The popularity of a stylish bathhouse in Brooklyn soared recently after it proudly announced its use of bitcoin mining to produce heat for its pools and steam room.
Source: Bathhouse Instagram
“Fun fact! Did you know our pools are heated with byproduct energy from Bitcoin mining?” shared Williamsburg’s Bathhouse on Instagram, causing an inflow of comments, far exceeding their typical engagement.
How the Bathhouse Uses Miners to Heat its Pools
In a video, the complex procedure of the works is explained in a few straightforward steps. The narrator explains that the first step is to engage in bitcoin mining. “This process uses electricity for computational power and, in turn, produces heat as a secondary outcome.”
Source : Bathhouse Instagram
Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process that involves the utilization of specialized software and hardware to find the next block, validating transactions within the network.
The video further explains that the heat produced by the mining process is directed to heat exchangers, effectively warming the pools. The pools absorb the generated heat and circulate cooled water back to the miners. The final step stated, is to “relish in the warm pool experience while contributing to the Bitcoin network.”
The energy intensive nature of bitcoin mining has caused controversial debates over the environmental effects it might have.
Related reading : Is Bitcoin Mining Really That Bad for the Environment?
Related reading : Bitcoin Mining Ban Will Hurt New York and Our Environment
Controversy Among Users
“This makes me like Bathhouse less,” a user commented. “Now I’m concerned about who is mining this cryptocurrency, who is profiting from it, and whether I support that.”
Meanwhile, the innovation received praise from various individuals:
“This is awesome. I pretty much never leave Manhattan but I just booked a massage.”
The company however, maintains a strong enthusiasm for its business model.
Bathhouse Explains its Energy Model
Jason Goodman, co-founder of Bathhouse has stated that rather than using electricity for a conventional pool heater, they take advantage of it to operate the miners. As a result, they put the energy to better use, because the energy that is already used for heating the pools is now powering the miners.
Related reading : IMF: Bitcoin Mining Allows Countries to Monetize Their Energy Resources
He added:
“… Therefore, we are able to use this electricity ‘twice’ in a certain sense … We are able to recover a lot of our energy costs while supporting the bitcoin network and nerding out on a fun engineering project.“
“From our perspective, if bitcoin is able to have even a small percentage of positive impact that we think it might, it would be important to be open minded about it,” Bathhouse explains in an FAQ page on their website.
