Inside a Bitcoin Mine | Digital Trends

Step foot inside a Bitcoin mine, and the first thing you’ll probably notice is the temperature. Depending on what part of the facility you’re standing in, it’ll either be baking hot or freezing cold.

In our case, it was the latter. After descending down a very utilitarian plywood staircase and making our way through a series of locked doors, we emerged in a concrete-floored room where you could see your breath. This was partially because it was winter in Northern Washington state and therefore naturally cold, and partially because there was a giant cooling system blasting frigid air at us from across the room.

We were in the server room: The part of the building where shelves full of highly specialized computers, known as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), work round the clock to mine bitcoin. They do this by solving extremely difficult math problems, and all that work tends to make them get really, really hot….