Sazmining

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.