“Competitive advantage has shifted away from the people with the fastest algorithms towards those with an energy and infrastructure platform that allows them to build out large infrastructure businesses and access institutional capital to do that,” Daniel explains.Īnd if that energy and infrastructure platform could be built around renewable power, then Iris would be even better placed. Instead, advantage among miners was being decided by exactly the things that they knew well, and that have made Macquarie a global investment giant.
They could see that bitcoin mining was no longer about who had the best technology – all miners were essentially using the same technology. While bitcoin can sometimes seem like a space dominated by a combination of hype and hope, the pair of former Macquarie executives are rooted in the very real world of hard assets.ĭaniel, a down-to-earth Sydneysider who kicked 700 goals playing full-forward for the North Shore Bombers AFL club, stresses this is a renewable energy and infrastructure play – bitcoin is just the best and highest use for the platform Iris is building.īut the Roberts brothers were undaunted. Iris Energy, founded by Sydney-based brothers Daniel and Will Roberts, recently completed a $US300 million ($420 million) capital raising at a pre-money valuation of $US1.5 billion, and is rushing to expand its mining capacity and secure more excess renewable energy to power its operations. In the same week that BHP staged a grand exit from oil and gas, one of Australia’s leading players in the nascent world of environmentally friendly bitcoin mining quietly announced its intention to list on the Nasdaq this year.ĭaniel Roberts says social licence to operate is vital for bitcoin miners.
It’s not just Australia’s traditional mining giants that are rushing to burnish their environmental, social and governance credentials and secure their social licence to operate.
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