[2019-08-23] Bitcoin Miners Are Heating Homes Free of Charge in Frigid Siberia

[rjbtc2017]

Bitcoin Miners Are Heating Homes Free of Charge in Frigid Siberia
by: Anna Baydokova

Hotmine CEO Oles Slobodenyuk couldn’t have picked a better place to pitch his product: a bitcoin mining rig that doubles as a home heating appliance.

Irkutsk, Eastern Siberia, is famously cold in the winter, when subzero temperatures are the norm. So a few weeks ago, when Slobodenyuk took the stage at the Baikal Blockchain and Crypto Forum with one of Hotmine’s little white boxes in tow, he opened with a joke about the warm August weather.

“I was told that in Irkutsk, the average temperature of the air is minus 2 degrees Celsius, so I brought a radiator with me,” he said.

Eventually, Slobodenyuk told the crowd, Hotmine aspires to sell up to 200,000 of its devices to Irkutsk residents. But the Ukraine-based company’s ultimate ambitions are even greater.

“Our goal is to reach the point where 80 percent of all mining is done with the smart use of the hot air it’s producing, at the same time protecting the bitcoin network,” Slobodenyuk told CoinDesk, adding:

“We believe mining should become decentralized again, with a full node in every home.”

It’s a lofty goal, given that the four largest mining pools control about 60 percent of the total hashrate, or processing power devoted to securing the bitcoin network, according to BTC.com. But like bitcoin itself, Hotmine will seek to employ economic incentives to achieve its decentralist ideals.

According to Slobodenyuk, each Hotmine miner performs calculations at a rate of 8 tera hashes per second (th/s). With the current price of bitcoin, he said, 1 th/s earns about $7.20 a month, so a single heater can make about $55 for its owner while radiating heat for up to 10 square meters.

While the concept itself isn’t new — last year, a French company called Qarnot announced a CPU-based mining heater that earns ether, for example – Hotmine is focusing on a region where it’s likelier to resonate.

At the current prices for electricity in Irkutsk of 1-2 cents per kilowatt-hour, one heater needs less than $10 worth of power per month, so effectively the heat would be free, plus a modest income in bitcoin, Slobodenyuk said.

Even the coming halving, or periodic reduction in the amount of new bitcoin awarded to miners, won’t hurt this model, he claimed.
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[joelsamuya]

This is just like hitting two birds using one stone: getting the rewards for Bitcoin mining and getting free heat out of the operation. I am sure this can be a big hit for people in that are where temperature is normally beyond zero. In many mining facilities, the heat has become a big challenge  but in this case the heat can be very useful. Personally, I am looking at this as a very innovative and simple idea but let's see if there can be a good market reaction for the product. Mining in tropical areas can be challenging these days but doing so in cold areas can be another thing.

[Lucius]

This is old news, we read about this a year ago, maybe more - but winter is coming in a few months and I guess someone want to promote such way of heating homes and making some profit in same time. It is so popular in that part of Russia that it is called Bitcoin Babushkas, which would mean it is used even by some grannies in their homes.

You can see what it looks like in this video : https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-46634596/bitcoin-babushkas-cryptocurrency-mining-in-siberia

[Vishnu.Reang]

The devil is in the details. Electricity cost in Irkutsk is around 1/10th of that in the United States and other developed nations. So in case some individual decides to start Bitcoin mining, he has to worry only about the capital costs. The electricity charges are going to be negligible. But setting up a mining farm in such remote regions can pose a big challenge, in terms of logistics and transport.

[Theb]

The idea itself is simple but the plan is way too complicated to achieve. To keep it simple Hotmine is entrusting normal citizens their mining rigs to heat up their homes at the same time earn from them, expanding your business this way to people who barely or don't have any knowledge about crypto mining let alone cryptocurrencies seems like an impossible task to achieve a 100% efficiency. The citizens who have received mining rigs will act out as a caretaker observing the mining rigs and know simple troubleshooting just in case the equipment is not working properly. Expecting that kind of task is being achieve by each one of them seems to be unlikely and it would take more than several orientations to achieve this.

