Bitcoin mining is a very sensitive topic. The energy consumption of bitcoin mining is high and has a negative impact on the environment, according to critics. Despite the high energy consumption, however, it is increasingly shown that mining Bitcoin (BTC) can also have a positive impact. Especially in developing countries. In Kenya, a bitcoin mining project has started that significantly helps the local community.
Win win situation
The initiative, Gridless Compute, mined bitcoin using hydro energy. The initiative focuses on combining crypto mining and helping local African communities. The initiative announced via Twitter that it had successfully improved the living conditions of the bitcoin mining project 500 families have improved. The energy costs of the families have fallen from 10 to 4 dollars per month. And all while bitcoin is being generated.
The initiative plans to launch several similar projects. This week they announced that they had raised $ 2 million in an investment round. According to the CEO of Gridless Compute, Africa is the perfect place for sustainable bitcoin mining.
“There is tremendous potential for miners and energy generators. In addition, we can significantly help the local community at the same time.”
Sustainable bitcoin mining
Critics are always quick to dismiss bitcoin mining because of its high energy consumption and related environmental impact. Initiatives such as those of Gridless Compute in Africa show that sustainable energy and bitcoin mining can be perfectly combined. Although sustainable bitcoin mining is still in its infancy, the potential is certainly there.
The project in Kenya is reminiscent of a project that was set up in Guatemala earlier this year. A local project, Bitcoin Lake, recycles old cooking oil by mining bitcoin with discarded mining rigs. The cooking oil used to always be dumped in the local lake. The initiative thus generates bitcoin while preventing pollution of the local environment.
Although such projects are scarce, the initiatives in Kenya and Guatemala show that there are realistic opportunities to mine bitcoin in a sustainable way. We hope that we will be able to report on many more such beautiful projects in the future.