User:B4shful/sandbox/Hut 8 Mining Corp



Hut 8 Mining Corp is a Canadian bitcoin mining and blockchain infrastructure company headquartered in Toronto, with operations in Alberta, Canada. It is one of the largest cryptocurrency mining operations in North America. They are known for providing access to bitcoin for investors through its publicly listed common shares, acting as an alternative to purchasing the cryptocurrency through an exchange. Unlike most mining companies, Hut 8 retains a large inventory of bitcoin rather than selling them after they are mined. This provides investors with exposure to changes in the price of bitcoin over the long term.

Hut 8 is named after Hut 8 in Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing led a team of cryptographers who helped crack the German Enigma code during World War II. As well as saving millions of lives, this work inspired much of modern computing and cryptography, including the Blockchain network on which Bitcoin is based.

For its mining activities, Hut 8 utilizes BlockBox AC datacenters which are purchased from Bitfury Group for use in their mining sites at Drumheller and Medicine Hat, Alberta. They currently operate a total of 94 data centers between these two sites, which have a combined capacity of 963 petahashes per second (PH/s).

On October 9, 2019, Hut 8 began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, becoming the first cryptocurrency company to do so. Prior to this, Hut 8 was listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.

2017–2018: Founding and incorporation
Hut 8 was conceptualized in October 2017 by Sean Clark, Harris Fricker, Andrew Kiguel and Marc van der Chijs, with the goal of giving investors access to Bitcoin without the need to purchase the underlying cryptocurrency. After deciding a publicly listed bitcoin mining company was the best way to do this, they partnered with Bitfury Group to create Hut 8. The company was incorporated on November 15, 2017, with Sean Clark acting as interim CEO. Directors in the company include Dennis Mills, Gerri Sinclair, and Michael Novogratz, who had joined as a co-founder by rolling existing bitcoin mining assets into Hut 8 for equity through his cryptocurrency investment firm, Galaxy Digital.

On December 6, 2017, Hut 8 officially announced their partnership with Bitfury Group, who would install, operate and maintain their proprietary BlackBox AC data centers at the first Hut 8 site in Drumheller, Alberta. As part of partnership, Hut 8 retains a North American exclusivity agreement to acquire more data centers from Bitfury in the future.

On March 6, 2018, Hut 8 began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange and acquired additional data centers from Bitfury Group.

On April 2, 2018, Andrew Kiguel was appointed President and CEO of Hut 8, replacing interim CEO Sean Clark.

On 31 May, 2018, Hut 8 listed in the US through the OTCQX Best Market. On July 16, 2018, Hut 8 completed construction of a mining facility beside a newly constructed gas power station in Medicine Hat, Alberta. After the opening of the facility, some residents voiced concerns over its energy consumption and the grid's capacity to supply both Hut 8 and residences in the area due to energy spikes caused by running air conditioning units. The City of Medicine Hat later put in provisions to curtail Hut 8's energy usage if equipment failure caused generation to fall below the required amount. In response to a report by CBC, CEO Andrew Kiguel insisted Hut 8's power usage was not an issue, saying "Medicine Hat has enough power capacity to service both Hut 8’s load and the city’s load through a heat wave, without any blackouts. In the event of equipment failure, the load to Hut 8 would be curtailed, as is standard for any industrial power producer.”

2019–Present: Listing on Toronto Stock Exchange
On September 24, 2019, Hut 8 was conditionally approved for graduation to the Toronto Stock Exchange. They were the first company to receive approval through the TSX Sandbox initiative, designed to facilitate listings which do not satisfy traditional criteria such as filing a prospectus. Hut 8 began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on October 9, 2019, making them the first cryptocurrency company to do so.