bitcoin and the larger ecosystem.  So, here’s some industry news I wanted to get your opinion on re Square – We all know them as the POS payment company.</li> <li>not only does Square have the retail app and footprint now, but they’ve also got a lot of very granular, small business merchant data.</li> <li>They've turned that into Square Capital and the small business lending business.  And the data on the consumer side, the spending side, the merchant acquiring side, and visibility into SMB finances to drive the business forward, creates a pretty tight loop, closed ecosystem. </li> <li>Square just recently announced – put out a press release actually – that they had purchased around $50MM of Bitcoin…Now other major financial services companies have bought substantial sums of BTC too, but didn’t necessarily announce it by press release – What’s going on here in your view?</li> </ul> This from another podcast I listen to called ReBank.  Their comments regarding Square purchase of BTC <ul> <li>Will Beeson (ReBank):  “It's like investing in treasury assets, and you use them to run your business.  It's about 1% of Square's assets.  And I think the bigger question is, is this Square, or is this a representation of broader investment theory?  Like is Bitcoin now something of an asset class that institutional investors and traditional institutional investors are taking more seriously and are viewing either as an inflation hedge or an option on potential future upside.”</li> <li>Lex Sokolin (ReBank/Consensys):  “All you have to do is look at venture investments and Andreessen Horowitz with hundreds of millions of dollars in dedicated crypto funds and that being true for the long tail of Silicon Valley players as well. And so when people who want to be like Square and want to have that same outcome, or like Twitter or venture funds that want to be like Andreessen, which is by the way, 100% of anyone who is an entrepreneurship, when they see these actions being taken, they're both symbolic, but they're also inspirational.”</li> <li>Then, if that weren’t innovative enough, Aurum Capital Ventures is also focused on leading efforts to bring much needed liquidity and financing to the mining and cryptocurrency markets themselves…Can you elaborate on why this is important and what you are doing to facilitate attracting mainstream forms of capital to the industry?</li> </ul> Other Learnings from Today’s Episode: <ul> <li>Define Cryptocurrency-Mining &amp; How it Works  </li> <li>The Future of Crypto-Mining</li> <li>Crypto-Currency and Crypto-Mining are Fully Transparent Markets, by Design</li> <li>The Search for the Best Equipment and Cheapest Source of Energy </li> <li>How Aurum Capital Ventures is Changing the Game and Mindset Regarding Crypto-Mining and the Production of Energy</li> <li>Aurum is Both a Buyer and Seller of Energy</li> <li>Aurum is Redefining How Energy is Consumed and Transmitted</li> <li>Aurum is Creating Unique Investment Vehicles to bring needed liquidity – both debt and equity capital – to the Crypto-Mining and Crypto-Currency </li> <li>How Crypto-Miners are Rewarded</li> <li>What is a Halving Event and What does it Mean for Cryptocurrency Mining?</li> <li>And Much More…</li> </ul> Business Model Characteristics <ul> <li>Your Bus. Model has Multiple Revenue Sources:</li> </ul> <ol> <li>Turnkey Mining Equip Deployments &amp; hosting services; </li> </ol> <ul> <li>Speed &amp; Efficiency through repeatable process of Power procurement, infrastructure deployment, and remote management</li> </ul> <ol> <li>Running your own Mining servers</li> <li>Managed Services</li> <li>Selling used equipment to established network</li> </ol> Competitive Advantages <ul> <li>Modular, mobile equipment deployment – more efficient</li> <li>Rapid Payback/Utilization of “Stranded Energy” - Aurum’s mobile mining deployments profitably monetize any type of stranded energy anywhere in the world</li> <li>Situation where the value of the underlying collateral (mining equipment) can increase in value during life of the equip. and related financing, due to a halving event of Bitcoin</li> <li>Allows you to build inventory of equipment for deployment now, in advance of halving event that you know occurs approx. every four years</li> <li>JP Baric explains Aurum’s business model advantages relative to competitors such as Genesis Mining</li> </ul> Closing RemarksContact Information for Aurum Capital Ventures <ul> <li>Those seeking additional information and wishing to learn more about Aurum Capital Ventures:</li> <li> <ul> <li>JP’s Twitter Account – @JPBaric</li> <li>Email:  <a href="mailto:jp@aurumventures.com">jp@aurumventures.com</a></li> <li>Sign up for Investor Newsletter at: <a href="Aurumcapitalventures.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aurumcapitalventures.com</a></li> <li>Launching new podcast called “Digital Gold”</li> </ul> </li> </ul> Thank you for joining me for this edition of DVC.  I hope you found our discussion today with JP Baric and Aurum Capital Ventures interesting and useful.   Stay tuned for my next Episode, where I will have a very special guest of a high-profile company getting lots of buzz, that just went public via a SPAC in just the last few weeks.  Think electric truck technology – like big, 18-wheeler truck – industry.   That’s all I’m giving you for now.  Stay tuned… Thank you again and I look forward to joining you for my next Episode of Distilling VC.

