Each reporter Liu Ling Shenzhen photo coverage by each edited Yao Zhiyu
Nineteenth Century California Gold Rush Who is the most profitable? 99% of the gold diggers have not dug gold, the real money is those who sell gold shovel spade people in the bitcoin eco-chain, the miners are playing a positive It is such a role.
The year of Bitcoin has risen 13 times in 2017. Such a 'gold mine' has attracted countless 'gold diggers' to mine. 'For workers to be good, they must first make their profit.' For the gold mine ',' Gold digger 'to upgrade equipment from a normal computer CPU into a professional mining machine. Shenzhen Huaqiang North, is the world's largest distribution center for mine sales.
But unexpectedly, bitcoin prices plunged in succession in the near future, and the quality of the 'gold mine' continued to fall, turning into a black hole that swallowed wealth. To understand the business of selling shovels on the gold rush, the Daily Economic News "Reporter visited Huaqiang North for many days, feel the ups and downs of the mining machine arena.
● mining machine in short supply
On January 24, 2018, the air was a little chilly at 10 am, and a group of energetic young people gushing from the bus and subway woke up this prestigious Huaqiang North Commercial Street.
On the fourth floor of SEG Plaza, a mining owner Mr. Chen (a pseudonym) came early to the shop, carefully from the cupboard out of a different brand of mining machine, neatly placed on the display stand, began to greet The new day's business.Chen's shop opened just over a month, but the business has been good.
'Now we all do the mainstream brand machines on the market, ant machine mines S9 (bitcoin), D3 (dash), L3 + (Litecoin), and miner M3 (bitcoin) these; bitcoin digging , The hottest is the ant S9. 'Mr. Chen said,' S9 today's price is 26,500 yuan, with the official power (official power), the price of mine machines every day is not the same, according to the daily price, the market goods How much to set '.
Ants mining machine S9, bit mainland China is a calculated strength of 13.5TH / s (± 5%) bitcoin mining machine, is also the most popular in Huaqiang North a mining machine. , A single S9 miner carrying 189 BM1387 chip, using TSMC's 16-nanometer FinFET process, each T calculated wall power consumption of 100 watts.
On the official website, February 2, a S9 bare metal price of 10,600 yuan, the power of 650 yuan, bit mainland China also hit 'no matter whether the delivery, after the payment can not be refunded, returned' overbearing 'after-sales policy, Even so, S9 mining machine is still sold out.According to Mr. Chen introduced the day before (January 23) S9 price is about 27,000 yuan, more than double the official website price.
Mine sales Iowa (a pseudonym) told reporters, 'only a few powerful businessmen can get the goods directly from the top supplier, with you for example, if the largest distributor from the mainland to the ex-factory price of 10800 yuan to get 10000 machines, and then he sold at 12,000 yuan to a few second-tier dealers, second-tier dealers and then sold at a higher price, layers down, the machine to the market has become 27000 Yuan around the price.
In fact, the Huaqiangbei miners are basically cattle, through the buy and sell to earn the difference, while the cattle are the most affected by the dramatic fluctuations in mining machine prices.According to Mr. Chen, the ant mining machine S9 peak price reached 33,000 Around a yuan, the lowest price is about 23,000 yuan a, the middle of a difference of 10,000 yuan. 'The ups and downs of mining machine prices on the impact of cattle is very large, because they get goods prices have been quite high, and if market prices , They will be able to make a difference and they will lose money if the market prices fall so badly. Like our boss started selling ore mines in 2013, basically getting goods from the top dealers, with lower prices and higher profits. Machine prices have little effect on us. "Iowa said.
In addition to Iowa, this shop there are three other sales.A Cheng will speak English, is responsible for reception of English-speaking foreign guests; fluent in European and Russian, responsible for customers from Russia; Afei is more knowledgeable about the hosting machine hosting business .
