after devouring nearly as much energy as all of Iceland’s households combined, Bitcoin miners may be about to return something to the community that’s housed them
iceland is looking past the faddishness of cryptocurrencies and toward other projects that need the same kind of infrastructure that Bitcoin miners rely on. These include areas like deep learning applications for self-driving cars or automatic translators
bitcoin probably won’t be here far into the future said Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson, business development manager at the HS Orka power plant in Iceland, which provides electricity to the data centers that miners use. But the centers themselves will become new technology incubators, and “that’s the bet we’re making he said
Mining for Bitcoin requires lots of energy, both to do the actual mining but also to cool the enormous computers used to crack the codes that release the limited supply of Bitcoin. Iceland estimates the industry will consume more than 100 megawatts by the end of the year
Knowledge
Gisli Kr Katrinarson, chief commercial officer at Iceland’s biggest data center operator, Advania Data Centers, says it has “developed immense knowledge about the most efficient ways to operate and maintain these blockchain systems" and is now using this knowledge and experience "to increase the quality of service for our customers