You Can Still Get Bitcoin for $50K??? 3 – How Did It All Start?

Continuing from the last post, B told me he used to believe the mainstream narrative that real estate was the ultimate passive income stream (who didn’t, right? 😂), so he went into real estate. But after a few painfully exhausting years, he realized he’d basically gotten himself a full-time job with no income, doing all the lowest-value tasks imaginable. Worst of all, it was nearly impossible to exit once he got in. His story was a carbon copy of my experience in real estate as well (I even wrote a whole series called “Buying Multifamily Buildings” just to rant about it—so many tears, honestly).

So the desire to find real passive income in crypto had already been burning inside him for a long time. Like many young people, he dabbled in crypto early on. And being handy (you know, guys and their gadgets), he started by setting up his own mining rigs. But like everyone else, he quickly realized it was a nightmare—just keeping up with repairs, upgrades, and electricity bills could kill you. So he looked into mining service providers.

And that’s when the real frustration began.

He tried out several of the so-called reputable mining companies, only to find they were full of issues. Some took 6 months just to set up the machines. Electricity costs were variable and unpredictable—every monthly bill felt like opening a mystery box. Then there was the “hosting” promise: once the contract ended and machines were returned, they came back in a horrible state—covered in dust and scratches, obviously neglected. The machines that were supposed to last 6 years looked like they wouldn’t make it to 3. And so on.

Plus, birds of a feather flock together—his friends and family had the same pain points. No matter how hard they searched, they couldn’t find a mining company that met their standards. So finally, B had enough. He said: “If nobody’s doing it right, then I’ll do it myself.” 😂

And when I heard this, I resonated with it so much.

Back then, I’d only heard about passive income in books, blogs and podcast. But every method I tried—dividend stocks, real estate, mutual funds, dropshipping, you name it—was either low return (barely better than a GIC) or high risk. Worse yet, these so-called “passive” methods were so competitive that you had to do lots of hands on work to make it work which was not passive at all!!! You were essentially getting yourself into a job… with no guaranteed income. It was honestly pathetic.

AND I’d never actually met anyone who become financially free from all these strategies that I come to know in the mainstream media.

So I had enough too. I didn’t want flashy BS, I wanted something simple, passive, and real. If no one else was doing it, I’d do it myself. I used my own money to test every niche strategy I could find—from legal lending to film bridge loans, patent litigation finance to music royalties, wine, and even vintage cars etc. At first it was just for me and close friends and family. But as more people came asking, I started sharing my journey and real numbers as well as contact details for each strategy expert online so anyone could DIY. It seems no one is doing it this way. But I become time and financially free purely on passive income in my 30s. At least I can show to my kid and people around me that it’s real and it’s totally dable!

So yeah—B’s story? Totally spoke to me.

Anyway, back to B—he said his requirements for mining were actually really simple. If he was going to run his own mining facility, the location had to meet a few key criteria:

• Cheap, reliable electricity (ideally fixed-rate, not variable)
  
  
• Cool climate
  
  
• Minimal risk of natural disasters
  
  
• Low chance of geopolitical conflict
  
  

He would also like:

• Industrial-grade cooling and uptime protection
  
  
• 24/7 monitoring and on-site support
  
  
• Live performance dashboards + automated BTC payouts
  
  
• A team obsessed with operational excellence
  
  

And he went on and built exactly that! He set up shop in Oregon—right next to a hydroelectric plant. That took care of the electricity and cooling concerns. And because the people he attracted were mostly young crypto miners themselves, the level of care and expertise in managing the machines was top-notch. Although the company has only been operating in an official capacity for a couple of years, the team has been mining for much longer—each person managing their rigs like prized possessions.

B said ever since he started mining, he’s never bought Bitcoin again. 😂

So what does the end to end mining process look like? Till next time!