In this episode of ORE Insiders, we sit down with Mad Hatter (@pokerchessman), an OG miner who won 60 ORE from the very first Motherload in ORE history. From reading Jeff Booth's "The Price of Tomorrow" during COVID to DMing Tolly on the regular, Mad Hatter has one of the most unique perspectives in the ORE ecosystem.

We go deep on:

- Why Bitcoin's friction problem is pushing users to custodians (and why that defeats the whole point)

- The case for ORE as a frictionless store of value on a high-throughput network

- "Everyone gets ORE at the price they deserve" -- why degens might not be the right audience

- Motherload, Eldorado, and the mechanics that make mining sticky

- The 30% Miner Takeover target and what happens when miners control the supply

- Liquidity experiments, "bin gate," and why scarcity without liquidity creates hoards

- Futarchy, governance, and how a sub-$20M coin has billion-dollar ecosystem energy

- Why VC-free matters more than ever in this bear market

Whether you're deep in the mines or just discovering ORE, this conversation is packed with signal.

Buy ORE. Mine ORE. Build on ORE.

🎙️ Host: Brian

🎤 Guest: Diggy

📍 Ore Insiders Chat

--- TIMESTAMPS ---

0:00 Introduction

0:59 Diggy's crypto journey: Cardano NFTs to Solana

2:19 Discovering ORE through Monkey DAO & SMB

4:36 Buying ORE at $11 & the $700 pump vacation

5:26 Explaining ORE to newcomers

7:21 ORE as many things to many people

8:37 Store of value narrative & long-term thesis

9:24 The ORE Foundation & future growth

11:04 ORE as a slot machine everybody owns

14:10 Community education & onboarding tools

17:30 Solana vs. Ethereum: why ORE stays on Solana

20:00 Liquidity, staking & DeFi strategies

21:36 Looping & borrowing on OmniPair

23:12 The churn debate: renters & short-term miners

25:05 No VCs, fair distribution & organic growth

30:00 Security, attack surface & the Drift exploit

35:22 No KOLs — why that's bullish

37:39 Binance, exchanges & buying on the open market

39:38 Solana's maturation: from NFTs to memes to store of value

42:24 Market conditions & boring is bullish

43:03 The dangerous game of telling your wife about crypto

47:10 Sophisticated investors & building the floor

52:12 V4 speculation & redefining mining

53:10 Copycats fail — you can't fork the founder

56:42 Closing

The conversation dives into the chaos and excitement of those early days, from running miners through a rapidly evolving product to seeing firsthand how much easier and more accessible the experience has become with MineMore today. Raid also opens up about why he stepped away after the first major crash, when falling prices, shrinking returns, lost sleep, and the constant effort of staying on top of everything made mining hard to justify.

Now with v3, he’s back with a different mindset. Instead of chasing short-term profit, he’s focused on stacking as much ORE as possible because he believes in the long-term vision of the project. Brian and Raid also get into mining strategy, motherlode chasing, ORE’s scarcity, the difference between ORE and hype-driven meme coins, and why Minemore has become such an important part of the ecosystem.

They also talk about the bigger picture: building real use cases for ORE, improving the mining experience, and helping the ecosystem grow in a way that actually lasts. Alongside mining, Raid has been actively helping the Minemore team test new releases, spot bugs, and suggest improvements based on real usage. It’s an honest, easygoing conversation about staying committed through the rough patches, backing a project for the long haul, and helping build something better along the way.

David named the Motherlode, called Bitcoin in 2010, and now sees ORE as the future digital store of value. In this episode he shares his full journey — from running a forum with integrated currency in the early 2000s, to reading the Bitcoin white paper in the jungles of Hawaii, to discovering ORE on Solana.

