https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/saint-andre-bitcoin-mining-hive-1.6293906
The buzz in Saint-André: An inside look at bitcoin mining in rural New Brunswick
This cryptocurrency mining operation in province's northwest requires thousands of computers
For the last several months, the Vancouver-based company Hive Blockchain Technologies has been building four highly specialized warehouses that will host thousands of computers.
Those individual computers are known as "miners," and they run 24 hours a day to make their owners bitcoin.
Aydin
Kilic, the president and chief operating officer of Hive Blockchain
Technologies, showcases 'a miner,' a small computer specifically
designed for mining bitcoin. (Shane Fowler/CBC News) Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency, a digital form of money that has risen in value and popularity around the globe in the last decade. Instead of a physical currency, bitcoin is strictly digital.
Bitcoin also operates without a central banking system. Instead, all bitcoin transactions are tallied on a digital ledger called the blockchain.
Bitcoin mining operations like the one in Saint-Andre act as the bank for bitcoin, constantly tallying the worldwide transactions on the blockchain. Bitcoin mining operations are made up of hundreds, often thousands, of computers creating a decentralized banking network.
The reward for tallying those transactions is bitcoin. And the more computers a person or company dedicates to tallying those transactions, the more bitcoin is paid out.
That's why Hive has built bitcoin mines in Quebec, Sweden and Iceland, and is finishing construction in Saint-André.
Two of the buildings in Saint-André are complete, while technicians are now installing 100 metres of computers, stacked seven high, in a third.
Construction workers are heating the frozen ground and pouring the foundations of a fourth building, which Kilic expects will be completed in the first half of next year.
Once completed, Kilic said, he expects the entire facility to mine about five bitcoin a day.
Over the past year, a single bitcoin has been valued between $30,000 and $85,000 Cdn.
Some people might assume such an operation would be more at home in Silicon Valley. Why build one in a northern New Brunswick community of fewer than 1,000 people?
According to Kilic, the decision came down to four factors: a favourable tax rate, stable government, access to affordable electricity, and most important, the temperature.
"If you want to talk about optimal environments, well, Saint-André is optimal, and we love it here," Kilic said. "We've got cool, dry temperatures."
Hive
has two warehouses full of bitcoin miners in operation, with a third
being completed. A forth warehouse, on the right, is expected to be
completed in the spring of 2022. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
Each exterior wall of the warehouses features massive slats that allow cool outside air to drift inside.
That air wafts through a wall of filter paper that runs the entire length of the building. The cold filtered air then flows directly into the mining computers, cooling them.
Once that air is heated by the computer processors, it's pushed toward the centre of the building by the fans built into each miner. It then exits through the roof of the building. It's all done without ductwork or fans, other than the ones built into each computer.
"We've got a beautiful passive design," Kilic said. "A very novel design where we use the cool, dry climate without having to have air conditioning."
With thousands of computers running non-stop, the heat that is generated is tropical, even to Saint-André Mayor Marcel Levesque, who has toured the plant.
"It's crazy, it's crazy," said Levesque. "You never imagine seeing so many computers in a building. Never."
Vancouver-based
Hive Blockchain Technologies employs 70 people from the Saint-André
area as it constructs its bitcoin mining plant. Once completed, the
operation will provide about 20 full-time positions. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
Air conditioning would also contribute to the astronomical amount of power being used. According to Kilic,the mining operation will eventually consume about the same amount of electricity used to power more than 7,000 homes.
"In total, the four-building campus will be 70 megawatts when it's complete," said Kilic.
Being in an area near where electricity is generated — at the Grand Falls, Tobique Narrows and Sisson dams — also factored into the decision to build in Saint-André. It's also near where N.B. Power transmission lines intersect, ensuring plenty of electricity for the power-hungry plant.
A few new jobs
Currently, Hive employs about 70 people. Most are from the Saint-André and Grand Falls area, and are involved in construction. When it's completed, Kilic expects the operation will employ 20 people, who will work mostly to maintain the miners and for security.
They includes Luc Ouellette from Grand Falls, who said that even though he's worked at Hive for nearly two years, his friends and family still have a hard time understanding what he does for a living.
Luc
Ouellette, Hive’s regional director in New Brunswick, is from nearby
Grand Falls. He's been working on the bitcoin mining project for nearly
two years. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
"They don't even know, most of them," said Luc Ouellette, Hive's regional director in New Brunswick. "I tell them what we're doing here, and they really want to visit us and see what's going on.
"It's a big opportunity for us to work locally with next-generation stuff. Being part of that is great."
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https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/bitcoin-gerald-cotten-quadriga-cx-death
N.B. Power hits pause on large new electricity customers during crypto review
2 mines, 1 open and 1 cancelled, would use more electricity than proposed small nuclear reactor can generate
Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: May 01, 2023 6:00 AM ADT
Volume
417,089
52 week range
1.85 - 10.15
Methinks we have used the same expression but for different reasons N'esy Pas?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/tesla-bitcoin-payment-1.6024633
N'est-ce-pas?
However I say it and write it my way in New Brunswick and Louisiana. Trust that mes très chers amis on both sides of the Medicine line and I just chuckle at the snobby people who look down on our chosen lingo.
🇧 🇴 🇳 🇳 🇪 🇦 🇳 🇳 🇪 🇪 🇦 🇹 🇴 🇺 🇸❗
2 mines, 1 open and 1 cancelled, would use more electricity than proposed small nuclear reactor can generate
Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: May 01, 2023 6:00 AM ADT
Utilities board denies request by J.D. Irving Ltd. to broaden upcoming N.B. Power hearing
Company says millions of dollars in power costs assigned to industry need shifting to residential customers
Robert Jones · CBC News · Posted: Apr 21, 2023 6:00 AM ADT
Roy Kirk
. . . And millions of dollars currently paid by small residential customers should properly be shifted to larger residential customers who drive the costs through their large peak coincident loads. But it's not going to happen!
NB Power's cost allocations and rate designs have historically been too heavily influenced by political considerations and skewed towards the economic interests of the utility.
And let's not get started on the rationale for NB Power customers subsidizing bitcoin mining.
Methinks folks may recall I had some fun with that on New Years Eve not so long ago N'esy Pas?
The buzz in Saint-André: An inside look at bitcoin mining in rural New Brunswick
This cryptocurrency mining operation in province's northwest requires thousands of computers
Shane Fowler · CBC News · Posted: Dec 31, 2021 7:00 AM AST
The only difference is your invested <whatever> in this case does not physically even exist, pretending they do costs thousands in computer resources and wasted electricity needlessly, and the only people who would think to accept them are just a few other crypto-chasers. Might as well invest in Pokemon cards or collector Lego sets, at least they physical exist and you don't have to waste megawatts of power "mining" them.
These guys remind me of those goldminers who went to the Yukon back in the 1800's to strike it rich. Most of them invested everything they had and died broke and penniless.
Bitcoin mining can often be set up to make sustainable energy projects more feasible such as a hydroelectric project. If there doesn't exist the demand for the power generated, **at all times of day**, the project may be considered unprofitable or unfeasible.The Bitcoin network is the buyer of last demand and can take up any excess power when consumers are not demanding it. This counterintuitively lowers the cost of electricity for consumers as the grid is balanced.
Remember, simply using power is not bad for the environment. It all depends how the power is created.
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/bitcoin-gerald-cotten-quadriga-cx-death
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