Bitcoin Maximialists are currently enjoying VIP seats to the gross mismanagement of FTX customer funds, and the resulting contagion. We're also seeing exchanges becoming openly adversarial and cannibalistic. These implosions, bank runs and the calls for proof of reserves, have caused a vicious economic trickle down impact on chains that are decentralized in name only.

Staking tokens like ETH2 and the entire ecosystem of Ape Slinging Shit jpegs living on top of it, is a prime example. Projects which basically equates to no more than facilitating the growth of CZ/Armstrong/JesPow's businesses, and their desire for regulation and protection of their bottom line.

It's always retail who is ultimately destroyed disproportionately.

The implosions and backdoor contagion affecting several clown world shitcoin casinos have been a sight to behold. One by one they are attesting to this or that, promising Proof of Reserves, suggesting collective bailouts or more regulatory capture, and finally suspending withdrawals. 

Something is inarguably wrong here. 

Collateralized loans backed by freely printed tokens of no real value, the abundant rehypothecation of Bitcoin and ridiculous yield on deposits, were among the red flags most retail blatantly ignored. 

One individual and entity particularly, conducted an egregious about-face regarding solvency, and then practically instantly failed, filing Chapter 11 four days later. Mind you, this was THE wunderkind on a meteoric rise, his exchanges executed astounding volume, all behemoths. You know, the one with the cool commercials, quarterbacking at the cost of retail. That one.

The likes of FTX, BlockFi and Celsius are already ablaze. As cracks begin to appear in CryptoDotCom/Genesis/Gemini and more, it seems more shitcoin casinos are going to burn. For bitcoin maxis it's a non-issue, and affords an opportunity to forge new bitcoin-only plebs.

Shitposting has united us, the infighting of bear markets has dwindled, and the dope memes are being churned out just as fast as FTX rehypothecated customer funds. The ineptitude and unchecked level of greed of these individuals, and their corresponding platforms, are borderline unbelieavable. Meanwhile, we bitcoin maximialists are here, day and night, holding the front line, memeing and screaming "I told you the fucking truth you stupid bitch!".

The Crux

When printing tokens seemingly at will, like FTX engaged in, deceptive and aggressive competitiors have incentive to begin engaging in much of the same behavior. This eventually forces the hand of one of the parties, using knowledge that was most likely privileged, or given in confidence. It then evolves to become what is essentially a hostile takeover, including a rug pull. FTX and BNB have both enjoyed unbridled opportunity to create platform tokens out of thin air. Coupled with suspect record keeping, it was and is a recipe for absolute chaos. 

FTX engaged in this fraudulent behavior with the intent to deploy as collateral to counterparties like sister company Alameda. Put aside any potential knowledge about the sex orgies and amphetamine addiction, and you'll still inevitably find obvious, major fiduciary, ethical and moral issues.

The tremendous conflicts of interest are breathtaking. Fancy college's may not offer ethics? What was perpetuated was not only utterly reckless, but also criminal. The initial and resulting shitshows may soon, at the very least, usher in swift regulatory proposals to 'protect retail'.

Grifters Will Grift

Proof of Reserves are about as sea-worthy as a bottomed boat or PoS. GFY CZ et al. These exchanges are nothing more than digitized, often unregulated entities, built to model the Federal Reserve — to a tee. 

The culture within these exchanges are notoriously fostering the fractional, and increasingly proven fictional, reserve model. The exact same model that forced many of us down the bitcoin rabbit hole in the first place. 

Nothing but mismanaged, rehypothecating shitcoin casinos abound. Contagion from vaporware tokens are causing them to burn around us, and yet; tick tock, next block! 

And this brings us to the soul of this article.

Pleb Mining 

A large number of miners (public and home) are enduring what may be amongst the harshest times in recent memory. Hash Price has fallen to an extremely tight .059 as of November 17th, supporting Adam’s prediction of sub .05 before we see relief.

Meanwhile, bitcoin is currently holding at a sub-$17k mark, presenting excellent opportunities to stack. Sadly, many end up providing KYC for permission to buy bitcoin from centralized exchanges. The risk of using such services must not be taken lightly, as some have shown to not hold any bitcoin at all. Paper bitcoin is not bitcoin.

Consequently, whether ASIC hardware prices have bottomed, or soon will; what was a $9k miner nine months ago, can now be obtained for $2k. Bear markets are for building. At Home Miners(AHM) find themselves firmly planted amidst the best of times on one hand, and the worst of times on the other. 

