BITCOIN MINING POWER

Bitcoin Mining Power Growing Bigger But Greener

By Jamie Redman -

 

January 14, 2017

 

Excerpt from News.bitcoin

Bitcoin has created a vast mining sector within the network’s economy that is growing exponentially. Mining bitcoin has spread the technology towards new thoughts concerning energy consumption, ways to utilize bitcoin mining’s heat source, greener energy solutions and more.

Also read: Chinese Bitcoin Exchange Inspections Cause Price Drop and FUD

Making Better Use of Bitcoin Mining’s Energy Consumption

Florida distillery utilizes bitcoin mining heat for rum aging.

As it stands today, the Bitcoin mining sector is robust with computations faster than the world’s top 500 supercomputers combined. The global bitcoin mining economy consumes nearly $500 million in electrical and operational costs. Moreover, it’s estimated the bitcoin network could use as much electricity as Denmark by the year 2020. It’s safe to say securing the bitcoin network through mining is costly and consumes a lot of energy, but may offer a myriad of other benefits to the equation.

For instance, mining equipment produces a significant amount of heat as the machines operate 24-7. Over the past few years, miners have found ways to utilize this heat source to warm their homes and warehouses. Just recently a South Florida distillery has used the heat from bitcoin mining equipment to accelerate rum barrel aging. Furthermore, bitcoin miners have been known to heat their homes during winter months alongside mining facilities utilizing the heat source for their benefit. It’s common for data centers to utilize the heat for many types of purposes. One example is Amazon’s data centers has provided heat to a biosphere project in downtown Seattle.

Greener Energy

HaoBTC’s Kangding mining operation uses hydroelectric power.

Bitcoin mining facilities use a vast array of different techniques to acquire cheap electricity and some of them with the environment in mind. Some mining operations use burning cheap coal in plants to more greener energy solutions like hydropower. There are quite a few mining facilities located in Iceland because operations make use of the cold air and geothermal steam power plants located within the region.

In China’s Tibetan highlands, mining operations within the region are using hydropower to offset electrical costs. Located close to the city of Kangding, the mining company HaoBTC has been using a hydroelectric power plant for cheaper electricity while at the same time treating the environment better. The idea is a far greener energy solution in contrast to the coal plants powering bitcoin mines located near the northern Inner Mongolia province.

All the World’s Payment Systems Consume Resources

There’s a lot of discussion about bitcoin’s consumption of energy. Some believe there will be the need for more hydropower plants that can produce 1,000-10,000 megawatts per plant. Others believe, in the future, bitcoin mining may even go nuclear utilizing its energy resource of 7,000 to 10,000 megawatts per energy station.

It’s also worth noting that all payment systems require consuming energy whether it be storage, moving physical assets, operating software and more. All of the world’s concepts of payment processing come with costs and energy consumption.

However, even in its early years, bitcoin mining is showing that operators are already practicing greener energy solutions. Alongside this, some miners are learning to use the heat mining provides for other uses cases. At the exponential rate bitcoin mining is growing in the future we may see many more techniques that harness bitcoin minings energy and power in a much more useful way. For now this power is one of bitcoin’s greatest security advantages and should continue to blossom.

Team G18 will soon show you how you can start mining bitcoins with your Laptops. But you would have to register first to our network to have access and support on mining...

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Bitcoin is Becoming a De Facto World Currency

Excerpt from News.Bitcoins

Bitcoin is becoming a world currency. Credibility and safe-haven currency functionality are some of the sine qua non features of a world currency. Signs corroborating that Bitcoin exhibits these two features are appearing more frequently and in ever more significant use-cases.

Also read: One of These 5 Hyperinflating Economies Could Adopt Bitcoin in 2017

Bitcoin is Gearing Up to be a World Reserve Currency

The People’s Bank of China

Recently, The People’s Bank of China added to Bitcoin’s credibility by meeting with the executives of the largest Bitcoin exchange platform in China.

In effect, officials from The People’s Bank of China met with BTCC on January 6, 2017.

The purpose of the meeting was to “urge rational investment in Bitcoin,” Reuters reported.

However, most importantly, the meeting demonstrated that authorities at The People’s Bank of China consider Bitcoin trading a proper business endeavor.

Commenting on the BTCC-The People’s Bank of China meeting, a Reddit user, vapor114, wrote, “China just did BTC a favor in acknowledging that the exchanges are legitimate businesses that the gov’t recognizes.”

Moreover, this was not the first time that BTCC met with bank authorities. A statement from BTCC reads, “BTCC regularly meets with the People’s Bank of China and we work closely with them to ensure that we are operating in accordance with the laws and regulations of China.”

Bitcoin is a Safe-Haven Currency

Policies on demonetization, signs of inflation, isolationist trends from the UK and the US, and the threat of trade wars with China and other big US business partners are just some of the factors that will test or are already testing Bitcoin’s capacity to function as a safe-haven currency.

Investors move to safe-haven currencies when they want to minimize the risk of losing wealth through the eroding effects of inflation and economic uncertainty.

Recent events demonstrate that investors are using Bitcoin as a safe-haven in China. As we have seen, fluctuations of Bitcoin’s value are inversely related to the value of the yuan. Bitcoin has been surging as Chinese investors have been buying bitcoins to hedge against the declining yuan.

On the other hand, when the yuan soars, investors stop buying bitcoins. For example, this happened on January 5, 2017 and caused Bitcoin’s value to retrace over 20 percent from a three-year peak of $1,139.

Bitcoin is an Antidote for Countries Afflicted by Inflation

Signs of inflation are showing up globally, fueling investors and businesses’ appetite for the cryptocurrency.

