Mic Drop: Blockchain buzzkill — one miner’s lament.

Summary

Mic Drop: Blockchain Buzzkill — One Miner’s Lament

Podcast Information:

• Title: Click Here
• Host/Author: Recorded Future News
• Description: The podcast that tells true stories about the people making and breaking our digital world. We take listeners into the world of cyber and intelligence without all the techie jargon. Every Tuesday and Friday, former NPR investigations correspondent Dina Temple-Raston and the team draw back the curtain on ransomware attacks, mysterious hackers, and the people who are trying to stop them.
• Episode: Mic Drop: Blockchain Buzzkill — One Miner’s Lament
• Release Date: May 23, 2025

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Introduction: Setting the Stage

The episode begins with Dina Temple-Raston introducing the segment, indicating that it’s a deeper dive into one of their favorite interviews of the week. The focus is on Richard Hunter, a Bitcoin miner who attempted to leverage Kentucky's economic shift from coal to cryptocurrency.

Dina Temple-Raston [00:32]: “A man who wasn't trying to exploit Kentucky as much as trying to return to it.”

Richard Hunter’s Vision and Background

Richard Hunter shares his personal connection to Kentucky, highlighting his roots and the deep ties his family has to the region. He vividly describes his upbringing in Mockingbird Holler, emphasizing the cultural and familial bonds that motivated his return.

Richard Hunter [03:13]: “Spent a lot of my youth in a place called Mockingbird Holler... We ran through the mountains barefooted and collected turtles and was playing in the creek.”

Understanding the Holler: Hunter explains the term “holler” as a valley surrounded by mountains, providing a picturesque yet challenging environment for his mining operations.

Richard Hunter [04:14]: “A holler is basically a valley. There's one way into it... the people who live there will refer to it as a howler.”

The Bitcoin Opportunity in Kentucky

The narrative shifts to how Hunter became involved in Bitcoin mining. Initially resistant, he was eventually persuaded by his cousin Dylan’s persistent talk about cryptocurrency. Despite his initial skepticism when Bitcoin was only 7 cents, a later surge to $36,000 ignited his determination to invest.

Richard Hunter [05:56]: “I just about had a stroke. Because I could have bought it at 7 cents. I could have pulled the money out of my pocket and became a multi, multi, multi millionaire.”

Setting Up the Mining Operation

Hunter recounts the meticulous process of setting up his mining rigs. Starting with an outdated miner, he gradually expanded his setup, affectionately referring to his machines as his “girls.”

Richard Hunter [07:01]: “They look like old fashioned desktop computers... I used to call my miners my girls.”

Challenges Faced: The operation was plagued by noise and maintenance issues, exacerbated by Hunter’s four cats shedding fur on the machines.

Zach Hirsch [08:07]: “Is there a fire risk?”

Richard Hunter [08:09]: “If you're not willing to die in a fire, then you don't belong in the business.”

Attempted Expansion and Setbacks

Hunter’s initial plan to scale up in Kentucky was thwarted by practical challenges. The intense noise from the miners was untenable for the local community, leading him to reconsider expanding his operations locally.

Richard Hunter [10:21]: “I just didn't want to do that to them... I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to do mining in southeast Kentucky, I would have to buy more property.”

Unable to proceed, Hunter returned to Ohio, where the high electricity costs rendered his mining operation financially unsustainable. Bitcoin’s volatility further dampened his prospects.

Richard Hunter [11:38]: “Bitcoin gets to about 120 grand. It busted over 100,000 for a minute and I got all excited... And then it just dropped back down.”

Reflections on Economic Promises and Community Impact

Hunter reflects on the unfulfilled promises made to Kentucky’s residents by previous economic transitions, lamenting the lack of tangible benefits despite incentives offered to attract miners.

Richard Hunter [12:07]: “We're going to disrupt the coal industry... they never got what was promised to them. It's horrible.”

He advocates for a more equitable approach, suggesting revenue sharing to compensate neighbors for the constant noise and disruptions caused by mining operations.

Richard Hunter [12:07]: “Some kind of check that comes every month that says, hey, we really appreciate you being good neighbors.”

Conclusion: The Future of Mining in Kentucky

The episode wraps up with Hunter’s cautious optimism about the future of cryptocurrency in Kentucky. While his immediate mining dreams are on hold, he remains hopeful that with better planning and community engagement, mining can contribute positively to the local economy.

