As Kent Halliburton stood in a toilet on the Rosewood Hotel in central Amsterdam, hundreds of miles from home, running his fingers through an envelope crammed with 10,000 euros in crisp banknotes, he began to wonder what he had gotten himself into.
Halliburton is the cofounder and CEO of Sazmining, an organization that operates bitcoin mining hardware on behalf of clients—a model generally known as “mining-as-a-service.” Halliburton relies in Peru, but Sazmining runs mining hardware out of third-party data centers across Norway, Paraguay, Ethiopia, and america.
As Halliburton tells it, he had flown to Amsterdam yesterday, August 5, to fulfill Even and Maxim, two representatives of a wealthy Monaco-based family. The family office had offered to buy a whole lot of bitcoin mining rigs from Sazmining—around $4 million price—which the corporate would install at a facility currently under construction in Ethiopia. Before finalizing the deal, the family office had asked to fulfill Halliburton in person.
When Halliburton arrived on the Rosewood Hotel, he found Even and Maxim perched in a booth. They struck him as playboy, high-roller types—particularly Maxim, who wore a tan three-piece suit and had a highly manicured look, his long dark hair parted down the center. A Rolex protruded from the cuff of his sleeve.
Over a three-course lunch—ceviche with a roe garnish, Chilean sea bass, and cherry cake—they discussed the contours of the deal and traded details about their respective backgrounds. Even was talkative and jocular, telling stories about blowout parties in Marrakech. Maxim was aloof; he mostly stared at Halliburton, holding his gaze for long periods at a time as if sizing him up.
As a relationship-building exercise, Even proposed that Halliburton sell the family office around $3,000 in bitcoin. Halliburton was initially hesitant, but chalked it up as a peculiar dating ritual. Certainly one of the blokes slid Halliburton the cash-filled envelope and told him to go to the toilet, where he could count out the quantity in private. “It felt like something out of a James Bond movie,” says Halliburton. “It was all very exotic to me.”
