Member Info for 28jaczar01

Thank you Peter for this lovely intraday positive Argo curve ball. I had said on here yesterday that they can land anytime :-)

There were many who thought you didn’t have a robust financing strategy for Texas being lined up….Oh yee of little faith.

Sentiment already starting to return to the SP now that concern for equity dilution is now off the table.

At least these newly installed miners are the higher spec Bitmain units as opposed to the lower spec Canaan units that they were let them down on with the delivery time and hence cancelled.

In long term i suspect it will have been a blessing in disguise for Argo…

Yes this is very interesting.

Looks like they are doing something I had suggested last month (and mostly shot down for it LOL), namely to move some of their cash holding from the recent Nasdaq placing into BTC in order to get increased exposure to the increasing BTC price.

Mara as an example did this very successfully in the past with placing funds to essentially add to their financing pot and thereby be in a position to increase their overall pot size to use for expenditure on developing and expanding of the Companies facilities.

It looks like Argo could be taking a leaf out of their book on a smaller scale and I don’t think anyone was factoring this in when voicing all the doom and gloom about the shortfall in funds needed to complete the Texas 200MW phase 1 population of hardware.

If Argo has continued this approach going into November with significantly more BTC purchasing from their cash funds then as of this morning they are likely to be already sitting on a nice 10% profit and rising….

As I said in an earlier message, Argo positive curve balls news can come along at any time :-)

More good news today from KOD with the granting of mining license.

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/KOD/mining-licence-granted-bougouni-lithium-project-vt8eq5tnzuq0cg7.html

Let me give here a very recent example of a Company that did a share consolidation where their SP has risen by approximately 50% in just the few weeks since it happened. It is Digihost a crypto currency miner (ticker: DGHI on the Canadian TSXV). They did a 3 for 1 consolidation that took the share count from around 75 million down to around 25 million. I think therefore it is too simplistic to make general considerations about share consolidation outcomes for future SP for Companies and we need to accept that differing outcomes can happen on a case by case basis. I would recommend to trust and support the Starcom BOD to have considered this matter carefully before proposing it for implementation and that it will turn out fine for the existing investors and also promote for new investors to come on board leading to much needed increased market liquidity.

Just a closing message to say many thanks to all the positive feedbacks and recommends for my Sunday Detective Work postings from yesterday, it made the effort of me sharing on the BB worthwhile. I hereby commit to become a more regular poster on this BB to inform on any insights that I come across going forwards. This could hopefully start during this coming week where I am going to attempt to gatecrash (tickets are sold out) into the Bitmain sponsored Bitcoin Mining Summit being held in Dubai on Tuesday/Wednesday. If I can get in the door ok I will look to attend the key presentations (includes Companies like Mara) and do some networking and find out what intel that I can especially regarding the next generation miners forecast to be coming onto market in 2023.

Finally, I think what my Sunday research and joining the dots conclusions show is that although we as PIs are not being directly informed by Argo regarding a large % of the specific details of their Company strategies and execution/finance plans we can by reasonably confident that as a smart team they are likely to be ticking all the key boxes towards driving the success for the Company and although no Company is perfect and some issues will typically arise along the way during execution, but as shareholders we should put our trust in them to ultimately deliver. Whilst financing for the execution plans appears to be the main “elephant in the room” as Rorydinho aptly put it in his reply, we have to trust that Argo do have a path forward plan that is reasonable on this matter in the same way that we can start to see the evidence that the technical execution for Texas is proceeding satisfactory. One thing we can safely say about Argo if you have been part of their journey over the last couple of years is that they always have the capacity to produce a positive curve ball piece of news when you are least expecting it…

So let us watch this space, hopefully starting with good October production figures and the increased EH coming online RNS later today…..and finally I note that Bitcoin is back up over 65K as I end this message :-)

Firstly my apologies to Rookieinvestor82 if I got the wrong impression. Anyway glad that you are back posting in the last few days after being away since the summer. No hard feelings I hope.

