McAfee's MGT Investments has officially entered the Bitcoin mining industry after launching mining equipment

MGT Capital Investment Company first announced its entry into Bitcoin mining in June last year. MGT has launched 2PH/s Bitcoin mining equipment, and the media has reported on its first phase of mining rewards. MGT's Bitcoin operations began when John McAfee, the founder of McAfee antivirus software, took over MGT and led the company to develop in the direction of Bitcoin and blockchain technology.

Marco Streng, CEO of Genesis Mining, said of MGT’s Bitcoin mining operations:

“We appreciate MGT’s efforts to participate in mining, which is beneficial to the industry. However, since the computing power of 10P is relatively small, its direct impact on the mining market is still limited.”

Is MGT’s Bitcoin mining any different?

So far, MGT has mined 90 bitcoins. According to the current market price, MGT has earned $50,000 in mining income, and it is still mining. Now, MGT has entered its second phase of mining plan, hoping to obtain 5P computing power by the end of the fourth phase in 2016.

It is unusual for an investment firm like MGT to invest in Bitcoin mining. Most venture capital firms simply buy and hold Bitcoin as part of their portfolio, but McAfee has taken an unusual path.

Because MGT uses a lot of hardware and a cheap hydroelectric strategy, it seems more profitable. But as the Bitcoin block reward decreases, the fate of these devices is determined by the future Bitcoin price.

The next Bitcoin reward halving will occur in 2020, when the reward per block will be reduced to 6.25 Bitcoins, but the price of Bitcoin may compensate for this halving.

The next stage is to increase computing power

In MGT's operational statement, they said that these devices will generate 2P of computing power in Washington State. Now these devices have been deployed and are running at full speed. This is what they call the first phase, and in the second phase they will expand the computing power.

MGT claims that they use 16 nanometer ASIC chips, which have higher mining efficiency and can generate "great profit margins."

John McAfee, CEO of MGT Capital Investments, said:

“Based on our current production, we believe MGT is in the top 5 of the U.S. Bitcoin mining industry. We believe that these devices will reach the goal of 10P hashrate in 2017, which will make MGT a global leader in Bitcoin mining.”

So far, we can’t be sure what McAfee plans to do in the future, but he is still on track to develop blockchain-based security software and equipment for MGT to experiment with.

McAfee added,

“Such mining operations provide us with a critical competitive advantage in developing privacy-preserving applications and platforms using blockchain.”

So far, the mining operation has generated a good return on investment for the company.