Danny Condon, Chief Revenue Officer at Blockware, gave his keynote at Mining Disrupt Miami 2024, held June 24–26, 2024, on one subject: ASICs as an asset class. His thesis was that treating mining rigs as tradable assets gives everyone in the mining ecosystem a chance to make more money, faster. The session set out the problems he sees for rig buyers and operators, the Blockware Marketplace he presented as the answer, and two case studies with dollar figures from Blockware clients.
Bitcoin traded at $61,272 when the session was recorded. On October 16, 2026, it was $82,531. The returns below are the figures Condon presented on stage; they come from Blockware's own case studies and were not independently audited.
The Sunk Cost Trap That Keeps Mining Capital Frozen
Condon opened by defining the standard economic model of Bitcoin mining as a capital-intensive process. In this traditional view, operators invest heavily in infrastructure and ASICs before any revenue is generated. The hardware is treated as a sunk cost, a fixed expense that must be recouped over time through the accumulation of mined coins. This model creates a period of illiquidity where capital is tied up in physical machines, often for months, before the operator can see a return on investment.
He described two personas, the ASIC buyer and the Bitcoin mining operator, and noted that most operators are also ASIC buyers, so the problems are shared. First, lead times. Rigs roll off production lines in Asia and travel by plane, boat and truck to a data center before they are deployed, and time is money. Second, a lack of transparency. Not every S21 hashes at the same efficiency as the next one, he said, and that slippage is a cost. Third, there is no easy way to resell ASICs, so capital stays tied up in the hardware. For operators he added a fourth: mining is their main profit center, its forward margin is virtually impossible to predict, and hosting is the predictable line.
Reframing the Rig: From Depreciating Hardware to Dividend-Paying Asset
Condon's answer was a change of frame. Historically, he said, ASICs were treated as a sunk cost: capital goes in, the rig mines, and eventually the profits add up to more than the purchase. He called that a great play, then asked the audience to see rigs as dividend-paying assets instead. The Bitcoin mined is the dividend. The ASIC is the asset, with a spot value at any given time that tracks the Bitcoin price and, more closely, hashprice. The problem, in his account, was that there had been no easy way to capture that value.
think about Bitcoin mining rigs, not as a sunk cost, but instead as dividend paying assets
Danny Condon · 1:28
In this framing, the rig's spot value becomes something its owner can act on. An owner who can sell a running machine is no longer limited to waiting for mining revenue to repay the purchase price.
The asset side of the equation is the ASIC itself, which has a spot value at any given time
Danny Condon · 1:40
How the Marketplace Eliminates the Lead Time
The Blockware Marketplace, as Condon described it, lists rigs that are already plugged in. His screenshots showed S21s owned by Blockware clients, mining in Blockware-owned or partner data centers. A buyer clicks buy now, pays with a Lightning invoice or an on-chain transaction, and the rig is theirs and mining. He said the platform lets anyone start mining Bitcoin in minutes and integrates with third-party hosting sites. For the buyer, that removes the lead time.
On transparency, Condon said a buyer can see how a rig is performing, its serial number and when it was plugged in before paying. In his account, that removes the slippage cost of buying a machine whose efficiency is unknown. He added that the platform also works as a place to manage a fleet and watch how each rig performs.
the Blockware Marketplace is a Bitcoin-native platform that enables rigs to become tradable assets
Danny Condon · 3:41
Case Study: Turning a 62% Return into 156% Through Exit Liquidity
Condon illustrated the model with a case study of an ASIC buyer who purchased 76 S19K Pros hosted in a Blockware-owned or partner facility. The client spent about $120,000 on the rigs and about $40,000 on operating costs and energy over roughly four months. Mining alone returned 62% of their capital over that time, which Condon called an excellent outcome.
With the option to list the rigs on the marketplace, the client sold them for more than the purchase price after mining with them for about four and a half months. Counting the sale, Condon put the return at 156% of their capital over the same period.
they were able to sell their rigs for a higher price than they initially bought them
Danny Condon · 6:01
His second case study came from an operating partner that deployed one megawatt of S21s, about $1.2 million in combined capital and operating costs. The machines were pre-ordered from Bitmain well in advance at a low cost basis. Because the partner could sell the rigs for significantly more than it paid, Condon said, it pulled its return on investment forward, and by locking in a hosting contract alongside the sale it could pull that return forward by years. Marketplace partners also take a revenue or profit share every time a rig trades.
Revenue Beyond Hashprice for Operators
For operators, Condon's point was revenue diversity. Mining revenue follows hashprice. With rigs that can be traded, he said, an operator can also make money selling rigs, including buying them wholesale and selling them in smaller increments, lock in hosting revenue on the machines it sells, and take a profit share each time those rigs trade again in its data center.
The rigs an operator sells keep the same resale liquidity for their new owners. Condon's recap returned to the buyer's three problems: no lead time, because the rigs are already online; full visibility into what is being bought; and resale liquidity. He argued that removing these costs adds value to the machines, and that the ability to sell lets owners pull that value forward by a number of years.
Rigs are now tradable liquid assets for the first time ever
Danny Condon · 8:07
Condon closed on who the model is for: individuals and institutions that want to buy mining rigs in a capital-efficient way, and mining operators and partners. Blockware runs a hybrid model, owning and operating data centers and partnering with third-party facilities, so a self-miner, a host or a mix of both can take part.
Now you're not unilaterally tethered to hashprice
Danny Condon · 8:41
Both case studies came from Blockware clients, and both returns depended on selling rigs for more than they cost, which held for the machines and the period Condon described. The full session is embedded above.