Dina Temple-Ralston [13:16]: “We'll be back on Tuesday with an all new episode of Click Here. Have a great weekend.”

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Key Takeaways:

1. Personal Motivation: Richard Hunter’s return to Kentucky was driven by familial ties and a desire to contribute to the local economy through Bitcoin mining.

2. Economic Incentives vs. Practical Challenges: While state subsidies and tax breaks made Kentucky an attractive location for mining, practical issues like noise pollution and high electricity costs posed significant hurdles.

3. Community Impact: Hunter underscores the importance of benefiting local communities, advocating for revenue-sharing models to address the disruptions caused by mining operations.

4. Bitcoin’s Volatility: The fluctuating price of Bitcoin played a crucial role in the viability of Hunter’s mining venture, demonstrating the inherent risks in cryptocurrency investments.

5. Unfulfilled Promises: The episode highlights the recurring theme of unfulfilled economic promises in Kentucky, emphasizing the need for more reliable and tangible support for transitioning industries.

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Notable Quotes:

• Richard Hunter [00:14]: “I heated my house entirely last winter with the bitcoin miners. I'm not kidding you.”
• Richard Hunter [03:39]: “We ran through the mountains barefooted and collected turtles and was playing in the creek.”
• Richard Hunter [05:56]: “I could have bought it at 7 cents. I could have pulled the money out of my pocket and became a multi, multi, multi millionaire.”
• Richard Hunter [07:01]: “I used to call my miners my girls.”
• Richard Hunter [12:07]: “They never got what was promised to them. It's horrible.”

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Final Thoughts

"Mic Drop: Blockchain Buzzkill — One Miner’s Lament" offers an intimate glimpse into the challenges faced by individual Bitcoin miners amidst broader economic shifts. Richard Hunter’s story serves as a microcosm of the larger tensions between technological advancement and community well-being, highlighting the delicate balance required to ensure that innovation benefits all stakeholders involved.

Transcript

[Dina Temple Ralston]

From Recorded Future News and prx, this is Click Here.

[Richard Hunter]

They put off a lot of heat. Bitcoin miners. A lot of heat. I heated my house entirely last winter with the bitcoin miners. I'm not kidding you.

[Zach Hirsch]

And how's that air quality? Is that good stuff to breathe in?

[Richard Hunter]

I'm still alive.

[Dina Temple Ralston]

From Recorded Future News, this is Click Here's Mic Drop. A longer listen to one of our favorite interviews of the week. I'm Dina Temple Ralston. On Tuesday, we looked at eastern Kentucky's wild economic pivot from coal country to crypto frontier. So today we talk to one of the people who actually tried to build something in this brave new world. A man who wasn't trying to exploit Kentucky as much as trying to return to it.

[Richard Hunter]

If you're going to get the taxpayers of Kentucky to subsidize your electricity, shouldn't you be required to hire X amount of people? Not just say you're going to hire them, actually hire them.

[Dina Temple Ralston]

For this week's Mic Drop, I'm handing the reins over to senior producer Zach Hirsch. Stay with us. Click Here is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company has affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.

[Richard Hunter]

You.

[Dina Temple Ralston]

I'm Dina templewest and this is Click Here's Micro.

[Zach Hirsch]

We talked to a lot of people while we were reporting in Kentucky. Environmentalists, lawyers, residents, professors, even a finance guy who had a few things to say. But we also wanted to find someone who was trying to get in on Kentucky's bitcoin boom. Someone who actually saw all those tax breaks, cheap land and glowing political promises and said, yeah, that's me. Which is how we found Richard Hunter.

[Richard Hunter]

One of the reasons that I wanted to mine in Kentucky was because there were subsidies provided by the government, the state government, to subsidize the electrical costs, which. Bitcoin's very energy intensive, takes a lot of electricity. And when I heard that they were giving subsidies for bitcoin mining, I'm like, oh, I've got to get in on this.

[Zach Hirsch]

Richard mostly grew up in Ohio. He lives there now in Toledo. But when he heard about the subsidies, he started making plans to set up shop in Kentucky to do bitcoin mining there. For Richard, this wasn't just a business opportunity, it was a homecoming.

