Gazpromneft, a division of oil drilling in Russia, has allowed mining devices of Bitcoin to utilize excess gas in their process.
- Vekus, which is a small-scale mining operation, is one of the first to take advantage of the oil subsidiary’s excess gas.
- The mining of cryptocurrency is gradually becoming industrial.
- This move will lead to recycling of otherwise wasted energy for the lucrative mining of digital assets.
A Functional Farm for Mining Bitcoins in Russia
Entirely owned by Gazprom, a firm oriented towards natural gas and energy generation in Russia, the subsidiary Gazpromneft has introduced a new facility aligned with reward-based blockchain mining. This process is carried out with the purpose of solving tricky puzzles to achieve the output accepted by the Bitcoin network, consequently leading to the creation of new coins.
This new facility will be powered by natural gas, which will be utilized to run the mining operation. Post completion, the process will convert the electricity into mining rewards, which will provide access to cryptocurrency without money payments.
This use of renewable energy to mine digital currency shows Russia’s acceptance of alternate modes of exchange previously opposed by the government. It is also interesting to mention that the Russian government indirectly owns a part of Gazpromneft.
Powering Operations Through Excess Gas
Vekus, a small-mining project, was one of the first to leverage the oil subsidiary’s excess oil availability. A trial was organized using 150 units about Bitmain’s Antminer S7 application-specific integrated circuit (ASICs), which helps verify bitcoin transactions made previously and the provision to create novel blockchains. This resulted in the mining of 1.8 Bitcoin (BTC) with 49,500 cubic metres of gas.
Expansion of this project is under consideration, and if successful, it will be positioned in numerous power stations and facilities for processing natural gas, to constructively recycle energy which may otherwise go to waste. Bitcoin miners will have a renewable energy source to carry out their operations in the facility.
Yuri Kudryashov, the CFO of Vekus, commented that the significant portion of mining costs could be attributed to those incurred by electricity usage, which is why Vekus is on the lookout for dependable sources which provide low-priced electricity. The proposal made by Gazpromneft was received well due to the aforementioned reasons.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.