Bitcoin in bushes – Crypto mining brings power to the countryside

Zambezi’s breast is stunned because millions of gallons of water crashes over the rocks and roll the thresholds.

But there is another sound that has cut through the Zambian bush trees – an unmistakable high -lane from the bitcoin mine.

“This is the sound of money!” Says smiling Philip Walton when he inspects a container for delivery with 120 computers that actively crunch on complex calculations that check bitcoin transactions.

In return, they automatically reward bitcoin with a network.

We are in the far north -western edge of the Zambia near the DRC border, and of all the mines I visited is the most amazing.

Water and electronic equipment are not usually mixed well, but the proximity to the river is painted here.

Philip’s mine connects directly to the hydroelectric power plant, which sewers some of the zambezi torches through huge turbines to obtain a continuous, clean electricity.

What is more important for bitcoin mining is cheap.

So cheap that it was a business meaning for the Kenyan company Phillip to drag its cargo container full of delicate bitcoin production computers on unequal narrow roads at 14 hours from the nearest major city that created here.

Each machine earns about $ 5 (£ 3.90) a day. More when the price of the coins is high, less when it drops.

Sometimes Philip glances at his reasonable hours – the main screen, which shows the constantly changing Bitcoin dollar.

At the moment, this is about $ 80,000 per coin, but Philip says they can make a profit even when the Bitcoin price is reduced due to the cheap electricity on the site and the partnership they have with an energy company.

“We admitted that to improve the mining economy, we needed to cooperate with the Power Company here and give them a share of revenue. And so we are ready to go here somewhere, so it allows us to get more cheaper power,” he says.

The Zengamina Hydro -Power plant is a huge but technically a mini -network -an autonomous island for the local community.

It was built in the early 2000s thanks to 3 million dollars collected from charity donations.

British-Zambian Daniel Ray manages the site after his missionary family headed the construction project, first of all to include a local hospital.

It now provides power for about 15,000 people in the local region, but the project was unable to reduce the ends due to slow admission to society.

The Bitcoiners allowing the store here was transformational for business.

“Every day we spent more than half the energy we could create, which also meant that we did not earn it to perform our operating costs. We needed the main user of the authorities in the area, and it was there that a partnership that changes the game with Gridless,” says Daniel.

Now the Bitcoin mine accounts for about 30% of the plant’s income, which allows them to reduce prices for a local city.

Bitcoin and his economy, of course, are far from the minds of people in Zenamin.

The city itself is located a few miles from the factory and is no more than a few dozen buildings similar to the barn, overflowing cross roads.

Only one store has a refrigerator and a dozen children around the municipal computer alternately to choose a song to escape, causing adults to knock out when they go about their day.

Although the hydroelectric plant appeared on the Internet in 2007, it took a few more years to connect it to the local city, and then more time to connect individual houses and enterprises.

So, some people, such as Barber Damian, are still using the novelty to connect only a year and a half ago.

“Until I had the power, I had nothing and I couldn’t do anything. If I succeeded, I bought everything at the same time.”

He doesn’t joke. At night, his tiny hairdresser is a lighthouse of power with a TV that plays music videos, the strings of Christmas lights and the noise of his hair. Like Molly, the youth hangs out in his hairdressing as a youth hostel.

“Getting power has changed my life,” he smiles. “The money I earn now from the barber shop helps me pay for school fees again.”

To take electricity is a very business decision for Damian. He shares one light bulb between the two rooms that make up a small house.

Elsewhere, the cities of the Tumba and Lucy Machaya sit at the intersection, watching the world.

Like many young people, they are glued to their phones.

“Before the city received power, it was mostly only a bush,” Lucy says.

It is said that the small electricity they used from small solar panels.

“No refrigerator, no TV, no mobile phone network,” says the Taver.

“Electricity has completely changed people’s lives here,” Lucy adds.

“We can charge our phones, we have a network. We can chat with each other.”

Not many people know here and care about the Bitcoin mine, which has played a role in helping hydroelectric power.

But they will soon watch this container punch its way through the city on the way to another place.

Zengamina Hydro provided great investments to help expand more villages and join the national network.

In the near future, the excess energy harvested by the mine will be sold to the national network, and the bitcoin mining will no longer be profitable in Zenamin.

Philip and the team about this Sanguine and insist that this is good news. They would have been successful for several years, and they would eventually be happy to help Zenamam. And of course, he brought a neat profit to Bitcoin.

The company says there are plenty of places with the so -called energy that they can unleash their Bitcoin mine nearby.

There are six sites in three different African countries.

North of Zenamin. This helps to finance the preservation projects, the park said.

But now the serile plans ambitious next step – to create its own hydro -scratch from scratch to my bitcoin and bring electricity to the countryside.

Janet Mandy’s co -founder says the company is busy raising tens of millions of dollars per project.

They focus on the so-called hydroelectric models, such as Zengamina and the continent, has many “unused hydro-alternative potential,” she says.

“The adaptive energy model controlled by the consumer is important for a scalable, affordable and sustainable access to energy that meets the needs of African communities,” she explains.

The company is not a charity and believes that ensuring long -term economic viability for developers and investors can only be carried out through Bitcoin.

Searching for places for a new plant or inclusion in existing, however, a simple part.

The company still faces resistance to some authorities and companies that view Bitcoin as the energy and selfish use of electricity that otherwise can be used by rural people.

But the company insists that the incentive always sell the highest buyer, and it will always be said to be a local community.

History tells us that without incentives and rules, bitcoin production can load public energy networks. In Kazakhstan in 2020-2021. Exchange increased energy consumption in the country by 7%before the government has pushed and cut the wings of the industry.

In the US, the new Mecca Bitcoin Mining – conflicts between miners, locals and residents were distributed when electricity is in high demand.

Authorities have created agreements with some mining giants to ensure that they reduce their computers when the network requires balancing.

For example, the Grandidge GAS power plant in New York, which was repaired at the mine, bitcoin was intended to reduce electricity in January to supply electricity to the net during cold snap.

Such agreements should be widespread if President Donald Trump’s ambitions to Bitcoin be “mined, minted and made in the US.”

The impact on the environment of the industry also causes a big problem. It is estimated that Bitcoin mining uses as much energy as a small country as Poland.

But, according to the researchers of the University of Cambridge, which is the annual Bitcoin energy estimates, there is a switch to a more sustainable energy mixture.

Setting up as this Zengamina is a tiny part of the overall carchatine mining.

But it is also a rare example of a contradictory industry that creates much more than just digital coins.