Will Cryptocurrency Mining Dim the Lights in Iceland?
February 21 2018 - 12:00PM
InvestorsHub NewsWire
February 21, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- Iceland has joined
Québec, Canada as one of the world's top locations for new
energy-hungry cryptocurrency mining server farms. Like Québec,
Iceland has abundant cheap hydroelectricity and a cool climate. The
difference is that Iceland may run short of electricity if the
growth of cryptocurrency mining continues to accelerate. In fact,
as Iceland continues to attract large scale cryptocurrency mining
operations, cyptomining has now outstriped Iceland’s own private
energy consumption, and Iceland’s energy producers fear that they
won’t be able to keep up with the rising demand.
What is happening in places with cheap energy and a cool climate
is something economists describe as a 21st century gold-rush
equivalent. But now there is a growing concern that Iceland may
have to slow down approval of new cryptomine permitting amid an
increasingly stretched electricity generation capacity.
Iceland abundance of cheap hydroelectric energy and cool air
brought in The Moonlite Project (https://www.moonlite.io), an
industrial scale cryptocurrency mining operation. Its thousands of
processors are scheduled to go online in August, using low-cost
hydro energy to power its processors and Iceland’s naturally cool
air to reduce the size of necessary cooling infrastructure to mine
Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. Moonlite will draw 15
megawatts of continuous hydroelectric power to mine $8 million per
month in cryptocurrency.
Half of a typical cryptomine's costs come down to the cost of
the electricity needed for raw computational power needed to solve
"consensus algorithm" puzzles to earn Bitcoins and other
cryptocoins, plus the air conditioning and ventilation needed to
remove the heat generated from the processors doing the
computations. The latest GPU mining rigs pull 1000 watts each
before even adding in the external cooling infrastructure
costs.
There was a concerted effort started in Iceland five years ago
aimed at attracting data center placements into the island nation
of 340,000. But now, with cryptomining startups flooding Iceland
with requests to open new data centers, Iceland’s government and
energy producers are reconsidering the wisdom of this policy and
will likely soon end it.
By: BGN Editorial Staff
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