Here is my response to a few of the replies which seem to warrant some feedback:-

a) flowerpot999 (time: 16.39) - Regarding Whinstone, I was simply summarising what the Riot 8th April 2021 news release stated. Their full quote is “The Whinstone team is comprised of approx 100 employees who have built Whinstones Texas operations from Greenfield to commercialisation in less than 12 months.”

b) Rookieinvestor82 (time: 16.24) - You look to have misunderstood my comparison of Whinstone and Helios. I do not attempt to compare the respective implementation timelines and financing of the two facilities, as clearly the Whinstone is far in advance of Helios as demonstrated by the photo, Riot news release, etc.

c) Rookieinvestor82 (time: 15.33) - regarding DMG use of Immersion cooling, I was taking my info from their corporate presentation and last related news release (link below). If they did not actually commercially implement the IC yet (instead only tested it) then I stand corrected. Would be useful if you could post your reference material for this non implementation of IC which I guess may include reasons, as it sounds like there are a few posters here who hold DMG shares and would be interested to hear about this.

https://ceo.ca/@nasdaq/dmg-provides-update-on-crypto-mining-facilitys-upgrades

Ok that’s me done for the day as I am based in Middle East so it’s sleep time…Good Night.

5. Thoughts on cost effectively filling the 200 MW capacity and beyond:-

Based on item 4 above, Argo I forecast would remain with 200 - (65 + 70) x 3/4 (IC benefit) = circa 100 MW spare capacity after deploying all currently installed/procured Machines.

My fifth joining of the dots is taken from the AC tweets and Argo latest RNS which indicate that upto a 20% allocation to alt coin mining would be acceptable for diversification and I believe with their EPIC collaboration for which a 5 MUSD advance payment is already provided by Argo that they are very actively looking to deploy this amount of Alt coin mining into Texas (I.e. circa 40 MW). This hardware can be expected to be significantly cheaper and faster delivery than the high industry demand Bitcoin miners from Bitmain, etc.

For the balance of 60 MW remaining I believe Argo will look towards purchasing a combination of older generation miners (new/second hand) that will benefit from the IC / Power Mgt in Texas and where cost and delivery will be far cheaper/quicker along with also some new generation miners wherever smart strategy pricing/delivery opportunities are seen to arise in the coming months in combination with their Bitcoin HODLing strategy.

Everyone talks about miners 100% HODLing but within next 3 to 6 months it’s going to be the right time too sell a large chunk of their BTC to take advantage of the 4 year cycle peak period and not to be holding very much as we head into the BTC winter period of this cycle expected sometime next year before the next halving comes around in 2024 to start the bull run cycle again. This selling of BTC at peak will generate sufficient funds for purchasing miners to conclude the phase 1 200MW occupation and likely allow the expansion of the balance 600 MW facilities to be commenced.

Whilst I cannot say there will not be a further placing for funds in the future, I am personally of the view that Argo will strive to avoid this funding option having just completed a large raise as part of the Nasdaq listing, but it will somewhat depend on how the BTC price trajectory pans out in the coming months.

Ok that’s a few hours of my life I won’t getting back but I hope it’s been useful input to readers on a Sunday before we hopefully get some good news RNS tomorrow.

Take care and DYOR.

4. Future plans for the existing miners and mining centres:-

This topic is somewhat linked with the previous items 1 and 2 whereby Immersion cooling and system power management have linked benefits with involvement of the older generation miners.

We know that Argo currently have declared operating mining power of 45 MW of which 20 MW is located at the two centres in Quebec where Argo took over the assumption of the bank obligations of the facilities (I.e. the mortgage) from GPU (RNS dated 13 May 2021) due to their desire to have full control of these facilities and the other 25 MW is via a combination of leased and hosting set-ups (refer to their website etc). The additional 650 PH that Argo is bringing online this quarter is envisaged to need an additional circa 25 MW and so total MW by year end is going to be around 70 MW.

My fourth join the dots conclusion is that there are enough clues regarding the phase 1 capacity remaining available in Texas (namely 135MW = 200MW phase 1 capacity - 65MW (approx) needed for the 20,000 Bitmain units to be installed in Q2/3 of 2022) + IC + Power Mgt + Argo previously declared desire for full facility control of operations that it makes common sense for Argo to transition their existing miners to populate into the Texas facility so as to have full control of all their operations within one geographic location.

This would not be a rushed undertaking but rather targeted progressively to optimise on a combination of the machines that would have maximum technical benefit to be relocated on priority (e.g the T-17s due to their substandard air cooled performance) and the timing of current hosting agreement/lease period expirations.

The locating of all miners in Texas would allow Argo to optimise on their staffing, admin, taxation, overheads, etc. They would also be able to sell off or lease out the Quebec centres to another miner (plenty of smaller Canadian based miners + the Chinese etc looking for places).