[Naida_BR]

This is a real use case of cryptocurrencies and especially of mining.
There are a lot of people who want to keep their homes hot during winter and they have to spend a lot of money for woods or gas for heating. By mining bitcoin they can keep their homes heated and earn money (or reduce their cost of heating),
I hope that this movement is going to expand around Siberia,

[buwaytress]

This is old news, we read about this a year ago, maybe more - but winter is coming in a few months and I guess someone want to promote such way of heating homes and making some profit in same time. It is so popular in that part of Russia that it is called Bitcoin Babushkas, which would mean it is used even by some grannies in their homes.

You can see what it looks like in this video : https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-46634596/bitcoin-babushkas-cryptocurrency-mining-in-siberia

I REMEMBER Bitcoin Babushkas from a while back yeah. Never had the chance to meet anyone from anywhere remotely close to that part of the world. Was very tempted to take the train to Irkutsk and check stuff out when on my last Central Asian trip by train, but the journey would have been too long for too little prospects.

I wonder what energy alternatives to mine there are there though. No solar for much of the year. Wind?

[Lucius]

But setting up a mining farm in such remote regions can pose a big challenge, in terms of logistics and transport.

Irkutsk is not so remote as many may think, it is relatively close to the Mongolian border, and China is not so far away. Some people have small mining farms there, but this is more about ordinary people who have few miners in their homes that serve them as heaters, but also as source of income since electricity has a very low cost there. Return on investment based on video I posted is some 8-9 months (if that babushka is not drink too much vodka)

I wonder what energy alternatives to mine there are there though. No solar for much of the year. Wind?

I doubt anyone try to find any energy alternatives with so cheap electricity, and solar is not something we should count on in that part of world, maybe wind can be option, but I did not find any info about that. But I find possible reason for such cheap electricity, Irkutsk is have big Hydroelectric Power Station on Angara River.

[veleten]

The devil is in the details. Electricity cost in Irkutsk is around 1/10th of that in the United States and other developed nations. So in case some individual decides to start Bitcoin mining, he has to worry only about the capital costs. The electricity charges are going to be negligible. But setting up a mining farm in such remote regions can pose a big challenge, in terms of logistics and transport.

the electricity costs in Irkutsk are very low , in 2016-2017 it was around 1 rouble kw/h
it is roughly 1.6 cents , but it is because of the vicinity of the IrkutskEnergo hydropower station
foreign companies were studying business opportunities there long time ago , for example:  https://cryptovest.com/news/eastern-siberia-lures-crypto-miners-with-cheap-electricity/
"According to the project documentation, the combined electricity costs will amount to $0.07 per KWh"
for mining companies it is like a heaven on Earth but the problem is indeed in logistics transportation ... and the local authorities 
try setting up a business there yourself and you would understand what am I talking about

[NeuroticFish]

At least some of the miners are fairly noisy too. So I am not sure who is doing it really in the same place they live/sleep.
The news is probably paid news in order to advertise Hotmine company and its products. So it's not really about the miners we discuss about on the daily basis.
And clearly it's not about mining farms, on which, already well pointed out, I'd also say it may not be smart to start a mining farm business there.

[carlfebz2]

At least some of the miners are fairly noisy too. So I am not sure who is doing it really in the same place they live/sleep.
The news is probably paid news in order to advertise Hotmine company and its products. So it's not really about the miners we discuss about on the daily basis.
And clearly it's not about mining farms, on which, already well pointed out, I'd also say it may not be smart to start a mining farm business there.

Same question on my mind too on how this one is possible considering miners are too noisy and getting rid of the noise wont really be that simple.
So i do see that this is some sort of advertising.They can utilize up the heat produced by these miners but can you live together with the noise? I dont think so.

[BitHodler]

 
try setting up a business there yourself and you would understand what am I talking about

That's what I am thinking about each time I see people talk about how certain countries offer super low electricity rates or tax advantages to start-ups. They don't think about how unstable the governments are.