Argentina has suffered from high inflation for decades; it was, not surprisingly, one of the earliest adopters of Bitcoin.

Now, Venezuela is rapidly adopting Bitcoin. As a galloping inflation erodes the Bolivar, the cryptocurrency is coming to the rescue. For instance, a travel agency, Destinia, no longer accept Bolivars. Explicitly, a press release of December 23, 2016, states, “Destinia decides to operate exclusively in Bitcoins in Venezuela.”

The question now is what role Bitcoin will play if inflation shows up in the economies of developed countries, such as the US and Eurozone, where pressures to increase prices are also popping up.

In the US, the Federal Reserve acknowledges that inflation increased in 2016, although it is still below the Fed’s objective of 2 percent. Nevertheless, the Fed worries about inflationary pressures that policies from the upcoming administration could generate.

“Asset price movements, as well as changes in the expected path for U.S. monetary policy beyond December, appeared to be driven largely by expectations of more expansionary fiscal policy in the aftermath of U.S. elections,” states the Fed Minutes of December 2016.

Similarly, in the Eurozone, inflation is increasing. The annual inflation rate reached 1.1 percent in December 2016, which represents an increase of 0.6 percent from November 2016, according to Eurostat. This rate of inflation is the highest since September 2013, reports CNBC.

Economies in Turmoil Increase Bitcoin’s Value

Isolationism, demonetization, and political uncertainty are driving investors to buy bitcoins to shelter their wealth.

For example, Bitcoin’s value went up because of the uncertainty Brexit’s upheaval created.

Additionally, Fiat currency flaws have caused governments to demonetize their economies, which in turn, have triggered an increase in Bitcoin’s users as well as its Bitcoin value, as is the case in Venezuela and India.

Indeed, as governments increase monetary restrictions, people use bitcoins to protect their capital and to move money across borders.

In this regard, Gil Luria, Director of Research at Wedbush Securities, told the New York Times, “The more there is an expectation for new barriers to be erected, the more there is an expectation that Bitcoin will be valuable for moving money across borders.”

Each of these events strengthens Bitcoin’s path to prominence as a world currency. Additionally, as Bobby Lee, CEO of BTCC, predicts, “Bitcoin can serve as reserve for digital currencies globally.”  Moreover, says Lee, “Bitcoin’s blockchain can be the global anchor (proof-of-work chain) for all nationally created digital currencies.”

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Venezuelans Turn to Bitcoin to Escape Financial Hardships

Excerpt from Bitcoins.com

Venezuela has been suffering from significant economic decline and turbulent markets. Many worldwide and residents of the region blame the country’s socialist government and centrally planned economic choices. Over the past few months, it’s been reported quite frequently that Venezuelan citizens have been finding financial relief by utilizing the decentralized cryptocurrency bitcoin.

Bitcoin.com decided to reach out to Jorge Farias from the bitcoin company Cryptobuyer.io and the consulting agency Coincox to confirm these stories. Farias details how economic hardships are affecting Venezuelan residents and lots of them are in fact utilizing bitcoin. Many Venezuelans are finding profits in bitcoin mining, using the currency to purchase food and medicine, and improving their lives greatly by giving residents the tool they need to overcome these economic afflictions.

Venezuelan Residents Find Financial Solace By Using Bitcoin

Jorge Farias of Cryptobuyer and Coincox

Bitcoin.com (BC): How did you hear about and get involved with Bitcoin?

Jorge Farias (JF): I got involved just after the first Bitcoin halving in 2013. I read the Satoshi Nakamoto white paper, and this was an epiphany. A new economic system with almost no limits had been born.

BC: Can you tell our readers about Coincox.com?  

JF: Coincox.com is the only Venezuelan blockchain consulting firm focused on companies and institutions interested in bolstering the technology to improve processes such as intellectual property registration. We are working on projects with two banks and two Law firms, and want to expand our operations in Latin America.

BC: Can you tell us how Venezuela’s economic hardships are affecting the average citizen?

JF: In many ways, not only the middle class, but all levels of the society are fighting against food shortages and rising crime rates. Currently, the government is deploying a system to control food delivery by using QR codes and fingerprint identification; this might be the final step to fully controlled communist state using technology.

BC: The Venezuelan currency, the Bolivar, has lost significant value. Can you tell our readers about this?  

JF: Venezuela has the record of the highest inflation rate in the world today. The national currency, the Bolivar, lost 20% in one day in December of 2016, after the government ordered the demonetization of the highest bill circulating.

Just like India, there are long lines of people outside the central bank waiting hours to exchange their 100 Bolivar bills for a note, convertible in an undetermined future for news bills or a bank transfer, neither of these concepts have happened yet.

BC: Are Venezuelans hearing about the benefits of Bitcoin within the region?

JF: In the last few months the bitcoin community here is growing fast. There’s been a rise of the 450 % on searches of the word “Bitcoin” using Google. Localbitcoins operations have doubled in the last year, and our mainstream national media have published articles about the benefits of the underlying technology. For this reason, we launched Cryptobuyer.io, a digital assets platform that is for everyone, not just techies or bitcoiners. [It offers the opportunity] to buy and sell bitcoin using Bolivars.

Bitcoin’s Low Fees and Censorship Resistance Is Helping Latin America

BC: Do you believe a digital asset like Bitcoin can help Venezuelans?

JF: Of course, and it is happening. By utilizing Cryptobuyer and others platforms users in Venezuela are online freelancers and starting to accept bitcoin because it’s the only way to get paid without high fees, as most of them used Paypal before, but the money restrictions in Venezuela make it unusable.

Also, other users buy Amazon gift cards in the website using bitcoin to order food and medicine and send these goods to Venezuela using couriers services located in Miami, Florida