Episode 009 - Cryptocurrency Mining/Energy Operator Aurum Capital Ventures - (Revisit with John Paul Baric, Founder & CEO)

Introduction  Welcome to Distilling Venture Capital.  I am your host, Bill Griesinger Distilling VC is a visionary podcast that provides an insightful and informed view of the key trends affecting the VC and tech startup world.  My mission is to cut through and go beyond the hype that tends to dominate the tech landscape.  And provide you with information you can use.  Episode Introduction:  I would like to introduce Today’s Episode topic as follows;   We hear a great deal about cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin, and the impact they are having on the financial services and investing landscape, with respect to how we define money, e-commerce, make investments, and even what Central Banks are doing to authorize/issue their own digital currency or stable currency, etc. On the other hand, we don’t hear much or may understand very little about the derivation and creation of cryptocurrencies themselves.  Where do they come from?  What is their intrinsic value and utility?  How is all of this accomplished? So, today We’re going to get into what I consider a very interesting segment of the crypto-currency world – Crypto-Mining - that we don’t often hear that much about but yet is vitally important to our ability to be able to utilize these digital currencies, digital assets to conduct financial transactions:  Crypto-currency Mining To answer these questions and distill down our understanding of the crypto-mining industry, I am joined by JP Baric who is the Founder and CEO of an technology/energy company directly involved in multiple aspects of the crypto-mining industry, operating as Aurum Capital Ventures     Aurum Capital Ventures is leading the way not only in the development and deployment of turnkey crypto-mining technology in the field…but also efforts to bring much needed liquidity and financing to the mining and cryptocurrency markets themselves… So, we’ll dig into those topics…     Welcome JP and thanks for joining me today.  To kick off today’s conversation, JP, perhaps you can provide a little background about the origins around the formation of your Company and identify its core goals and objectives.     What you Will Learn in Today’s Episode:  Define Cryptocurrency-Mining &amp; How it Works   The Future of Crypto-Mining Crypto-Currency and Crypto-Mining are Fully Transparent Markets, by Design The Search for the Best Equipment and Cheapest Source of Energy  How Aurum Capital Ventures is Changing the Game and Mindset Regarding Crypto-Mining and the Production of Energy Aurum is Both a Buyer and Seller of Energy Aurum is Redefining How Energy is Consumed and Transmitted Aurum is Creating Unique Investment Vehicles to bring needed liquidity – both debt and equity capital – to the Crypto-Mining and Crypto-Currency  How Crypto-Miners are Rewarded What is a Halving Event and What does it Mean for Cryptocurrency Mining? And Much More…    Cryptocurrency Mining Explained  Miners are, in effect, getting paid for their work as auditors.  They are doing the work of verifying previous bitcoin transactions.  It is said that, miners are, in effect, "minting" digital currency… By verifying transactions, miners are helping to prevent the "double-spending problem," a scenario in which a bitcoin owner illicitly spends the same bitcoin twice  In addition to rewarding miners and supporting the bitcoin ecosystem, mining serves another vital purpose:  It is the only way to release new cryptocurrency into circulation.  In other words, miners are basically "minting" digital currency The primary draw for most Bitcoin miners is the prospect of being rewarded with valuable bitcoin tokens To earn bitcoins through mining, you need to meet two conditions.  One is a matter of effort; one is a matter of luck:   1) You have to verify ~1MB worth of transactions. This is the easy part. 2) You have to be the first miner to arrive at the right answer to a numeric problem. This process is also known as, proof of work     The integrity and value of crypto is predicated upon the ability of miners to confirm, validate a 1MB block     We just had a pre-designed reduction in the reward that miners can earn when mining, referred to as a Halving Event:    On May 12, 2020, Yesterday, the reward for mining Bitcoin just dropped from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, for validating a 1MB Block -   This is what crypto- miners face all over the world.  Block-halving is hardcoded into how Bitcoin operates.  Its business as usual and it means that Bitcoin is doing exactly what it is supposed to do according to the original design of Satoshi Nakamoto.     