A Cleaner Bitcoin
Metadata
- A Cleaner Bitcoin
- January 21, 2022
- Content Type Program
- Language English
- Transcript/Script ((PKG)) SUSTAINABLE BITCOIN MINING ((TRT: 7:02)) ((Topic Banner: A Cleaner Bitcoin)) ((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor)) ((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin)) ((Editor: Kyle Dubiel)) ((Map: Niagara Falls, New York)) ((Main character: 1 male)) ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) So this is our facility here in Niagara Falls, New York. We're converting this facility from what was an industrial building to a data center to mine Bitcoin. ((MUSIC)) ((Text-on-video: Creating or “mining” the digital currency Bitcoin relies on computers to solve a complex mathematical problem. The massive amount of electricity to run the computers often comes from non-renewable sources. While many believe digital currency will become increasingly important, others ask: at what price to the environment?)) ((MUSIC)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) Well, at the time this factory was being used to actually strip down for scrap metal. Prior to that this was actually a power generation plant where they were using coal and fossil fuels to generate, unfortunately, dirty power at the time. ((NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) Blockfusion is a blockchain infrastructure company that uses renewable energy. ((NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) At the facility we actually mine Bitcoin. So traditionally people would think about mining Bitcoin or, you know, like mining a resource, right? Very expensive equipment. Guys with hard hats underneath the earth trying to actually get resources. In this particular case, we're mining Bitcoin and while we are leveraging expensive hardware to do so, the resource is really about how quickly you can actually solve a particular algorithm, mathematic equation, on the blockchain to be able to go and obtain one Bitcoin. ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) And now I'm going to take you into our Bitcoin mining facility where you'll see the hardware actually processing and mining for Bitcoin. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) This is our control room just before you actually go into the mining facility itself. So I'm about to put some headphones on just because it's extremely loud in the mining facility. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) So I'm going to show you the miners themselves. These are not individuals mining. You'll see the actual computers themselves. And then I'll take you into the exhaust room. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) You'll see, we'll be in the hot and the cold aisles. So the hot aisle where it expels all the hot air and the cold aisle which actually has the cold air go through the actual computers themselves and the fans that actually expel the exhaust. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) One of the things that I wanted to talk about was each one of these computers do not work individually. They actually work together. They pool together the resources and the processing power like a supercomputer to be able to do the algorithms to actually be able to mine one Bitcoin. The total miners that we have here at the facility is about 2,600. We actually anticipate that by the time we build out the entire facility, we'll be somewhere between 12,500 to 15,000 units. ((NATS/MUSIC)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) So this is the repair facility or one of the repair facilities that we've actually got on the site. So, as you can see, we've got all the latest equipment here. We actually take and repair all of the hardware. The goal here is, is that because of the price of the hardware currently and the time it takes, it could take somewhere between nine to 12 months from the time you get the order placed to the latest hardware, that to actually repair the current hardware that we have or the digital's hardware, it allows us to actually go and continue to actually mine on a more real-time basis and mine more Bitcoin sooner. We're actually working with the local schools, both the technical schools as well as the colleges and universities, to actually find folks in computer science who actually want to be in this particular space. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) This facility here in Niagara Falls, we are five miles [8 km] away from the Robert Moses Hydro Plant. Absolutely critical for us when we actually chose this location that if we were going to consume energy, we wanted to make sure that it was renewable. So as we're looking at building this facility out into a data center, that was a critical factor in our decision-making. So the Robert Moses Hydroelectric Plant is the fourth largest hydroelectric plant in America. We are in Zone A. Our property is located in Zone A which is about five miles [8 km] from the actual dam itself and the plant. So we are in an ideal location to actually have most if not all of our energy actually being supplied from that particular plant. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) So behind me here you're seeing just the remnants of what's left over of the actual coal piles that were at this facility prior to us actually environmentally cleaning this and taking this and remediating this particular property. So you'll see right behind me is the substation for the property. So this is where they're taking the power from the high voltage lines and we're switching it down and stepping it down to be able to be consumable energy for the miners themselves. So behind me here are cooling towers that were actually used. These are actually filled with water or rainwater and actually then pumps in to go and cool the facility. The team here is currently constructing our next data center pod. So this will house about 2,250 more miners within the next 30 days. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) One of the things that we do at the facility, especially when there's actually peak usage for power within the particular region, is we're enrolled in what's called demand response. So that's where, if the grid themselves require more power back, we'll actually shut down our operations or curtail it back to actually provide that power back to the local community as required. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Kant Trivedi Blockfusion USA, COO)) If we think about blockchain and this particular industry, this is the industry of the future. ((MUSIC/NATS))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Topic Tags VOA News, voa weekly, voa connect
- Program Name VOA Connect
- Network VOA
- Expiration Date February 20, 2022 15:30 EST
- Embargo Date January 21, 2022 15:46 EST
- Byline Aaron Fedor, Kathleen McLaughlin
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English