2021 Galaxy Digital Mining Summer Education Series
Bitcoin mining is an important niche in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Through this 12-week course, we will cover major topics in mining with the hope to educate those in our summer internship program at Galaxy Digital as well as anyone interested in learning.
Each week, a new topic in mining will be presented through two learning formats; a presentation on the weekly topic presented by leaders in the industry paired with a Twitter Spaces event to ask questions to the leaders who presented. This interactive experience will allow individuals to listen and also participate.
Event Schedule
Meet the Speakers
Marty Bent
Director of Business Development at Great American Mining
Founder of TFTC.io, a media company dedicated to reporting on hyperbitcoinization.
Stephen Barbour, P. Eng.
CEO, CTO at Upstream Data Inc.
Steve is a mechanical engineer who specializes in product design for oilfield facilities and downhole production.
Karim Helmy
Research at Galaxy Digital
Karim is on the research team at Galaxy Digital. Previously, he did R&D at Coin Metrics, focusing on mining data. Before that, he freelanced out of cafes and friends’ offices around the country.
Rachel Rybarczyk
Mining at Galaxy Digital
Rachel Rybarczyk provides technical mining assistance for the Galaxy Digital Mining team. Rachel researches the most current topics in the Bitcoin mining space and writes programs to support Galaxy Digital's mining operation.
Harry Sudock
VP, Strategy at GRIID Infrastructure
Harry is a bitcoiner, experienced mining operator, and previously a financial technology executive. At GRIID they have built a leading portfolio of mining locations and will continue aggressively expanding in the years to come.
Ben Gagnon
Director of Mining at Bitfarms
Ben started building and operating Bitcoin mining facilities in mainland China in 2015 and has over 6 years of real-world Bitcoin mining experience across China and North America. Ben specialised in mining economics and strategy.
Amanda Fabiano
Mining at Galaxy Digital
Amanda is the Head of Mining at Galaxy Digital. Prior to Galaxy, she was Director of Bitcoin Mining at Fidelity Investments. During her time at Fidelity, Amanda worked on mining, product development, and education related to Bitcoin.
Whit Gibbs
CEO at Compass Mining
Whit founded Compass Mining with Paul Gosker and Thomas Heller, to democratize hashrate by giving everyone the ability to profitably mine bitcoin. Prior to Compass, Whit held leadership positions with PuppySpot.com, Aliant Payments, and Hilton Worldwide.
Drew Armstrong
Mining at Galaxy Digital
Drew works on the mining team at Galaxy Digital, where he focuses on mining equipment finance, hashrate products, and other strategic opportunities. Prior to Galaxy Digital, he worked in investment banking at Barclays, specializing on esoteric securitized products.
Zack Voell
Director of Content at Compass Mining
Zack leads content and research at Compass and has extensive experience in cryptocurrency research and writing. He has previously worked as an analyst, technical writer, and data journalist for a handful of leading cryptocurrency firms, including Messari, Blockstream, and CoinDesk.
Edward Evenson
Founder at Slush Pool
Originally an academic researcher on the history of money and economics, Edward began his bitcoin journey in 2016 in China with a strong focus on bitcoin mining. He currently serves as a board member at Braiins and is Head of Business Development at the world's first mining pool, Slush Pool.
Jason Les
Chief Executive Officer at Riot Blockchain
Jason Les has served as Riot’s CEO since 2021 and as a Director since 2017. Jason has been deeply involved in Bitcoin since 2013 as a miner and software developer, and is the driving force behind Riot’s mission to become one of the most significant companies supporting the U.S. presence in the Bitcoin network.
Taras Kulyk
SVP, Blockchain Business Development at Core Scientific
Taras' primary focus is to build Core Scientific into the preeminent "partner of choice" for financial institutions and investors seeking exposure to digital asset mining. I'm tasked with identifying, qualifying and on-boarding new partnerships and assets for the continued organic and inorganic growth of the company.