[Richard Hunter]

Spent a lot of my youth in a place called Mockingbird Holler In Four mile, Kentucky, which is about, oh, I guess an hour north of Knoxville, Tennessee, two hours from Lexington, Kentucky.

[Zach Hirsch]

His great grandfather ran moonshine. His grandfather was a coal miner. And every summer his dad sent him back from Ohio to visit the hills of Kentucky.

[Richard Hunter]

My father wanted my brother and I to know what it's like to be in the hills. And so every summer of my young life, I spent in that holler with my grandmother, my dad's mother. And we ran through the mountains barefooted and collected turtles and was playing in the creek. That was our life. Shot my first squirrel at seven years old, skinned it, you know, gutted it and we cooked it and I ate it. You know, that was the life of a, a young hillbilly, I guess.

[Zach Hirsch]

And what is a holler?

[Richard Hunter]

What is a holler? A holler is basically a valley. There's one way into it. You're surrounded by mountains. It's a little bit of flat land. If you read it on a map, it will say hollow, but the, the people who live there will refer to it as a howler.

[Zach Hirsch]

Back in the early days of crypto, before bitcoin was a household word, Richard was back in Mockingbird Holler selling timber. Then he got a call from his 19 year old cousin Dylan, and he.

[Richard Hunter]

Says, hey, he goes, would you be cool with me coming and staying with you for the weekend? I'd like to shoot your guns, I'd like to ride your four wheelers and just hillbilly it up. And I'm like, yeah, no, that's cool with me. I, you know, I was cool with that. So Dylan shows up, Dylan's typical 19 year old college student, partying hard and just blowing off steam. But the weird thing was Dylan just would not shut up about this thing called bitcoin. I'd never heard of bitcoin before, had no clue about it. But he was so convinced that it was the future of money, he just couldn't stop talking about it. And at that time, Bitcoin was 7 cents a coin, you know, I mean, literally 7 cents. And you know, I was in my late 30s at that time I think, and I. It's just so hard when you're well into adulthood to listen to a 19 year old college kid that is partying. And so I just ignored it.

[Zach Hirsch]

Fast forward a little bit and Richard was on YouTube and he saw a video about bitcoin which was no longer.

[Richard Hunter]

Just 7 cents, which it was $36,000 a coin. And I just about had a stroke.

[Zach Hirsch]

It's a story as old as bitcoin itself, missing out on an early price bump. Hearing about others getting rich and then falling down the crypto rabbit hole.

[Richard Hunter]

Honest to God, my blood pressure went through the roo. I'm like. Because I could have bought it at 7 cents. I could have pulled the money out of my pocket and became a multi, multi, multi millionaire. And I didn't. And I will forever kick myself. But I thought to myself, but he.

[Zach Hirsch]

Also thought, maybe it's a sign.

[Richard Hunter]

All right, you realized you screwed up. People were talking about bitcoin, somebody being worth a million dollars plus a coin. I'm like, I am not dropping the ball on this one again. I went.

[Zach Hirsch]

So he bought a little piece of bitcoin, just about $5,000 worth. And he started learning about how to mine it himself.

[Richard Hunter]

I literally sat there and watched a million YouTube videos before I ever bought my first miner.

[Zach Hirsch]

He started out small, just one old machine.

[Richard Hunter]

It was an old antiquated miner. I used that miner for probably two months. Then another I felt confident to upgrade to what I called a big boy miner, a real miner, you know, something that you would see in these mining farms.

[Zach Hirsch]

And another. Until there were six.

[Richard Hunter]

They look like old fashioned desktop computers, tower computers. And the fans blow over the chips to keep them cool because they're. They're just screaming demons. I used to call my, my miners my girls. And, and every morning I'd get up and I pour a cup of coffee and I'd go downstairs to see how the girls were doing, you know, And I have four cats. I'm a crazy cat guy and they shed a lot. And right now I have the fans off of my bitcoin miners because they need to be cleaned out. Not because they're junk, but because the cat hair is getting thick and that's going to lead to a disaster.

[Zach Hirsch]

Is there a fire risk?

[Richard Hunter]

You know, you're talking about things that did keep me up a few nights. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you're not willing to die in a fire, then you don't belong in the business.

