Serhiy Tron, former boxer, persistent entrepreneur and publisher of Bitcoin Magazine Ukraine, fights for stability in an unstable world.
A version of this article was originally printed in the first issue of Bitcoin Magazine in Ukraine, which can be purchased here.
When Serhiy Tron was born in 1984, his hometown was known as Dniprodzerzhynsk, named for the founder of the Bolshevik secret police in the ’30s. In 2016, the city returned to its historic nickname of Kamianske after resisting the Communist oppression throughout the country, but no matter what the city is called, it is an industrial center that powers the country and creates tough and hardworking people.
Tron’s mother is an accountant, while her father spent 25 years in the military before working with victims of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster. When asked to describe his father, Tron became quiet and lost in thought – he asked to hear the question again before describing him as a rigid and sad military man who exemplified the qualities of command and control.
At the age of ten, taking lessons from the hardworking city and his father really, Tron started boxing, starting what will be the age of dodging blows, personal battles and financial crises and, finally, the fight for his open-source software project. believe it will bring much-needed stability to a world plagued by recession and inflation.
Heavy fuel
At the age of 16, Tron channeled the tenacity and determination he developed as a young boxer and began his entrepreneurial journey by launching a heavy fuel oil supply company. He juggled training sessions and business demands while taking university classes in the evenings, but before he turned 19, his dream of professional boxing ended. An accident sent him to the hospital for eight months, and he was forced to learn to walk again. He said goodbye to boxing and decided to throw all his energy into his business.
When Tron was 22, his father died, leaving him as the family’s main breadwinner. As of 2010, his company operated 120 gas stations and five oil depots near Luhansk and Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine. They invest in technology that can clean oil tanks and sell the extracted sediment. As his financial operations grew, he became fascinated with banking and, in 2011, he invested in Citi Commerce Bank and quickly expanded its footprint from 40 to 185 branches. At that time, the capitalization of his entire business was almost $1 billion.
Then, the next decisive battle begins.
In February 2014, the Maidan Revolution, also known as The Revolution Of Dignity, began with deadly clashes between protesters in Kyiv and state forces. With 80% of its business operations located in its own territory, Tron faces the risk of losing almost everything. But the boxer knows how to take a hit and stay on his feet, and Tron decided to leave his home and operations in Eastern Ukraine and move his family to Kyiv, bringing together every employee willing to move.
“The most profitable personal investment you can make is in relationships with people,” Tron explains about the emphasis on connections, rather than entities. “But you need to choose the right recipient for this investment. To be honest, I think I got all the money because of my intuition, different experiences, accumulated knowledge and my relationships with people.
From there, events in Ukraine moved quickly. With international investment fleeing the country, inflation reached 25%, the highest mark in 14 years. Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, has lost 60% of its value against the US dollar. Citi Commerce Bank started hemorrhaging capital as people rushed to withdraw their deposits. Tron faces two dire choices: Save the bank by meeting its obligations or pay its customers by reducing liquidity.
As usual, he didn’t shy away from a bigger and better fight, and he chose to pay. After six months of struggling to keep the bank afloat, Citi Commerce Bank was sold for one shiny dollar.
Bitcoin Mining Potential
Finding itself at another crossroads in 2015, Tron refocused on its interest in the technology industry. Steeled by many crises throughout his life, he quickly saw in Bitcoin the promise of stability to a world of uncertainty. Mining the two most famous cryptocurrencies at the beginning of history, both Bitcoin and Ethereum, it is clear that they have intrinsic advantages over others.
“After mining both ether and bitcoin, I came to the conclusion that the fundamental principles of Bitcoin cannot be defeated,” he said. “Ethereum appears vulnerable to human modification and corruption.”
After traveling to China to check bitcoin mining equipment firsthand, he bought his first mining machine, provided it with a capacity of 2 megawatts (MW), and installed it in Romania. This exploratory gamble may be enough to convince people to build a modern data center in their home country. He invested $40 million into a mining operation with a capacity of 10.5 MW at the site of the Dniester Hydroelectric Station in Chernivtsi, the Western region or region, the smallest in the country.
At the same time, the small town of Zug, one hour outside of Zurich in Switzerland, is fast becoming its own “crypto valley” – a place where, even now, you can easily find Bitcoin enthusiasts and passionate tech investors. In 2018, betting on Switzerland’s friendly Bitcoin regulations, Tron established its parent company White Rock Management in the Swiss city.
Bitcoin’s popularity grew, his business ventures were successful and, at that time, Tron became Bitcoin’s maximalist. He invested in the next venture to set up a 30 MW data center in Kazakhstan, but due to difficult conditions, he withdrew from the country in 2021. cover the matter.)