Halving Event - So, when we talk about miners being motivated and incentivized by being rewarded with Bitcoin for successfully delivering a proof of work,  Describe what a “halving” event is and what it means – how it affects crypto-mining activity  Why is There a Halving Event?  There can only ever exist a maximum of 21 million bitcoins.  Therefore, the reward for making new ones needs to be reduced periodically in order to bring sustainability to its value.  That’s exactly what blockhalving accomplishes once every 210,000 blocks (roughly every four years). The creation of “mining pools”  Business Problem that Aurum Capital Ventures is Solving  Mining is a very capital and energy intensive business and is presently “oversupplied” globally Description of the main Business Problem Aurum solves – Its value proposition   Where geographically are your major deployments? Discussion of Iowa, NY and other major installations Unique concept and approach to the energy component of operations    Business Model Characteristics  Your Bus. Model has Multiple Revenue Sources:   Turnkey Mining Equip Deployments &amp; hosting services;    Speed &amp; Efficiency through repeatable process of Power procurement, infrastructure deployment, and remote management   Running your own Mining servers Managed Services Selling used equipment to established network  Defining and Solving the Capital Procurement Obstacles of the Crypto-Mining Industry:  One of your firm’s stated GOALS: There exists a lack of liquidity in the space.  JP explains how Aurum is creating unique investment vehicles to enable institutional capital to enter the space to provide liquidity   Launch Global Bitcoin Mining Fund to allow for better market liquidity and transparency in the sector;  JP Baric Explains Securitization of mining hash rate (hash rate tokens);  JP Baric Explains Launching vehicles like investment trusts and funds that offer investors exposure     Goal:  Enables Liquidity Unique Financing Approach:   Issuance of secured, insured bond to finance equipment and projects Attractive risk-adjusted return characteristics for investors Opportunities for arbitrage in power contracts Providing increase in credit and capital to Aurum and the entire market Providing investment banks Mining, b/c it’s an infrastructure investment is easier for institutions to get into to than Bitcoin purchasing Not currently in the prospectus of the major Energy Funds to invest in energy consumption products – they are only focused on energy generation - Bitcoin is not part of their investment thesis. Allows exposure to underlying Bitcoin asset and mine Bitcoins at a discount relative to the volatile Bitcoin market price itself.  JP Explains    Competitive Advantages  Modular, mobile equipment deployment – more efficient Rapid Payback/Utilization of “Stranded Energy” - Aurum’s mobile mining deployments profitably monetize any type of stranded energy anywhere in the world Situation where the value of the underlying collateral (mining equipment) can increase in value during life of the equip. and related financing, due to a halving event of Bitcoin Allows you to build inventory of equipment for deployment now, in advance of halving event that you know occurs approx. every four years JP Baric explains Aurum’s business model advantages relative to competitors such as Genesis Mining  Closing Remarks  JP provides an overview of where he sees things headed for crypto-mining industry in general… We’ve just had this Halving Event – what are some key things that happen next as it relates to Crypto-Mining? JP explains Aurum’s leverage, differentiation and its expertise to bring to market top equipment and energy sources required by Miners and the financial liquidity mechanism to make it happen – keeping with Aurum’s core mission  Contact Information for Aurum Capital Ventures  Those seeking additional information and wishing to learn more about Aurum Capital Ventures:   JP’s Twitter Account – @JPBaric Sign up for Investor Newsletter at: Aurumcapitalventures.com    Thank you for joining me for this edition of DVC.  I hope you found the topic interesting and useful.  I am currently working on the DVC website.  In the meantime, Please send questions and your comments regarding today’s episode to: bill@ccs.capital Stay tuned for my next Episode, coming very soon, where I will I am going to provide a follow-up to Episode 001, Unicorn-Mania, where I will dig into and discuss the sagas of WeWork and Uber in the context of Unicorn-mania.  Thank you again and I look forward to joining you for my next Episode of Distilling VC.

