BitRiver, which is the newly launched mining farm located in Siberia is now the largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining facility in Russia. The new Siberian BTC mining firm was founded by the mining billionaire Oleg Deripaska whose venture is already attracting large-scale clients, according to Bloomberg.
Deripaska has combined his BTC mining and a data center with one of the largest Soviet-era aluminium plants. As the reports in the Bitcoin news today show, the power-hungry business of running a data center transformed the former industrial city Bratsk in one of the largest post-Soviet data centers.
Meanwhile, Russia is known as a hotspot of crypto activity and as a country which is supplying both developers and amateur miners. However, Bitcoin mining on an industrial scale is lagging behind China, a home to some of the world’s most active mining farms. The new Siberian BTC mining farm is obviously looking to change this.
It is built in partnership with the local energy company En+ and uses local sources of hydroelectric power. Mining BTC is potentially one of the best uses for excess hydroelectric power and is a method which ensures that the producer is able to sell all of its production without any night-time drops in demand.
As the cryptonews also show, BitRiver itself is not a dedicated miner or a Bitcoin mining pool. Instead, the company is hiring support services as well as providing reliable access to cheap electricity. En+ right now supplies up to 100 megawatts per year to the Bratsk aluminium plant, allowing for smooth mining on an industrial scale.
If we see the stats, it is clear to conclude that the entire Bitcoin network consumes more than 73 terawatts per year and makes BitRiver still a relatively small mining farm. The Bratsk hydroelectric plant also produces a total of above 22.5 TW/h electricity per year which is used for other industrial purposes – but could definitely supply a much larger Bitcoin mining facility.
Even though the exact hash rate of the new Siberian BTC mining firm is still unknown, reports show that BitRiver is used by clients from the US, Japan and China. The hash rate has shot up to above 106 quintillion hashes per second and is very close to previously clocked peak levels.
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