Some 350 meters under the ground, Northern Bitcoin has set up a mining farm inside of the Lefdal mine in Norway, which it claims has the highest mining efficiency in the world. According to the company, it costs USD 2,700 to mine 1 Bitcoin, as compared to the average of USD 7,700 in Norway, USD 10,000 in Australia, USD 4,000 in Canada, and USD 3,100 in China and Saudi Arabia.
The mine is located next to a deep and cold fjord, which provides all the cooling the mining operation needs, as opposed to typical mining operations which require expensive air conditioning. Further, there is ample hydroelectric power and wind power being generated throughout the fjord.
The Lefdal mine used to extract olivine, a beautiful green gemstone but was closed ten years ago. It has now been transformed into a sprawling underground computer center. Northern Bitcoin plans on increasing its capacity until it can mine 100 Bitcoins per day, which would necessitate the control of more than 5% of the Bitcoin network hash rate, or nearly 3 Exahash/s.
The USD 2,700 cost for mining a Bitcoin means that in a scenario where the price of Bitcoin collapsed below USD 3,000 and mining operations worldwide were forced to close, Northern Bitcoin would continue to profitably mine. Previously, the most profitable and prolific mining operations were in China near massive hydroelectric dams, where there is an abundance of cheap energy.
This Northern Bitcoin mining farm highlights how Bitcoin mining is not necessarily damaging to the environment. The hydroelectric and wind energy consumed by the mine is 100% carbon neutral, contradicting theories that Bitcoin mining will be a primary cause of catastrophic global warming.
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