Important facts:
The Mining Museum opens its doors to the public Monday through Friday in Caracas, Venezuela.
The new space shows the public the oldest bitcoin mining equipment.
The first Bitcoin Mining Museum installed in Venezuela opened its doors to the public this week. The initiative is carried out by a team of Venezuelan miners who have come together in the Cripto Avila company.
Using a number of miners on display, the museum tracks the evolution of mining and offers experts and amateurs a journey through the history of Bitcoin mining.
The idea is to introduce those into the world of cryptocurrencies who have hardly any first contact with the ecosystem and blockchain technology.
It’s a project that It’s been in the works for about a year, so the founders of the company: Joan Telo, David Monasterios, David Romero, Gilber Monasterios and Daniel Contreras, comment on CriptoNoticias.
This group of Venezuelan miners has been working in Bitcoin mining for about 9 years, each independently. After all this time sharing their experiences, they decide to band together and start this initiative.
The inauguration of the headquarters of the mining museum in the Xerox Tower in Chacao in east Caracas took place on July 17th, as CriptoNoticias reports. Public relations officially began on July 19, with the offices open Monday through Friday for this first phase.
Equipment exhibition in the area of the mining museum. Source: CriptoNoticias.
The team does its direct marketing work through social networks, mostly through the group it created in Telegram where share with people interested in mining from Venezuela.
The idea of founding the mining museum arose from the interest of its founders in documenting the development of mining from its beginnings until today.
“We decided to take this step because there has never been a point where people can observe technological change in the region,” said Joan Telo, who is seen by the team as the museum’s main ideologist.
Telo, systems engineer and security specialist, assured that “there is a story behind every device, every brand and every model that is exhibited in the museum”.
According to the miner, the selection of the sample in previous statements about this medium took into account the importance and obstacles that many of these models have presented in the history of the major cryptocurrency in the market. There are even anecdotes about cheating with some of these teams.
Let’s take a look at a little of this trip below.
The museum teams and the history of Bitcoin mining
A group of specialized guides supports visitors on their museum tour. The itinerary begins with the old equipment exhibition hall, where a variety of equipment for mining cryptocurrencies can be seen.
The story begins with CPU motherboards. They are central processing units that were used by many lone workers in the early days of Bitcoin.
These processors made it possible to mine a larger amount of cryptocurrencies, but they required a lot of energy and the profits were lower than they are now because the price of 1 BTC was very, very low (it did not reach ten dollars).
It was a time when it was not dismantled with special equipmentInstead, it used some kind of hardware that everyone could have at home.
The tour goes by then from graphics cards (GPU) or graphics processing units, silicon chips designed for complex mathematical calculations. They are video game cards that were used for online mining in the early days of Bitcoin.
Among the oldest models that are part of the pattern book found the ATI 5850 GPU model. It is a device that became very popular about 10 years ago and allows Bitcoin and Litecoin to be mined. In particular, Telo recalls that the introduction of these devices and their increasing use in the ecosystem have resulted in a global outage in GPU inventory.
Shortly thereafter, around 2013, the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA or Field Programmable Logic Gate Array), a programmable hardware chip specially developed for mining, came onto the market. The museum too present samples of this equipment.
On the left is a CPU that was used in the early days of Bitcoin mining. The ATI 5850 GPU follows in the middle and an FPGA on the right. Source: CriptoNoticias.
By 2013, cryptocurrency mining began to have more specialized teams. Integrated circuits were created for specific applications (or ASIC, for its acronym in English).
These are computers with a more efficient processing capacity, specially designed to process the algorithm of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
With ASICs, the famous AntMiner, the models of which have evolved since the introduction of the first S1 model, followed by the S2, S3 and so on. A series that has continued to develop in the following years.
Exhibited in the museum Some of the old mining machines in this series are shown, to some newer ones like the S17 (introduced in 2019), each with its history and technical specifications.
Telo has shared on other occasions how he experienced the move from GPUs to ASICs. For example, the graphics cards could use 800 watts of electricity, generating $ 20 to $ 30 a month, while a Bitmain S1 device uses much less and generates double or triple that.
Although it was believed that GPUs would go down in history with the advent of ASICs, those cards were revived with the birth of Ethereum in the middle of the last decade.
