A new kind of Pumper in the oilpatch.

Written By Charlie Spears

Bitcoin mining and the “Dawn of the ‘Digital Pumper’”

There’s a generational divide in oil & gas, a “changing of the guard” from the Baby Boomer to the Millennial. We see this transition both in the office and out in the field. The Offshore Technology Conference attendance declines while the Digital Wildcatters rise. SPE meetings are great and all, but the real alpha is on that one podcast episode you listened to while stuck in Houston traffic.

One of the types of oilfield jobs we’ll see emerge this decade is the “Digital Pumper”.

As the oilpatch becomes increasingly networked and Bitcoin mines go from being prototype to industry standard, we’ll need a new kind of labor to keep the well online and the ASICs hashing.

The Digital Pumper can restart a compressor engine and troubleshoot a hashboard

It just makes sense that you send 1 guy out to the wellsite instead of 5. The pumper of today can fix just about anything mechanical, it’s not that big of a transition to add some networking, hashboard maintenance, and general tech troubleshooting to the skillset. The pumpers today grew up figuring out how to reset the family router, they may wear blue jeans but they’re already digital natives.

The Bitcoin miner of this decade drives a white F150, not a smartcar.

When every little ol 20mcfd well has a hash hut on it, you gotta at least go out there every few weeks to replace the air filters or pull a bad ASIC off the shelf. You might replace/repair the cell antenna in between checking pressure gauges.

The pumper’s toolbag now has a roll of Cat 5 and a splice kit.

Next week, a case for why the best Bitcoin miners will come from the oilpatch and not from tech.

Charlie Spears, Strategy

Mainstream news actually talks to miners

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Charlie Spears
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