RE: Management call1 Jul 2020 12:51
Thank you, Idiot441. Great post.
My concern, other than the obvious, is that we (and the BOD) assume ARB is one of the most efficient miners in the world. But if the majority (65%) of all miners are in China, where electricity costs are not only extremely low but are also subsidised by the government, and staff salaries, warehouse / land / hosting costs are also very low -> how can ARB claim to be one of the most efficient miners in the world? ARB may have the most efficient *machines* (except for Z11s), but that doesn't make it the most efficient mining *operation* if all other costs are much higher than in China.
My point is that while ARB needs to consistently buy new machines to remain efficient, the Chinese are happy to run old machines as it's almost free to run them. And the proof is in the hash rate - it hasn't dropped with the halving. In fact, it's reaching new record highs @+141 EH/s (June 26), which we weren't apparently going to see until the end of 2020!
And the worrying thing is that at current BTC prices ARB is *not* making a net profit - as just revealed by Idiot441 - which means no returns to investors. The BOD talks about mining margins and EBITDA etc, but when you take into account the consistent purchase of new machines and their fast depreciation - ARB sadly doesn't make a profit. Which means it can only hope for a BTC price rally if it wants to make profits and boost the SP... AIMHO and very happy to be corrected if I'm misunderstanding something!