It's not often you see former top politicians make deep dives into the cryptocurrency space. But that only makes the story more interesting.
Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde has held both the occupation of Norway's Minister of Justice and Public Security, as well as the Secretary of Petroleum and Energy, two of the most important functions in Norwegian politics. Today, the former politician representing "The Progress Party" in government begins a new journey with newly registered Earth, Wind & Power AS.
Former Norwegian Minister Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde turns crypto-mining Entrepreneur.
Image credit: Justis- og beredskapsdepartementet source
So I found this story interesting and worth sharing for a few different reasons. First of all, the thought of a former politician taking the dive into blockchain as an entrepreneur isn't something you hear of every day. Second, the company idea is pretty cool, and one that I think could have similar applications elsewhere. And perhaps finally, when politicians make the whole-hearted entrance, it tells me that we're no longer "early" in this space.
Utilizing excess gas to mine Bitcoin
The idea is perhaps surprisingly simple. The company will use the energy from excess gas burned in Africa and the Middle East to run cryptocurrency mining infrastructure. The excess gas is burned in a process calling "flaring", which you've likely seen in any images from any oil and/or natural gas production site. With the process often being continuously ongoing, it is needless to say that it produces a lot of excess energy.
Gas Flaring is done to get rid of excess gas and is mostly a pure waste and additional pollution without adding direct value. Now, it could fuel cryptocurrency mining. Image credit: Glovatskiy/Shutterstock
In fact, flaring is so common and causes so much pollution that it is often the target of criticism from environmentalist organizations and political parties aiming to set goals to reduce it. Thus, a lot of studies have examined the net effect of this activity and it shows just how much energy potential for mining it could provide:
...thousands of gas flares at oil production sites around the globe burn approximately 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, causing more than 300 million tons of CO2 to be emitted to the atmosphere.
Source: The World Bank
If the pollution and waste are going to happen anyway, one might as well use it for something useful. So I like the idea. It also leaves me thinking whether or not this is Tesla's "evil plan" as well as it's running tens of thousands of cars, and later several solar roofs, that will likely have and/or produce excess energy that could be used for mining. Maybe they already have mined some if not most of its Bitcoins that way?
Who knows. What do you think? Where else in the world do you see large amounts of energy that is not utilized or reach an overcapacity?
It sure got my mind thinking.