[Zach Hirsch]

When we come back, Richard tries to take his mining operation to the next level. Stay with us.

[Cory Doctorow]

How did the Internet go from this?

[Richard Hunter]

You could actually find what you were looking for right away. Bang to this. I feel like I'm in hell.

[Cory Doctorow]

Spoiler alert. It was not an accident. I'm Cory Doctorow, host of who broke the Internet? From CBC's Understood. In this four part series, I'm gonna tell you why the Internet sucks now, whose fault it is and my plan to fix it. Find who broke the Internet on whatever terrible app you get. Your podcasts, ChatGPT, AI machines, satellite engine ignition.

[Richard Hunter]

Click here and lift up.

[Zach Hirsch]

The plan was simple. Start small in Ohio, scale up, and then move the operation to Kentucky. For all that cheap power, those tax incentives, maybe he'd even create some local jobs.

[Richard Hunter]

But I was somewhat shocked by how loud it was. It was very loud. You want to know what a bitcoin miner sounds like? This is a perfect example. It literally sounds like you're blow drying your hair at the highest speed. That's what it sounds like. And think about that. Times 300 for one shipping container. Times 8 or 16. It's going to put out a lot of noise.

[Zach Hirsch]

Richard already had land in Kentucky where he could have moved the machines to, but it needed to be flat to set up the shipping containers and scale up. And his land was not flat. It was a hollow or holler. And all those fans to keep the machines cool.

[Richard Hunter]

It would have been too noisy for the neighbors. I just didn't want to do that to them. And I just put myself in their position. You know, would it be something that I would be completely okay with if I was the one trying to sleep at 2 in the morning in that.

[Zach Hirsch]

Hum, he thought about revenue sharing, buying more land, making it work. But in the end, I didn't know.

[Richard Hunter]

How long the mines would be running. I didn't know if it would be a year, 10 years, 20. I didn't know. So at the end of the day, I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to do mining in southeast Kentucky, I would have to buy more property. I'm pushing 60 years old. I don't really know that I want to buy more property in southeast Kentucky.

[Zach Hirsch]

He didn't buy more property, and he didn't put shipping containers full of bitcoin miners on the land he already had in Kentucky. Instead, he went back to Ohio to his six mining machines in the basement. Except his electric bill was through the roof. So these days, the machines are actually off. The price of bitcoin now hovers around $100,000. But for Richard, it's not enough until.

[Richard Hunter]

Bitcoin gets to about 120 grand. It busted over 100,000 for a minute and I got all excited. I started talking to my girls. I'm like, it won't be long, girls. You're going to be right back on. And then it just dropped back down.

[Zach Hirsch]

The basement is quiet and the dream not quite dead, but definitely on ice. But Richard still believes in crypto's promise for Kentucky. And for people like him, doing it.

[Richard Hunter]

Right means hiring local people to put the money back into the local economy. Doing it right doesn't mean, you know, once again exploiting hillbillies. You know, they were made promises. They've always, of course, the last hundred years they've been made promises and promises that have never been kept. But they were told that we're going to disrupt the coal industry. But you're going to get training and you're going to get education, you're going to get all these things. None of that happened. None of it. They never got what was promised to them. It's horrible. You know, it's horrible. And now what do I know? But there are plenty of people in Kentucky that are far enough away where maybe they do deserve to have some type of revenue share to, to make it worth it for them to have to hear that humming 24 7. I'm not saying that they deserve to have 50 grand a month. That's not what I'm. But something, you know, some kind of check that comes every month that says, hey, we really appreciate you being good neighbors. That's just me thinking out loud.

[Dina Temple Ralston]

From Recorded Future News, this has been Click Here's Mic Drop. It was written and produced by Megan Dietrich, Sean Powers, Erica Gaeda, Zach Hirsch, Lucas Riley and me, Dina Temple. Rest. It was edited by Karen Duffin. We'll be back on Tuesday with an all new episode of Click Here. Have a great weekend.

[Megan Dietrich]

Looking for more of the cybersecurity and intelligence coverage you get on Click Here. Then check out our sister publication, the Record from Recorded Future News. You'll get breaking cyber news from reporters in New York, Washington, London and Kyiv, among others. And you'll see for yourself why it attracts hundreds of thousands of page views every month. Just go to the Record Media.