IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Iceland is getting a large cryptocurrency mine that runs on what?

Answer: 100 percent clean and sustainable energy.

As the mining of cryptocurrencies rises, so too do concerns about the practice’s environmental impacts. Mining cryptocurrencies requires computing power, which uses electricity and causes CO2 emissions. At the end of 2017, it was estimated that mining one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, bitcoin, was consuming as much energy as the entire country of Serbia. And that energy consumption is expected to grow.

Enter the MoonLite Project, an organization aiming to become one of the world’s largest for mining cryptocurrencies. In April of this year, in Iceland, MoonLite will commence construction on a very large cryptocurrency mining data center that will be powered entirely by low-cost, environmentally friendly and sustainable energy.

“Our data center, and future data centers, will always make use of 100 percent clean and renewable energy sources, such as energy being generated from hydro, wind and geothermal sources,” MoonLite Project founder and CEO Eric Krige told Digital Trends. According to Krige, the Iceland center will operate at a 15-megawatt capacity and be able to mine about $8 million worth of cryptocurrency per month.

 

 

Kate is a senior copy editor in Northern California. She holds a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in professional writing from the University of California, Davis.