Tether CTO stays silent on Bitcoin mining locations

Tether’s chief technology officer, Paolo Ardoino, hinted that the operations are based in South America but hesitated to reveal more details.

Paolo Ardoino, the chief technology officer of stablecoin issuer Tether, recently found himself addressing rumors about images of large industrial containers online, leading him to reject questions about where Tether is mining Bitcoin (BTC). 

In an Aug. 26 X (formerly Twitter) post, Ardoino shed light on the curiosity sparked by the photo he shared on Aug. 24. The image displayed a container with a photoshopped Tether Energy logo, leaving many people pondering over what it’s all about.

He clarified that the photo shows a control room at one of Tether’s Bitcoin mining sites that it is currently completing and will soon begin operations at.

However, Ardoino firmly stated he would not disclose the location, responding to numerous users who have inquired about it.

While he did mention that the site is somewhere in the continent of South America, he added no further details due to security reasons.

“Where? In LATAM. We tend to not share exact locations to avoid personnel harassment, a valid concern given the amount of detractors obsessed with Tether,” he declared, admitting that it has led to many Tether skeptics questioning its legitimacy:

“You can almost hear some of them screaming: ‘NOOOOOOOO if you don’t tell us the address, zip code, surname of the cow that is eating the grass nearby, then it’s not real!!!!!‘”

He addressed doubters who were curious about the photoshopped logo appearing on the containers, explaining that it was a deliberate media decision.

“We thought that the photo would have been shared on newspapers so the team wanted to brand it,” Ardoino noted. However, he believes having logos displayed at the mining sites would not be a wise approach from a security standpoint:

“Moreover, putting gigantic Tether logos would not be great from physical privacy of the site point of view.”

He anticipates operations to commence sometime in September.

“The site is progressing well, everyone in the team is super excited and working around the clock to start operations in the next few weeks,” he declared.

This comes after news that Tether is developing mining software aimed at providing more transparency within the Bitcoin mining industry.

In an interview with Cointelegraph on Aug. 17, Ardoino explained that Tether is working on a mining software called Moria that provides more comprehensive data analytics on energy production at Bitcoin mining sites.

Ardoino highlighted the need for better analytics and performance review in Bitcoin mining. He believes Moria will assist with evaluating the site’s performance and surrounding environment:

“If energy used by the mining site is wind or solar, there are optimization parameters, like predicted speed of wind for a specific day or a specific hour of the day, that could be used to overclock some of the miners and boost the production.”