⏱ Timestamps:

0:30 Introduction

1:49 Crypto Market Discussion

5:00 David's Early Bitcoin Call & Living with Style

14:19 Bitcoin's Fundamental Flaw & Why ORE

25:25 ORE's Accessibility vs Bitcoin Mining

31:30 The Motherlode & Mining Strategy

38:45 UBI, the Future & ORE's Role

44:07 Hard Hat Chad & ORE Leadership

50:00 ORE's Path to Adoption

58:48 The Bitcoin Block Wars & ORE's Advantage

1:02:49 Closing & The Mad Hatter Conspiracy

Key topics covered:

EARLY BITCOIN & LIVING WITH STYLE

David created "Living with Style," one of the largest forums in the early 2000s, with an integrated currency called Style Points. He asked his developer to build self-custody in 2005 — impossible before Satoshi solved the Byzantine Generals Problem. In 2009 he read the Bitcoin white paper and knew immediately it was special. He publicly called Bitcoin "the next big thing" on Facebook in late 2010/early 2011.

BITCOIN'S FUNDAMENTAL FLAW

David argues Bitcoin is fundamentally flawed: its security budget depends on mining rewards that diminish over time, while TPS remains at ~7. Transaction fees are at a 13-year low. He references a Feb 2010 Bitcointalk thread ("What's with this odd generation?") where Satoshi told Theymos that fees would eventually replace block rewards — but the tech hasn't kept up.

WHY ORE

Three converging theses led David to ORE: (1) Bitcoin's security model is broken long-term, (2) digital stores of value still make sense in an age of abundance where asteroid mining makes gold worthless, and (3) that store of value should live on the fastest blockchain — Solana. ORE checks all boxes.

ACCESSIBILITY & MINING

ORE lets anyone mine from any device. One tile is a gamble; all tiles is mining. David runs 10,000+ rounds on auto-recurring and checks in every few weeks. He advocates for a bigger "jackpot" mechanic for future mass adoption.

HARD HAT CHAD & LEADERSHIP

David calls HHC potentially "the most impressive founder I've ever observed in crypto" — his ability to build with community input while filtering bad ideas is second to none. The ethical standards (no VC pre-sales) are almost unheard of for tier-one crypto.

ADOPTION PATH

Bitcoin succeeded because it was novel, solved a real problem, and had no competition for attention. ORE faces an "ocean of bullshit" but David believes it's "the single most important protocol on Solana right now." Success requires backing from bigger Solana ecosystem players.

THE MAD HATTER CONSPIRACY

David reveals that one of the usernames in Satoshi's original Bitcointalk thread is "The Mad Hatter" — a fun connection to the ORE community.

ORE Insiders — beyond the charts, hearing from the people building, mining, and sticking through every cycle.

In this episode, hedescribes the early learning curve (e.g., transferring BTC to a Ledger) as stressful but rewarding path to Ore. He had original purchased a Saga phone, benefited from airdrops, then acquired a Seeker phone where he discovered the Ore app, initially buying Ore near the peak but then committing to a one-year mining plan after joining the Minemore community in December.

Mining Strategy Insights

1) Avoid chasing the "mother lode": Early over-allocation led to poor P&L; shifted to disciplined, low-stakes mining

2) Diversified mine setup: Graham runs 5 concurrent mines with varied tile coverage (15–25 tiles) and low SOL allocation per round

3) Partial liquidation flexibility: Minemore allows closing one mine to sell unrefined Ore without disrupting other positions

4) Lottery mining: Small allocations across all 25 tiles can still yield top-miner rewards profitably (Brian shared a win with just ~3 cents of SOL)

Investment Philosophy

1) Avoid meme coins; focus on protocols with real utility and sustainable tokenomics

2) Use bear markets to accumulate assets with long-term conviction

3) Graham now holds Bitcoin as his backbone asset, with Ore as his second-largest holding

In this episode, our host Brian sits down with CraggleBear — a crypto veteran with a wild story spanning early Bitcoin purchase, buying FIFA credits, memecoins, and everything in between.We dive deep into CraggleBear's journey from discovering Bitcoin to becoming an active member of the Ore mining community on Solana.

Plus, we break down the brand new Compound Ore integration — a risk-free flywheel that lets you deposit Ore, receive a zero-interest USDC loan, auto-swap to SOL, and keep mining without ever selling your stack.

We also cover the Mine Master Competition running through March — mine efficiently with 10+ Ore deposited into Compound Ore for your chance to win 5 Ore in prizes + a custom Minemaster role in discord.

Whether you're new to Ore or deep in the mine, this one's packed with alpha.