Mountain Eagle nodded slightly and said, "I don't quite understand Bitcoin either, but as long as there is 'dormant capital' in this world, there will always be a market for Bitcoin.

This decentralized virtual currency is very difficult to regulate, making it an excellent tool for underground financial transactions.

Unfortunately, producing this stuff is energy-intensive. If you have a hydropower plant or something similar, mining wouldn't be a bad business.

Kazan is really not suitable; neither the internet, infrastructure, nor the power supply and price are appropriate.

At the current price of less than 400 bucks for Bitcoin, doing this job in Kazan would lose money."

After listening, Daria covered her pocket, muttered a few words, and then said, "Boss, luckily you're here. You should contact Mr. Poincaré and Mi Lu...

They seem to have been brainwashed by the hacker Zorn, and are preparing to each invest some money with him, letting him go to Kashgar to work with Snowden on mining machines."

Mountain Eagle was stunned for a moment...

He didn't believe in Daria's so-called brainwashing talk. Mr. Poincaré, such an old gun, how could he be brainwashed by IT guys like Snowden and Zorn? It's already good if he doesn't strip these two clean.

If Mr. Poincaré decided to invest, he must have seen potential or was looking for an escape route for Singapore's earnings.

Every day, Mountain Eagle receives a list of transactions and asset files. He used to be excited to look at them every day, but now he's a bit numb.

When the numbers get big enough, it seems like changes of tens of millions no longer excite him.

Upon suddenly hearing that Mr. Poincaré decided on a personal investment, Mountain Eagle took out his phone, opened his email, downloaded the mail, and used a decoder to restore the mail full of gibberish.

He skipped over those transaction data, turned to the end of the email, and couldn't help but widen his eyes...

The paper fund in the Singapore account broke through 6 billion US dollars three days ago, and as the chips increase, along with the declining exchange rates of Brazilian and Colombian currencies, these funds will continue to grow.

"Am I actually this rich?"

Mountain Eagle couldn't help but touch his chin, then sighed and said, "It's just numbers, having too much money still requires finding ways to spend some, only when those numbers turn into assets does it make sense.

Mr. Poincaré's plan to invest in Snowden and Zorn is actually an attempt to explore, but Kazan is really not a good place.

Doing this kind of business on the Russians' turf inherently costs a big chunk more than elsewhere.

Not cost-effective!"

Daria widened her eyes upon hearing this and said, "So it can make money..."

Mountain Eagle nodded, then used his phone to search for electricity prices and equipment prices in various countries, then opened Google Maps, searching while saying, "Kazan is not possible, to make a profit there, the scale needs to be very large.

In that case, the risk is too high!

And the electricity supply there simply can't meet the needs of large-scale mining..."

As he said this, Mountain Eagle motioned for Daria to bring paper and pen. He recorded what he found while saying, "Do you know how much electricity it takes to mine one Bitcoin?"

Daria shook her head in confusion and said, "100 kilowatts? 200 kilowatts?"

Mountain Eagle shook his head and said, "According to professionals' estimates, if the hardware used is advanced enough and has sufficient scale and computing power, then with energy consumption for cooling, it takes about 5,000 to 7,000 kilowatts to mine one Bitcoin on average.

According to the current US electricity price of 0.17 dollars per kilowatt, it costs 850 to 1,190 US dollars to mine one Bitcoin.

If it's a personal mining card, the cost would be even more exaggerated, taking an average of 5 years and about 150 kilowatts per month to mine one Bitcoin, which is roughly 1,500 dollars of electricity.

This is a typical losing business!

Bitcoin only becomes a profitable business if it is mined in areas with lower electricity costs.

But it is precisely because of the power constraints that Bitcoin can remain scarce and have enough value."

Daria frowned upon hearing this and said, "So where can investment be profitable?"

Mountain Eagle pursed his lips and said, "Currently, among the world's 20 largest Bitcoin mining pools, 9 out of the top 10 are in the East, and 70% of global Bitcoin transactions also occur in the East.

The electricity price there is about 0.06 dollars when converted to US dollars. If it's in some wind resource-rich, cool places in the northwest, not only will the electricity price be much cheaper, but it can also save some cooling energy consumption.

However, mining doesn't produce any products, and the energy consumption is extremely high, the East cannot allow them to expand indefinitely to occupy electricity.

Moreover, the decentralized transaction model reduces the financial cost of cross-border transactions while making money laundering very simple, which will cause huge financial losses, so the East government will sooner or later introduce restrictive policies."

At this time, the Donkey and Sealion also gathered around Mountain Eagle...

It was the first time they saw their boss 'talking business', using simple language combined with numbers to let them roughly understand part of the logic.

Donkey, who had a high academic degree, wrinkled his brow curiously and said, "So if we can't develop a Bitcoin mining pool in the East, doing this business is just burning electricity and losing money...

What if we can find a place with cheap unit prices?"

Mountain Eagle said with a smile, "Apart from the East, in other places with low electricity prices, even supplying the daily application of ordinary citizens is a problem, where would there be extra electricity for you to mine Bitcoin.

In 2014, global power generation, the East accounted for 27%, the United States only 17%, and the third-ranked India's power generation was only one-sixth of the East's.

