Yes, our miners have some used equipment in them now. It’s not a bug; it’s the feature!

New paradigms result in new directions. That is why we have shifted our business model to take one small step to dispel the myths surrounding the negative environmental impact of mining Bitcoin. Bitcoin is GOOD for our planet and its people, and we are here to prove that.

For years, China had dominated the Bitcoin mining industry. But in the summer of 2021, the country instituted a crackdown on Bitcoin and mining. China finally took the fatal blow that resulted from these environmental myths. This caused a surplus of used mining equipment on the open market.

Commercial buyers couldn’t, or didn’t want to, replace their existing infrastructure with many of these second-hand products coming out of China. Although some of this equipment isn’t optimally suited for large-scale commercial operations, it is perfect for mining Bitcoin at home – that’s where we come in.

Our goal is to take this otherwise underutilized mining equipment and give it a new purpose. Effective immediately, we will be transitioning our business to include upcycled OEM parts into our production cycle. All repurposed equipment will meet our same rigorous quality testing guidelines and warranty terms.

We are excited for the next chapter of our business and what it means to us to encourage newcomers to learn more about Bitcoin. Thank you to all who have supported us over the years. It is beyond words to express how grateful I am to be a part of this journey with you.

Happy Mining!

The post How We Are Giving ASIC Miners A Second Chance appeared first on Hands Free Bitcoin.

We have added a hash rate and status monitoring tool to give you more information for your miners.

Hash Rate 24h

This is the 24-hour average hash rate produced by your machine at the given time. Your 24-hour hash rate should give you a good indication of how your miner is performing. Keep in mind, this number will fluctuate. Any disruptions in power or internet could cause your hash rate to be affected.

State

The “State” of your bit kit is just a status of whether or not it is connected and running properly. Under normal circumstances your state should say “OK”. If your Bit Kit is not communicating with the network, it will say “off”.

The information displayed may take up to 15 minutes to communicate with the network. If you don’t see an update immediately, wait 15 minutes and then refresh the page.

The post Managing Your Bit Kits appeared first on Hands Free Bitcoin.

Rapid Price Decline

On March 12, 2020, the trading price of Bitcoin fell nearly 50% to a low of $3,858.00 on Coinbase. Within 11 hours, the price was floating around the $5,650 zone.

The Cause of the Crash

It can never be boiled down to a singular cause, but the cause of the rapid decline in the price of Bitcoin appears to be a swift outflow of institutional investors and large accounts called whales. The reason why this appears to be the case is that the number of Bitcoin wallets containing 1 BTC or more grew throughout the price decline, as reported by Cointelegraph. That means that there was an increase in the number of average enthusiasts, Bitcoin users, HODLers, and traders.

The Relationship Between Institutional Investors and The Stock Market

Over the past few years, the number of institutional investors in Bitcoin has grown. Thanks to mature exchanges offering futures trading, Public Bitcoin trusts like Grayscale, and miscellaneous managed funds and accounts focused on bringing Bitcoin to seasoned investors, more people have access to invest in bitcoin than ever before. The downside to this is that many of these investors treat Bitcoin like a security or a stock.

More than ever before, investors are looking to increase their net worth with a USD basis. Although Bitcoin and USD cannot be dissociated at this time, this is a fundamental reason why Bitcoin may be tied closely to the stock market activity. 

The post Bitcoin Crash Appears to be Result of Weak-Handed Institutional Investors – Not HODLers Jumping Ship appeared first on Hands Free Bitcoin.

“How much bitcoin can I mine?”

This is our most asked question. People want to know how much their miner can produce – and rightfully so. In the past, we have had to answer by telling them we couldn’t predict how much you could earn. Or we would default back to the hash rate. And for the customers that simply wouldn’t take that for an answer, we would just have to give them our ‘best guess’ based on unreliable math.

It Does Not Predict the Future

This tool won’t guarantee what you will make tomorrow. But it does give a highly accurate window into the past, which can help give customers a better idea of what might be expected. In mining, there are no guarantees, but this is as close as we can get.

How it Works

For the average customer, nothing really needs to be done. It is simply a readout of the average reward our customers are receiving on a daily basis for each Bit Kit. Just go to the product page and see the number. If you are curious to know how that figure converts to USD, just copy and paste it into your favorite search engine for a fast and easy conversion. You can also hover over, or tap on the green arrow to see more details.

