Bitcoin Against the Machine | Kent Halliburton, Sazmining

— Mining as decentralized money printing: Kent argues mining is how Bitcoin was designed to be acquired (2009-2013), but the ASIC and Coinbase split the timeline, moving the community to buying instead of mining. He frames mining as a "hash punk" movement to reclaim that path.

— Sazmining's software-as-service model: The platform simplifies mining by curating hardware and hosting options, with transparent monthly electricity billing and no margin taken on electricity or hardware. Revenue comes from 15% of mined Bitcoin only, aligning incentives with customer success.

— Wild sats and network sovereignty: Kent advocates for acquiring newly mined Bitcoin directly from the protocol rather than through exchanges, arguing this supports network decentralization and enables circular Bitcoin economies without fiat conversion friction.

— Energy sector parallels: Kent's background in distributed solar mirrors mining—both are decentralized, disruptive to centralized incumbents, and sovereignty-focused. He sees mining's current low hash rate environment as ideal deployment timing, similar to how solar faced industry growing pains.

— Miners as network stakeholders: Kent positions miners alongside developers and node operators as key governance actors. He criticizes the shift toward dollar-focused mining operations and advocates for Bitcoiners to mine rather than buy, to strengthen decentralization and the social layer protecting the network.

— Current market dynamics: Hash rate has been flat or declining for ~12 months due to AI competition for data center capacity. This creates favorable conditions for capital deployment now. The SEC tax write-off (equipment depreciation in year one) accelerates ROI significantly for US-based mining.

— Mine during weakness, not strength: Deploy capital when hash rate and hardware costs are low and difficulty adjusts downward. Current conditions mirror the bear phase where historically smart mining capital shows up—you acquire more sats per dollar now than during bull runs.

— Consider mining over pure dollar-cost averaging: For a U.S. resident with $800–$1,000/month to allocate, a hybrid approach (upfront $5,000 rig deployment + $150–$200/month in electricity) can yield "wild sats" with no exchange custody risk, better sat acquisition rates, and tax benefits (full equipment write-off in year one). This also strengthens the network's decentralization layer.

— Align with a mission-driven operator: Choose platforms that take revenue only in Bitcoin and ensure customer hardware is never custodied. Sazmining's model (15% of mined output, hardware owned by customer, coins go directly to wallet) eliminates counterparty risk and ensures operator profitability is tied to Bitcoin production, not electricity upselling.