Irrespective of Hash Price and bitcoin’s price drawdown, deployment of the newest generation equipment, oft-times pre-ordered at exorbitant values, or financed with leverage, has resulted in a parabolic Hash Rate rise. The network hash rate is currently averaging 265PH/s (30 day). Mix a +13% increase in hash rate with a -13% drawdown in bitcoin price, and you'll find yourself gut checked quickly. The entire industry, large and small miners, is under enormous pressure.

Large public miners have almost nil Bitcoin on their balance sheets, and face a challenge to stay solvent. Meanwhile, others are turning to ridiculous hosting costs or lines of credit to meet commitments. Macro contagion affects everything else, and it's only compounded by the intricacies of our sector.

It's easy to argue that the best and worst are already knocking loudly on our door. The lesson of all this is to keep a level head in the bull market, and not suddenly find yourself over-leveraged. Some public mining companies have failed to do so, but many small to medium scale miners are holding on in this environment. Mining during a market downturn is about survival of the fittest. Bear markets are for building.

No matter the scale, any mining endeavor should always be approached with an air of seriousness and not be taken lightly. There are immense resources to leverage within the industry's vast pool of knowledge. Plebs like BikesandBitcoin, hashdistributed, CryptoCloaks are established in their mining capacities and are willing to share their knowledge to those willing to put in work and learn.

Do not show indifference to the advantage your early arrival affords, on the road to bringing your goals to fruition.

There is always a way, and you can find it. Apply all the willpower you can muster and all the collective knowledge you can find. Take your role as an operator, and your role in the mining ecosystem, very seriously. Your experiential knowledge, when shared freely, is what expands our niche corner of the sandbox. Open source your recycled heating setups like Steve Barbour and Alex Philp did, and empower the plebs that will inevitably find their way to mining. This is the true power of being an AHM.

It’s serious whether you flop or triumph. Whether you are able meet the service of debt while also deploying cuckbuck capital to grow. The community that surrounds pleb miners and bitcoin as a whole will support you. They will help you and encourage you to grow.

Opt out, and you will enjoy a future free of deliberately manufactured misery, chaos and FUD. Bitcoin provides the escape velocity to exit from the clown world.

Taking Action

Initiative is free to all who commit to the discipline. It is not some grey area where grace resides. Initiative is an attitude, and complaining for hours about why you can not initiate your next steps or achieve your goals, amounts to nothing but wasted hours.

Rise up and overcome these mental obstacles. 

Rise up and challenge the status quo within our space by shining a powerful light of truth upon those who have maliciously preyed on the naive amongst our ranks.

Take Pride in Your Role

We possess and deploy hardware that secure the bitcoin network. We scour the globe in search of the furthest geographically-stranded energy, in order to leverage operations. We collaborate, support, and share insight and research with one another. All invaluable. We are able to provide load testing and balancing to utilities, and heat our homes with excess heat. Waste not, need not. 

We use the Proof of Work of our hands to construct windmills in uninhabitable climates, to obtain mineral rights to drill and run natural gas gensets far off-grid. We capture flare gas and are the bastion of this movement, as Shell and ExxonMobil pivot to this model. We mine above and below ground, off-grid and on-grid.

We are a crucial part in the grassroots movement to champion sound money, through securing the hardest money and most pristine collateral to ever exist in human history.

Overcoming Challenges & Learning New Manual Skills

Developing a well rounded toolkit of manual skills to overcome challenges when they invariably ring, is invaluable and should be prioritized. Challenges will always come knocking when you least expect them.

Given this, it's of the utmost importance that you come out on top, that you learn, that you grow, and that you contribute. One hour a day, run the numbers. One hour a day, unthink. One hour a day, exercise. One hour a day, learn something new.

Channel your time and energy toward an overarching purpose, to secure and advance bitcoin.

Giving Back & Community

Whatever you can contribute by deploying intellectual/economic/time capital will benefit many. Approach not only your edveavors’ future seriously, but bitcoin's as a whole as well.

Take all knowledge from the collectively gained experience, and disseminate that wisdom amongst the pleb miners.

There are no stupid questions — successes and failures, no matter how small or insignificant, is serious to the mining community. It all counts.

As a miner, take enormous pride in what securing the network epitomizes. Don’t feel bitter about SBF and the abhorrent management of FTX. Instead celebrate that bitcoin exposes this type of unchecked greed, the soft white underbelly of a crony clown world system, where lies travel lightspeed faster than facts. 

Bitcoin can bring healing to lives that have been destroyed by fractional reserve central banking and exchanges like FTX. Tragic experiences can lay the foundation, block by block, to build a new orange brick road to a happy destiny.

