Adam Weitsman, scrap dealer, restaurateur, philanthropist, social media star, adds a new gig – cryptocurrency miner.
Upstate Shredding’s millionaire owner said he plans to open a cryptocurrency mining farm next to his junkyard in Owego in November.
For Weitsman and other crypto miners like him, it’s a game of chance. He spends $ 20 million to buy hundreds of specialized, high-performance computers that are constantly working to solve complex math equations.
The payout? Digital money in the form of Bitcoin, Litecoin and Kadena.
The investment risk is entirely Weitsman’s, he said. But the move to set up these computer farms, some of which use large amounts of electricity, has put environmentalists and state lawmakers to the test.
Weitsman’s farm will start with 400 computers and grow to 2,000 within a year, he said. They will be on duty around the clock to generate the digital currencies that are exchanged independently of banks or governments.
Overall, the farm will cost about $ 20 million to set up, including the cost of buying computers built specifically to mine cryptocurrencies and air-conditioned shipping container-like pods to house them, he said.
The pods, which can each hold about 250 stacked computers, will be placed on the floor instead of being placed in a building, he said. In the event of a disaster such as a flood or a long-term power failure, they can simply be placed on trucks and relocated. It also means Weitsman doesn’t need to build permanent structures or get city building permits, he said.
Containers like this one will house hundreds of computers on a cryptocurrency mining farm that Adam Weitsman plans to open next to his metal recycling yard in Owego in November 2021.
He said the farm would employ five people. Steve Antonacci, a computer engineer, is a minority shareholder in the company. Two cryptocurrency mining experts – Stephen Carpineta and Kevin Yan – will be among the staff who build and operate the farm, he said.
Weitsman said switching to cryptocurrency mining will help him diversify his business. He said he decided to look into it after reading and researching about it on social media.
“I feel like it’s a new generation offshoot of my recycling business because my recycling business is a commodity-based business that is indirectly like mining, even though it didn’t spring up,” he said. “So we want to diversify a bit, diversify the company a little more into the modern age.”
Junk dealer Adam Weitsman used his Instagram account to announce plans for his newest business, a cryptocurrency farm in Owego.
Weitsmann is a very busy man. In addition to managing the largest private scrap processing company on the east coast, he runs two restaurants in Skaneateles – The Krebs and Elephant and the Dove. He also recently started donating $ 1 million to local charities. On his Instagram account with 10.3 million followers, he regularly posts photos from his travels and meetings with celebrities. (He was named one of the top 10 Instagram influencers in 2020.)
Mining cryptocurrencies carries risks, including currency price volatility. But Weitsman said that was none of his business. Price volatility is also a risk to the metals recycling business, which he’s used to, he said.
Crypto mining operations like the one planned by Weitsman have come under fire from environmentalists because of their high energy requirements.
One of the critics, State MP Anna Kelles, D-Ithaca, said the facilities use limited resources and essentially gobble up electricity that could otherwise be used to power homes. In addition, such farms increase greenhouse gas emissions from the power plants that produce the electricity and generate huge amounts of e-waste, she said.
“Technology changes so quickly that to stay competitive, the revenue for the computer processors is about every year and a half,” she said. “They also burn through computer processors a lot faster than you would with a home computer.”
Kelles introduced a law earlier this year that would have imposed a moratorium on new or expanded cryptocurrency farms in power plants, such as a 27,000 computer farm planned for a location near Lake Seneca in Dresden.
The moratorium passed by the Senate but not the Assembly could not have applied to Weitsman’s farm. However, it would have required the state to analyze the environmental impact of all cryptocurrency mining farms in the state. Kelles said she plans to reintroduce a similar law next year.
Weitsman says he has an answer to the worries of people like Kelles.
He said his farm will continuously use 4 megawatts of electricity every hour. This roughly corresponds to the electricity consumption of 1,300 households in one hour.
To address environmental concerns and reduce his electricity bills, he will install solar panels on the roofs of the many buildings at his recycling facility and some on the ground. The panels will provide a quarter to half of the farm’s electricity needs, with New York State Electric & Gas supplying the rest, he said.
“Solar is an important part of it,” he said. “On the one hand, to keep the people in the region happy because of the CO2 footprint. And secondly, we want to use as much solar as possible economically. “
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source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/29/adam-weitsmans-new-venture-scrap-king-wants-to-power-up-a-cryptocurrency-mine/
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