Inquiries to use B.C. Hydro grid power continue to add up while the province worries whether new connections will crowd out greenhouse gas objectives.
B.C. Hydro continues to receive inquiries from would-be cryptocurrency miners even as the province has hit pause on new connections to the power grid and new evidence questions the environmental sustainability of the so-called mining process.
For bitcoin, the first and most prominent so-called cryptocurrency, digital assets are created by computers solving hugely complex equations to unlock fractions of individual coins. Then every solution must be verified by other computers in what the industry refers to as the blockchain. Bitcoin mines are huge data centres filled with computer servers churning away at the necessary calculations, often 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Using the analysis of the non-profit tech firm WattTime, the newspaper estimated that the 34 largest bitcoin mines in the U.S. caused almost 15 million tonnes a year in greenhouse gas emissions. Any time bitcoins or fractions of coins are sold or exchanged, those transactions also need to be verified.
British Columbia isn’t alone in limiting new cryptocurrency operations. Manitoba put a moratorium on new crypto mining last year and Quebec has put restrictions on the industry that include higher rates and a requirement to curtail operations during peak demand.
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