Scot Johnson came to Mining Disrupt Miami, recorded June 24–26, 2024, with a pitch to take the wires out of mining installations. His company, Digital Shovel, describes itself as an infrastructure manufacturer for Bitcoin mining equipment, and his talk laid out how replacing conventional wire and conduit with a busway system saves power, cost and time. When this session was recorded, Bitcoin traded at $61,272. On October 29, 2026 it was $79,778.
Johnson began with the company's history. He got into mining with Ethereum in 2015 and said the team started mining officially in 2016. The company was founded in 2018 in Toronto, Canada. Its early days looked like those of many container companies: cutting apart shipping containers, which Johnson remembered doing with a zip disk in a parking lot in winter. Today, he said, Digital Shovel has 75 full-time staff and 85,000 square feet of manufacturing space, all in Toronto, and makes almost everything in-house except its fans, from the pods themselves to the electrical panels, busways and switchgear.
He said the company runs a full metal shop and a robotic welding system and no longer does any manual welding. It has also added an in-house PCB assembly line with through-hole, wave solder and surface mount capability, which Johnson said will lead into future products such as a power supply.
So we don't do any manual welding any longer. Everything is done using robotics to increase consistency, efficiency and production time.
Scot Johnson · 1:15
Aluminum Rails Replace Conduit in Mini Pods
Like many miners, Johnson said, Digital Shovel started out running conduit and wire, which he called a reliable, proven method. Looking for something more efficient, the company designed its mini pod line around a main switchgear unit and pods connected with aluminum rails rather than conventional wiring. He said this dramatically cut labor and time, and gave clients more flexibility: they could change the configuration of their strings on the fly without pulling wires or redoing conduit runs.
As we designed our mini pod line, we introduced a main switchgear unit and then pods that were connected using aluminum rails rather than conventional wiring.
Scot Johnson · 2:07
More recently, Johnson said, clients building more elaborate buildings instead of using pods asked to buy only the busway. Digital Shovel responded with a dedicated busway system that is essentially the same one inside its mini pods, without the pod. He said that depending on the crew and the location, a busway can cut installation labor by 40 to 50% compared with conventional conduit and wire.
you can see anywhere from a 40 to 50% reduction in labor putting a busway system in rather than running conventional conduit and wire.
Scot Johnson · 3:51
Johnson said labor matters most at sites with cheap stranded power, where getting the labor is half the battle. Slow labor slows deployment, delays the start of hashing and lowers the return on the equipment. He also pointed to reconfiguration: with miners discussing a move from Bitcoin mining to AI or other uses with a higher or lower power density, he said a busway can be reconfigured on the fly in a way wire and conduit cannot.
Thermal Efficiency and Reusability
The advantage Johnson said people rarely consider is energy savings, which he attributed to better thermal efficiency. The unit at the company's booth uses six inch by quarter inch tin-plated aluminum and is generally rated for 1,350 amps naturally aspirated, meaning heat vents through louvers with no forced air. Digital Shovel has added a fan system to the same busway. Under UL certification, he said, a busway is allowed up to a 50 degree Celsius rise with connectors and 55 degrees without. With the fans on, he said, the rise at 2,500 amps is only 5 degrees.
When we turn on the fans, the rise at 2500 amps is only 5 degrees.
Scot Johnson · 5:50
By running those fans at 1,350 amps, Johnson said, operators can dramatically reduce the thermal loss they would see with very long cable runs of conventional conduit and wire. He also made the case for reuse. Operators who liquidate conduit and wire usually get pennies on the dollar, he said, while a busway can simply be taken out and installed in another data center. Wire that has been stripped or pulled through conduit several times can carry marks along its sheath that may lead to a short or a fire.
Whereas this system, you can simply take it out, go put it in another data center, reuse it.
Scot Johnson · 4:30
Johnson closed by inviting attendees to the Digital Shovel booth, where the company had a busway system on display along with its mini pods and PDU systems.