Sam Doctor
Chief Strategy Officer, Head of Research at BitOoda
Sam Doctor leads BitOoda’s research and advisory business line, which includes both project evaluations and Bitcoin mining analyses focused on mining profitability and risk factors. He is a former JP Morgan equity analyst and most recently served as the Head of Data Science and Quant Research at Fundstrat Global Advisors.
Ethan Vera
Co-Founder, CFO at Luxor
Ethan is Co-Founder and CFO of Luxor, a North American hashrate management platform and Hashrate Index, a mining data website. Before founding Luxor, Ethan was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Ethan advised MNCs on cross-border Asia M&A transactions across the semiconductor, renewable energy, and internet industries.
AJ Scalia
Mining at Galaxy Digital
Before joining the firm’s bitcoin mining team full-time in 2020, AJ worked across Galaxy Digital’s investment banking and principal investing groups. Prior to joining Galaxy, he began his career in J.P. Morgan’s technology investment banking practice in New York, focused on M&A and capital raisings for technology and software companies.
Meltem Demirors
Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares
Meltem Demirors is Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares, a publicly listed digital asset firm that manages and trades billions of dollars in digital assets on behalf of a global client base, and is a trusted partner to investors and entrepreneurs navigating the digital asset ecosystem. She likes bitcoin, sci fi, and talking with her hands.
Nic Carter
General Partner at Castle Island Ventures
Nic is a general partner at Castle Island Ventures, a Cambridge, MA-based venture firm investing in startups in the public blockchain industry, and the cofounder of Coin Metrics, a blockchain analytics firm. Previously, he served as a cryptoasset analyst at Fidelity investments. Nic holds an Msc Finance from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in philosophy from the University of St Andrews.
Chase Lochmiller
CEO, Co-Founder at Crusoe Energy
Chase is an avid tech enthusiast that is passionate about enabling new technologies like AI and blockchain to positively impact people’s lives. Prior to founding Crusoe, Chase was a General Partner at Polychain Capital, a $1 billion fund investing in blockchain technologies, digital assets and energy-intensive computing applications. Chase was previously a quantitative researcher and trader at Jump Trading and GETCO, where he developed and managed a portfolio of algorithmic trading strategies.
Tim Rainey
CFO at Greenidge Generation Holdings
A licensed CPA with over a decade of hands-on accounting experience across traditional finance, energy and cryptocurrencies, Tim is the Chief Financial Officer at Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc. Located in Upstate New York, Greenidge is the world's first fully compliant bitcoin mining and power generation facility. He is a believer in decentralization enabled by bitcoin and blockchain technology, and in the new finance enabled by cryptocurrencies which he avidly follows and invests in both personally and professionally.
Jaime Leverton
CEO at Hut 8 Mining
A transformational leader with a proven track record for accelerating growth, Jaime Leverton has served as the driving force behind the operational re-imagining of some of Canada’s most important technology companies. Throughout a career spanning more than 20 years, Jaime has served in a series of increasingly senior executive roles with eStruxture Data Centers, Cogeco Peer 1, National Bank, BlackBerry, Bell Canada, and IBM Canada. Jaime has a Master's of Business Administration, Marketing Informatics from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Arts, Psychology and Political Science from the University of Ottawa. Jaime sits on the board of the Stratford Festival, TECHNATION and the Merry-Go-Round Children's Foundation.
Alex Thorn
Head of Firmwide Research at Galaxy Digital
Alex Thorn is Head of Firmwide Research at Galaxy Digital. At Galaxy, Alex leads a team of researchers dedicated to understanding and unpacking developments in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, producing insights for internal and external audiences. Prior to joining Galaxy Digital, Alex spent 12 years at Fidelity Investments, mostly recently co-managing Avon Ventures, the early-stage crypto venture fund affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments. Before that, Alex was Director of Blockchain Research at Fidelity Center for Applied Technology where he directed technology experimentation and published research on the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem, and held several roles in Legal and Compliance functions before that. Alex has a B.S. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University.
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