In this world, the only country with abundant power generation, low prices, enough to supply domestic use while still being able to export is the East.

Even in France, with the best welfare, even if nuclear energy is very abundant, it can only count as half, but the electricity price of 0.2 dollars is there."

"Where do you think is the best place to mine?"

Donkey listened, frowned, and said, "According to you, other than Kamui, mining anywhere else is a losing proposition..."

Mountain Eagle slightly shook his head and said, "What I've calculated is the pure cost and profit of mining, but actually the reason Bitcoin is so attractive and can surge to around 400 US dollars within a few years is because it contains attributes that other currencies and financial products don't have.

I actually don't understand this field very well, but I know that decentralization and reducing cross-border payment costs are two features that will continually amplify the value of Bitcoin.

Moreover, with the intensifying global inflation, Bitcoin's value will increase exponentially.

Decentralization matches the United States' advocacy for neoliberal values, reducing cross-border payment costs aligns with capital interests, and with investment attributes, privacy protection, and technological innovation factors, the value of Bitcoin is expected to be in a long-term upward trend."

While speaking, Mountain Eagle pinched his chin and said, "This thing is still worth investing in!"

Daria frowned, looking at Mountain Eagle pondering over a losing business, and said, "Boss, you mean investing in Snowden, doing loss-making mining, and then waiting for Bitcoin prices to rise?"

Mountain Eagle, deep in thought, was momentarily confused and shook his head, saying, "Of course not!

If a product is unprofitable from the source, no matter how much profit can be gained from the financial market, in the long term, it's still an investment choice that is not worth it."

Speaking about it, Mountain Eagle sat up, placed the phone on the coffee table, zoomed in on Google Maps to the Central America area, and said, "Daria, contact Matthias, this guy should already be in El Salvador...

After he finishes the job, have him rent a decent house locally, and then get in touch with the local government..."

Upon hearing this, Daria glared and said, "Boss, Matthias is an assassin..."

Mountain Eagle shrugged and said, "I don't know anyone else; he is definitely more convenient to ask about the situation there than for me to call for information.

What's wrong with being an assassin?

People do assassinations to earn money; helping me with other things doesn't earn him money?

The government's credibility in that rundown place, El Salvador, is almost nonexistent. Just a little money can make officials sell their souls. Then renting a house and hiring a few reliable security guards to settle the drilling team going over...

How hard can it be?

I'm willing to pay 500,000 US dollars for this; what's there he wouldn't want?"

As he spoke, Mountain Eagle touched his chin, somewhat excitedly saying, "El Salvador has Central America's richest geothermal resources, but the lands over there are practically worthless...

If conditions are right, I could invest in a geothermal power plant there.

The construction of a 10-megawatt geothermal power plant includes geothermal drilling, geothermal construction, equipment procurement, transmission circuit construction, housing and road infrastructure, as well as subsequent equipment maintenance...

These costs add up to roughly around 40 million US dollars.

And a 10-megawatt power plant can generate 240,000 kWh of electricity a day; even if losses reduce it to 200,000 kWh, in ideal conditions it can still produce 40 Bitcoins a day.

Based on Bitcoin's market price, it's approximately 16,000 US dollars in daily revenue.

A 40 million US dollar investment could break even in about 7 years...

This hasn't even accounted for the plant's own value and the additional revenues from Bitcoin's price appreciation."

Mountain Eagle watched as Daria's eyes lit up, standing up to take out her phone, striding to the side to call Matthias...

Seeing the highly proactive Daria, Mountain Eagle smiled without speaking further; he actually didn't fully disclose the risks involved...

Which is if Bitcoin suddenly fails, the invested power plant becomes a burden hanging on himself.

Because El Salvador has no industry and lacks electrical infrastructure, the electricity generated can't be sold, becoming worthless.

However, he felt like he'd found the last piece of the puzzle to complete his Shadow Fleet plan!

His primary goal has always been energy business, since energy is forever the hard currency among bulk commodities.

The Shadow Fleet plan had been proposed a long time ago...

He didn't lack money; first, he had his own, and secondly, he could ask Anna to secure large financing through the Cyprus Trust Fund.

He didn't lack connections; the Great White Shark had already opened up a network, and the first 20,000-ton tanker departing from the Far East would soon set sail to transport refined oil to Southeast Asia.

Kamui locally would consume part of it, and Eddie's wife, Amelia Debufley, could utilize her connections in Southeast Asia to absorb the remainder.

He didn't even lack ships, because Amelia was the Southeast Asia risk control head at AXA Insurance, able to easily find suitable tankers and cargo ships.

After all, if the business really led to success, Mountain Eagle didn't rule out wanting to find ways to finance the purchase of tankers.

He didn't lack security forces either; Arctic Fox, Holy Grail Knight, Li Chengji—all are onsite collaborators, capable of providing him ample human resources.

What he's ultimately been missing is a settlement center!

He couldn't rely on banks, but an underground Bitcoin trading center would allow him to circumvent many policy issues, while attracting a lot of black market funds to boost his Shadow Fleet!

The originally exhausted Mountain Eagle suddenly became lively...

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed, and after all, 40 million US dollars, he could actually afford to lose now!

But when he opened the computer to inquire about El Salvador's detailed situation, he frowned deeply...