After the mining venture, Tron started thinking about expanding. With an understanding of the unique incentives that make bitcoin mining a powerful industry, he focused on electricity prices and jurisdictional stability and chose an area of Northern Sweden surrounded by hydroelectric stations, installing $85 million worth of equipment there.
In 2022, the company extends the Atlantic Ocean to the Brazos Valley of Texas to work on a potential alternative to hydroelectricity: natural gas. Followed during oil extraction, this gas is often either vented or “flared” – burned off – and Tron decided to explore the opportunity to use it for bitcoin mining power by building a data center there.
Based on its industry expertise, Tron confirms that major oil and gas companies will work with the Bitcoin industry, as the latest mining technology will allow them to continue to generate profits from exhausted oil sites. He also believes that holistic mining operations are set up to achieve the next generation of industrial success.
“In 2023, we may reduce the number of hosting providers because we will continue to lose clients,” he said. “Only a vertically integrated company, with its own equipment, data center and full process control, will survive in today’s down market.”
And now, Tron is working on its latest project, located near Niagara Falls in New York State. But it seems that the days of fighting are far from over – in November, New York State passed a two-year moratorium on permits for cryptocurrency mining operations that seek to retrofit fossil fuel plants.
While some Bitcoin enthusiasts lamented the policy, Tron remained optimistic. He believes the Bitcoin community would be wise to adopt new environmental standards and sees the moratorium as an opportunity to do just that. His positive outlook helped him overcome many battles, including the most recent crypto winter.
“I think that any crisis is a business opportunity because the market is changing,” Tron explained. “The recent high to low bitcoin prices have attracted a lot of quick investment and unrealistic expectations. The crash we’ve seen in the ecosystem has revealed projects that are vulnerable to fluctuations in bitcoin and electricity prices.
Spreading Bitcoin Messages to Ukraine
Tron’s upbringing and the challenges he faces in life have given him a unique ability to find reasons for optimism while remaining a realist and harsh critic. He believes that Ukraine’s Soviet past has left behind a corrupt system that continues to hinder business development. Entrepreneurs in him believe that the biggest victory for Ukrainians will be through the darker side.
According to him, the media is part of this problem. As a step to change, taking perhaps the biggest battle of his life, Tron partnered with Bitcoin Magazine in 2020 and discussed the publication in Ukraine, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Our goal is to build a media where the latest Bitcoin innovations are quickly shared with our readers and where the best homegrown talent can be supported and celebrated.
“There is an unbeatable magical return from investing in things that support the future, such as technology, science and educational initiatives,” he said.
Under his watch, Bitcoin Magazine will remain free from the corrupting influence of political actors. Tron believes that the philosophy of Bitcoin is the best way to stop the corruption that still exists in the past of his country. For him, Bitcoin’s destiny is greater than being a store of value or a medium of exchange. He sees a future where digital assets will create new market sectors similar to finance or energy.
And Bitcoin will be the leader in this regard, with an unrivaled and solid foundation to ensure that it remains the flagship of the digital asset market. And perhaps, entrepreneurs say, it will be a reserve currency and an index for other cryptocurrencies.
Tron thinks that the next step after the blockchain revolution is a legitimate financial revolution. In the course of evolution, humans are destined to rid themselves of addiction and submit to fiat money. For him, Bitcoin’s principle of freedom of choice and transparency will become a new basis for human interaction.
Belief in the potential of Bitcoin is seen in the evangelization that is taking place throughout the region around its home country, although progress is faster in some places than in others.
“On a recent visit to Uzbekistan, a conversation with some government officials confused me,” Tron recalled. “I offered to bring high-quality Bitcoin content and educational investment to the country and I got an answer that it would be best if the world didn’t hear about Uzbekistan. They were afraid that outsiders would come and destroy the small Bitcoin ecosystem that they had. But I failed to understand the logic. this. Again, we are experiencing a variant of the post-Soviet perfectionist mentality. I am tired, but we agree to nurture our relationship slowly if necessary.
The Battle Never Ends
So, after hearing the story of a young boxer who felt the dirty air of his hometown in his mouth, who was once robbed of a billion dollar business by war, who loved his country and its people but saw the corruption there for what it is. , who never backs down from a fight but hopes to save others – what are we to make of Tron?
Today, Tron’s life is filled with his wife, three children, employees and business partners. But even as a busy person, he is always looking for new opportunities. However, he left the impression that somewhere, deep in his heart, he just stopped. It’s as if he’s still in the boxing ring, tall and broad-chested, nimble on his feet, alert and distrustful, his mind always focused on the long game, always ready to pull and duck, bob and weave.