How We Calculate the Algorithm

The math behind the calculation is simple. We take the total reward and divide that by the total hash rate of our network (Hands Free Bitcoin customers only). That gives us a value of bitcoin per hash rate or ₿ /Hash. That figure is, then multiplied by the hash rate of the product (14, for example). Once we have that figure, finally, we multiply by 0.93 to account for the 7% fee on our platform. The final figure produced is then averaged across 7 consecutive days to provide a meaningful number.

Our team put a lot of work into pulling this data and thoroughly testing it. We had to make sure the data was accurate and relevant. We hope you find this tool useful. Let us know in the comments below what you think.

Happy mining!

The post New Feature – Average Daily Bitcoin Reward appeared first on Hands Free Bitcoin.

Have you ever wondered where you can spend bitcoin, or even how to spend it? Here is one way to use your hard-earned (or effortlessly-mined) bitcoin with the Cash Card by Cash App.

Before You Begin

In order to follow the steps in the video, you will need to first have a Bit Kit. You will need to have it running until you have mined enough bitcoin to spend on what you are wanting to buy. Once you have your miner running for a little while and want to turn it into cash, you will want to also download the Cash App and order your Cash Card through the app. You will want to get it on order early, as it may take a while for it to be sent to you in the mail.

Cash App and Cash Card

The Cash Card is just a physical Visa spending card that is managed through the app called “Cash App”. The app is owned by Square – the same company that brought us the mobile card readers years ago. Square hasn’t just dipped their feet into Bitcoin, they dove in head-first.

In the video, I show how to use the Cash App to deposit funds from your Hands Free Bitcoin account that you can ultimately spend as USD anywhere that will accept a Visa card.

Spending Your Bitcoin

This is just one method of many when it comes to spending bitcoin. This also works if you are simply wanting to withdraw the cash from an ATM; although, that will incur a fee.

Whether you want to turn it into your native currency, spend it with someone that accepts bitcoin as-is, or HODL til moon, we support you.

The post How to Spend Your Hands Free Bitcoin Balance Anywhere That Accepts Visa appeared first on Hands Free Bitcoin.

What is Stratum V2, and why is it necessary?

‘Stratum V1’, the current protocol used in PoW (proof of work) blockchain mining, has had a great deal of stability, so why is an upgrade necessary? The answer to that question lies in the potential threat of centralization on a pool level. Mining pools are becoming more and more centralized – not less.

Between 74.9% and 88.3% or more of the Bitcoin blockchain hashrate is generated through Chinese-owned mining pools. In essence, most (if not nearly all) of the Bitcoin network is held together and controlled under one roof – China.

Bitcoin hashrate distribution chart gathered from Blockchain.com.

Although the Chinese government doesn’t directly own or control any of the major mining pools (as far as we know), there is still a potential threat. If anyone were to control more than 50% of the global network hashrate, they would get to decide which transactions were processed on the blockchain.

How Stratum V2 fixes the problem with centralization

This new stratum protocol, being developed by Braiins, will give more flexibility to verifying transactions on a user level. Instead of the mining pool making the final decisions on which transactions will be processed (mined by their pool), each individual user will have the ability to choose transactions, or a list of transactions that they want to solve for.

Braiins claims that the user will also be able to elect to have their pool choose for them, much like the way it works currently.

The next steps for implementing Stratum V2

In order for Stratum V2 to work, it needs to be adopted. Unfortunately for this new technology, it will have to be adopted in each layer of its implementation – hardware, firmware, and software.

It does not appear that it will be easy to use an earlier miner setup retroactively, if it will even be possible. There may be a firmware update available to the current hardware, but that seems unlikely considering this push is primarily focused on the “individual miners” instead of the large mining operations. Most “in-the-basement” miners won’t feel compelled to go through the moderately grueling process of updating their firmware.

The future of Stratum V2

The biggest challenge for Braiins’ new platform will be getting the hardware manufacturers on board. That is what will drive adoption of the new tech.

With one of the largest mining pools at their disposal, integration into the software layer will be seamless. SlushPool has already started to develop for Stratum V2. They have even notified their users of the upcoming implementation.

Stratum V2 is focused on decentralization, which is ultimately the core of blockchain. If you would like to provide feedback on their development, they have a link at the bottom of their promotional page: https://braiins.com/upgrade

The post A First Look Into: Stratum V2 Redesigned Mining Protocol appeared first on Hands Free Bitcoin.