Bitcoin Mining A lifeline for Virunga – Bitcoin Magazine

[ad_1]

Virunga National Park, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is Africa’s oldest protected area and is a testament to the continent’s biodiversity and natural beauty. But the park has faced increasing pressure from local militias who have carried out violent attacks on its animals and employees, while various issues, including COVID-19, have led to the park’s prolonged closure to tourists. , which he says is about 40%. of his income.

A report by MIT Technology Review describes how park director Emmanuel de Merode turned to bitcoin mining to monetize the park’s abundant natural resources that are otherwise locked up in order to preserve the park’s existence.

De Merode met Sébastien Gouspillou, owner of Big Block Green Services, who advised El Salvador on its “Bitcoin City”. Gouspillou describes how “[They] used to mine by buying electricity — it was not efficient. The money may be going to the oligarchs of Kazakhstan. In Virunga, we see that it saves the park.

Gouspillou helped de Merode set up the first parts of the operation in 2020, which began mining in September of the same year. The site then hired nine full-time workers to staff the facility, who work shifts in the jungle to operate the miners. It is powered by three hydroelectric plants in the park, a sustainable source of electricity that was already being used to power nearby towns.

“Today, there are 10 containers powered directly by the plant’s four-meter turbines. Each container contains 250 to 500 platforms,” the report describes. Virunga owns three of those 10 containers, while Gouspillou owns the other seven. Their arrangement allows him to buy power from Virunga, while keeping bitcoin mined.

Michael Saylor commented on the project, saying that Bitcoin is “the ideal high-tech industry to put in a nation that has a lot of clean energy but isn’t able to export a product or produce a service with it. this energy.

De Merode described how, despite recent market downturns, he remains confident the project will be successful, saying, “We are not speculating on its value; we generate it. If you buy Bitcoin and it goes down, you lose money. We make bitcoin from excess energy and monetize something that otherwise has no value. It’s a big difference.

He also touched on bitcoin custody in response to a question about what would happen if it was attacked, an ever-present threat in the jungle. “If I collapse? The digital wallet is managed by our finance team… We are unlikely to sit on Bitcoin for more than a few weeks anyway, as we need the money to run the park. So if something happened to me or our CFO lost the password, we would give him a hard time, but it wouldn’t cost us much.

[ad_2]