[2018-02-14]Iceland: A New Dream Island for Bitcoin miners?

[Vladdirescu87]

The inhabitants of Iceland are the first to consume more electricity on mining cryptocurrencies than on household needs. Perhaps it was possible due to magma-fuelled power plants. Volcanoes supply the island with a cheap and copious form of renewable energy.

Read the details in the article of Coinidol dot com, the world blockchain news outlet: https://coinidol.com/iceland-a-new-dream-island-for-bitcoin-miners/

[RodeoX]

Last year I visited Iceland and saw some of the mining operations in keflavik. Later Danny Hamilton asked me to find out the cost of electricity there. It turns out to not be a super deal. While electricity is cheap there, it still costs enough to be a factor.   If I remember it was $0.13 / kilowatt. Not bad, but hardly free.

[richardsNY]

If I remember it was $0.13 / kilowatt. Not bad, but hardly free.

I assume that's just the regular rate that the average people there end up paying? In most cases for very large power consumers (which miners are part of obviously) there are lower prices that they can work with, and especially so if they consistently require a minimum amount of power to be delivered. It's a basic principle that the more of something you are buying, the lower the unit price becomes. I wonder how many farms are actually planning to make the move to Iceland, especially with how other Scandinavian countries provide similar power rates and climate conditions.

[RodeoX]

If I remember it was $0.13 / kilowatt. Not bad, but hardly free.

I assume that's just the regular rate that the average people there end up paying? In most cases for very large power consumers (which miners are part of obviously) there are lower prices that they can work with, and especially so if they consistently require a minimum amount of power to be delivered. It's a basic principle that the more of something you are buying, the lower the unit price becomes. I wonder how many farms are actually planning to make the move to Iceland, especially with how other Scandinavian countries provide similar power rates and climate conditions.

Yes, I think your right about that. I was not able to find anyone who knew about bulk purchasing of electricity so I don't know how much that lowers the cost of mining.

[tiggytomb]

I saw something about this recently on Panorama, they were explaining that it is cheaper to have a mining operation in Iceland due to the cheapness of the power and also because the climate is cold it is cheaper to cool the servers as you are pulling in the cold air from outside, pretty impressive stuff to see the size of the mining operations over there.

[odolvlobo]

The aluminum industry in Iceland uses 15 times as much power as residential usage.

[Lucius]

Some mining companies are present in Iceland for years,but by the news coming from Iceland great interest has begun to appear some six months ago.Now there is no way to host all projects who showed interest for mining operation,the reason is simple, there is not enough energy.

Recent news say that the question of taxation began to appear these days,it is very strange that mining companies who operate in Iceland do not pay tax.So maybe this is the reason why even with slightly more expensive cost of electricity is profitable to mining there.

If that changes and Iceland introduces taxation on crypto mining will this affect on mining companies to stay or to look for more favorable locations?

[MCVXYZ]

Some mining companies are present in Iceland for years,but by the news coming from Iceland great interest has begun to appear some six months ago.Now there is no way to host all projects who showed interest for mining operation,the reason is simple, there is not enough energy.

Recent news say that the question of taxation began to appear these days,it is very strange that mining companies who operate in Iceland do not pay tax.So maybe this is the reason why even with slightly more expensive cost of electricity is profitable to mining there.

If that changes and Iceland introduces taxation on crypto mining will this affect on mining companies to stay or to look for more favorable locations?

Of course it will change,just imagine People in Iceland use 700 gigawatt per year and miners 840,this will not good for power engineering in this country,they need more profit from this,to be more interests from institutional investors.despite the fact that thay have geyser it does not mean that there will not be disbalance,but olso It is not excluded from goverment to find a new ways to solve this problem,So I just said my opinion which is obvious,Let's leave everything behind and  think not only about electricity there are cheap workers too,thats why Iceland is more attractive.