Oct 17, 2018 · 24m · top-founders
1180 How He's Making $30m/Quarter Mining Ethereum Blockchain
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this interview, host Nathan Latka speaks with Harry Pokrandt, founding CEO of Hive Blockchain, about scaling a publicly traded cryptocurrency mining company from early TSX Venture financing to a $30 million quarterly revenue run rate. Pokrandt details Hive's green-energy data centers in the Nordic region, GPU-based Ethereum mining economics, and strategies for navigating cryptocurrency market volatility.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 35.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 3.5 Guest teaching 3.8 Guest disagreement 1.5 Nathan pushing back 3.5
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 17:35 Guest rejects Bitcoin mining premise
Pokrandt cuts in to firmly correct Latka's entire line of questioning, stating that Hive does not mine Bitcoin with its current GPU fleet.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 7:40 Host rejects run rate for trailing revenueLatka refuses to let the forward-looking 30 million dollar run rate stand, pressing Pokrandt repeatedly for exact historical revenue figures.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 17:57 GPU flexibility vs ASIC operational efficiencyPokrandt educates Latka on why GPU data centers cannot pivot to mine ASIC-dominated chains like Bitcoin without being rendered uncompetitive.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 7:14 Host deconstructs annualized run rate mathLatka demonstrates financial literacy by calling out how monthly run rate extrapolations obscure true baseline performance.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Structure and TSX Venture Listing | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Latka inquires about Hive's aggressive financing sequence on the TSX Venture Exchange and admits he does not know what a bought deal is. Pokrandt walks him through underwriting risk and the stages of their public financings. | |
| Revenue Breakdown and Run Rate Dynamics | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 | Latka tenaciously pushes past Pokrandt's 30 million dollar run rate framing to isolate actual historical trailing revenue. He requires Pokrandt to clarify that operations only produced revenue in Q4 2017. | |
| Environmental Sustainability and Green Energy | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Pokrandt explains green mining advantages in the Nordics over coal-powered Chinese facilities. He details the mathematics of hash rate probability distribution in Bitcoin mining. | |
| Sponsor Segment: Monday.com | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Following the mid-roll ad read, Latka synthesizes how capital expenditure scales hash share, prompting Pokrandt to break down mining margin compression and crypto price volatility. | |
| Hardware Infrastructure: GPU vs. ASIC Mining | 3 | 6 | 3 | 4 | Pokrandt corrects Latka's assumption that Hive mines Bitcoin, explaining their GPU infrastructure is dedicated to Ethereum. He also corrects Latka's confusion regarding block rewards versus token airdrops. | |
| Partnership with Genesis Mining and Operational Efficiency | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Pokrandt clarifies Genesis Mining's German heritage and runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions. |
Statements from this episode (15)
Hive Blockchain invests over $100M in Swedish crypto mining facilities
“The one in Sweden, we're investing over a hundred million US on both of the facilities there. So there'll, there'll be roughly 40 megawatts of capacity in, in a data center in, in, in Sweden there.”
Hive Blockchain's Iceland crypto mining facility cost roughly $15M
“The facility we have in Iceland is, is much smaller. It's a 10th of the size of what we're building in, in Sweden. So the one in Iceland cost us roughly 15 odd million in, in, in Iceland.”
Hive Blockchain raised 17M CAD going public on TSX Venture
“We went public on the TSX Venture Exchange. The first the first raise was about was seventeen million dollars Canadian.”
Hive Blockchain raised roughly 200M CAD by December 2017
“And then in December, we raised another hundred and fifteen million Canadian again, equity, and it was institutional and retail as well. So we've got quite a big following. So we raised roughly two hundred million Canadian until the end, by the end of December…”
Hive Blockchain hit a $30M quarterly revenue run rate
“The run rate revenue that we're at the, at currently is about a, is thirty million dollars for this quarter.”
Hive generated $3.5M in December 2017 quarter with 4 megawatts
“The last quarter was our December year end, where we only had four megawatts up megawatts up and running, so the revenue we had for that quarter was about three and a half million.”
Bitcoin miners compete for a $25M to $30M daily revenue pool
“So the run, so the revenues available to miners to all the miners is, is 25 to thirty million dollars per day of revenue, which is what the miners compete for.”
Ethereum daily mining revenue pool mirrors Bitcoin at $25M to $30M
“So then it's a similar number for Ethereum as well.”
All Hive Blockchain facilities run on geothermal or hydroelectric power
“Yeah, so we all of our facilities are in locations where it's either geothermal or hydroelectric, so it's so it's very clean power.”
China's environmental concerns over coal power are pushing miners out
“The stuff in China, it's regional based, but, ah, a lot of that, ah, power that's being generated is coming from thermal coal. So and China is, is more concerned about environmental issues these days. So that's the reason why a number of the miners are getting…”
Crypto mining rewards strictly depend on hash rate, not algorithmic edges
“Well, everybody has to use essentially the same mining algorithm to get
to get the answer, and it's purely a random outcome who gets it, so if you own 10% of the network hash rate, the probability of you getting the next block is 10%, so then nobody can, no…”
Mining offers unmatched capital deployment speed despite extreme margin volatility
“You know, mining, I think, is a great business. I don't know of another business where you can deploy capital as quickly and get the returns that you do. The problem with the business, though, is that forecasting is very difficult and the margins are very, are…”
Pokrandt: Bitmain, Bitfury, and Genesis Mining each hold 10% market share
“The big players are really a bit main bit fury and Genesis cap Genesis mining. And there are, I believe they're all roughly 10% of the market.”
Hive Blockchain operates strictly GPU facilities to mine Ethereum
“Sorry, just to be clear we don't mine Bitcoin. Okay, we mine right now our facilities are all GPU based, so we mine Ethereum. So we do have one of our facilities the one that will be completed in September will be an ASIC facility. So at that point in time, we…”