Introduction <ul> <li>Welcome to Distilling Venture Capital.  I am your host, Bill Griesinger</li> <li>Distilling VC is a visionary podcast that provides an insightful and informed view of the key trends affecting the VC and tech startup world.  My mission is to cut through and go beyond the hype that tends to dominate the tech landscape.  And provide you with information you can use.</li> </ul> Episode Introduction: <ul> <li>I would like to introduce Today’s Episode topic as follows;   We hear a great deal about cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin, and the impact they are having on the financial services and investing landscape, with respect to how we define money, e-commerce, make investments, and even what Central Banks are doing to authorize/issue their own digital currency or stable currency, etc.</li> <li>On the other hand, we don’t hear much or may understand very little about the derivation and creation of cryptocurrencies themselves.  Where do they come from?  What is their intrinsic value and utility?  How is all of this accomplished?</li> <li>So, today We’re going to get into what I consider a very interesting segment of the crypto-currency world – Crypto-Mining - that we don’t often hear that much about but yet is vitally important to our ability to be able to utilize these digital currencies, digital assets to conduct financial transactions:  Crypto-currency Mining</li> <li>To answer these questions and distill down our understanding of the crypto-mining industry, I am joined by JP Baric who is the Founder and CEO of an technology/energy company directly involved in multiple aspects of the crypto-mining industry, operating as Aurum Capital Ventures</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Aurum Capital Ventures is leading the way not only in the development and deployment of turnkey crypto-mining technology in the field…but also efforts to bring much needed liquidity and financing to the mining and cryptocurrency markets themselves…</li> <li>So, we’ll dig into those topics…</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Welcome JP and thanks for joining me today.  To kick off today’s conversation, JP, perhaps you can provide a little background about the origins around the formation of your Company and identify its core goals and objectives. </li> </ul> What you Will Learn in Today’s Episode: <ul> <li>Define Cryptocurrency-Mining &amp; How it Works  </li> <li>The Future of Crypto-Mining</li> <li>Crypto-Currency and Crypto-Mining are Fully Transparent Markets, by Design</li> <li>The Search for the Best Equipment and Cheapest Source of Energy </li> <li>How Aurum Capital Ventures is Changing the Game and Mindset Regarding Crypto-Mining and the Production of Energy</li> <li>Aurum is Both a Buyer and Seller of Energy</li> <li>Aurum is Redefining How Energy is Consumed and Transmitted</li> <li>Aurum is Creating Unique Investment Vehicles to bring needed liquidity – both debt and equity capital – to the Crypto-Mining and Crypto-Currency </li> <li>How Crypto-Miners are Rewarded</li> <li>What is a Halving Event and What does it Mean for Cryptocurrency Mining?</li> <li>And Much More…</li> </ul> Cryptocurrency Mining Explained <ul> <li>Miners are, in effect, getting paid for their work as auditors.  They are doing the work of verifying previous bitcoin transactions. </li> <li>It is said that, miners are, in effect, "minting" digital currency…</li> <li>By verifying transactions, miners are helping to prevent the "double-spending problem," a scenario in which a bitcoin owner illicitly spends the same bitcoin twice </li> <li>In addition to rewarding miners and supporting the bitcoin ecosystem, mining serves another vital purpose:  It is the only way to release new cryptocurrency into circulation.  In other words, miners are basically "minting" digital currency</li> <li>The primary draw for most Bitcoin miners is the prospect of being rewarded with valuable bitcoin tokens</li> <li>To earn bitcoins through mining, you need to meet two conditions.  One is a matter of effort; one is a matter of luck:</li> <li> <ul> <li>1) You have to verify ~1MB worth of transactions. This is the easy part.</li> <li>2) You have to be the first miner to arrive at the right answer to a numeric problem. This process is also known as, proof of work</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li>The integrity and value of crypto is predicated upon the ability of miners to confirm, validate a 1MB block</li> </ul> <ul> <li>We just had a pre-designed reduction in the reward that miners can earn when mining, referred to as a Halving Event: </li> <li> <ul> <li>On May 12, 2020, Yesterday, the reward for mining Bitcoin just dropped from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, for validating a 1MB Block -   This is what crypto- miners face all over the world.  Block-halving is hardcoded into how Bitcoin operates.  Its business as usual and it means that Bitcoin is doing exactly what it is supposed to do according to the original design of Satoshi Nakamoto.