Steady Lads

Don’t be discouraged by the macro environment of fiat debasement & inflation. Nor should you be discouraged by rising energy costs or price action. Here is the best tailwind we have going: 

Our Proof of Work. 

The work of our hands, the investment of our time, and the due diligence we perform everyday, is what will ultimately reflect and prevail. Proof of Work is not only a legacy in the making, but also the spark that ignited an eternal flame to guide and encourage normies to opt out of the clown world's narratives. The ingenuity and remarkable impact of utility load balancing and testing, the harvesting of stranded energy off-grid, will both radiate. The Proof of Work and the security it offers will radiate. You and I, we are early.

Patience is hard to find at times, but I aspire to be patient, a dedicated miner and a crucial part of the network.

Good things come to those who wait.

Things are Changing, the Curtain is Falling

This is why a personal philosophy is absolutely indispensable. The opportunity before us is all we're going to get, there will not be another such as this one in our lifetimes. Rise confidently, adjust course, and be humble enough to acquire more skills, rather than sitting idly and fervently wishing for better cards. Step back from the clown world. Don’t let your energy and time be ruthlessly harvested by others.

Don’t get distracted from aiming towards, and achieving, self-sovereignty.

Stay Moving

Don't rest on your laurels or become complacent.

Stuck? Just reach out to the mining community and you’ll find help and guidance. There is motivation to be found amongst the Pleb miners. Be willing to dig in to learn, and always stick it out; finding a way to be more determined and disciplined than yesterday. 

Is your mining experience off to a rough start? Chose the wrong path? Bought Avalons? Rugged by Compass? Bought ASICs at the top? Watched Hash Price go from upper 20c/th to 05c/th? Fear not.

This is the time to digest hard truths and buckle down to seize the arbitrage available to us, lasering in on efficiency. If efficiency is sub par: recycle the heat. Again, waste not, need not.

Don't look back in hindsight and say "I could have, but I didn't”. Don't let indifference destroy your operation or future aspirations for generational wealth. After all, we’re securing the strongest, soundest monetary network thus far in human history, and will be rewarded handsomely.

Do not stay stagnant for too long, but build. Then suddenly, all at once, you might find yourself in the middle of boundless, extraordinary and fulfilling opportunities and friendships. Things that you could have never imagined.

Don't settle for less than you can achieve. Balk not at even the smallest of disciplines or routines of your operation. Do this, so that when the disciplines are demanding and the stakes are high, you are prepared. Get wiser, leaner and more agile than yesterday.

Be willing to grow intellectually. Find the spark inside you to keep pushing through the frustrations of deploying your new manual skills and understanding. Prioritize a focus on finding your virtue. Don't just blink at this assertion, because anyone can develop these.

Virtue, discipline, wisdom.

Always try to learn, grow, share.

The Future

Extrapolate out your operation 1-2 years and picture that.

Spoiler Alert: 

You're selling yourself unimaginably short; and you don’t even know it!

You may find that 1-2 years from now, your operation, and quite possibly you, have evolved into something and someone unrecognizable from today. This sector will show you how to be disciplined and humble, and how to be able to rise to the occasion when the Yin/Yang of opportunity/difficulty comes knocking on your door. 

There are a ton of people without any skin in the game, vomiting bad takes towards AHM, NON-KYC, CapEx etc. More often than not, it’s a detached and myopic view seen through the lens of negativity or pessimism. Some are dependent on affixed blinders to the potential future regulatory framework. So be it.

Don't let the noise destroy the ineffable future of what we’re doing — what we are a part of creating and ushering into not only our world, but the world of our children.

Determination and Challenge

Whatever it is that challenges your opportunities, challenge it back. Better to reconcile any indecision now, because coasting is easy, unconscious to most.

Don't rest on what you've done thus far, or at least not for too long. The network hashrate, ASIC efficiency and difficulty will take all you've planted should you rest for too long.

Build, expand, network.

Don't find yourself in between fight and flight, frozen.

Take the Time, be Thoughtful

Take the appropriate time to execute your decisions, build outs, and don’t pass over the finer details. Run your numbers & dismiss ALL doubt, as now it’s in black and white and you can gut check yourself. Toss any and all of the bad takes and doubts of the clown world aside and foster yourself within a space of courage, conviction and faith.

Many of the Plebs who I consider family have done just that, and each is doing what they’ve come here to do — living out every day on this journey in an authentic, genuine fashion chock full of utter passion. This is the way.

Tick tock…

Next Block.