Nick Sears was 17 years old when he helped build a bitcoin mining farm in Dallasport, Washington, and when he turned 18 he was legally allowed to buy bitcoins for the first time.

Now 19, Sears has doubled his time as a bitcoin miner, refusing to complete his studies and enjoying living in a room inside a data center of 4,500 ASICs.

"My room is soundproofed... so the computers can't be heard when I close my door, but it definitely makes noise if I open the door," Sears told CNBC of his room. The machines generate about 80 decibels of noise.

The young man has spent the past two years teaching himself the nuances of how mining machines work, and most importantly how to fix them.

He believes his knowledge of welding and electronics is better than having a college degree.

“I'm not thinking about going to college at all, just [want] to seek more knowledge in cryptocurrency mining,” says Sears.

“If you visit any of these data centers, the first thing you'll notice is how vast they are and how amazing they are,” says Thomas Heller, chief business officer of Compass Mining, which works with SCATE Ventures. huge."

"There's a lot of noise, there's a lot of heat, and it's great to be getting into a data center for the first time in bitcoin mining, because you can really connect the intangible aspects of bitcoin as a currency, with the physical nature of these power-hungry machines doing these calculations." .

A day in the life of a miner

"When we first started in this field, we were building the racks, we were creating the infrastructure for the internet, and we basically had to connect everything," says Sears.

Once the physical infrastructure was up and running, Sears got into the real work, getting up at seven in the morning every day and working from eight to four.

He stays on site afterwards, and a technician works night shifts just in case of emergency so Sears can sleep.

"That's the great thing about this job - I don't have a set routine that I do every day," he says. "Every morning, I find something that needs fixing."

But the bulk of the job is to monitor and manage each of these 4500 Bitmain computing units to ensure they are up and running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If one of these devices is offline, or is only operating at partial capacity, the company loses money.

This is because when someone is mining bitcoins, what they are actually doing is giving their computing power to the bitcoin network.

The more devices you have on the Internet, the higher your chances of winning bitcoins.

Welding is an important skill for Bitcoin miners (Skat Ventures)

6.25 bitcoins are generated approximately every 10 minutes.

In order to mint these new units, a global group of miners contribute their computing power to power the hashing algorithm.

But these miners do not work cooperatively.

They compete against each other to see who can unlock a new batch of bitcoins first.

So the stakes are high for Sears, which is why he must be diligent and know how to solve problems across the entire facility to succeed in this area.

Some mining sites use more sophisticated software to monitor the machines, which includes checking the temperature of each computer unit, but most importantly for Sears is to detect that its machines are not working at full capacity.

“Every day, you find hardware that has stopped mining, then you take it off the shelf, and you troubleshoot it,” Sears explained.

It can be a power outage, which will affect all devices, or it can be a network outage that may affect all or only some of the devices.

"Sometimes they just need a power cycle or restart," says Sears.

In turn, Heller explains, "The fan on the individual device used for cooling may be broken, or it may be the power source that needs repair or replacement."

Storms can lead to power outages or other disturbances.

In the summer, Heller says, the machines can overheat too, especially on farms that have been upgraded to use more powerful units over the past two years.

The Sears miner in Washington appears to have found a way around this problem by using immersion cooling, which involves submerging bitcoin miners in a non-conductive liquid to dissipate heat, rather than relying on fans.

Training and getting paid

Sears may not need a diploma in order to mine, but he took online courses run by Chinese engineers working in mining-unit development factories in China, which helped him fix specialized mining equipment.

Sears completed an online virtual class last month, learning how to work on the Asex chips, as well as the power sources for the S17s, one of the most common devices now used to mint bitcoins.

"I have a certificate for repair and maintenance, so I am now officially qualified to do the necessary repairs," Sears explained.

Sears hopes to attend an in-person class in Atlanta, Georgia, to learn more about soldering. "The hard part is learning how to solder and disassemble the circuit board," he says.

Scott Bennett, president of Sears, has done a great job giving his team access to the resources they need to improve their skills.

Bennett, the CEO of Scat Ventures, is a bitcoin miner who started in his parents' garage in 2017, when the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies plummeted, and Bennett lived in one of his Sears-style data centers.

"All of our facilities are 100% hydro-powered," Bennett said.

The mining facility where Sears works is located next to the Columbia River and directly adjacent to the Dulles Dam. "We love this source of power. It's cheap, renewable and very available," he said.

As for the employee's salary, Sears says he earns $54,000 a year, in addition to full health insurance paid by the company.

Compass Mining allows customers to buy mining machines for between $ 5800 and $ 11,700 (communication sites)

remote mining

It is also possible to become a cryptocurrency miner without physically dealing with any mining equipment at all.

Adam Getzis decided in early 2021 that he really wanted to mine Bitcoin.

After his wife objected to the idea of ​​installing equipment in their home, he began looking for alternatives.

Gates discovered Compass Mining, which allows customers to buy mining machines for between $5,800 and $11,700, then locate them in partner data centers and take care of that.

“I bought the machines on the website, and Compass managed the logistics, delivering the machines to 3 different data centers in North America,” said Getzis, who explained that he spent about $60,000 on these machines.

So, a typical day in the life of a miner like Getzis involves waking up and checking online to see how much bitcoin his machines mined overnight and to make sure none of his units have broken.

Getzis was so impressed with Compass's business model that he quit his job at Amazon to join the company's team last March.