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Marathon Uses Bitcoin Mining To Heat Town of 11,000 in Finland

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1 week ago

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Today, Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA), a leader in Bitcoin mining, has launched an innovative pilot project to recycle heat generated from Bitcoin mining to warm a community in Finland. The 2-megawatt data center, energized at the end of May, is located in the Satakunta region, home to 11,000 residents.

“This pilot project in Finland is a critical step forward in our strategy to expand globally and innovate sustainably,” said Fred Thiel, Marathon’s chairman and CEO. “We are not just producing digital assets; we are heating homes and integrating sustainable practices into our business model. We believe that this kind of innovation can drive the advancement of the digital asset compute industry and further strengthen Marathon’s leading position in the field.”

The initiative marks Marathon’s first district heating project and its debut in Europe. District heating involves centrally heating water and distributing it through underground pipes to heat local buildings. Finland, known for its clean energy mix, relies heavily on biomass for district heating. By utilizing heat from digital asset data centers, the project aims to reduce carbon emissions and operating costs.

Marathon's ASIC Heating Setup

“Europe’s colder climate has given rise to an extensive network of district heating systems that provide warmth to millions of residents,” Marathon stated in its new Heating with Hashes report, published in full below. “This same climate has attracted a different industry – data centers – which benefit from reduced energy consumption and infrastructure costs associated with the cooler temperatures. The share of electricity consumed by data centers in the EU is at least double the global average, with data centers accounting for around 3% of the EU’s electricity consumption compared, to 1.0-1.5% globally. These energy-intensive facilities generate 3 significant amounts of heat, creating a unique opportunity for strategic partnerships with district heating systems.”

“One industry needs heat, while the other generates plenty of it,” Marathon continued in the report. “Instead of wasting the abundant heat produced by data centers, it could be recycled to meet heating demand. This innovation transforms an unwanted byproduct of data centers into a valuable resource for district heating systems, reducing costs and waste for everyone involved while reducing the need for inefficient, carbon-emitting heat sources.”

Marathon's Heating with Hashes Report

The project is part of Marathon’s broader commitment to sustainability, expanding its footprint to twelve sites across four continents. According to Future Market Insights Inc, the district heating market is projected to grow from $198 billion to $340 billion by 2033, offering significant growth opportunities. By recycling heat, Marathon aims to enhance its sustainability portfolio and explore new revenue streams, aligning with its goal of achieving zero-cost power for digital asset computing.

“Following the success of our pilot project in Utah, where we demonstrated that it is both economically viable and environmentally beneficial to use landfill gas for digital asset compute, we have continued to experiment with innovative ways that our operations can add value beyond securing distributed ledgers, like Bitcoin’s,” stated Adam Swick, Marathon’s chief growth officer. “This pilot project in Finland is our first attempt to convert the heat that we produce as a byproduct of our operations into a valuable resource for a local community. We look forward to gathering more data from this project as we look for additional ways to leverage digital asset compute to build a more sustainable future.”

For more information about Marathon’s sustainability initiatives, visit their website here. Those interested in reading Marathon’s full Heating with Hashes report can do so below:





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Biden Administration

Trump’s Appeal to Bitcoin Miners Is a Wakeup Call for Crypto to Stay Apolitical

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3 weeks ago

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June 12, 2024

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Many see it as frankly embarrassing to be buddying up with any politician, putting aside Trump’s Napoleonic sized ego. Bitcoin writer and privacy advocate L0la L33tz, for one, wrote a whole essay about the subject, arguing that politicians cannot be trusted, that Trump failed to deliver on many of his previous campaign promises, and that Bitcoin doesn’t really even need political support.



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Bitcoin

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits New Record High With 5% Rise

Published

7 months ago

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November 26, 2023

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The Bitcoin mining difficulty has witnessed another increase in 2023, bringing the metric to a new all-time high. The Bitcoin “difficulty” is a vital aspect of the network that controls the rate at which new blocks are added to the blockchain at a given time.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Surges To A New High Of 67.96T

According to data from BTC Blockchain Explorer, the Bitcoin network experienced a significant adjustment at block height 818,496. This caused the blockchain’s difficulty to soar by 5.07%, reaching a new all-time high of 67.96 T.

The mining difficulty is an essential feature that measures how much power is required to verify transaction blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain. An increase in mining difficulty value suggests higher demand for the Bitcoin network, while a lower difficulty value implies that there are fewer miners on the network.

It is worth noting that the metric has been on an upward trend in the past few weeks. In fact, the recent mining difficulty value represents the sixth consecutive increase in the last six adjustments.

Interestingly, the new mining difficulty value surpassed the early projections for the blockchain. Initially, the Bitcoin mining difficulty was only expected to increase by about 3.8% to 67.14 T in the latest adjustment.

The network hash rate, which measures the total computing power for mining BTC, has also increased. According to BTC Blockchain Explorer, the current average hash rate for the Bitcoin network is 504.8 EH/s, a 3.76% increase from a previous hash rate of 486.5 EH/s.

Some of the factors contributing to the increasing Bitcoin mining difficulty are BTC’s recent price performance, the recent surge in network activity, and the spike in transaction fees. And as the metric continues to rise, it appears that miners will continue to face the challenge of maintaining profitability. 

BTC Price Overview

As of this writing, Bitcoin is valued at $37,510, reflecting a 0.6% price increase in the past day. While the premier cryptocurrency seems to be drifting away from the $38,000 price mark, it has managed to maintain most of its profit on the weekly timeframe.

According to data from CoinGecko, the Bitcoin price has swelled by more than 2.7% in the past seven days. Meanwhile, the market leader has registered a 10% increase in the past month, emphasizing its strong performance in November.

Bitcoin remains the largest cryptocurrency in the sector, with a market capitalization of over $733 billion.

Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin price drifts away from $38,000 on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView

Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView





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Asia

Kazakh crypto miners plead with president to cut energy prices

Published

9 months ago

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October 3, 2023

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Local crypto-mining operators in Kazakhstan — the world’s third-largest market in terms of Bitcoin mining hash rate — are complaining about high energy prices to the country’s president. 

According to local media, eight major cryptocurrency mining operators signed an open letter to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The list includes BCD Company, TT TECH Limited, KZ Systems, AI Solutions, Green Power Solution, VerCom and Kinur Invest.

Related: Kazakhstan establishes regulatory agency to implement CBDC

The letter states that the Kazakh crypto mining industry is in a “very distressful situation” because of high energy prices for miners. According to the text:

“As of today, all major industry players have suspended their activities and plan to completely cease their business in the Republic of Kazakhstan by the end of the year.” 

The executives who signed the letter believe that the situation with prices derails the government’s efforts to regulate the crypto industry in general and mining in particular. According to the letter, the problem is a consequence of the decision to raise taxes on energy for crypto miners. Because of the taxes, the country has already lost its position among crypto mining leaders like the United States, Russia and China, and the industry stands on the brink of extinction. The letter claims:

“If the government does not take urgent measures, the digital mining industry in the Republic of Kazakhstan will cease to exist.” 

The country introduced taxes on digital mining on Jan. 1, 2022, based on electricity consumption by mining entities. The law emerged amid growing national frustration with crypto miners’ undertaxed usage of the national power grid. 

Even at the highest mark, 1 kilowatt hour (kWh) of taxed electricity in Kazakhstan costs miners around $0.067, significantly lower than the average of $0.12 per kWh before any taxes in the United States. According to the data from the Kazakh government, it received around 3.07 billion tenges ($7 million) in tax payments from crypto mining entities in 2022.