Building mining racks in an old Swiss Army bunker

Following my dream

Since I started mining cryptocurrencies on my gaming pc when I was 16, I always dreamed of building a large mining farm. I wanted to create an 8 GPU rack for mining. So, I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to make 4 of them for my dad and his friend.

Location scouting struggles

When I first started looking into building the mining farm, my first location was at home. Unfortunately, I quickly ran into an issue – the power supply wasn’t capable of running 20-40 Kw systems in my garage, which would result in power outages. The local power supplier offered me a new power line for 120'000 CHF, which was definitely not an option.

That’s when my dad's friend stepped in with an exciting offer – he owned an old Swiss army bunker and offered us to share it. The electricity in the bunker was steady and cheap, and it was an excellent opportunity to get started. However, access was reasonably poor due to its remote location, proving a significant issue. I knew I couldn’t do it all alone and was lucky to have my dad’s help. He assisted me with transporting the miners to the bunker and setting them up. Ultimately, we successfully set up the 4 x 8 GPU (GTX-1080-TI) racks and an additional 10 ASCI miners. This experience helped me understand that building a mining farm is a major operation requiring much planning and budgeting.

Earnings

Now to the part that might interest you the most: did we make any money with the mining machines? Unfortunately, I don't know the exact numbers anymore because I'm writing this blog four years later. However, we earned approximately $240 per day in raw earnings, minus the cost of electricity, which amounted to $90 per day. It meant that we made $150 per day with the farm. Unfortunately, this was only for the first few days, as Bitcoin quickly crashed to around $4,000, which meant we weren't profitable. As a result, we decided to stop running the miners two months later.

Thank you Dad!

I am so fortunate to have had the assistance of my dad on this project. His help made the process much easier and quicker, and I am incredibly grateful for his contribution. Without his help, this project would not have been achievable.

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