The hardware game is becoming more competitive, with new entrants like Jack Dorsey’s Block, Marathon Digital-backed Auradine and more. And then there’s this whole AI thing which mining CEOs and others keep talking about!  To make it straight, we brought on ePIC Blockchain co-founder Earl Mai to discuss ePIC’s hardware product line, the difficulties of getting a hardware startup off the ground, what its like to compete against Bitmain and how mining–and AI–could converge together over the next few years! Chapter Markers: 00:00 Start 03:07 Earl's background 04:51 ePIC's products 05:45 Earl's early mining days 09:50 Moving from alts to bitcoin 12:46 ASIC design process 15:36 Why Bitmain dominates? 20:15 Bitmian chip design 21:51 Don't fight Bitmain 24:41 Components 26:18 Shoebox form factor 27:39 How not to get scammed 29:37 Next gen ASICS 30:34 Intel update 31:20 Competition in the space 33:14 Is Bitmain slowing template propagation? 39:06 Competitive edge on open network 40:43 Where's the new competitive edge? 44:20 AI and Bitcoin Mining Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!  👉 Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show. 👉 Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty! Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley. - Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining! "The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey LLC and distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Damien Somerset.