The upcoming carbon-free digital asset mining operations in Bhutan complement Bitdeer’s international expansion, with existing data centers in Northern Europe and North America
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The crypto cloud mining service platform Bitdeer joined Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), the Royal Government of Bhutan commercial arm, to develop environmentally sustainable, carbon-free digital asset mining operations in the Himalayas.
The partners are planning to seek institutional investors who can fund their project. The total fund worth is expected to reach up to $500 million. Fundraising will begin at the end of May.
Bitdeer’s expertise in the field and tech support will be helpful for DHI to advance digital asset mining and investment as well as other blockchain initiatives in Bhutan.
The main goal of the initiative is to tap Bhutan’s abundant hydroelectric power for carbon-free digital asset mining. The partners believe that mining is the least risky way for the Kingdom to tap crypto opportunities. Initially, the nation will focus on Bitcoin.
In addition, the initiative includes investments in various strategic areas including renewable energy assets, blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning systems, carbon credit platforms and the metaverse.
Forest-rich Bhutan has long tried to diversify its national economy, largely reliant on hydropower revenues. Therefore, besides managing the government’s investments in traditional areas like stocks, bonds, technology, energy and real estate, DHI also targets crypto mining and investment within its “future-facing” strategy.
Bitdeer, which is one of the top crypto miners by computer power, expects to set up a 100-megawatt operation in Bhutan. According to the approximate timeline, construction is expected to start in the second quarter of 2023 and be completed between July – September 2023.
Despite many speculations on the environmental hazards of crypto mining, some countries manage to use the emerging technology in a sustainable way. For instance, a hydro-powered crypto mining project Gridless Compute has illustrated that Bitcoin mining can power the whole rural settlement in Kenya.
In the US, efforts were made to utilize nuclear energy for Bitcoin mining. That approach not only exceeds hydroelectric and solar-powered mining in efficiency but also uses the energy otherwise ‘lost’.
