Bitcoin in the bush – crypto mining brings power to rural areas

Zambezi’s roar is a deaf, as millions of gallons of water collide with the rocks and beyond the rapids.

However, another sound is cut through the trees of Zambia.

“It’s the sound of money!” Philip Walton, who laughs as he investigates the transport container with 120 computers through the complex calculation of verifying Bitcoin Transactions.

In return, they automatically reward Bitcoin on the network.

We are at the northwestern end of Zambia near the border with the DRC, the strange of all Bitcoin mine I visited.

Water and electronic equipment are usually not mixed well, but here are proximity to the river that draws Bitcoin.

Phillip ‘s mine is directly connected to a hydroelectric power plant and creates continuous and clean electricity by talking about Zambezi’s turbulence through a huge turbine.

More important for Bitcoin mining is cheaper.

So Gridlet, headquartered in Kenya, a low price, dragged a business container to attract a shipping container filled with a delicate bitcoin mining computer on a bumpy narrow road for 14 hours in the nearest major cities.

Each machine creates about $ 5 (£ 3.90) per day. If the price of coins is higher, more cases.

Sometimes Phillip is a home screen that shows the constant squeak of the dollar value of Bitcoin, which is noticeable in his smartwatch.

Currently, coins are about $ 80,000, but Philip says that thanks to its low -cost electricity and partnerships with energy companies, it can benefit even if the value of Bitcoin is low.

“We knew we had to have a partner relationship with Power Company and provide a profitable stake in order to get a better mining economics.

Zengama Hydro -Power Plant is a huge but technically standalone -based power island for the community.

It was built in the early 2000s thanks to the $ 3 million due to charity donations.

The UK-Daniel Rea, a missionary family, runs a site where a missionary family leads the building project and mainly supplies the local hospitals.

Now, it supplies electricity to about 15,000 people in the region, but the project has not been completed due to the slow take -up in the community.

Bitcoiners can make a store here that has changed in business.

“Every day we were wasting more than half of the energy we could create, which meant that we did not get from it to meet the cost of operating. We needed the main power users of this area, and there was a game change partnership with Gridless,” Daniel says.

Bitcoin mine now accounts for about 30%of the factory income, which helps to lower the price of local cities.

Bitcoin and its economics, of course, are far from the hearts of ZENGAMINA.

The city itself is a few miles away from the plant and consists of dozens of warehouses that solve the cross road.

Only one store has a refrigerator and a child with a refrigerator around the co -computer requires an intersection.

The hydroelectric plant came online in 2007, but it took several years to connect to the local city and it took more time to connect individual houses and business.

Therefore, some people, such as Barber Damian, still enjoy the novelty that is connected a year and a half ago.

“I had nothing and I couldn’t do anything until I got my strength. When I got power, I bought everything at the same time.”

He is not a joke. His small barber shop at night is a sign of a force with a music video that plays a TV, a Christmas lighting string and a hair clipper’s buzz. Like moths, young people go to the barber shop like a youth hostel.

“My life has changed my life,” he laughed. “The money you are receiving at the barber shop is helping to pay the school costs again.”

Accepting electricity is Damian’s business decision. At home he shares one bulb between the two rooms that make up a small house.

TUMBA and Lucy Machayi are sitting in the intersection as they see the world passing.

Like many young people, they are on the phone.

Lucy said, “It was basically President Bush before the village gained strength.”

They say the small electricity from a small solar panel.

“There are no refrigerators, TVs, mobile phone networks,” Tumba said.

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

“We can call for a call, have a network. We can communicate with each other.”

Many people here do not know or take care of Bitcoin mine, which helps hydro factories continue to work.

But soon they will see that the container once again attacks the way to another position.

Zengama Hydro has secured a big investment to expand to more villages and join the National Grid.

Soon the excessive energy harvested by the mine will be sold again as the National Grid, and the mining bitcoin will no longer be profitable in Zengamina.

Phillip and the team claim that this is a great and good news. They would have succeeded here for several years and ultimately helped Zengamina. Of course, I got a clean profit from Bitcoin.

The company says there are many so -called stranded energy.

Grids already have six these sites in three African countries.

Another Bitcoin mine in the north of Zengamina springs excessive energy at a hydroelectric plant operated by Virunga National Park in Congo. The park said it is helping to fund the preservation project.

But Gridless now plans to move ambitious. For Bitcoin, you make your hydroelectric plants a mine from the beginning and bring electricity to rural areas.

JANET MAINGI, co -founder of the company, says the company is busy raising tens of millions of dollars for the project.

They focus on the so-called RUN-of Run-of Run-Of Run-Hydroelectric model, as in Zengamina, and the continent is rich in “unexplored hydro power” she said.

“Consumer -centered energy models are essential for expandable, inexpensive, and sustainable energy approaches that meet the needs of the African community,” she explains.

The company believes that it is not a charity, and it can only be carried out through Bitcoin to ensure long -term economic survival for developers and investors.

Finding a place for new plants or using existing plants is an easy part.

The company still faces resistance from some authorities and companies that consider Bitcoin as energy grease and selfish electricity that can be used by rural people.

But the company claims that incentives should always sell to the highest buyers and will always be a community.

History shows that without incentives or rules, Bitcoin mining -scale bitcoin mining can burden the public energy grid. In Kazakhstan in 2020-2021, the government was fixed and the mining boom increased by 7% before clamping the rapid industrial wings.

In the United States, the new mecca of Bitcoin mining was common when the conflict between local residents and residents was high in demand.

The authorities signed a contract with some mining giants to power the warehouse filled with computers until the grid was balanced.

For example, New York’s GreenIdge GAS power plant was mandatory to supply electricity to the grid during the cold snap by strengthening mining in January.

If Donald Trump’s “Bitcoin” is “mining, mint and the United States” ambitions, such contracts should be widespread.

The environmental impact of the industry is also a big concern. Bitcoin mining is presumed to use as much energy as small countries like Poland.

However, according to researchers at Cambridge University, an annual estimates for the use of Bitcoin’s energy use, a change in a more sustainable energy mix has been made.

The same setting as this Zengamina is a small part of the entire mining photo.

But they are also rare examples of controversial industries and creates more than just digital coins.