Ok final item 5 will be in my next message and then I will start reading and replying to any message from de-rampers who are getting paid their Sunday overtime (Hi Rookie :-). )

3. Whinstone facility (Riot owned) in Rochdale, Texas as a proven go by (partial) for Helios:-

When reviewing Riot information today (see link of their Whinstone announcement news below) I was struck by how similar Whinstone is to Helios, namely:-

- both located in Texas
- Whinstone sized (after expansion) for 750 MW power / Helios for 800 MW power
- Whinstone has 100 acres land / Helios has 160 acres land (with option for a further 160 acres)
- Land, Buildings, Substation set-ups are looking similar (refer to Whinstone photo in link below)
- Whinstone was set-up from greenfield to commercialisation in less than 12 months which is in line with the schedule that Helios is targeting.

So what I see here is that you can see Whinstone facility as a reasonable go by and lessons learned reference for Helios and I would envisage that Perry etc will be using their relationships via Texas mining council etc to be kept aware and timely take on board aspects from Whinstone that will benefit the implementation of Helios.

Most importantly I take from the Whinstone data that the 160 Acres we currently have procured for Helios should be ample for the full 800 MW capacity and that the option for an additional 160 acres would only be necessary for some long term future expansion beyond 800 MW. I think when you looked at the presentation slide that PW tabled in the webcast showing the procured land footprint and how relatively small was the amount of footprint needed for the 200 MW phase 1 building area then it was pretty clear that the balance 600 MW would fit ok within the balance of 160 acres of procured land.

This is my 3rd joining of the dots being that the Whinstone facility comparison backs-up the robustness for the Helios capability.

https://www.riotblockchain.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/104/riot-to-acquire-whinstone-creating-a-us-based-industry

https://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/36b2977b-3b0b-48ac-9035-f46a17450907

Just before closing here, for any Riot shares holders reading here, I think the reason their share price has lagged the likes of Mara, Hut8, etc is that the 12% (11.8 million) shares that Northern Star got from them for the sale of Whinstone are being ongoing sold into the market and this has created an overhang to suppress their share price in recent months. Once Northern Star clear their stock holding and Riot announce the Whinstone expansion going into operation then you should see their SP take off provided BTC plays ball.

Ok onto item 4 next….

2. Power Management in Texas:

Up until today I had a superficial understanding of why Argo have gone to Texas from the power perspective …..basically low cost and renewable….blah blah blah…..

Well it turns out there is sooooo much more to it than meets the eye.

When I looked at the Riot news release for the 8 MW pilot plant for the IC (re-linked below). I noticed a familiar name from when I had been looking at Perry’s LinkedIn account….One of the JV partner Companies that Riot states in their news is called LANCIUM and they were providing Riot with “smart response software to reduce energy costs”. So back to Perry’s LinkedIn……around 8 months ago he liked a message from the CEO (Michael McNamara) of LANCIUM. So my second joining of dots is that Argo are involving LANCIUM in their power management design for the facility.

https://www.riotblockchain.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/94/riot-blockchain-announces-8-mw-pilot-project-to-evaluate

I found a very recent podcast in which the Senior mgt of LANCIUM are interviewed extensively (it’s about 1.5 hours long and goes into lots of details) about Bitcoin mining in Texas specifically (Link below). I encourage all readers to take a listen, but in high level summary it explains the unique positives for set-up in Texas versus the rest of USA, particularly with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas ERCOT (gets mentioned in Argo RNS dated 3rd June 2021) and it talks about aspects such as the importance of the power management for load supply and demand variations of Texas state and how Bitcoin mining integrates with this scenario.

https://onthebrink-podcast.com/lancium/

Next message will be for item 3.

1. Immersion cooling (continuation):

Looking at other publicly listed miners there are two that stand out as having actively discussed / implementing immersion cooling (IC) in their facilities, namely Riot and DMG.

Firstly let’s discuss DMG. It is believed that they have already implemented IC to a significant extent in their main mining facility based on previous news releases although specific data details are limited, but we do have their latest October 2021 corporate presentation on their website (link below) for which I would point readers to slide 13 where they say their test findings are that IC is giving:

a) operation consumes up to 18% less electricity
b) Hashing power can increase by up to 30%
c) ROI increase by 25%

https://dmgblockchain.com/corporate-presentation/

Before jumping over to Riot, I would just highlight on the DMG presentation slide 18 that it’s noteworthy that the Terra Pool collaboration with Argo remains very much active and that the DMG involvement with the Mara Pool is a separate aspect as demonstrated in schematic on this slide.

