On the Mining Disrupt News Update for Monday, August 21, 2023, the host covered three stories: what it costs a household to mine one bitcoin in different countries, a letter to the editor that asked why the world needs cryptocurrency at all, and a clip of Adam Back saying Bitcoin could reach $100,000 before the next halving. The host opened with the usual caveat that the show is for entertainment and education only and is not financial advice.
The numbers on screen that morning: Bitcoin at $26,185, or 3,819 sats per dollar; the next halving just shy of 36,000 blocks away; a 14-day average hashrate of 395, which the host called "just blistering along"; blocks arriving every 9 minutes and 22 seconds, 171 of them in the previous 24 hours; and an upward difficulty adjustment of 6.85% on the way. Fees sat at 8 sats per vbyte for priority.
Lebanon, Italy and the Household Miner
The first story came from Cointelegraph, reporting on a CoinGecko study published August 17: mining one bitcoin in Lebanon was 783 times cheaper than in Italy, and only 65 countries were profitable for solo miners on household electricity prices alone. Of those, 34 were in Asia and five in Europe.
The host stressed the limits of that finding. The study looked only at household power, and household solo miners are a small slice of the network.
This is not where most of the Bitcoin comes from.
Mining Disrupt News host · 2:32
Someone solo mining at home, the host said, is probably doing it for decentralization and freedom rather than income, "because, well, it doesn't seem like it's going to work out for you."
A Letter From Derby
The second story started with a Buffalo News article from the week before, "North Tonawanda welcome Bitcoin miners. Some residents regret it." The host summed up its takeaway as mixed, with no final verdict from residents either way. That article prompted a letter to the editor from Marty Walters of Derby, which the host read in full.
The letter asked why the world needs cryptocurrency, what social and moral value mining contributes, and argued that anonymous transactions suit drug cartels, terrorists and extortionists. It described mining as an expensive printing press for a few owners and shareholders, asked whether the same energy could feed the hungry or house the homeless, and closed with a request to put phones down: "Hang up. Look up. Re-engage with the world."
The host agreed with parts of it. Less time on phones would be good, "if only for our own mental health," and there are always problems to fix, resources to allocate and people to help. The host then answered the letter's three questions in turn.
Three Answers to Three Questions
On why the world needs cryptocurrency, the host gave a history of payment speed: from horseback and boat, to checks and credit cards, to card payments over phone lines. Card payments are fast to the buyer, the host said, but take months to settle, while an economy with AI coming online and constant micropayments needs money that settles at the same pace. In the host's view only Bitcoin does that.
The reason we need the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is because we need a money that moves as fast as we all do in this digital age
Mining Disrupt News host · 6:13
On moral value, the host argued that a hard money protects savers from politicians, who are the only people able to create money legally, "some relief, some thing, some program, whatever." A money that nobody can debase, the host said, carries "a moral and ethical value."
On crime, the host pointed to cash as the main tool of black-market trade because it cannot be traced, while Bitcoin leaves a digital footprint that forensic investigators and well-resourced agencies can follow. Short of watching someone through binoculars or on camera, the host said, there is no way to trace a cash payment.
Adam Back and the $100,000 Bet
The episode closed on a clip of Adam Back, whom the host introduced as "the fellow that came up with proof of work." Back created Hashcash, the proof-of-work system Bitcoin's white paper cites. Asked about the halving expected in the spring of 2024, Back said there was debate over whether it was priced in, and that high volatility made it hard to price in.
Well, I think it's possible that we get to, you know, a new all-time high, like 100,000 or more, even before the halving
Adam Back · 9:21
His reason was that the previous few years had been a depressed market, with bankruptcies and DeFi failures. Pressed on whether he was sure, he said he had "infamously" taken a small bet with someone on Twitter and let the other person pick the price.
I mean, actually, I infamously took a small bet with somebody on Twitter on that.
Adam Back · 9:57
The interviewer then asked about his company's $125 million raise. Back, chief executive of Blockstream, said the company had been around since 2014. He described two lines of business: layer-two Bitcoin technology such as Liquid, on which it issues investment products, and hosting for institutional miners, naming Fidelity as a customer whose miners Blockstream hosts. "It's kind of like co-location for mining," he said.
The Host's Own Targets
The host took the clip a step further. If Bitcoin reached $100,000 before the halving, the host said, the 9 to 18 months after it could bring a peak somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000, then a bear-market bottom around $75,000, and perhaps the $1 million by 2032 that the host attributed to Fidelity. The host dismissed $10 million forecasts as possible only under worldwide hyperinflation, an outcome the host said they did not want to see.
The host also asked why Fidelity, which the host put at over $4 trillion in assets under management as of March 2023, would host Bitcoin miners unless there were profits to be made, and tied that to the spot ETF filings from BlackRock, Fidelity and ARK. The episode ended with a reminder that a buyer does not need a whole bitcoin.
Consider sats on sale.
Mining Disrupt News host · 13:05
What Happened Next
Back's prediction did not come true on his timeline: Bitcoin had not reached $100,000 by the April 2024 halving, and first crossed that level in December 2024, after the halving. The spot ETFs the host mentioned were approved by the SEC in January 2024. Bitcoin traded at $26,017 on August 21, 2023 and at $80,145 on October 26, 2026.