By Robert Miller | Portfolio Manager at NAOS Asset Management

The Bitcoin price (in AUD) has increased ~ 5x in the past 12 months. Bitcoin mania is back. If you haven’t heard, seen, read or spoken about Bitcoin in the past couple of months, you’d be in the minority.

As the price of Bitcoins continues to increase, generating Bitcoins through the required complex computer algorithms (known as ‘mining) has become increasingly more competitive. Add to this that Bitcoin is constructed in such a way that there is a continually diminishing number of future Bitcoins available for mining (out to a final mining date of 2046). What does this mean? It constantly becomes harder to mine for bitcoins, meaning more computing power is required, meaning far greater energy consumption.

This insightful episode of The Investors Podcast speaks to two industry experts, Harry Sudock and Marty Bent about the ins & outs of how Bitcoins are mined, who is mining them and what is being done to overcome the associated energy consumption conundrum. They also debunk certain myths around the abovementioned topics. Their innovative and long term orientated views on the ecosystem behind Bitcoin make for interesting listening.

Link to podcast