'We receive second-hand miners, bitcoin, Litecoin, that's just 10 second-hand ants S9', Iowa pointed to a few big boxes stacked in the corner. , With the text: 10 second-hand ants S9, Condition new, good price, slow hand.After an hour or two, SF Express brother come up 'pull goods', so that the use of these second-hand mines sold out. Send a single picture to a friend circle, and with the text: a single number from.
● mining machine sentient beings phase
Huaqiang North to buy mining machine is roughly divided into four categories: the first category from neighboring countries in China cheap electricity, mainly in Russia; the second category is engaged in foreign trade business, to help customers buy miners; the third category is Mining their own domestic mining site; the fourth category is a number of retail investors, buy a 35 Taiwan, dig their own coins.
Mr. Chen can speak fluent Russian every day a group of Russians gathered in his shop to buy a considerable number of mining machine.With the domestic regulation of virtual currency tighter Russia with low electricity prices and the relaxed policy advantages, Becoming one of the largest mine-consuming countries.Of Fortune magazine reported that Russia's power surplus; Putin's Internet monitor Dmitry Malichev also said: 'In the future, Russia may in the global digital currency transactions Occupy 30% of the share.
Mr. Cheung made 3G, 4G, 5G network card and router business in Huaqiang North, now he is still looking for ore prospecting machine for foreign customers when he is the mainstay, and resells at a higher price. X10? 'Mr. Zhang asked before going to Mr. Chen's shop.Chen did not directly answer, but ask' how many units do you want? ', Know that the guests need six, Mr. Chen said:' I I am not sure, the price is about 56,000, 7 or so, I'll call you to ask if there is any spot.
In Huaqiang North, many businesses like Mr. Chen, from the miner's factory goods are generally sold on the market, for some not too big mining machine, and will not store goods; but as long as customers want, Still can be found from other channels.While Mr. Zhang is also asking price in various mining machine shops, looking for the lowest buy, Mr. Zhang told reporters, 'I now want 10 X10, 200 S9 a few days but also his X10 to sell 5 million 6, 7 expensive, I just set in front of four 55700 yuan / Taiwan, you can order if you can find together, resource sharing, to see where cheaper.
In addition to doing foreign trade business like Mr. Zhang to help foreign customers to make miner to make the difference; there is simply do not understand bitcoin and mining machines, but come here especially come to admire.Li is a factory owner in Hunan, To Iowa's shop before the opening would have 500 S9; 'Now this is a fire Well, want to buy hundreds of loom back to get a mine to dig coins.' But Lee apparently did not quite understand this line, He asked Iowa: 'Do you have bitcoin? Take a look at what's going on?'
Mining machine revenue and cost, Mr. Lee is the most concerned about, Iowa said, 'the daily income of digging coins different, we are calculated according to the price, equivalent to RMB daily digging one hundred to two hundred dollars.' Costs, Iowa said that in addition to electricity and cooling fan these easy-to-wear parts, basically no additional costs.And other buyers told reporters, in addition to these, the management costs of the mine is also a big expenditure, ' Because the mine machine can not power, finally dug a day, come out so a little bit of money, a power cut all day dug up ', the buyer said.
● 'The water is too deep, one foot and one pit'
Many people think that people who sell shovels and water are the most profitable on the gold rush, and mining machine suppliers are spade vendors on the gold rush. However, some mining Wang does not think so, he said, 'It's too much water.'
This reporter learned that he got the day a batch of mining machines are all refurbished machines, refurbished the degree of even selling miner for years he did not see the clues. 'Start really did not find, then see the box color is wrong, some of the mining machine's Wang said, 'I checked a bit quite new machine, this year in January of the production of the machine, it took more than a month, they are now refurbished What to sell at a brand new price?
In addition, Wang also revealed to reporters, the recent industry relatively large two suppliers roll off the road. 'A few days ago I keep up with a number of home S9, due out of stock, and later learned that the above is relatively large The two suppliers lost contact with each other. The money was running and the money was paid in advance. Now it will not come. This is too deep for water.
