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January 28, Last Updated January 28, The cryptocurrency boom is pushing Canadian companies to join the global rush to find the cheapest sources of energy as computing competition drives power demands higher, resulting in crypto hotspots cropping up in communities like Drumheller, Winnipeg and Montreal.
Access to cheap energy is crucial because Bitcoin miners around the world are competing to solve the equations that feed into the blockchain that supports the currency.
The more computing power miners throw at the system, the better their chances of being rewarded with Bitcoin, said Clark. Thanks to the abundance of cheap natural gas and lower-than-expected demand growth, Alberta power prices are some of the cheapest around. Should prices rise, the company would simply put the metre containers that hold its data centres on wheelers and roll them to the next-cheapest energy spot, he said. A typical laptop might be able to make about 40 calculations a second, whereas the 1.
The company expects to have about 60 megawatts of installed capacity by the end of the year. The demand for computing and electrical power has led smaller previously pure-play energy companies to add cryptocurrency mining to the mix. Oil and gas explorer Iron Bridge Resources Inc. Chief executive Rob Colcleugh said the company is planing to pilot a roughly kilowatt crypto-mining operation to make use of the high Bitcoin prices and extremely low natural gas prices.
Meanwhile Toronto-based Blockchain Power Trust, which this year changed its name from Transeastern Power Trust, plans to use the renewable power it has been developing largely in Romania to power new cryptocurrency mining operations in the eastern European country. The rush in energy demand from cryptomining has led to dire warnings about the energy consumed by the power-hungry operations, especially with the large contingent of coal-powered mining in China.
The website Digiconomist currently estimates Bitcoin mining is consuming energy at a rate of about But the wide variables and rapidly evolving technology mean accurate estimates are difficult. Credit Suisse recently put power usage somewhere between 16 and 21 terawatt hours. With more companies looking to get in on Bitcoin mining though, the power demands are expected to keep climbing.
Filed under PMN Canada. Bitcoin miners search for cheap, innovative energy sources. There's no smoking gun to prove Jimmy DeMaria is a major crime boss. Cautious, smart and a 'workaholic' businessman, he's also well-practiced in bureaucratic war. The horror lives in the people who saw it, in the people who helped and those who wish they could have done more.
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