Belarus is an example of such a country-- they offer very low taxation to even no taxation at all, but who is going to take that offer knowing how unstable the government there is?

If the government decides to change the laws and you're trapped in, you're pretty much toasted. Aside from some local initiatives, I don't think any serious startup will settle there. It's just not a viable option.

[CryptoBry]

The idea is wonderful but let's see if a critical number of people will be adopting the two-in-one product: mining and heating at the same time. Reading the many comments here, I guess this place can be ideal in terms of electricity cost which is eating much of the profits with miners' operations in other parts of the world. But of course, there will always be challenges in any enterprise and this can true likewise with Bitcoin mining in this part of Siberia.

[1Referee]

https://www.arctictoday.com/russias-first-floating-nuclear-power-plant-leaves-murmansk-for-the-eastern-arctic/

That's some hardcore shit. A floating nuclear power plant is currently heading towards a very remote area in Russia to provide heat and electricity to 100,000 people. No amount of 'free' home heating through mining will be able to withstand this brute force of reliable but potentially very catastrophic form of generating energy.

Russian's as tough as they like to present themselves will probably negate the risks and only focus on the short term benefits.

[Carlton Banks]

Belarus is an example of such a country-- they offer very low taxation to even no taxation at all, but who is going to take that offer knowing how unstable the government there is?

you mean the opposite; Belarusian government has barely changed for something like 40 or 50 years. That's stability, not instability

At least some of the miners are fairly noisy too.

I would

1. Remove any carpeting, add a wooden floor if there was not one already. Place miners in the partition beneath the wooden floor
2. Run the miners on a lower setting during the day as a cronjob (reduce fan noise)

The idea itself is simple but the plan is way too complicated to achieve.

[snip]

The citizens who have received mining rigs will act out as a caretaker observing the mining rigs and know simple troubleshooting just in case the equipment is not working properly. Expecting that kind of task is being achieve by each one of them seems to be unlikely

in the short term, sure

but if Bitcoin is here for the long-term, then an entire generation of expert Bitcoin miners could emerge in Siberia. Sounds alright to me.

[Schirer]

Seems fishy how a mining rig can produce enough heat and BTC to cover the electricity + the cost of the rig itself .

Siberia mostly gets their heat from burning stuff so using it to power up miners wont be the best hting for enviroment.

[Carlton Banks]

Siberia mostly gets their heat from burning stuff so using it to power up miners wont be the best hting for enviroment.

bullshit

human-driven climate change is getting increasingly more de-bunked, not least since the "hockey-stick graph" climate scientist had his libel prosecution thrown out of court this week


why? he refused to present his so-called evidence in a courtroom. case dismissed


so ST fucking FU with that garbage pseudo-science, please

[Tonteus]

It sounds improbable, in many regions of Siberia as far as I know even there is no electricity. Besides, this whole heating thing sounds really weird.

[pixie85]

It sounds improbable, in many regions of Siberia as far as I know even there is no electricity. Besides, this whole heating thing sounds really weird.

I don't think he aims to sell his miners to some villager who lives with no electricity and lives in a hut. There are big cities in that area like Novosibirsk and people there have access to all the media including Internet.

This doesn't mean there won't be problems for him because miners tend to be expensive and people will rather buy something else than a novelty crypto mining heater.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Belarus is an example of such a country-- they offer very low taxation to even no taxation at all, but who is going to take that offer knowing how unstable the government there is?

you mean the opposite; Belarusian government has barely changed for something like 40 or 50 years. That's stability, not instability

I heard that the Lukashenko regime is the last remnant of the former USSR. Also came to know that Belarus is the last country in the European continent, that still has the death penalty. But the people seems to be doing not too bad, at least when compared to the neighboring regions of Russia and Ukraine. After the collapse of the USSR, there was no large-scale demographic loss and unemployment remains low.

And the most important thing is that Belarus seems to be the most cryptocurrency friendly country out of the ex-USSR nations.