What’s the big idea behind HIVE?
HIVE is a growth oriented, publicly listed company building a bridge from the blockchain sector to traditional capital markets.
Blockchain technology is revolutionizing finance and there are very few ways for investors to gain exposure to businesses in this space.
HIVE is a relatively new public company that uses high powered computing assets to mine cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin on the cloud. Our deployments provide shareholders with exposure to the operating margins of digital currency mining as well as a portfolio of crypto-coins.
Back to Top
What is HIVE’s business model?
Simply put, HIVE is a cryptocurrency mining firm. We validate transactions on blockchain networks — like Ethereum — for rewards paid in cryptocurrencies. Everyday HIVE earns new crypto coins which it can monetize for revenue and cash flow. HIVE offers shareholders exposure to the operating margins from cryptocurrency mining plus a growing portfolio of coins.
Back to Top
What are the keys to successful crypto mining?
Cryptocurrency is extremely competitive, hence the need for efficiencies of scale.
The largest inputs to mining are electricity costs and hardware. You need a reliable and cheap source of electricity for your hardware.
Fast and reliable internet access, as well as a cool climate, help to lower costs.
Back to Top
What is the difference between a cloud mining contract and investing in HIVE?
Companies provide cloud mining services to customers who lease mining capacity for a fixed period of time to mine their own coins.
This is significantly different from HIVE, which directly operates its facilities and is itself a business operator. As a publicly traded company, HIVE provides shareholders with exposure to the margins of mining, together with the price performance of a portfolio of crypto coins held and managed by HIVE.
Leasing hash is finite and non-transferrable. This is the main distinction from HIVE.
Back to Top
What are HIVE’s assets?
HIVE owns state-of-the-art green energy-powered data centre facilities in Canada, Sweden and Iceland, which produce newly minted digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum continuously on the cloud.
Back to Top
What is the difference between GPU-based and ASIC-based mining?
There are two main categories of computing hardware used to mine: ASIC-based and GPU-based.
An ASIC — or application-specific integrated circuit — is a single-purpose chip built for Bitcoin mining. The chip is custom-built for this purpose only and has no flexibility to mine anything other than Bitcoin.
A GPU — or graphics processing unit — on the other hand, can mine many different types of cryptocurrencies and has the flexibility to switch between them. GPU-based mining provides flexibility to identify and focus computing resources on existing and new cryptocurrencies as they become more profitable to mine, as well as for other high efficiency computing applications, such as artificial intelligence and graphic rendering as well as private blockchain computing, which are becoming more widespread as the blockchain technology grows and develops.
Back to Top
Which cryptocurrencies does HIVE mine?
We currently mine Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and Bitcoin.
Back to Top
Why proof-of-work mining?
The breakthrough innovation in Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper introducing Bitcoin, which set the stage for all cryptocurrencies to follow, was a mechanism for unrelated parties to securely transact and reliably come to consensus on the state of a transaction ledger (the blockchain) without having to trust a central intermediary.
This mechanism is known as proof-of-work mining, a system where a decentralized network of miners commit “work” — using electricity to power computer hardware — in exchange for receiving rewards in the form of cryptocurrency.
The original communications protocol for the Internet — HTTP — is still in use today notwithstanding the introduction of more efficient protocols. Just like HTTP, the original vision of Satoshi — proof-of-work mining — is the backbone of the whole blockchain world. After a decade and massive growth in total crypto market capitalization, this consensus mechanism has proven to be stable and highly secure, and has withstood numerous hacking attempts.
For these reasons, we expect proof-of-work mining and data centre infrastructure like HIVE’s will always be an essential component of the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Back to Top
What about proof-of-stake?
Proof-of-stake is an alternative method of fulfilling the same function as proof-of-work mining — the validation of cryptocurrency transactions — by having parties deposit, or “stake”, amounts of cryptocurrency into a smart contract.
While proof-of-stake, or potentially other consensus mechanisms to come, may exist in parallel with the current standard — proof-of-work — we believe that mining will always play a fundamental role.
The current proposal for Ethereum’s shift to proof of stake from proof of work has a number of unknown variables, including uncertainty over timing, execution and ultimate adoption; and there is not yet a definitive plan that is established and approved.
If Ethereum’s shift to proof of stake were to occur, HIVE’s GPU-based mining provides flexibility to identify and focus computing resources on existing and new cryptocurrencies including those using the proof-of-work standard as they become more profitable to mine, as well as for other high efficiency computing applications, such as artificial intelligence and graphic rendering as well as private blockchain computing, which are becoming more widespread as the blockchain technology grows and develops.
Back to Top
How does HIVE secure its coins?
The Company holds it digital currencies in cold storage solutions not connected to the internet.
Back to Top
How long will HIVE’s hardware last?
Mining equipment is anticipated to remain useful for multiple years. HIVE benefits from monitoring software that constantly tracks things like hash rates, temperatures, and power consumption. This allows us to easily detect problematic rigs, and prevent overheating or hash rate drops, keeping maintenance costs to a minimum.
Back to Top
What is HIVE’s approach to selling versus hoarding coins?
HIVE sells digital currencies that it has mined in order to pay for its ongoing expenses, including operating and maintenance costs. It also maintains a portfolio of coins as inventory.
Back to Top
What are the biggest risks to HIVE?
For full information, investors should refer to the risk disclosures filed under HIVE’s most recent MD&A, which are filed under HIVE’s SEDAR profile, and its September 2017 Filing Statement.
Back to Top
Who are HIVE’s competitors?
There are more than a million miners today from "Mom and Pop's" to Governments. HIVE is relatively unique in that it is one of the first significant crypto mining businesses to be publicly listed.
Back to Top
Why go public on the TSXV?
Being a first mover to list on a major public exchange was a key part of HIVE’s strategy. It provides equity shareholders a way of getting exposure to the crypto world through a traditional investment vehicle. The capital markets have very few options for investors to participate in the blockchain sector, and HIVE provides a unique opportunity to do so. Public markets are a huge untapped opportunity to finance the growth of the blockchain sector and HIVE. We chose the TSX-Venture Exchange in particular because it is a flexible capital formation platform, and at the same time, is one of the most accessible stock exchanges globally.
Back to Top