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li>Halving Event - So, when we talk about miners being motivated and incentivized by being rewarded with Bitcoin for successfully delivering a proof of work,  Describe what a “halving” event is and what it means – how it affects crypto-mining activity</li> </ul> Why is There a Halving Event? <ul> <li>There can only ever exist a maximum of 21 million bitcoins.  Therefore, the reward for making new ones needs to be reduced periodically in order to bring sustainability to its value.  That’s exactly what blockhalving accomplishes once every 210,000 blocks (roughly every four years).</li> <li>The creation of “mining pools”</li> </ul> Business Problem that Aurum Capital Ventures is Solving <ul> <li>Mining is a very capital and energy intensive business and is presently “oversupplied” globally</li> <li>Description of the main Business Problem Aurum solves – Its value proposition</li> <li> <ul> <li>Where geographically are your major deployments?</li> <li>Discussion of Iowa, NY and other major installations</li> <li>Unique concept and approach to the energy component of operations</li> </ul> </li> </ul> Business Model Characteristics <ul> <li>Your Bus. Model has Multiple Revenue Sources:</li> </ul> <ol> <li>Turnkey Mining Equip Deployments &amp; hosting services; </li> </ol> <ul> <li>Speed &amp; Efficiency through repeatable process of Power procurement, infrastructure deployment, and remote management</li> </ul> <ol> <li>Running your own Mining servers</li> <li>Managed Services</li> <li>Selling used equipment to established network</li> </ol> Defining and Solving the Capital Procurement Obstacles of the Crypto-Mining Industry: <ul> <li>One of your firm’s stated GOALS: There exists a lack of liquidity in the space.  JP explains how Aurum is creating unique investment vehicles to enable institutional capital to enter the space to provide liquidity</li> <li> <ul> <li>Launch Global Bitcoin Mining Fund to allow for better market liquidity and transparency in the sector;  JP Baric Explains</li> <li>Securitization of mining hash rate (hash rate tokens);  JP Baric Explains</li> <li>Launching vehicles like investment trusts and funds that offer investors exposure </li> </ul> </li> </ul> Goal: <ul> <li>Enables Liquidity Unique Financing Approach:</li> <li> <ul> <li>Issuance of secured, insured bond to finance equipment and projects</li> <li>Attractive risk-adjusted return characteristics for investors</li> <li>Opportunities for arbitrage in power contracts</li> <li>Providing increase in credit and capital to Aurum and the entire market</li> <li>Providing investment banks</li> <li>Mining, b/c it’s an infrastructure investment is easier for institutions to get into to than Bitcoin purchasing</li> <li>Not currently in the prospectus of the major Energy Funds to invest in energy consumption products – they are only focused on energy generation - Bitcoin is not part of their investment thesis.</li> <li>Allows exposure to underlying Bitcoin asset and mine Bitcoins at a discount relative to the volatile Bitcoin market price itself.  JP Explains</li> </ul> </li> </ul> Competitive Advantages <ul> <li>Modular, mobile equipment deployment – more efficient</li> <li>Rapid Payback/Utilization of “Stranded Energy” - Aurum’s mobile mining deployments profitably monetize any type of stranded energy anywhere in the world</li> <li>Situation where the value of the underlying collateral (mining equipment) can increase in value during life of the equip. and related financing, due to a halving event of Bitcoin</li> <li>Allows you to build inventory of equipment for deployment now, in advance of halving event that you know occurs approx. every four years</li> <li>JP Baric explains Aurum’s business model advantages relative to competitors such as Genesis Mining</li> </ul> Closing Remarks <ul> <li>JP provides an overview of where he sees things headed for crypto-mining industry in general…</li> <li>We’ve just had this Halving Event – what are some key things that happen next as it relates to Crypto-Mining?</li> <li>JP explains Aurum’s leverage, differentiation and its expertise to bring to market top equipment and energy sources required by Miners and the financial liquidity mechanism to make it happen – keeping with Aurum’s core mission</li> </ul> Contact Information for Aurum Capital Ventures <ul> <li>Those seeking additional information and wishing to learn more about Aurum Capital Ventures:</li> <li> <ul> <li>JP’s Twitter Account – @JPBaric</li> <li>Sign up for Investor Newsletter at: <a href="http://Aurumcapitalventures.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aurumcapitalventures.com</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> Thank you for joining me for this edition of DVC.  I hope you found the topic interesting and useful.  I am currently working on the DVC website.  In the meantime, Please send questions and your comments regarding today’s episode to: <a href="mailto:bill@ccs.capital">bill@ccs.capital</a> Stay tuned for my next Episode, coming very soon, where I will I am going to provide a follow-up to Episode 001, Unicorn-Mania, where I will dig into and discuss the sagas of WeWork and Uber in the context of Unicorn-mania.  Thank you again and I look forward to joining you for my next Episode of Distilling VC.