Siberia has been identified as a place to set the base for Russia’s crypto mining industry. Russia’s largest mining farm, BitBaza, is expected to begin its operations at the “Divnyi” industrial park that is located in the city of Divnogorsk, in the Krasnoyarsk region.
According to Bitbaza General Director, Danil Zakomolkin, there are plans to establish one of the largest mining farms and also introduce a product that is ‘more liquid than mining’. Russian news agency, TASS,
quoted him during the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum that was held on April 12th.
The Krasnoyarsk region was selected because of its reliable power supply. The power rates are also low, making it cost effective to run the mining farm there. According to Zakomolkin, the “Divnyi” industrial park has three power rafts connecting it to the main energy grid.
The plans are already underway and construction is ongoing. The cost for setting up this infrastructure will cost about 3 billion rubles ($48 million). The mining farm, with the energy capacity of 10MWt, which will later increase to 120 MWt, will be launched in a month’s time.
The company is set to utilize the local Siberian State University graduates to offer operational support and at the same use the resultant heat from the mining farm to heat the local residential homes.
The mining process for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is a heat-intensive process. It produces a lot of heat energy and this requires efficient cooling systems. This is the reason why most mining firms prefer cold environments to operate from. This reduces the cost of additional cooling equipment. This also explains why Bitmain and Bitfury have preferred to operate from northern Europe and Canada.
While this is happening, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has stated that he doesn’t want to be left behind in this blockchain technology. According to him, if this happens, then Russia will be dependent on other countries that adopted the technology earlier on.