- Bitcoin miner Marathon is closing new power deals to reach its hash rate target of 23.3 EH/s by 2023.
- All necessary permits have now been obtained.
- 324 MW of electricity are to be supplied.
Bitcoin (BTC) miner Marathon Digital Holdings has signed a deal that will provide it with enough electricity to feed 23.3 exahashes per second (EH/s) into the Bitcoin network.
Marathon announced on Monday that the data center operator Applied Blockchain will supply 254 megawatts of electricity. In addition, there is the option of receiving an additional 70 megawatts from various other providers, including Compute North. Marathon expects to achieve its goal of 23.3 EH/s of computing power by 2023 with this deal.
The hash power that a miner contributes to securing the Bitcoin network is measured in exahashes per second.
$MARA Secure hosting capacity to support all 23.3 EH/s of #Bitcoin mining
– 200MW (9.2EH/s) w/ @APLDBlockchain
– Additional 42 MW w/ @computenorthllc
– 12 MW (0.8 EH/s) w/ other providers https://t.co/fXgmN4ppTL
– Marathon Digital Holdings (@MarathonDH) July 18, 2022
Applied Blockchain will deliver 90 megawatts to Marathon’s facility in Texas and 110 to 180 megawatts to a facility in North Dakota. Together, the company can thus contribute about 9.2 EH/s.
Compute North has received a permit to provide 42 megawatts for Marathon at its facility in the Texas city of Granbury. About 26,000 mining devices are planned at this site, which, according to Marathon, will contribute about 3.6 EH/s by the end of 2022.
Marathon also announced that various unnamed suppliers would supply up to 12 megawatts of capacity, which corresponds to about 0.8 EH/s. This would bring the total new capacity to 324 megawatts.
The CEO of Marathon Fred Thiel stated in the announcement that the deal should bring his company to 23.3 EH/s by 2023. He expects deliveries to start in August and continue into next year:
“The first miners hosted under these new agreements are scheduled to be installed in August. Installations at other sites will begin in the fourth quarter of this year and will continue until 2023.”
Compute North’s regulatory compliance delays may have partly played a role in Marathon’s disappointing 43.8 percent drop in productivity in the second quarter. Hosting was supposed to start back in June, but the company did not receive the necessary permits.
The decline in productivity at Marathon could also be partly attributed to its mining facility in Hardin, Montana. This was shut down after a severe storm on 11 June. This facility accounted for 75 percent of the company’s mining output and is probably still out of service, as the MARA mining pool has not mined any blocks since the storm.
