A Brief Look at NFT Models
Since the inception of , NFTs have been largely known for their use in digital art projects, such as and the . Some digital art achieved critical acclaim across communities like the or artworks, but most faded into obsolescence as the bear market settled in. Some have worked to adapt the technology outside of art. For example, began their project to tokenize property on the blockchain, with the goal of making the entire process of buying and selling real estate instantaneous through smart contracts. Music NFT experiments have also developed over the last two years. Companies like are making NFTs that represent ownership of a song’s royalties, while companies like mint limited edition NFTs for songs. However, both applications of NFTs have yet to penetrate and maintain market share in their greater industries and remain in niche crypto communities.The GoMining Model
GoMining was not initially an NFT-focused company. Rather, they began in 2016 as a bitcoin mining venture that hosted data centers for large clients and businesses. As they gained more expertise in the field, they recognized that the mining industry was only getting more competitive, and the barrier of entry was continuously increasing. By 2020, in order for anyone to participate in bitcoin mining, they would need to invest $10,000 — $15,000 in a mining rig.More importantly, GoMining recognized that there was no low-cost bitcoin mining product on the marketplace. So GoMining made it their mission to create products that make bitcoin mining accessible and easy to everyone.
Liquid Bitcoin Hashrate: Tokenizing Bitcoin Mining Rigs
achieved great economies of scale in both computing power and energy efficiency through their data centers, and understood it would be easier for investors to take advantage of GoMining’s operations rather than to host their own mining equipment. Moreover, GoMining was earning consistent BTC from mining rewards, which meant they could fractionalize the rewards to guarantee BTC distribution.Similar to what Royal did to make music royalties on-chain assets, GoMining wanted to make Bitcoin mining rewards on-chain assets.
The challenge was that needed to create a system that could directly tie their mining rigs to an investment product. The GoMining team began work to develop this concept in 2020, and in 2023, the protocol was born.LBH is a process that tokenizes the computing power of bitcoin mining rigs. The technology allowed GoMining to create tokens that represented the real-world computing power of their bitcoin mining data centers. Subsequently, LBH tokens earn a share of GoMining’s BTC rewards.
In 2022, GoMining announced the first collection of GoMining NFTs, The Greedy Machines, which utilized the LBH protocol. Since then, GoMining has distributed over 2,000 BTC over two years, and has released over 20,000 NFTs across four collections.
How to Assess GoMining NFTs
The GoMining NFT has three core traits. The first two traits directly impact the value of Bitcoin rewards distributed to the NFT. The first trait is computing power, denoted in terahashes per second (TH/s). The higher the computing power, the more Bitcoin is rewarded to the NFT. The second trait is energy usage, denoted in watts per terahash (W/TH). In contrast, the lower the energy usage, the cheaper the mining costs are. If mining costs are cheaper, more Bitcoin is rewarded overall. In general, it is important to balance both computing power and energy efficiency. Having a powerful NFT with high energy usage will lose more earnings paying for electricity. At the same time, a weaker NFT with low energy usage might not cost a lot to run, but it won’t be making much BTC either. That’s why GoMining allows users to upgrade their NFTs after purchase. Users can upgrade either trait to improve their BTC earnings. The final trait is the GoMining NFT’s unique artwork. GoMining wanted the NFTs to serve as the artistic expression of their journey, from the concept to the creation of GoMining’s vision and where they are now. GoMining NFTs are separated into four different collections: The Greedy Machines, The East Collection, The North Collection, and The Khabib Collection.Collection #1: The Greedy Machines
The Greedy Machines series was launched in the summer of 2022. These NFTs were the genesis project and feature hyper-real bitcoin mining equipment, each with their own surreal background. This collection proved GoMining’s LBH concept to the world.
Figure 1: Examples from The Greedy Machines collection.
The Greedy Machines are all sold out, and only are available for purchase on .Collection #2: The East Collection
In the fall of 2022, GoMining launched the East Collection immediately following the success of The Greedy Machines. This time, GoMining took inspiration from the regions where they housed several of their data mines.
Figure 2: Examples of the East Collection.
Options are limited in the primary marketplace for East Collections NFTs, with most available on the secondary market.The North Collection
In 2023, created the North Collection directly inspired by the natural wonders in the northern parts of the world. The collection also reminds us of the importance of cold climates for mining rigs to operate successfully.
Figure 3: Examples of the North Collection.
The Khabib Collection
In collaboration with UFC legend, Khabib Nurmagomedov, GoMining created their most innovative collection yet: the Khabib NFT collection. Every NFT in the collection starts with a tremendous 29 TH/s, the exact number of wins from Khabib’s fighting career. The unique imagery from Khabib’s time in the UFC decorate each NFT.