After in-depth conversation with the king, the reporter learned that two people lost contact is the industry's larger suppliers, the king is not directly from the owner of the mining machine, but from their hands below the level of miners book , So the loss of Wang boss will not be too serious, 20 S9 loss of goods, the miners need to assume part of the responsibility, so the loss of the most serious miners in the middle, 'So, in order to fill this hole, my house on the get Come to 2000 refurbished machines sold to us, and now we are still handling.
Mining machine trading, in fact, only the verbal agreement between the parties to the transaction, there is no contract protection, and is scheduled to mine in the industry is basically full payment .Wang boss told reporters that the above miners and his transactions are only verbal Agreement, and then pay the full amount of money, and now the mining machine lost runway, even if the alarm is of no avail. Iowa told reporters, in fact, there have been such a situation in 2015, some people drill 'oral agreement' this loopholes, After the buyer paid the amount of money on foot, even if there is no evidence of the report, only recognize planted.
January 31, Wang boss's shop has posted a holiday notice, Iowa, A few people also pack up early to leave, their mines sold too fast, a variety of mining machine stock has been sold, such as ants S9 only the end of February futures, priced at 23,000 yuan.
● Prospects fall under the plunge
Bitcoin is undoubtedly the focus of the investment community in 2017 and has created some riches, but bitcoin prices have fallen more than since 2018. Bitcoin prices fell in January this year, according to the Bitcoin Counter website 28%, the largest monthly decline in three years.
Since February, the regulation of virtual currencies has been strengthened globally. The United States started to trace the tax issues in bitcoin trading, mining and payment. The U.S. big three banks (Bank of America, JP Morgan and Citibank) and the largest in the UK Bank of Lloyds, a mortgage lender, started banning users from using credit cards to purchase encrypted currencies in early February. According to a report by the Central Broadcasting Network recently, the People's Bank of China will take a series of regulatory measures in response to domestic people turning to overseas platform websites to continue participating in virtual currency transactions .
Bad news, bitcoin prices plunged in succession since February, bitcoin successively below the 9000, 8000 and 7000 US dollars three-way mark, other virtual currencies also have varying degrees of decline.Bebruary 6, bitcoin prices fell below $ 6,000 Off, 24-hour decline of more than 25% compared to bitcoin in mid-December 2017 hit a record high of 19,282.73 US dollars, has dropped nearly 70%, while mining machine prices are linked with the daily price, the price Cliff-type decline, mining machine prices will be how?
Reporters once again came to Huaqiang North SEG Plaza, asking 4th floor, 5th Floor mining machine shops learned that the current selling ants S9 (13.5T) price of 19,000 to 2 million, different prices of different shops. In more than 10 days ago (January 24), S9's price is about 26,000 yuan, down 67,000 yuan.
'Slippage so much, S9 from some time ago, 28,000 fell to 27,000, then to the current 21,000, there is a miners on the fifth floor fear that the price of coins continue to fall, can not afford to risk the handle More than a dozen Twenty Taiwan S9 sold at a price of 17,000. 'Iowa told reporters,' the drop in the price of us have an impact, because the stock sold out, it received more than 200 second-hand S9, had wanted every Hundreds of units sold, but the price fell, we instantly lost 500,000 to 600,000.
The fifth floor of a mining machine shop S9 (13.5T) priced at 19,000 yuan, the shop owner told reporters, 'S9' s getting goods price is 10,000, some time ago when the price is high, each can make hundreds, now The price of the currency has dropped, one can only make 100 dollars, and now there is no loss .S9 end of February we set, 23,000 yuan / station, if the price continues to fall, then we will lose money, so this is a Gambling. '
Out of SEG Plaza, the sky is late, fewer pedestrians on the road.Huaqiang North ore mine shops have closed, the merchants have come home New Year, but their business is not broken, every day will release goods through WeChat However, the cliff price of the recent decline in the price of mines traders are also worried about; they do not know, come back after the end of the year, the price will be, mining machine arena and what will happen.