andrew binetter / flickr

Almost everyone has tried something new over the pandemic. Some people picked up a new hobby, some a new interest, others assembled supercomputers to to mine cryptocurrency. Different strokes.

Taylor Braet, a BC native, discovered the world of cryptocurrency when investigating the stock market earlier in the pandemic and realized he may have a buck to be made. Since, he has been using it to help make up for the job he lost due to the pandemic.

“How it started out was a friend asked me if I was interested in stock market trading. I gave that a whirl and that didn’t really work out and I realized what the crypto market has been doing. I crunched the math and realized, wow, I could make a little bit of money doing this.”

Braet started to look deeper into the crypto market and it was not long before he was building his own computer to mine with.

“If you can get into it, the sooner the better. The problem right now is [that] the market of graphics cards is through the roof, semiconductors are through the roof right now. If you can find graphics cards for cheap, have at it. My initial investment was for 10 cards was 6-thousand dollars that I bought second hand off someone.”

Still upgrading and adding graphics cards to his computer, Braet has spent an estimated $20 000 on parts. He is making the equivalent of a minimum wage job off his operation and is reinvesting back into the machine.