Iceland has become a haven for bitcoin miners as electricity prices in other countries rise and regulatory pressure on cryptocurrency transactions intensifies.
The island runs almost entirely on hydroelectric and geothermal power, a surplus of which has historically been generated there, and miners use that power for their energy-hungry computers. In addition, the cool climate is attractive to overburdened data centers.
“Until mining came here in Iceland, the vast majority of that non-guaranteed power was not a saleable product, so we’re essentially buying power that nobody else can buy,” said Daniel Jonsson, CEO of GreenBlocks, an Icelandic data center service provider that specializes in using renewable energy for mining.
According to Jonsson, unguaranteed power is essentially excess but unstable energy generated from Iceland’s power grid that aluminum smelters, greenhouses and households don’t want to buy.
Another advantage of Iceland’s electricity system is its complete isolation from the rest of the world, protecting it from global electricity price inflation, according to a research report by cryptocurrency mining service provider Luxor Technologies.
Bitcoin miners are on the lookout for cheap energy as they use specialized energy-intensive computers to verify transaction records on the blockchain and earn rewards in the form of tokens. Thousands of these computers, or bitcoin mining machines, are located in data centers. Luxor estimates that Iceland’s bitcoin mining industry consumes about 120 MW, “with a population of only 370,000, Iceland is the most populous bitcoin mining country on the planet.”
You can make money on mining and cryptocurrencies without buying bitcoin with the help of a mining ZPIF from Finam. The fund invests in mining equipment to receive income from its rent. The expected yield is up to 60% per annum.