A miner sitting in a warehouse in China produces no Bitcoin. Until it is shipped, cleared through customs, trucked to site and configured, the money spent on it is idle capital. The route from that warehouse to a hashing rack is not a matter of buying a machine and plugging it in. It runs through suppliers, freight forwarders, customs agents and site teams in different countries, time zones and languages, and each handoff is a place where the schedule can slip.
Nicolas Rincon, Business Development Manager (Mining) at EMCD, made that case at Mining Disrupt Miami, recorded July 21–23, 2026. Rincon, who has been active in the Bitcoin mining industry since 2023, said he usually stays behind closed doors and focuses on making operations work. He took issue with the idea that mining is just connecting power and securing a cheap electricity rate, and argued that there is more coordination behind every running machine than most people see.
Beyond the Switch: The Hidden Labor of Mining Operations
The view most end customers have is a simple one: buy the miner, find a decent electricity rate, start hashing, point it at a pool and collect payouts. Rincon said every miner in a data center has a story and a route it took to get there. That route starts with logistics and with knowing how customs work in the country where you operate. The infrastructure, he said, has to be strong enough not only to run the equipment but to protect it.
He described the coordination as human work across cultures, languages and time zones. Sending a message across the world and expecting it to be carried out correctly on the logistics side, he said, is not an easy task, and all of it happens before the hashrate shows up.
mining is less about just managing hardware and more about coordinating across cultures, languages, time zones
Nicolas Rincon · 6:50
The Paperwork Trap: How Customs Delays Bleed Capital
Rincon called import taxes one of the most sensitive variables in developing or managing a mining site. If the paperwork is not done the way the local authorities expect, the result is delays and large fines. Missed timelines then cost credibility with customers and investors. In his words, timelines define the credibility an operator gives to its investors.
He described the cost of a shipment stuck in customs as exponential: it is not one day and done, but storage charges and fines on top of capital that is not earning. A small mistake in the first batch of paperwork, he said, can delay the cargo for several days if you are lucky. His advice to anyone doing it for the first time is to bring in someone who has handled the transport before.
If you don't do the paperwork how they expect you to do the paperwork, you're going to have delays.
Nicolas Rincon · 2:23
Crossing Borders and Cultures: The Human Element in Supply Chains
The logistical journey involves a series of handoffs that require human coordination at every step. It begins with agreeing on a price with suppliers in China, where the miners are purchased. Once the transaction is complete, the miners belong to the buyer, but they remain in a Chinese warehouse. The next step is coordinating with a freight forwarder, a process that requires the handover of documentation that must be correct from the start. A minimal mistake here can delay the transport significantly.
As the cargo moves, the on-site operations team has to be brought in. They need to know which miners are coming, whether single-phase or three-phase, and whether anything in the infrastructure has to change, such as the separation between hot aisle and cold aisle, depending on whether the machines are Whatsminer or Avalon units. Then comes the customs agent where the site is, usually a local, and another round of documents. In Latin America or Africa, Rincon said, that means different cultures, time zones and ways of communicating. Local transport also means a local language and local currency. Paying the driver who takes the miners from the airport to the site creates friction when he does not accept USDT or USDC, so operators end up working with on-ramps and other ways of paying.
So you need either someone from your team to speak the language or someone you can trust on the field
Nicolas Rincon · 5:59
Muddy Roads and Salty Water: Operational Risks Beyond the Hardware
Once the cargo clears customs, the challenge shifts to inland transportation. Rincon pointed out that in many mining locations, roads are not paved. The variables here are environmental and physical: Is it rainy season? Are the roads muddy? If a large truck gets stuck, how quickly can the operator react to retrieve the miners? Choosing between one large truck and two smaller ones is a risk calculation; one truck is efficient, but two trucks double the risk of issues like flat tires. Operators need clear processes for what could go wrong and how to solve it quickly.
Cooling brings its own questions. If the system needs water, is there a source near the site, or does water have to be brought in? Has it been tested, and is it salty enough to damage the water walls, or does it need filtration? Rincon said these details are often overlooked, and when they are not solved they cause downtime that has to be explained to customers who expected the testing to have been done. Before the machines go live, the operations and executive teams come together one last time to check serial numbers, unit counts and pool configuration, including whether a batch belongs to one customer or several.
And have you tested the water?
Nicolas Rincon · 8:43
Uptime as Credibility: Why Execution Defines Investor Trust
Rincon called uptime one of the biggest credibility providers in the industry. Every minute a miner is offline is lost output, and a backup transformer sitting idle makes no sense, so repairs have to be planned before something breaks. After deployment, he said, operators need a clear process for managing repairs, which people often overlook when investing in Bitcoin mining.
Internet redundancy is a must, he said: at least two to three providers, with no excuse for downtime caused by internet problems. Only after all of that do the dashboards, the hashrate and the revenue show up in the pool account. Every decision along the way is a financial risk for the operator and the investor. His closing lessons: cheap power alone is not enough and might even be a risk, logistics define timelines and credibility, uptime depends on operational excellence, and infrastructure quality matters.
cheap power alone is not enough might be even a risk
Nicolas Rincon · 10:26
The session was recorded July 21–23, 2026, when Bitcoin traded at $66,297. On October 20, 2026, it was $81,699. For a newcomer, the point of the talk is that the cost of mining is not only the electricity bill. It includes the shipping, paperwork, people and planning needed to get hardware online and keep it there. Mining Disrupt 2027 runs March 22 to 24 in Irving, Texas.