Society's Child
The Nadvoitsy Aluminum Plant in Russia's northern Karelia region, owned by Russian metals giant Rusal, stopped production last summer after it lost access to American customers following the introduction of U.S. sanctions against Rusal in April 2018.
Part of the old production site is now being leased to the Russian Mining Company (RMC), which plans to ramp up bitcoin mining across Russia, Russian business site RBC reported.
"Now the plant is unprofitable for Rusal, the electricity supplied to it is barely utilized, and people living in the single-industry town near the plant have nowhere to work," said Dmitry Marinichev, Russia's internet ombudsman and RMC founder.
"Our idea is to repurpose the plant and sell computing power," he added.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed Rusal under sanctions in April 2018 as a result of its ownership by Oleg Deripaska, a businessman close to the Kremlin who the U.S. Treasury named a "Designated Russian Oligarch." Deripaska has since relinquished his controlling stake in Rusal and sanctions against the company were lifted, but production at Nadvoitsy has not resumed.
Through a partnership with U.K.-based Cryptonex, Marinichev wants to grow RMC to cover 20% of the world's bitcoin mining — an endeavour which would rake in around $100 million per month at current bitcoin prices, RBC estimates.
Russia as a whole currently mines one-tenth of the world's bitcoin production. RMC previously raised $43 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 — the largest Russian ICO at the time. However, they stopped bitcoin mining at a former car-making factory in Moscow as cryptocurrency prices fell and Moscow's high electricity prices made mining unprofitable.
Reader Comments
I think minting is the correct term.
there is only a small amount of bitcoins available. they are only given any worth because a bunch of people say they do.
Of all the bitcoin depository sites that were robbed I cannot think of a single one that had gotten the "coins" returned to the owner's accounts completely. So proof they are not worth anything, and are not safe, and people are squandering real resources to digitally mine them.
They are gonna throw a shitload of computers inside the metals foundry and use it do digitally mine bitcoins with it's surplus electricity load.
Or have I been away from civilization so long that I fail at understanding 'sarcasm'?
They have been mined for around 10 years, at least the last seven very extensively.
The math just doesn't add up to anything but a complete waste of resources.
To me at least. Especially since there is no actual value to the digital currency except some people think there is,
and there is no real way to get your bitcoin purse back if someone digitally robs it. Just ask the many victims of the BitFinex, Gox, or Coincheck heists.
What the question is for me is what is the real aim of all this coaxing of people to do all this massive amount of computational processing, and what are the end results going to be?
Especially coming from Japan.
They make fake everything.
Fake pets, fake golf courses,
fake ski slopes, if it is a popular fake something,
it came from Japan.
My Uncle lived in Grass Valley CA (about 50? miles from where first Cal. gold strike of 1849 was - at Sutter's Mill) and was a real Gold Miner, inventor, king of all trades, metalworker, but the gold mining I always found interesting.
I can understand the idea of the value of gold; but not of calculations? built into a coin? Do you hook the things up to a computer with a USB cord or something?
R.C.
It's biggest worth is the fact that it shows so many people are into a paperless currency not backed by anything physical in the least.
I can understand the idea of the value of gold; but not of calculations? built into a coin? Do you hook the things up to a computer with a USB cord or something?You could think of it like cloud money...it has no physical component, it is all binary bits. Its 'value' has no tether to reality whatsoever... it is thought that some of the wild price swings it has seen in the last couple of years is manipulation by a small handful of people (same as it ever was)...and yes...they use repurposed USB drives they cleverly call "wallets" to store their imaginary money in.
Time will tell whether or not it is a fad....but the thing that concerns me is the possibility of Uncle Scam using some form of crypto to replace the dollar...maybe after it crashes and burns....you think things are dystopian now...wait until Uncle has that kind of control over our money supply. Possible scenario: President Zuckerberg writes an EO that directly, in real time, ties the value of your Uncle Scam ButtCoins to the number of likes / dislikes you have on your state mandated FeceBook page. Sounds crazy....right???
But to me, the interesting part of the whole crypto story is the blockchain itself, which is a new use for age old database technology. It will enable things like 'smart contracts', and doubtless many other useful things... [Link]
You may find yourself in another part of the world You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was."I saw them at Lake Alice in Gainesville, Fl in either 1978-80 or 1982-85. Great show!
R.C.
I'm even going to watch... the intro is playing now. I guess I saw them on that tour?
R.C.
R.C.