As technological advances and device models lag behind, they will be integrated into the museum, emphasize the creators of Cripto Avila. Therefore the development of the ecosystem is monitored Bergmann and this process is shown to the visitors.
The top part of the picture shows an Antminer S5, which came on the market in 2014 with a price of USD 370. In the lower part there is an Antminer Z9 for mining from Zcash, which was launched in 2018. Source: CriptoNoticias.
Beyond the museum: a model mine and equipment for sale
Speaking to Gilber Monasterios, the manager of the Cripto Avila store, he emphasized that the team was interested in doing something different.
“We wanted to be innovative,” he says. He’s been repeating this so far they are not aware of any similar project in another part of the world. “In many parts there are a variety of places to sell equipment, but museums that historically document the activity don’t,” he says.
Klöster points out that the initiative they are running includes not only the museum, but also the provision of a number of additional services for miners who choose the company.
We have a demonstration of mining equipment for sale in store with some opening offers. Many are used. We also offer advice and technical service to the population so that miners can repair their machines. We may go into the pedagogical part later.
The equipment for sale is also on display in an area near the museum, as shown in the following image:
Source: cryptocurrencies.
The tour of the facility finally leads to an area where a model mine has been installed.
Model mine in operation. Source: CriptoNoticias.
There a group of Bitcoin ASIC miners will only be put into operation for demonstration purposes. The cryptocurrency will not be mined because the company does not have the necessary authorization to mine.
The model mine is used to teach museum visitors how to operate, install and maintain the devices. The tour ends with a recreational area called CriptoBar.
The museum also has a relaxation area. Source: Cripto vila.
Procedure before the Sunacrip: a lot of paperwork, but possible
The establishment of the museum and the start of sales of the equipment required the completion of a number of procedures with the Venezuelan authorities.
According to the remarks made by David Monasterios, another founder of Cripto Avila, the National Superintendency of Criptoactivos (Sunacrip) – the regulator of the sector in the South American country – made many requirements in order to be allowed to operate the shop – museum.
David Monasterios was responsible for managing the license before Sunacrip. Source: CriptoNoticias.
Monasterios personally took care of the paperwork. She says the process involved a lot of paperwork and took several months to complete. “But in the end they gave us a license to operate the services we offer in this area,” he says.
The license obtained allows them to sell, advise, and offer legalized hosting to the public in-store, however does not consider cryptocurrency mining.
Hence the model farm in the museum do not mine Bitcoin. “If we break this rule, we can be fined, and that’s not the goal. We are ready to obey the rules to continue working legally.
Monasterios says the requirements Sunacrip is asking will vary based on the request made. Apparently the process is not completely standardized and hence its advice to the public do not include these legal proceedings.
It is best for each person to go directly and personally to the supervisory authority to have their case assessed. From my experience I can say that everything flows when the requirements are met.
At this point in the conversation, Daniel Contreras, another founder of Cripto Avila, emphasizes the importance of the country to have a unit that watches over the interests of the miners.
The history of the Venezuelan miners has been plagued by unpleasant episodes experienced by some operators whose machines have been confiscated. Many were even arrested. Despite this Bitcoin mining is a legalized activity. Problems arise especially when you do not have the necessary permits.
Daniel Contreras, David Monasterios and David Romero, three of the founders of Cripto Avila. Source: CriptoNoticias.
Waiting for the miners of China
Amid the migration process of bitcoin miners that was sparked in China due to the restrictions imposed by the government, the latest research shows that Venezuela is one of the Latin American countries what is seen as a possible goal.
The Cripto Avila team agrees that many miners from China will come to Venezuela and are therefore preparing to host them and offer them assistance if needed. They are waiting for them with open doors, it is said.
“We form a bilingual team that looks after potential migrants and can guide them if necessary,” said David Monasterios. “We saw this exodus coming and we are aware of the advantages Venezuela offers in terms of mining cryptocurrencies.”
Monasteries and contraras the low electricity prices in Venezuela are striking and that makes the activity one of the most profitable despite the Venezuelan crisis. Therefore, they qualify the Caribbean country as a mining power.
With electricity costs in particular, the rigorous question arises about the adjustments that the Venezuelan electricity company Corpoelec announced last February. David Monasterios assures that he has no knowledge of the sentences that are applied to the sector in Venezuela. “We’re waiting for the bill.”
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