BT Daily News: BitNile Expects Bitcoin Mining Run Rate to Double by Year-End
1. BitNile Expects Bitcoin Mining Run Rate to Double by Year-End
BitNile Holdings Inc. is expecting its Bitcoin mining production run rate to nearly double by the end of the year.
The investment holding company said Monday that its run rate is projected to hit 4.7 bitcoin a day by month's end and 9.3 bitcoin a day by year's end with the help of new miners being installed this month.
By the end of September, BitNile expects to have 7,500 miners at its Michigan data center and 6,500 miners at a Texas facility hosted by Computer North LLC.
Among those miners are 2,004 S19j Pro Antminers that had previously been held by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for review and audit.
2. Did the Ethereum Merge Drop ‘Worldwide Electricity Consumption’ by 0.2%?
Last week, hot off the heels of the Merge, a complicated plan to swap Ethereum’s infrastructure without interrupting the multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency network, Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin reshared data suggesting “worldwide electricity consumption” could be reduced by 0.2% as a result.This talking point, originally discussed by Ethereum researcher Justin Drake, was picked up by U.S. congressmen, technologists and Ethereum’s community, who are right to celebrate the network’s vastly smaller carbon footprint. Proof-of-stake, Ethereum’s new algorithm for processing transactions, would use approximately 99% less power than the proof-of-work (PoW) system Ethereum used to run.
Drake estimated that Ethereum’s total energy consumption before the Merge was around 0.34% of the world’s total. It would be incorrect to say the Merge itself would reduce “worldwide electricity consumption” by that total amount, seeing as many mining machines that once supplied hash power to Ethereum were immediately pointed to alternative PoW blockchains.
Ethereum may be vastly more energy-efficient than it was just a week ago, but the question now becomes whether its PoW-based competitors will grow as large. Ethereum mining used approximately 72 terawatt-hours per year, about as much as the country of Austria, according to Digiconomist, a typically critical economics blog run by Alex de Vries.
3. Bitcoin Miner Bitfarms Starts Production in Argentina, Increases Hashrate to 4.1 EH/s
Bitcoin (BTC) miner Bitfarms (BITF) started production in Argentina, increasing its computing power, or hashrate, to 4.1 exahash/second (EH/s).The Canadian miner added 10 megawatts (MW) of power capacity to its portfolio, but it aims to bring online a total of 50 MW in 10 MW increments in one warehouse in Argentina by the end of the year, according to a press release on Monday. Bitfarms started construction of a second 50 MW warehouse in the country, which is expected to be completed at the start of the second quarter of 2023, the press release said.
"With attractive electricity pricing established last year under an eight-year private party power contract, both facilities are expected to lower overall energy costs for our portfolio, despite rising commodity costs in the energy market," Geoff Morphy, president and chief operating officer of Bitfarms, said in the press release.
Bitfarms expects the cost of energy at the 50 MW bitcoin mine that was started up, located in Rio Cuarto, will be the lowest across the 10 sites in its portfolio.
4. Working Group to Develop Efficiency Standard for Crypto Mining in Russia
A group of crypto specialists have teamed up to elaborate a standard that should improve the overall efficiency of mining and in particular the use of energy to mint digital currencies. The set of rules and procedures will be designed to increase the time the expensive data processing equipment operates under optimal load which should result in higher profitability.The standard, which is expected to be released for adoption in February next year, will be prepared by members of the Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (Racib), the cryptocurrency sector, and other associated industries, the Russian crypto news outlet Bits.media reported this week.
A scientific approach, with computer modeling of temperatures and speeds, should help to improve the quality of engineering solutions for mining modules, Yuri Kudryashov is convinced. It should also allow the proper calibration of ventilation systems, taking into account indicators such as humidity, season, region, and the particular location where a crypto mining unit is installed, the official elaborated.
According to Vera Burtseva, strategic marketing director at Vekus Group, the efficiency standard the working group is tasked to develop will reduce shutdowns of mining hardware and downtime due to extreme weather conditions, and decrease maintenance costs while increasing the equipment’s operating time and service life.
5. Crypto Miner Bitdeer Buys Le Freeport in Singapore
Bitdeer Technologies has bought Le Freeport for S$40 million ($28 million), according to a «Bloomberg» report that confirmed the deal via text message. Separately, records from the accounting regulator found that the purchase took place in July.Bitdeer is backed and chaired by crypto billionaire Wu Jihan, who co-founded Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies, the world’s largest miner, in 2013 before relinquishing control in January 2021. Wu also has a long-term residency in Singapore.
Dubbed Asia’s Fort Knox, Le Freeport launched in Singapore in 2010 with ambitious plans to store valuables for clients including bullion traders JPMorgan and UBS. The maximum-security vault was founded by Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, who had 70 percent ownership.
According to unnamed sources in the report, Freeport was built at the cost of S$100 million – more than double the sale price.
Of the S$40 million used to purchase the vault, around three-quarters was used to pay creditors including DBS. And after repaying debt and costs, Bouvier and other shareholders received about S$5 million from the sale.