Now for Riot I think most readers are aware of their recent announcement that 200 MW of their Whinstone facility expansion will be IC and commence operation by end of this year (See link below). Now I was quite surprised by this news as it seemed quite last minute to declare this news when it was already into October but I did not follow Riot (I do now :-) ) so today doing more digging with Riot it turns out they published news all the way back on 14th Dec 2020 regarding an 8MW pilot plant using IC. See link below along with a few related 3rd party news articles published shortly after the announcement. So Riot has not just gone ahead with a 200 MW sized IC facility with their fingers crossed hoping for the best….no they have actually got it proven through their pilot plant. This in my view gives a high level of confidence to the use of this alternative cooling method for crypto mining.

https://www.riotblockchain.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/117/riot-announces-first-industrial-scale-immersion-cooled

https://www.riotblockchain.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/94/riot-blockchain-announces-8-mw-pilot-project-to-evaluate

https://coingeek.com/riot-blockchain-testing-new-immersion-cooling-system/

https://crypto-radars.com/2020/12/26/riot-blockchain-testing-new-immersion-cooling-system/

So looking at the Riot details they are openly talking of 25% hashrate improvement which I would assume is based on their pilot plant results and they say there is potential to get upto 50% improvement.

So to conclude my item 1. It looks like Argo can expect to get at least 25+% performance improvement and I envisage Perry has close dialogue with DMG (collaborating already on Terra Pool) and Riot through the Texas Mining council etc (Whinstone and Helios are neighbours).

Onto item 2 for next message…..

Argo will have benefitted behind the scenes.

1. Immersion Cooling:

We knew from PW mentioning in an earlier video that Perry Hothi the CTO is actively involved in Argo’s Immersion Cooling development for Texas, along with the new technology and Development VP Jean Esquier. So I did a review of their LinkedIn history for any clues. Neither of them comments/likes much and so I found it noteworthy that Perry liked a message from Allison Boen DCEP the Business Development Manager of Midas Immersion Cooling around 8 months ago regarding using Shell Immersion Cooling Fluid S5X. I am not posting the link to Perry’s LinkedIn page here as that is likely to get me into trouble but readers can go check for themselves.

I have provided the Company website link here and suffice to say they are at the forefront of immersion cooling having commissioned the first commercial immersion cooled data centre in the world back in 2010. The website has several good videos, articles, news items, etc. It’s eye opening regarding the many benefits of immersion cooling versus air cooling including this statement “1200 times better at dissipating heat than air”.

So my first joining of the dots conclusion is that Argo are involving Midas for their immersion cooling development and its interesting that Perry was liking Allison’s message way back in Q1 2021 which was many months before Argo publicly declared their plans for use of Immersion cooling.

https://midasimmersion.com/

The recent quarterly results webcast gave us the first real glimpse of the Texas facility starting to take shape and seeing it in context of its surroundings (cottonwood S/S, Macadoo wind-farms etc) I was struck by a number of both visual and discussed aspects of the facility during the presentation as I have bulleted below. I decided to explore today if I could find out more than what has been released for Argo (inclusive of the infamous Anthony Coyle tweets) via information available on the internet and using a bit of joining up the dots (not necessarily cast iron conclusions but reasonably logical predictions) and share them here on this BB :-

1. Immersion Cooling
2. Power Management in Texas
3. Whinstone Facility (Riot owned) in Rochdale, Texas as a proven go by (partial) for Helios
4. Future plans for the existing Miners and Mining Centres
5. Thoughts on cost effectively filling the 200 MW capacity and beyond

Please give me some time during today to churn messages out on these five items one at a time, and remember this is my own findings/views and so always please DYOR.

If he does sell 10% of his Tesla shares I can’t see him holding the proceeds in US Dollars based on his well published negative views regarding Fiat currency. So yes I can foresee a good amount of it going into Bitcoin and perhaps even some investment directly into the crypto mining space.

Well I had half an eye open for a speeding ticket RNS today but none was forthcoming so hopeful that the approval news is about to land and I will look forward positively to what next week brings here.

Dasbig: regarding KOD, they get a specific mention by RGO in their 29th Sept 2021 dated half year report so IMO they must still have a good sized investment level that is worthy of this specific mention, although I do concur with your point that the KOD placing back in March 2021 was done instead of RGO providing them with further convertible loan facilities to what they had provided previously to 2021.

It’s a tight float here with the Russians holding a large % so it moves quickly….

Still only 50 trades today which whilst it is 10 x the normal, just imagine if we get a few hundred by cob.

It’s been nearly all under the radar buying here in the last few days by the shrewdies. Even the 1.32p transaction today showing as a sell is probably a buy based on its timing along with the bid/ask upward movement.

The buying continues……