The previous 12 months has skilled a increase in SPAC crypto mergers, with firms like Core Scientific Inc. Bakkt and Cipher Mining being a number of notable examples. SAI.TECH (“SAI” or “the Company”) obtained on the wave of SPAC listings proper earlier than SPAC mergers obtained harder. Having gotten formally listed on Nasdaq on May 2nd, SAI is the primary “chip heating” idea inventory on the trade, with its CEO & founder Arthur Lee additionally changing into the youngest Chinese CEO ever listed.
Bitcoin has grow to be some of the engaging rising property in the marketplace lately, however the want for more and more energy-intensive computing infrastructure has prompted considerations about its sustainability. By selling ESG customary applied sciences and options, SAI, as a world energy-saving bitcoin mining operator and a clean-tech firm, is making an attempt to show to the market that the feasibility and the corporate’s enterprise mannequin would possibly leads bitcoin mining to a extra sustainable future. We sat down with Arthur to speak in regards to the firm’s revolutionary know-how.
Q1: First, I want to congratulate SAI on getting listed on Nasdaq. Can you give our readers a quick introduction of SAI? What’s the inspiration to your innovation?
My inspiration is predicated on what I see as the 2 main tendencies of the early twenty first century – sustainable growth and decentralized digital community. Over the previous 20 years, sustainable growth has grow to be a shared objective globally. Another pattern is, decentralized digital cryptocurrency like Bitcoin has skilled a increase, ushering in the way forward for net 3.0. The excessive worth of Bitcoin has proved its significance however has in equal components been criticized for its excessive power consumption and un-sustainability. As a consequence, the right way to higher clear up the power consumption drawback whereas guaranteeing the secure operation of the Bitcoin community has grow to be an unavoidable dilemma going through us.
As a Bitcoin mining operator, SAI foresaw this drawback as early as 2019 and has been actively on the lookout for partnerships with massive mining swimming pools. With the assist from one in all our shut companions ViaBTC, a world-leading crypto mining pool, we launched SAIHUB, a cost-efficient answer created to cut back the excessive prices concerned within the mining course of. After three years of growth, SAIHUB has leapt from 1.0 to three.0. The newest SAIHUB 3.0 is an built-in and decentralized answer designed to horizontally combine the computing, energy and heating industries to construct a extra environment friendly and sustainable infrastructure for Bitcoin mining.
Q2: How can the Bitcoin mining infrastructure grow to be extra sustainable? How does SAIHUB answer think about that?
According to calculations, about 99% of the electrical energy consumed by Bitcoin mining machines turns into warmth power. This a part of the warmth power has been uncared for for a very long time, so it’s known as “waste heat.” Instead of utilizing an additional enormous quantity of electrical energy to chill knowledge facilities, our SAIHUB answer is capturing that waste warmth and utilizing it to defray power use elsewhere.
With the assistance of SAI’s patented waste warmth utilization know-how, 90% of the warmth generated by the mining course of could be recovered and reused into heating sources for numerous residential, industrial, industrial, and agricultural utility eventualities.
In current years, using renewable power for Bitcoin mining has dropped considerably as numerous elements have led pure fuel and coal to grow to be extra common sources of energy for the trade. This change has made SAI’s mission much more important.
Q3: Can you introduce extra of the SAIHUB answer? What’s the historical past behind this answer?
The evolution of SAIHUB has gone by three phases. At the 1.0 stage (2019-2020), SAIHUB used 16nm chips. The energy was 50kw, with hash charges round 350T. This answer was capable of reuse waste warmth for single-house heating companies. The SAIHUB 2.0, 2020 – 2021, was a step ahead, adopting 7- 8nm chips, with the ability for a single SAIHUB being round 250kw and hash charges leaping to 5P. This model was sufficient to recycle the warmth for a small neighborhood or an agricultural greenhouse, thus enabling us to supply large-scale heating companies.
From 2022 onwards, SAI enters the SAIHUB 3.0 stage. SAIHUB 3.0 lowers the core prices of the mining course of, together with heating, energy, computing, and chip. We have efficiently run three pilot tasks of fresh computing knowledge facilities, overlaying greater than 30,000 sq. meters of greenhouses, massive industrial buildings, and buying malls for heating.
At this stage, we’re prepared to open up our patented liquid cooling and waste warmth restoration know-how to scale up the SAIHUB enterprise mannequin, improve the effectivity of the entire trade along with our companions, together with ViaBTC Pool, and promote the clear transition of the computing trade.
This fall: You simply talked about the partnership with ViaBTC Pool. Could you please introduce this accomplice in additional element?
ViaBTC is our strategic accomplice and in addition one of many main supporters of SAIHUB. As an all-encompassing crypto mining pool established in 2016, ViaBTC is well-recognized for BTC mining and has intensive affect in that area.
As international warming escalates, the worldwide name for carbon neutrality can also be rising stronger. The mining of PoW-based cryptos like Bitcoin consumes a large quantity of fossil power. ViaBTC shares our perception that we must always increase the innovation of fresh power applied sciences to enhance the utilization of fresh power in crypto mining and cut back its environmental impression.
At the identical time, we’ve got additionally engaged in profound exchanges and cooperation with ViaBTC relating to the SaaS answer. In the long run, we additionally hope to accomplice up with extra firms within the area of BTC mining that share our beliefs. Together, we are going to increase the blockchain house and speed up the progress of Bitcoin.
Q5: SAI lately took a significant step into the tech market by getting listed on Nasdaq; what provides SAI a bonus within the aggressive market of Bitcoin mining innovation?
Bitcoin has at all times been related to excessive power prices and unsustainable infrastructure, and the huge quantities of warmth produced have been a relentless trigger for concern. Few folks, nevertheless, have considered utilizing this useful resource as an asset, and this perception is what makes SAI stand out. Not solely that, however our firm additionally consists of an elite workforce with wealthy expertise within the area.
Although the price of electrical heating is presently greater than that of fossil power heating, as carbon taxes and numerous insurance policies enhance the worth of fossil fuels, this may ultimately change. It is estimated that the price of utilizing pure fuel to acquire warmth will probably be about 65% greater than that of electrical heating by 2050, that means that heating will inevitably be primarily electrical. In this case, SAIHUB has an inherent benefit over fossil fuel-based heating options in the long run.
Let’s evaluate the carbon neutrality roadmap dedicated by the world’s main international locations. Most developed international locations, together with the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom, have set the deadline to be 2050. However, the current Russian-Ukrainian tensions have introduced the European power market to a standstill. In addition to the worth enhance of greater than 200% for pure fuel, international locations just like the United Kingdom should rethink utilizing coal to interchange pure fuel energy technology. The contribution worth of fresh power to attain carbon neutrality may require a substantial discount in consumption ranges based on present forecasts, which signifies that within the subsequent twenty-eight years, power effectivity plans akin to these represented by SAIHUB will tackle extra obligations, which is a problem, but in addition a uncommon historic alternative.
