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Podcast: HashrateUp - A Bitcoin Mining Podcast
Founder: Jesse Pielke

Last Notes

2026-04-03 12:51:24 UTC

Oil companies are quietly mining Bitcoin. Not as a PR move. As capital allocation.
I interviewed Stephen Barbour from Upstream Data in Canada. He builds off-grid mining infrastructure for oil fields. Has been doing it since 2017.
What changed: the inquiries now come directly from the oil companies, not from third-party miners. Publicly traded ones. One US client is self-mining and uses Unchained Capital for treasury.
The economics make sense. Stranded gas burns anyway. Run an ASIC on it and you monetise the energy, beat flaring on emissions, and generate government royalties. You don't need the latest hardware. S19s work fine.
His take on the AI pivot: he didn't pivot. He added. Oil and gas services run on the same team, same machines, same facility. When Bitcoin mining softened in 2020, oil demand saved the business. When oil futures went negative, Bitcoin came back. Two uncorrelated markets. That's the hedge.
And his infrastructure rule: keep it portable. Containers, not bricks. If Bitcoin mines the energy contract today and AI wants the site tomorrow, you move the load.
Watch the 54-min conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnR1CCfKCZ0

2026-03-19 17:28:43 UTC

Paraguay's government just figured out the Bitcoin mining game.
After seizing thousands of illegal mining rigs, they realised these machines print Bitcoin. Now they want to mine it themselves with free government power.
Kent Halliburton from SAZ Mining explains the full cycle. First governments fight Bitcoin mining, then they try to extract maximum taxes, then they back off when miners leave, then they want to participate directly.
Paraguay went from hostile to wanting their own mining operation. Ethiopia following the same pattern.
This is how nation-states get orange-pilled on mining. They see the revenue potential of turning excess electricity into Bitcoin permissionlessly.
Watch the 37-min breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edKl_5cAe20
The future is governments competing to attract hashrate, not chase it away.